INK SLINGS. he new Congress was elected to ‘the country and it adjourned making good. ecent rains have stretched the out wonderfully, made the corn ‘oats jump, and shot the wheat in- ead. William Jennings Bryan is at cago, merely as a looker on, how- 1 ver. At San Francisco he will ap- ~ pear in a different role, we think. 5 Politics has ruined many a man within the last half century but it oa never made as complete a wreck as it Has in the case of Herbert Hoover. —So Senator Penrose really was too ill to risk going to Chicago. His bed room is connected up with the convention hall, however, by private telephone so that he may be able, to give a little “absent treatment” and long distance wire pulling exhibition. —Two beautiful “buns” rolled into this office Monday evening and offered to lead us to the source where it can be had at ten dollars a quart. But as both of them were in too mellow a mood to even .discuss a possible “touch” for the ten they rolled on their rolling way and we completed an eighteen hour day. —General Pershing wangs to quit the army in order “to engage in some- thing more active.” Those two years in France evidently stirred “J ack” up to the point where he looks with hor- ror on the peace time occupation of an army officer. This thing of steering a bevy of tea-hounds around Wash- ington evidently doesn’t appeal to the man who led two millions of Ameri- ca’s bravest boys in the biggest scrap there ever was. — One gentleman in Bellefonte is right up to a decision as to whether he will drive his many little admirers away or give up the practice of wear- ing ice cream trousers. It dppears that the kiddies are so fond of him that every time he passes they run from their play and climb all over him and, unfortunately for the ice- cream trousers, the play is very often the delightful but more or less slimy pastime of making mud pies. Before Henry Lane Wilson can’ expect the people of this country to have any respect for him or give cre- dence to the guff he gave to the Chi- cago convention about Mexico he should explain why the late Theodore Roosevelt didn’t settle the difficulties south of the Rio Grande when he was ~~ President and why President Taft ob- Si a “hands off” policy all igh his administration, The sit- ‘was as alarming then as it is resident Wilson’s answer to the Railroad Brotherhoods, as to why leg- “islation solving the problems that they have asked the government to settle for them, has not heen passed, was right to the point. He laid the blame at the door of Congress and there is where it belongs. Had Congress ser- jously tried to enact remedial legisla- tion for only a few of the troubles that have arisen out of the war there would be much less unrest than there is. Instead it has done absolutely nothing but play politics with the . hope of bettering the chances of the election of a Republican President next fall. If a story that was told in Belle- fonte on Saturday about the profit there is in paper manufacturing is true surely there are a lot of boss lit- tle profiteers who seem determined to take the very hides off the country publishers now handling the news- print mills in this country. Our in- formant named a Pittsburgh man, who is largely interested in paper mills, who closed a contract in Cleve- land a few days ago for paper at fif- teen cents a pound that he later de- clared he could manufacture at six. And the contract was large enough to give him a profit of something over two million dollars. That’s going some, isn’t it? —The Republican national conven- tion is under way in Chicago but signs point to an open rupture over a plat- form plank on the League of Nations. The irreconcilables declare they will leave the party if a plank favoring the League in any form is adopted and the mild reservationists insist that some cognizance of it be taken. Thus far pians for harmony have been in vain and even the candidates for nom- ination are receiving secondary con- sideration. ~The whole gathering seems to be up in the air, without an outsanding figure in control and we would not be surprised if it were to blow up and split the party wide open, thus paving the way sure to the elec- tion of a Democratic President in the fall. —The decision of the Supreme court ruling that the Eighteenth amendment is constitutional was not surprising. It was only disappoint- ing—to some. Now that every shad- ow of doubt as to its validity has been cleared away it is the fundamental law of the land and should be enfore- ed. The amendment, ably never be repealed but the Vol- stead enforcement act might be changed from time to time, but that depends on whether the law that now stands is properly enforced. It has always been our opinion that the use of alcoholic drinks is a matter of hab- it and not of necessity. The sooner they are put beyond the reach of the individual the sooner his habit of us- ing them will be broken and with that gone the demand for a revision of the Volstead enforcement act will die a bornin’, itself, will prob- Door STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. OL: 