Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, November 26, 1920, Image 1
a “Benito INK SLINGS. _—Just twenty-nine more Have you started it yet? — Again we rise to remark that we know who isn’t going to be the next postmaster of Bellefonte. —Lots of people who hadn't turkey ‘on the dinner table yesterday talked “turkey” about the reason they didn’t have one. . ——Happily the base bail leagues settled their troubles before the League of Nations began its wrest- ling match. —My, what a celebration we could have if we were only invited to those sixteen “Golden Wedding” cases that have been hidden away in the post- office cellar in this place. The election of Harding hasn’t -brought prices down to any great ex- tent thus far, but it has put skids un- der the wages of labor and a move- ment may soon be expected. — Almost we were going to say that the announcement that the doleful droning of that old organ at the skat- ing rink is to be stopped tomorrow night was the thing we were most thankful for. —A lot of old tanks have always known that drinks never taste as good coming up as they do going down and now most merchants are discovering that prices aren’t half as pleasant coming down as they were going up. —Many of the boys who were mak- ing fabulous wages in distant cities are filtering back home and perching themselves behind Dad’s and Mom’s warm kitchen stoves without a word of explanation as to where it all went to. —All the big cities are trying to rid themselves of the hordes of criminals that infest them but the cross-roads towns need have no fear. The yeggs and the dips, the boot-leggers and gun-men have no hankerin’ for small town life. —We believe France is right in the stand she is taking in regard to settle- ments with Germany. France, more than any other country engaged in the war, fought for security and if she is not to be certain of that what was she bled white for? —One section of the country tells us that the stock of lard now on hand is the lowest that it has been for years and another tells us that the reason pork is so high in the shops is because of the over-supplied lard market. Which are we to believe? —Under the new assessment that is days. “about to be made the ladies will be paid due consideration. All their pro- .fessions are given valuations and they ve to stand up like a man and lar taxes. To some this will he leasure, no doubt, but to others Well, we’d just as soon not be a tax collector. —This thing of trying to fool the people into thinking that an Associa- tion of Nations isn’t a League of Na- tions reminds us so much of the days when the late James G. Blaine, the plumed Knight from Maine, thought he would swipe the free trade doctrine from us and have his Republican fol- lowers digest it as “Reciprocity.” —And now the Philadelphia Public Ledger thinks that “too much bigoted ignorance has been allowed full sweep throughout the country in the fight on the Wilson League.” We use now ad- visedly, for immediately preceding November 2nd the Ledger was doing ail it could adroitly do to promote the sweep of “bigoted ignorance” that it is complaning of. The difference be- tween then and now, so far as the Wilson League was and is concerned, is all summed up in lust for office and bigoted partisanship and if the Ledger has not already placed itself in one or the other of these two despicable classes many of its readers have. —The return of President-elect Harding from Panama, which is scheduled for two weeks hence, will be plenty of time to begin to look for signs of a cleavage in the Republican party over the League of Nations, or, as they prefer to call it, an associa- tion of nations, meaning, of course, one and the same thing. The Hard- ing leaders feel rather comfortable over the situation because they expect the Democratic Senators to pour the oil of support on their troubled waters and it will be because the Democratic Senators are more concerned about ‘the welfare of the country than they are in partisan politics that they will probably do it. It seems to be all right for Republican Senators to ob- struct and tear down, but all wrong for Democratic Senators to do the same thing. —Harry Yingling, a freight car in- spector in the Altoona yards, has brought suit against the director gen- eral of railroads to recover fifty thousand dollars because of the loss of his voice through an accident while at work. He was hit on the neck by a flying steel plate which injured his vocal organs so that he can’t speak above a whisper. From many angles this should prove an interesting case. In the first place his injuries would seem to be covered by compensation insurance. In the second, the accident evidently happened at the time when the workers themselves were really running the railroads and their own inspectors, among whom Mr. Yingling was numbered, were primarily respon- sible for this particular accident. And in the third the claimant avers im- pairment of his earning power through the loss of his voice when it is generally supposed that car wheels are tapped with a hammer and not with the vocal chords. & * VOL. 65. BELLEF STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. ONTE, PA., NO VEMBER 26, 1920. NO. av. Getting Ready to Share Profits. In a speech delivered at New Or- leans, on the eve of his departure for Panama, Senator Harding pretty clearly indicated his notion on the subject of readjustment of the indus- trial life of the country. ‘“Unavoida- bly there will be readjustment. In- evitably there must be a reconstruc- tion. The incalculable sacrifices would be vain. But there must come stability and dependability. We must put aside the debris of war and build on solid foundations. We cannot es- cape all the consequences of fevered war or the unsettled conditions of its aftermath. There are sure to be re- verses. There will be endless dis- couragements,” he said, “but a confi- dent America will meet them with good courage.” There can be no misinterpretation of the meaning of that declaration. It forecasts the industrial struggle which has already set in and the pur- pose of which is to compel an exten- sion of the work day and a decrease of the workman’s wages. That pur- pose has been vaguely expressed in all the Republican speeches and litera- ture of the campaign. It is the only basis of readjustment and reconstruc- tion that has been considered by the leaders of the successful party in the recent campaign. The high cost of living has been ascribed to the high wages and short day and the remedy contemplated is greater production at a lower aggregate cost. It is a plaus- ible economic fiction easily supported. But there are other things to con- sider in this connection of equal if not greater importance. It has been the aim of civilization for centuries to es- tablish the fact that human life is more important than financial accu- mulation, and that health is a more valuable community asset than wealth. During the past few years this wholesome and humanitarian idea has been pursued with the result that wages are higher and working conditions better than ever before. With the view of restoring ‘“normal- cy” Senator Penrose declared during the campaign that the corporations could afford to pay $100,000,000 to get the Democratic party out of power. They paid a lot and are getting ready to take the profits: ——If Penrose gets well there will be a scampering to cover that will break all records. The senior Sena- tor is resentful, as some of his party associates have found out in the past, and he particularly objects to blows aimed at him while in a sick bed. Distressing and Anomalous Situation. The illness of Senator Penrose, crit- ial or otherwise according to the source of information, and the proba- ble appointment of Senator Knox to the Premiership of Harding’s cabinet, creates an anomalous situation in the politics of Pennsylvania. If Penrose should die and Knox go into the cab- inet, the State would have two vacan- cies to fill in the Senate. So far as we can recall such a condition has never existed before. Of course the seats would not be empty long, for un- der the constitution the Governor has a right to make temporary appoint- ments. But that fact does not detract from the novelty of the situation or take away any of the public interest in what might happen. The office of Senator in Congress is an alluring prize and there are a good many Republicans in the State who would like to get it. Senator Crow, who has long been chairman of the State committee, has long had his am- bitions focussed on the job and it is said that Governor Sproul is fondly cherishing a hope that he may move out of the executive mansion at Har- risburg and into one of the luxurious senatorial baths in Washington. Gif- ford Pinchot has also had covetous erable period of time, and “there are others.” With only one seat to fill and Penrose in health the problem would be easily solved. He would pick out a congenial colleague and have him elected. : But the Senator is not a well man and no doubt his physical suffering as well as mental anguish is more or less augmented by the thought that some one who has vilified him in the past might be chosen to at least try on his Senatorial shoes and toy with his Senatorial toga. Then he probably feels that Governor Sproul has been taking advantage of his infirmities and that chairman Crow has shown ingratitude, and the selection of either of them to succeed him in office would embitter the closing periods of his life. . Altogether the situation is dis- tressing as well as anomalous. Yet there is a possibility that the worst may be averted. Penrose may get well and Knox may not be called to the cabinet. Do mieten Somebody suggests our fat friend Taft for Secretary of State, but Harding is not likely to pay so high a price for help that wasn’t i needed. eyes on a Senatorial seat for a consid- | | 1 i Conflicting News of Battle. News of the battle said to be in progress among the Republican fac- tions of this State is conflicting. A week ago it seemed as if there would be practically no opposition to the re- election of Robert S. Spangler, of York, to the Speakership of the House of Representatives. Senator Penrose had given approval to Spang- ler’s ambition and Joseph Grundy, who directly represented the