Broatf Yon
INK SLINGS.
—It doesn’t matter much what hap-
pens now spring is only forty-five
days off. : |
__It isn’t now that the farmers want |
help. It will be during the spring
planting and the summer harvesting. |
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
)) __A scarlet fever epidemic at Millwood,
) Westmoreland county, resulted in the
N schools being closed. The schools and all
churches are being fumigated, as well as
: public gatlering places. Two school chil-
(es dren, stricken with the disease, died last
\ ) week.
oly —Robert Miner, one of the most widely
y E D known negroes in Central Pennsylvania,
died at Kane last Thursday. He was borm
in slavery. Shortly after the close of the
Civil war he came to Pennsylvania, work-
ing as a hotel porter. He left an estate
— Berlin has spurned the claim of | smn bee ni
reparation made by the Allies. The |
Allies, however, scarcely expected
anything else.
At last Germany knows how
much she has to pay, but how she will
pay it may ‘concern her more than
finding out the amount did.
— Centre county’s first annual mo-
tor show has been a distinct success.
Most of the visitors, however, had a
Marmon taste and a Ford pocketbook.
—Tt doesn’t matter whether his hog-
ship saw his shadow or not. We
haven’t had six weeks of winter thus
far, so he can’t hand us such bull as
six weeks more.
— Smiling skies and tropical seas
are greeting Mr. Harding on his Flor-
ida trip. It is well, for we fear that
storms are lowering for him when he
reaches Washington.
— Another Soviet ark has set sail
for Russia and we are to be deprived
of the company of a few hundred
more dogs that tried to bite the hand
that was feeding them.
__It would have been too bad if the
President had pardoned Debs, since
Debs feels that his record for consist-
ency would have been smirched if ex-
ecutive clemency had been extended.
—All the harrowing tales that have
come out of Washington for a year or
more as to the scarcity of houses and
the high cost of everything don’t seem
to strike much terror to those gentle-
men who are looking for jobs under
the new administration.
—The sooner we relieve those Ar-
menian children the sooner we’ll be
relieved of the suspense over the suc-
cess of the drive that is on in Centre
county for them. Those one hundred
and forty-six babies must not meet us
at the judgment seat and say: You,
with plenty all about you, left us to
die.
—The Legislature might serve the
State far better than it knows if it
were to insist on a gigantic road build-
ing program for early in the spring
and then bind contractors to a labor
scale slightly less than that paid by
industries and farmers in the commu-
nities through which the highways are |
being built. Such a plan would leave
no excuse for idleness on the part of
able men, and it would not put other
employers of labor at the disadvan-
tage of being in competition with the
State in the matter of wages.
—A gentleman, W. A. Hirshfield by
name, organized a party of Altoona
people into a company to drill for oil
and gas in the McKeesport region.
After the first hole proved “a duster,”
it was learned that oil and gas were
unknown in the field in which Mr.
Hirshfield had invited his friends to |
prospect and they cancelled the con-
tract for drilling a second well. Now
the well driller is suing the entire par-
ty for $9,800, which is the balance due
him on the first well. We sympathize
with all of Mr. Hirshfield’s visionary |
friends except a doctor who we notice |
is among them. He ought to have
been out looking after the sick and
left the well alone.
—The railroad company’s are plac-
ing steel straps around personal bag-
gage shipped on certain lines the bet-
ter to protect it from pilfering em-
ployees. Since prohibition has been
effective more robberies of baggage
in transit have occurred than had been
reported in all previous times; the
presumption being that nothing but
wet goods was taken from the lug-
gage of travelers. The habit, once
formed, seems to have been growing
to such proportions that all manner of
articles are purloined from trunks and
bags. While we have scarcely credit-
ed many of the wild stories of theft
we have heard it must be admitted
that when some railroad men become
so finished that they use stethoscopes
with which to detect the presence of
liquors in a traveling trunk the rail-
road companies would serve a greater
good by calling into use the old ball
and chain rather than this new and
obviously needless steel strap.