6B BELLEFONTE. PA., J UNE 11, 1920. Potent Reason Plainly Expressed. One of the reasons for the refusal of the Senate to ratify the peace treaty is probably expressed in the report of a sub committee of the Senate com- mittee on Foreign Relations which has been investigating Mexican affairs for some months. Senator Fall, of New Mexico, is chairman of the sub com- mittee and an aggressive jingo. The report recommends armed interven- tion in the affairs of that Southern neighbor in the event that she refuses or fails to adopt such governmental policies as this country may suggest. Such a course would be subversive of every tradition of our country and in direct conflict with all our previous professions of unselfishness in for- eign relations. The peace treaty would forbid all such exploitation in the direction of conquest. One of its principal purpos- es is to protect weak nations in their right to self-determination in govern- ment. That purpose is expressed in Article 10 and that fact probably ac- counts for the bitter opposition to that feature of the treaty by the Republi- can Senators who are covetous of our neighbors’ territory. For several years evidences of a secret purpose to invade and conquer Mexico have been unfolding themselves in the secret councils of the Republican party, but have never, heretofore, shown so plainly. Senator Fall has “let the cat out of the bag,” and it is up to the public to act accordingly. Another influencing reason for op- position to the peace treaty is in the aversion of the munition makers and war profiteers to give up the “good thing” they have in war. Hundreds of millionaires were made out of very crude material during the world war and a good many have been made since by profiteering in foods and fab- rics. The Senators in Congress who are dependent upon these classes of men to keep them in public life are opposed to peace treaties of all kinds and especially to one which might take the United States out of the list of belligerents in the event of war. The happiness, prosperity and con- tentment of the people are nothing to them so long as their “angels” pros- per. ¢ on — Any Republican who reads President Wilson’s reply to the Rail- road Brotherhood’s complaint of the failure of Congress to enact necessary legislation will be convinced that the peace treaty will be a feature of the coming Presidential campaign. Grave Indictment of Congress. President Wilson’s reply to a tele- gram from the Railroad Brotherhoods the other day, protesting against the adjournment of Congress without ac- tion on measures affecting the cost of living is a just rebuke of that parti- san conspiracy, which for nine months has been striving, not to prevent, but to prolong the evil of which the Brotherhoods complain. At the be- ginning of the special session in Au- gust last, the President appealed to Congress to enact neccessary legisla- tion of the kind. But nothing has been done. The time has been frit- tered away in partisan movements of one sort or another until the end has come and all hope for relief has van- ished. There are many expedients availa- ble to treat the subject successfully if the President had constitutional au- thority to apply them. Attention to this fact was called by the President at the opening of the session and the nature of the legislation was clearly defined. But the legislation has not been enacted and the President had no power to act without it. He has no more right to act outside of the law than an individual has to take the law into his own hands to redress wrongs, real or imaginary. In fact he is more firmly bound to obedience to the law than the individual because in addition to his normal obligation he has taken a solemn oath to “preserve, protect and defend the constitution.” The Brotherhoods had asked the President to prevent the adjournment of Congress until its work along the lines of relief was completed. In re- ply he says: “In the light of the rec- ord of the present Congress I have no reason whatever to hope that its con- tinuance in session would result in constructive measures for the relief of the economic conditions to which you call attention. It must be evident to all that the dominant motive which has acutated this Congress is political expediency rather than lofty purpose to serve the public welfare.” That is a grave charge, a serious indictment, but no man who has closely observ- ed the operations of the body will dis- pute it. JE— — The earnestness with which certain Pennsylvania Republicans la- ment the absence of Senator Penrose from the national convention would be tragic if it were not amusing. —————— — Probably old John Barleycorn will now admit that he is dead. Power of the Senate in Treaties. Article 2, section 2 and paragraph | 2 of the constitution of the United States, defining the powers of the | President, provides that “He shall | have power, by and with the advice t and consent of the Senate, to make | treaties, provided two-thirds of the | States. ' Senators present concur; ' nominate, and