Senator in the Chicago convention, was of the same mind. Since then it is rumored that State chairman Crow, Governor Sproul and others have brought out Representative Whitaker, of Chester county, and profess to be able to car- ry him through. Mayor Moore, of Philadelphia, has been striving to pre- vent a contest. In point of fitness for the office it may safely be said that Mr. Whitaker has the decided advantage. He hasn’t been as long in the Legislature as his rival but his superior ability more than balances the difference in time of service. However, fitness is not the standard in dispensing favors in the Republican party and Spangler gave fairly good satisfaction to the ma- chine managers during the last ses- sion. Besides Whitaker has shown symptoms of independence on one or two occasions in the past and the or- ganization is not in the habit of en- couraging that spirit. Mr. Spangler knows what is expected of a Speaker of the House and is always ready to meet the requirements. At this distance from the event, both in time and space, however, it may safely be predicted that unless Penrose dies meantime Spangler will be elected. Chairman Crow is a smooth politician and Governor Sproul is a shrewd manipulator. But Pen- rose will be the dispenser of offices, if he is alive, after March 4th next, and patronage is a powerful influence. Governor Sproul’s term of office is drawing to a close, at least his oppor- tunity to dispense favors is nearly ex- hausted, while Penrose is just coming into his own. It would probably be better for the State if Whitaker is chosen Speaker, but the interests of the organization will be promoted by the re-election of Spangler. lpn pe can’t pass a law to prohibit conferring the Noble Peace prize on President Wilson. Such a proof of esteem cf Woodrow would be “gall and worm- wood” to the Senatorial “battalion of death.” : Primaries, Direct and Otherwise. If after what Mr. Charles Evans Hughes said about the League of Na- tions during the recent campaign his opinion on any subject is worth any- thing, his speech in Indianapolis the other day in favor of direct primaries might be interesting. Mr. Hughes is president of the National Municipal League and was speaking at a session of that body. Among other things he said “the primary system could be made an effective barometer of the will of parties only when primary laws provided for strict enrollment of voters,” which is probably true. DBut primary laws never do provide for such an enrollment and as a matter of fact voters of opposite parties fre- quently nominate party candidates. There are substantial reasons both for and against the direct primary as a medium of making party nomina- tions, and Mr. Hughes employed all of them in support of his theory. If the voters at a primary were limited to the party for which the nomination was to be made it would “place i weapon in the hands of the party vot- ers which they can use with effect in case of need.” But we have all seen voters of one party register as of the other party in order that they might help nominate a candidate of the oth- |! er party who was really obnoxious to the majority of the voters of his own party. That is neither conducive of political morality nor efficient admin- istration. : Admitting all the merits of the di- rect primary that is claimed for it, however, there is a reason in favor of | the convention system which deserves serious attention. It brings into pub- lic notice and affords just opportunity to new figures in party organization and develops leadership. Since the adoption of the direct primary system in Pennsylvania no new blood has been found in the organization of either party and the party boss is su- preme, because there is no chance to contend with him for popular notice. | In the Democratic party, for example, when the organization is defeated for the nomination it bolts the ticket and gives a practically unopposed election to the candidate of the other party. SS ataees ——~The illness of the ex-Empress of Germany may excite some sympa- thy but nobody cares much how her husband feels. —Some potatoes are still in the ground and much corn is yet to be shucked in Centre county. What a pity that Congress | Gracious Tribute to Wilson. One of the first official acts of the League of Nations in session at Gene- va was forwarding a communication to President Wilson expressing appre- ciation of his work in creating it. In the estimation of the great men of all countries assembled under the provis- ions of the covenant “in order to pro- mote international co-operation and to achieve international peace and se- curity,” it was a beneficent thing. Under the appraisement of those dis- tinguished gentlemen much of the credit of it is due to Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States. Only a few men, among them Senator Lodge, Senator Penrose and Hungry Hi, dissent from this opinion. Only predatory interests want war. This communication with President Wilson felicitating him on the achievement of a great purpose for which he was largely responsible was a gracious act. In the work achieved he sacrificed his health and