—Congress is considering the ad-
visability of putting real teeth in the
Volstead act. Such things as jail sen-
tences for the first offense of selling,
search and seizure of home brews and
making the buyer equally guilty with
the seller are some of the plans being
considered. If the States were to co-
operate more diligently with the fed-
eral authorities no additional enforce-
ment legislation would be necessary
and if the individual would look at his
duty as a citizen with conscientious,
patriotic vision the whole problem
would be solved. Prohibition is here.
Whether it is to stay or not depends
“wholly upon how it profits the coun-
try. Its results cannot be appraised
under prevailing conditions and it
seems to us that those who are op-
posed to it ought to be leaders in its
enforcement, for if their contention is
true, that the country doesn’t want it,
the quicker the country becomes bone
dry the quicker there will be the re-
vulsion that they predict. The pres-
ent state of affairs is breeding disre-
spect and even contempt for law
everywhere and, strange as it may
seem, many law officers in the States
are adding fuel to the flames by their
poorly founded contentions that they
are. Bo} supposed to help with enforce-
ment.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
worth $40,000.
— Policeman Joseph Bossard was shot
A., FEBRUARY 4, 1921. :
and instantly killed while patroling his
beat at Jeannette last Friday. The au-
NO. 9S.
i Penrose’s Surprising Actions.
| There is an old adage that “a rene-
' gade is worse than ten Turks.” The
! zeal with which Senator Penrose is now
pressing the Fordney emergency tar-
| iff bill is a substantial vindication of
| this fact. When the measure was first
| introduced the Senator proclaimed op-
| position in language of considerable
{ vehemence. He even intimated that
his views on tariff taxation had un-
dergone a change within the past few
years and that tariff legislation of the
future must be drawn on scientific
lines to secure his approval and sup-
port. But now he is rampaging about
the Senate chamber “like a bull in a
china shop,” demanding the immedi-
ate passage of the Fordney bill. He
appears to have thrown aside all re-
serve.
, course, that he is a sick man and an
‘ impaired physical system causes sym-
pathetic mental infirmity. But here-
‘vealed no signs of mental incapacity
in his management of the organiza-
, tion of the Legislature a month ago.
nor Sproul and state chairman Crow
' intimated that he appealed to their
sympathies in a rather childish man-
ner, but that inference has never been
confirmed and no other signs of men-
"tal malady have been shown in his
| personal or political activities since.
But his abject surrender to the ultra
| tariff mongers as indicated in his at-
tempts to force the passage of the
emergency bill justifies suspicions.
The palpable and declared purpose
of that measure is to keep prices of
necessaries of life up to the high
level of war times. Industrial life is
in a depressed if not despondent state,
and the signs point to an inevitable
decrease of wages all along the line.
How any sane man in the face of such
a situation can invoke legislative in-
struments to keep up the cost of liv-
ing is inexplicable. Yet Penrose, who
has always been regarded as a shrewd
politician as well as an experienced
statesman has been using every par-
liamentary expedient to force the pas-
sage of this absurd measure. The
wisest leaders of the party are against
it but he persists: even to the extent
of invoking the cloture.
—Senator Borah is not always
happy in his speeches but he seems to
have hit the bull’s eye in his reply to
Senator McLean’s statement that the
New England woolen mills have ma-
| terial enough on hand to last two
years. In that event, Borah said, he
couldn’ see how the emergency tariff
bill would benefit the wool growers of
| the west.
General Atterbury is too Drastic.
Brigadier General Atterbury was
rather arbitrary and somewhat dog-
matic in his attitude before the rail-
road labor board in Chicago, on Mon-
day. He demanded “the immediate
abrogation of the national agreement
between the roads and their em-
ployees.” It was suggested that fur-
ther conferences be held but he sum-
marily rejected the proposition. “So
far as the railroads are concerned,”
he declared, “we feel that we cannot
get together. The views of the two
sides are so radically opposed that no
good could possibly come from such
a conference.” For that reason he
imagines that the other side ought to
be thrown out of court. It has no
right to consideration, in his estima-
tion.