by and with the advice ‘ and consent of the Senate, shall ap- “point Ambassadors, other public min- isters and consuls, Judges of the Su- | preme court, and all other officers of | the United States, whose appoint- | ments are not herein otherwise pro- | vided for, and which shall be estab- lished by law.” The authority of the | Senate to ratify or reject is precisely | the same with respect to a treaty as in relation to an appointment to any of- fice. Would Senator Lodge, or any other | man, outside of an insane asylum, hold that when the nomination of a candidate for postmaster of Belle- fonte or Pittsburgh or Philadelphia is presented to the Senate for confirma- tion, it would be legal or in order to strike out the name of that candidate and insert that of another? Yet the Senate has precisely the same right | to do that as it has to alter or amend i the provisions of a treaty. The Sen- ate has an undoubted constitutional right to reject the nominee of the President for postmaster or any other | public office. But it has no right to | alter or substitute a name for that of the nominee of the President. It had the equal right to reject the peace treaty but not to alter or amend it. The peace treaty was rejected by the Senate because certain Republi- can leaders imagined that such treat- ment of it would militate to the ad- vantage of the Republican party in the impending contest for President. Industrial paralysis and commercial stagnation under a Democratic Pres- ident is the greatest available asset of the Republican machine and the most certain means of creating those conditions was by prolonging the in- dustrial and commercial uncertainty incident to a state of war. The high cost of living is ascribable mainly to the failure to ratify the peace treaty. If ratification had followed promptly the work of restoration would have been begun immediately and complet- ed by now and the country would have been saved all the suffering of the past year. | eee — Whoever is made chairman of | the Pennsylvania delegation in the Chicago convention is unimportant, now that Penrose is unable to attend, | but Charlie Donnelly must get that honor in San Francisco to maintain the civic standard of the present Dem- ocratic machine in this State. “The Power of Money.” The highly esteemed Philadelphia Record seems to be considerably per- turbed concerning “the power of mon- ey,” as revealed in the escape of Grover Bergdoll, a millionaire slack- er, from a military prison on Gover- nor’s Island, New York. And there is some reason for its anxiety. Some time has elapsed since the event and though responsibility has been fairly well fixed, no arrests have been made. “The Department of Justice,” our es- teemed contemporary complains, “manned by sworn officers and paid to enforce the law, does not act, and every day it fails,” continues The Record, “adds to the growing impres- sion that the Bergdoll money is more powerful than the law.” This is rather a startling proof of the sinister use of money but rot the gravest case on record. The escape | of Bergdoll is a public scandal which | reflects upon the efficiency as well as | the integrity of the Department of | Justice at Washington. But itis a | trifling affair compared with the pow- | er of money as used in politics not on- |ly in this State but throughout the | country. An investigation by a com- | mittee of the Senate now in progress | shows that upwards of a million dol- | lars has been spent to promote the | | | islatures of three-fourths Every requirement of the in- | and he shall | strument for amendment had been complied with and that fact left noth- . ! | i | | | | | ambitions of one man to be a party | nominee for President, nearly half a million in the interest of another and a competence, as estates are measur- | ed in rural communities, has been ex- Department of Justice himself. But the perilous power of money can be traced to a point closer to the people of Pennsylvania in the opera- tions of the friends of Attorney Gen- eral Palmer in the primary election campaign in this State. A considera- ble sum of money was extracted from the federal officials within the State and used by expert political “trades- men” in his behalf, in violation of the law, and Mr. Joe Guffey spent money so freely in behalf of Palmer and him- self that he is afraid or ashamed to make the statement of his expenses in the campaign which the law re- quires. The Bergdoll matter may be serious and a reflection on the Attor- ney General, but we submit that this debauchery of the ballot is an infin- itely graver matter. pended in behalf of the head of the | | | The Prohibition Amendment. There never was the slightest rea- son for questioning the validity of | the Eighteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States after it had been ratified by the Leg- ing to conjecture. The manner of achieving the result may be open to complaint and the effect of the action subject to differences of opinion. But: the main point is beyond disbute. The | constitution is