probably shortened his life. But it was worth the labor to the world, and in its achievement probably worth the sac- rifices to him. The highest duty of a man is to give the best that is in him to his country and his kind. Presi- dent Wilson did that freely and un- grudgingly, and it must have been a great comfort as well as an infinite pleasure to know that the best minds of the world fully appreciated and cor- dially commended him in it. Such praise is the most generous recom- pense. For months President Wilson has been traduced and his achievements belittled because such expression of malice gave promise to vicious minds of a political triumph. Senators Lodge and Penrose and Johnson have vilified him ruthlessly, and our fat friend Taft misrepresented him and maligned his work. But what they say and do is of little consequence in the long run, for history will justly and properly fix the places of all men in the estimation of posterity. The League of Nations, through its illus- trious President, has securely settled the place of Woodrow Wilson for the present, and the records of time will justify that intelligent verdict as the voice of history. Golden weddings are just rare enough to make them an object of in- terest at all times, and ordinarily they are heralded with all the publicity possible, but last week sixteen cases of Golden Wedding were included in the cargo of booze captured by the state police up Bald Eagle valley and they have been consigned to the post- office cellar along with the ordinary headache stuff that has been accumu- lated there by the busy agents of Uncle Samuel. The three men cap- tured with the booze were taken to Williamsport last Saturday by a Unit- ed States marshall. Thirty-three years ago the price of gasoline was nine cents a gal- lon, and in those days the old Atlan- tic Refining company station in Bellefonte sold an average of three barrels a month. The first sale of a full barrel was made to Peter F. Keichline for use in his peanut roaster. Today the price is 34 cents a gallon and the Bellefonte Fuel & Supply company alone sold three hundred thousand gallons dur- ing July. The automobile, of course, is the big consumer of the energized fluid. Lem Le Yesterday—turkey day—offi- cially ended the football season, and the hundreds of college students who have been identified with the sport will now break training and hereafter devote all their time to cramming their craniums with scientific faets which are designed to help them car- ry out their future careers. iy SE ——The weather man was not very particular with the kind of weather doled out to us for Thanksgiving. In fact it has been a dismal, rainy week so far, with no immediate indication of a let up. vania intend to make any fights in the future they would better erect a toboggan for the Palmer-McCormick- Donnelly erowd now. ——1t may as well be understood in the beginning that William Ran- dolph Hearst must “get his” or trou- ble will begin early. The Way for Labor to Help. Irom the Hartford Times, “If lgbor will join whole-heartedly ! in doing its share” to eliminate evils which have contributed toward unem- ployment it will reduce unemployment m= to the minimum, and the most portant thing for labor to do is for it to increase production. A fair day's work for a fair day’s pay should be a point of honor with every man, Rete his labor is manual or men- al. ——Subsecribe for the “Watchman.” If the Democrats of Pennsyl- | Preventing War. From the Philadelphia Record. The decision made at Geneva to send an armed force to Vina to secure a free and honest plebiscite to deter- mine whether the city shall be Polish or Lithuanian convinces The New York Tribune that the Republican charges that membership in the League might easily involve us in war were well founded. We have no objec- tions to the statement of facts made by The Tribune, but its inferences bear no sort of relation to its facts. “The armed force,” says The Tri- bune, “is to be composed of contin- gents furnished by Great Britain, France, Belgium and Spain. What would our government do were it an unreserved member of the Jeogue when a case similar to that of Vilna arose? Would our executive depart- ment assume the power to join in the policing expedition, or would it say that Congress must first be consult- ed?” And then, in bland unconscious- ness that it is destroying its own ar- gument, The Tribune cites two cases —and it should have cited two more— in which the President acted first and consulted afterward. = The Tribune says: “This was the course pursued when our troops helped make up the international expedition to Peking. It was the course pursued when Presi- dent Wilson landed forces at Vera Cruz.” Two cases not mentioned by The Tribune are the dispatch of the marines by President Cleveland to keep the Panama Railroad open, in compliance with our treaty with Co- lombia, and the dispatch of troops to the Isthmus by President Roosevelt to prevent Colombia from suppressing a petty insurrection, which was a viola- tion of our treaty with Colombia. Here, then, are four instances in which without any league a President has used troops