constitutional and an amendment, so adopted, declaring black to be white, though absurd, would be constitutional. It is made part of the instrument. The resolution proposing the Eight- eenth amendment was adopted by a two-thirds majority by both Houses of Congress and ratified by the Legisla- tures of three-fourths of the States. The Senators and Representatives who voted affirmatively on the meas- ure may have been mistaken in their notion that such an amendment was “necessary,” or they may have been insincere in their belief. A considera- ble number of them may have yielded to cowardice or been coerced by big- otry into voting for the amendment. But that is neither here nor there. The records show that a sufficient number voted that way, and that is the end of it. The ratification by the Legislatures of two-thirds of the States completed the work. That being the case the prohibition as defined in the Eighteenth amend- ment will be the law of the land until the amendment is repealed, which is not likely to occur ever. The enforce- ment act is susceptible of repeal or amendment, however, and therefore the question is not entirely taken out of politics. Neither can it be said that the amendment guarantees pro- hibition. In the South little or no at- tention is paid to the Fifteenth amendment and so long as the appe- tie for alcoholic beverages continues and there are men willing to violate law for gain, indulgence in liquor will continue. Permission to sell light es and beer may become the real method of temperance in the end. — Various people throughout Cen- tre county are under the impression that a good part of the county is un- der quarantine owing to the potato 1 wart disease last fall and that no po- tatoes can be planted without a per- mit. This is a mistake. There are only two places in Centre county where a quarantine was laid, out near Clarence, in Snow Shoe township, and near Osceola Mills in Rush township. All other portions of the county are exempt of quarantine regulations, and Clarence people can secure a permit at 0. J. Harm’s store. It is not too late to plant late potatoes and the «Watchman’s” advice to everybody is to plant as many as.possible. Indi- cations are they will be worth good | money next fall and winter. What it Cost to be Nominated. The Hon. Harry B. Scott was not elected a delegate to the national Re- publican convention from this district but it did not cost him anyways near as much to stay at home as it cost both Col. Theodore Davis Boal and Mellville Gillet to go to Chicago and mingle among the mob that has been swarming the Windy city this week in an endeavor to select 2a man whom they feel will be satisfactory to their party and the voters at large. Ac- cording to the accounts filed in the prothonotary’s office of Centre county Mr. Scott spent $302.15; Col. Theo- dore Davis Boal $1259.96; Melville Gillett $1625.24, with bills totalling $467.11 still unpaid. In the Democratic household it cost J. L. Spangler only $91.70 to be elect- ed delegate. Tor his nomination for Assembly- man Thomas B. Beaver spent $547.20, while so far the Hon. Ives Harvey has filed no account of his expenses. F. E. Naginey, nominated on the Demo- cratic ticket, spent less than fifty dol- lars. — Senator Knox might have sim- plified matters by introducing a res- olution that he be the next President of the United States. It would have gotten him about as far as his reso- lution declaring war with Germany over. — If Mitch Palmer's “college chum” should be nominated for Pres- ident what would Mitch do to the Democratic nominee? We offer a leather medal for the most accurate answer to that quesbion. ——1f General Wood had been sent to France instead of Pershing the war might have ended in a scandal as his campaign for the Presidency has. e——— er —— ——The “twenty per cent. off” movement is gratifying but eighty per cent. off would put prices nearer to a just level. of the | erings of our delegation of REPUBLICAN CONVENTION AT STATE COLLEGE STAM- PEDED. | Mere Mention of the Name of the Peerless One Started a Frenzy of Acclaim Among the Delegates. Always State College has had a hobby. Years and years ago it was “the habit of gathering on the three corners of the one and a half streets in the town to await the semi-week- ‘ly visit of old Phaz Aston and stand | in gaping admiration while he told of having many a time danced with Queen Victoria. In later years it saw some occult power in our old friend Andy Lytle and made up its mind that Andy could mascot anything he lamp- ed. And Andy did, but he built a skating pond up there also and be- cause he couldn’t make the spring water freeze his glory waned. Now it appears that they have fall- en for a new idol. Mayor John Laird Holmes, the boy orator who once made the walls of the old “polecat misery” school house fairly tremble with his thunderous declamation, has evidently pointed the thought of that enlighten- ed community toward higher ideals and it has fallen at the feet of the big noise of the Platte. It appears that they have a federa- tion of men’s organized Bible classes up there. It is composed of the Bi- ble classes of all the churches in the town and once a month they have a social. From what we can learn they haven’t developed far enough yet to take a chance on five dishes of ice cream and twelve pieces of cake prov- ing ample to feed the multitude that gathers at these socials, but be that as it may, they have good times. : Last Tuesday night the entertain- ment feature was a mock Republican National convention. Programs had been sent out delegating to each mem- ber some part in the program. All the candidates who are aspiring and perspiring at Chicago today were rep- resented. All the officers of the con- vention were named, the men who were to make the nominating speech- es tipped off and even to make it right up to the minute of such gath- Republican friends, a dusky contestants Trom the South was in its place. Everything went smooth as if Pen- rose had not been sick in bed until all the nominees were placed before the convention. Then arose a young man, by name John Taylor, who represent- ed some district over about Shingle- town Gap, and such a flood of oratory. It rolled and avalanched in oodling, unctious verbiage. It swept, in its forensic fury, from the mucky level of the “frog pond” to the clear blue heights of Old Nittany. It sucked “Frenchy” Foster and Mayor Holmes into the swirl of its tornadic force and when they regained composure it was to find that William Jennings Bryan, the man who stretched the “three mile limit” that has surrounded State Col- lege since the wet spring of ’37 until it includes everything from Alaska to Tom Harter’s busted Bellefonte on fis uttermost point of sand in Flor- ida. The convention was in a state of hypnotic desuetude. A few Lowdens and Hardings and Lodges ran hither and thither trying to break the spell but a ballot was taken before the beans were gathered up and Bryan got 22 votes, Sproul 14 and all the others were among the also rans. Of course, beng a federation of Bi- ble classes, the convention did not break up in a fight but we fancy they need study the 13th chapter of Corin- thians a lot before they can take on enough brotherly love for another so- cial of the good old kind they had be- fore this man Taylor tried oratory, psychology and experimental politics on them. — The strike situation and inci- dent labor troubles are still proving very annoying to railroad officials in the western part of the State and southwestern New York. Much of the Pennsylvania system and other roads are handicapped with labor troubles and manufacturing plants at Pitts- burgh, Meadville and Buffalo, N. Y,, are also having trouble. But so far the Allegheny division of the Penn- sylvania railroad, running from Pitts- burgh to Buffalo ,and of which Joseph J. Rhoads, a native Bellefonter, is su- perintendent, has been free of labor trouble, notwithstanding the fact that forty-five hundred men are employed on the division. Naturally it is very gratifying to the superintendent and his subordinate officials to know that their men are so loyal and steadfast. ini —The Chicago platform has not yet been adopted but it is a safe bet that boiled down it will say nothing more than to charge the Democrats with more kinds of inefficiency than have ever been heard of before. ———————————————————— — Watch your hogs. Cholera is prevalent in Bellefonte and vicinity and yours may be next to go. — S——— | SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. — Prohibition enforcement officers have heard vague reports that a hearse is being employed between Hazelton and Weath- erly in hauling liquor to Weatherly saloom dealers at night. An investigation is be- ing made. __Mrs. Elizabeth Grove, the oldest womt= an in Bast Donegal township, Lancaster county, residing on the Eshelman farm, is 95. She is in the best of health, can read without glasses and says she hopes tor reach the century mark. — The Lewistown-Reedsville Water com pany has filed new tariffs with the Publie Service Commission entailing increases for ordinary residence rates, without bath or toilets, from $13.50 to $18 a year; fierplugs from $5 to $50 a year, and other rates im proportion. A train consisting of thirty-three cars of crude rubber en route to Akron, Ohio, passed over the main line of the P. R. R. on Monday, hauled by two passenger lo-~ comotives, and enjoying first-class passen- ger privileges. The employees who came in contact with the train dubbed it the million dollar special. Ralph Lilley, aged 25 years, of Lewis- burg, is alive today after a plunge of 100 feet over an embankment to a railroad track in his automobile. The car was de- molished, but Lilley suffered only a few bruises. He was driving along a road near Milton, when the steering gear broke, and the car crashed into a guard rail, held on a tninute and then went hurtling to the bottom as the flimsy railing gave way. __Commencement week at the Blooms- burg State Normal school opened on Mon- day with the announcement by Dr. David J. Waller Jr., of his retirement with the close