abroad without con- sulting Congress. If both Republican and Democratic Presidents may do that now, why should there be any ob- jection to their doing a similar thing in association with the other members of the League for the purpose of pre- venting war? For it is not to participate in war, but to prevent war, that the League will send a force to Vilna to see that od on a pension, thought he would éxam- Se | SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Presented with a bag of shelled corm for seed by his fellow-workmen in the Pennsylvania blacksmith shop at Altoona, on Saturday, Albert C. Shaver, just retir- ine the corn after he reached home, and | found $118.45 which his friends had placed tin the bag as a retirement present. —A DuBois young man, convinced that he could eat three pies at one sitting, made a wager to that effect and lost. He failed to state just what the contents of the pies should be, and when he rolled up his sleeves to sail in the first pie confronting him was a monster meat pie. Without tackling it, he declared himself satisfied and hurriedly walked away from the res- taurant, the battleground for the contesf. Now all pies don’t look alike to him. —~Secipic Young, colored, age 101 years, born in slavery in Virginia prior to the Civil war, died at his home at Kane last Thursday, after a brief illness. Wlen the Civil war broke out, Young joined the Un- ion forces at Fredericksburg. He was made a servant to Lieutenant Wilkinson and later served General Thomas I. Kane in a similar capacity. General Kane brought Young to Pennsylvania when hos- tilities closed. Young's estate; valued at $50,000, goes to his six children. . —Qeorge A. Oyler, of Dauphin county, who was married November 13, 1913, re- lates in detail the working of the “thir- teen hoodoo” in an application to the Dau- phin county court for a divorce from his wife. Oyler alleges that March 26, this year, his spouse threatened to slay him with a cleaver; that on April 20 she hid the cleaver in the bed-room, and that she fre- quently used abusive language and struck him, until May 6, he left for a more peace- ful abode, where the number thirteen did not figure. —Henry Heinzy, the blacksmith of Ma- dera, Clearfield county, convicted in crim- inal court for the murder of Alex Wash, his neighbor, during a quarrel, has been sentenced by Judge Singleton Dell to pay the extreme penalty for his crime. Motion for a new trial had been refused. When sentenced to death in the electric chair Heinzy showed little emotion. Ieinzy went to Wash’s yard and deliberately stab- bed him to death following an altercation growing out of trouble between the chil- dren of the two families. —The Rev. S. B. Bidlack, pastor of the East Main street Methodist chureh, - Lock Haven, delivered a sermon on ‘“Thieves,” on Sunday, taking his text from the gos- pel of St. Mark: ‘“The thief cometh not to destroy, but to rob and to steal, but I am come that you might have eternal life.” By way of introduction the Rev. Mr. Bidlack referred to a visit of some thieves to his refrigerator. When he returned home aftér the service, he found that while he was dé- livering the sermon on “Thieves” that his refrigerator had again been emptied of its contents. —When their dogs dug around a pile of stones Walter and Gardiner Nau, and Clayton Newcomer, hunters, found 800 pounds of skeined silk, valued at $800,00, near Columbia, York county. They report- ed their find to the Schwarzenbach silk the people have a fair chance to de- clare whether they will join Poland or Lithuania. can tell where it will stop. A demonstration by Austria i ‘caused the world war, in ‘Whi military Ta rk even it better to prevent war, or to let the war come? There is no reason to ap- prehend that Poland and Lithuania Nations force. But if they should, it would be better for us to join Eng- land, France, Belgium and Spain in suppressing that resistance than to wait till Europe was involved in another war. Without consulting Congress, Pres- ident McKinley sent American troops to co-operate with the troops of other countries in China, and our troops were put under the command of a for- eign general, and the Boxers resisted | and were suppressed. All that could possibly happen at Vilna actually hap- pened at Tienstin and Peking, and American troops fought on foreign soil at the command of the President and without the authority of Con- gress. If we were an unreserved member of the League we should participate ' with other nations, not in conducting a war, but in preventing a war, and the authority of the President would | not go beyond that actually exercised by Presidents Cleveland, McKinley, Roosevelt and Wilson. Why all this outcry over the League of Nations, now that the campaign is over? ! Woodrow Wilson. irom the New Republic. ; As Woodrow Wilson passes out of | active politics, the Wilson of 1920 re- cedes and a completer Wilson substi- | tutes itself in men’s minds. There have been many phases of Wilson be- | sides the last phase. But for as long as anyone living can see ahead there | will be no one accepted perspective on | them all. For he is identified with