of this term as principal of the school. For twenty-five years its head, he has played a big part in its success. He also preceded the late Dr. N. C. Schaeffer as State Superintendent of Public Instruction, and was for some years principal of the Indiana, Pa., State Normal school. —Joseph MacNamee, of Berwick, one night last week dreamed he had been caught in a bees hive and that the bees were swarming around him. He jumped from bed and out of the second story win- dow to a porch roof and tobogganed to the ground. The jar did not fully awaken him and his screams of ‘They're after me” aroused the neighborhood. Harold Eshleman and others went to his aid to find him with a wrenched knee and bruis- es. __An action in trespass has been insti- tuted in the Cambria county court at Eb- ensburg by Jessie Palmer, of Emeigh, Cambria county, against the Penn Central Light & Power company to recover the sum of $25,000 damages for the death of her husband, the late Andrew Palmer, proprietor of the Emeigh hotel. It is al- leged that Mr. Palmer caught hold of a high tension wire, which was installed in ‘a careless manner by the defendant com- pany in the garage in the basement of the hotel and was electrocuted. —Dragged 400 yards through a plowed field near Northumberland on Tuesday, Joseph Bateman, aged 40 years, was in- stantly killed. No one saw the accident, but he evidently fell off the seat of a cul- tivator he was driving and his trousers caught firmly in the back of the machine. Face downward he was dragged in the - soft earth by the horses, and probably was suffocated. He had left home at 7:30 and a half an hour later when it was no- ‘ticed that his team stood idle in the field, his employer, G. W. Miller, found the body. __Matt Herzig, of St. Mary’s, Elk coun- ty, was awarded the prize of $250 offered by Colonel William Kaul for the greatest number of vermin killed in the county dur- ing October, 1919, and May, 1920. The con- test was determined on points, each ver- min counting a stated number of points. Herzig killed four wildcats, two foxes, three mink, thirteen weasels, making a to- tal of 51 points. It developed that the con- test was won by one point, as E. J. Shriv- er, of Johnsonburg, had 50 points, as fol- lows: Five wildecats, one fox, three mink, twelve weasels. —In the interest of public economy, the Blair county commissioners recently had the court house renovated and repainted by a working force of jail prisoners. The Commissioners received a rude jolt last week when restaurant proprietors present= ed bills for $1186.05 for feeding the prison- ers and $75.30 for cigarettes while the work was in progress. The jail warden also claims his regular compensation on the ground that he was keeping the jail open for the lodging and feeding of the prison- ers while they were being entertained at the restaurants. — Jake stock brokers have sold more than $90,000 worth of stocks in Pottsville and vicinity, the transactions occurring during the last three weeks. Warned by a recent exposure, the men at the head of the selling agencies made their escape, taking with them automobiles, Liberty bonds and other property in exchange for stocks. In the majority of cases, however, the swind- lers got cash, and their hurry to cash checks thus secured was among the cir- cumstances which led to the discovery of the extent’ of the swindle. Many gave up their Liberty bonds for stocks alleged to be drawing 20 per cent. interest, notwith- standing warnings only recently issued as to the danger of such transactions. A fortune of $1,250,000 is said to be awaiting Thomas Neville, of Connellsville, at one time foreman of a work train on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad; Mrs. Ma- ry Connelly, of Duquesne, and Mrs. Isabel la Dougherty, of McKeesport. The infor- mation comes through a barrister from London; who went to Connellsville to lo- cate the heirs to the money, which is in- herited through their mother, and which has been accumulating since 1902. The codicil in the will directed that, in case the heirs could not be located, the money to be used for the erection of a home in Pennsylvania for fallen women. The bar- rister visited the Neville home in Connells- ville Saturday and all necessary papers were signed by Mr. Neville and Mrs. Con- nelly. — United States army general hospital, at Carlisle, which was formerly the Car- lisle Indian school, will be closed as a hospital, according to orders issued from the War Department, on June 30th, and reopened as a medical school for the Unit- ed States army. It is understood that the army medical department has decided to give adequate training to the army in hy- giene and that the institutional plant which is capable of being made one of the best educational institutions in the coun- try, will be given over to training Ameri- ca’s soldiers along medical lines. Colonel Frank R. Keefer, whose administration of the army general hospital has produced such good results for the army convales- cents, may be selected to take charge of the new medical school.