a" lurid and volcanic moment which made respond the whole range of hu- | man passion, from utter savagery to sublimest sacrifice. He himself has | been like a huge crystal in a ring of fire, glittering with the hope and an- | guish all about him. It was Wilson's | fate to gather the impact of a univer- | sal war, and by its passions he was lifted, and he has been thrown, as few other men before him. ; It is an exquisitely painful subject | to think about for everyone, for at a | moment like this there comes a sense that Woodrow Wilson is just a human being, with the human right to tender- ness, and to that ultimate faith which insists that aman isan end not a means The Woodrow Wilson about whom biographers will dispute is the man who was to have been, and may still perhaps be, through the influence of his ideas, the means to an ordered world. But behind that public figure, that uncommon man, there is a com- | mon man whose life is sacred and in- | valuable, and beyond the reach of ar- | gument. ———————— Wonder who is responsible for | the high price of coal. Both the min- ers and operators assure the public it isn't their fault. teeta fp ee —Just now many of us are wondet- | ing as to whether we are to have any If left to the two coun- | tries concerned there would probably be war, and when a war starts no man | i der their garments to get it out of the mill rvia | the United States became involved. Is i will offer resistance to a League of | | has been stolen. Indian summer this fall. mill. It had been carried from the mill by three girl workers at various times. They were arrested and held in 8300 bail. They confessed that rather than work the silk, which was tangled, they concealed it un- and at night the mother of one of the ac- cused carried it to the woods and buried it. —Lewis Wise, a miner in the Janesville section, is in the Clearfield hospital with ia dangerous gunshot wound in his left breast, inflicted late I'riday by some uni- | dentified person. He comes from the ter- ritory where the miners and operators on the mines have been at odds for a long time and four other victims have been shot during the period of trouble. At the pres- ent time a reward of 85000 for the arrest of the person who killed Ole Johnson from ambush awaits some person who ean land the eriminal. He was killed while on his way home from work at the mines at Janesville. ' The body of Yee Sing, Chinese laun- dryman, found dead in his home in Holli- daysburg Wednesday, remains unelaimed, notwithstanding the fact that money and securities totaling $5689.24 were found in his possession. = He literally died on a bed of silver, as dimes, quarters, half-dollars Cand dollars were concealed under the mat- tress. His other personal property was hidden in all soris of places, and much of it was in silver. The Chinese Consul -at Washington has been notified of the death, but mo word has been received from him regarding the disposition of the body. Death was due to natural causes. ’ Shot high into the air when an extra train hit his automobile at a grade crogs- (ing at Sunbury. last I'riday evening. Richard Thomas, aged 30 years, grabbed an iron rod on the pilot of the locomotive as he descended and when the train was "brought to a stop, 300 feet furt her on, he wis found perched on the cow-catchier, on- ly slightly hurt. The car, a new 8H000 Hm- ousine, owned by William il. ohrbach, Sunbury’s millionaire water king, was a perfect wreck, being nothing more than a pile of twisted metal. According to. by- standers it was hardly believable that .a human being could have sat inside of thal car and escaped death. 3 After ten years as a general merchant in Natrona, Allegheny county, A. Morris has announced that he will sell out his goods and quit business because of bur- glary losses. These losses, Morris asserts, eat up all the profits. In spite of special police guard, barricade against doors and various devices intended to serve as bur- glar alarms, Morris’ store has been robbed | several times during the last few years and | hundreds of dollars’ worth of merchandise A few weeks ago thieves, | unable to gain entrance in the usual ways, sawed in hole through a wall of the store and helped themselves. This was the last straw, and Morris decided to quit. John BB. McCreary, of near Northum- berland, the father of seventeen children, fifteen of whom are living, had an event- ful day last week with the stork keeping very busy among his offspring. First, he was called from his work by the annonce- ment that a son had arrived at the home of his daughter, Mrs. B. D. Yeager. De- lighted, he returned to his work to be called again by the report that his son, Ir- win McCreary, had just become the father of a bouncing boy. In a short while the rule of three got in its work and the hap- py man received notice of the arrival of the stork at the home of another son, Wal- ter McCreary. While the grandfather was figuring on the cost of new baby carriages over the phone came the information from another son, Harold McCreary, that he al- so had become the father of a daughter. Things have now returned to normal in the McCreary home.