The intelligent public, divested of
prejudice and inclined to be just, is
not likely to adopt his view of the sub-
ject. He promised that no wage re-
duvions would be asked at present if
his demand is acceded to and declar-
ed that the revocation of the agree-
ment would result in the immediate
saving of $300,000,000 to the carrying
corporations, These statements ap-
pear to be inconsistent and the average
mind will incline to doubt one or the
other of them. But in any event the
General's attitude before the board
was hardly diplomatic. He was ad-
dressing a deliberative body rather
than an army on the battle front and
might have gotten farther if he had
been more reasonable.
No doubt the wages of railroad em-
ployees will be reduced in the future,
near or remote, for a decrease of
wages in all lines of endeavor is es-
sential to a reduction in the cost of
living. But the matter should be con-
sidered in a rational way instead of
in the mandatory fashion adopted by
General Atterbury in Chicago. When
the wages of railroad employees are
reduced, however, there ought to be
a corresponding decrease in freight
rates and charges for passenger serv-
ice by the carrying corporations. A
very considerable increase was allow-
ed not long ago to cover the high
wages of employees and it would be
neither fair mor just to reduce one
and allow the other to continue.
——Germany now knows just how
much ‘it costs to carry ambition be-
yond the limit.
. VOL. 66. BELLEFONTE, P
There is the excuse of Penrose, of
It is true that the friends of Gover-
| Germany Must Pay Fifty Billions. !
Whether Germany will be able to
pay war indemnities to a total of
nearly fifty-six billions of dollars, re-
mains to be seen. In any event the
supreme council of the Allies at its
session in Paris on Saturday fixed that
sum as the amount to be paid in pen-
alties for the war. The payments are
spread out over a period of forty
years, beginning with half a billion
annually for the first five years. Sub-
sequent payments would be a billion
and a half dollars a year for thirty-
two years. In addition to that a levy
of twelve per cent. on her exports is
provided which charge must be paid
in cash on sight. Besides these ex-
actions Germany is required to disarm
completely within six months.
Germany is rich in resources and
suffered comparatively little from the
war. France, Belgium and Italy suf-
‘fered severely and Germany was ex-
acting in demands wherever and when-
ever conquest afforded opportunity to
levy tribute. But fifty-six billions of
"dollars is a vast sum to draw out of
the earnings of the people and the
products of the soil and industry.
Even the privilege of borrowing is
curtailed to the extent that no loans
may be negotiated without the con-
' sent of the allies. It is said, however,
that consent will be given to borrow
in this country and steps have already
been taken to establish a substantial
| credit here. It may be added that
"upon the success of this effort will rest
i the ability to pay the indemnity.
Opinions differ widely as to the jus-
tice of the levy as well as concerning
| the ability to pay. But no one under-
| takes to defend Germany in the ac-
| tions for which the penalty is impos-
[od The property loss inflicted upon
| the allies was greater than the in-
demnity while the sacrifice in life and
, treasure is far beyond calculation.
‘ For these reasons severity is justified
"and in view of the resources of the
| country it should and will be exacted.
| Forty years is a brief period in the
‘life of a nation and some living to-
| day may see the obligation discharg-
ed in full and the country a long way
'on the road to opulence. At least
' there is a hope of such result .and-
‘meantime little sympathy will be
: wasted. :
eee fl eee
— The army of the unemployed is
increasing rapidly without the help
' of recruiting officers or the expenses
i of medical examinations.
| Berger and Debs.
| The simultaneous decision of the
| Supreme court awarding Victor Ber-
| ger a new trial and of the President
| refusing a pardon to Eugene Debs,
upon the recommendation of the De-
partment of Justice, causes a confu-
| sion of public opinion. They were ac-
| cused of practically the same offence,
| under the same law and in similar cir-
| cumstances. Both openly denounced
| the war, protested against the execu-
| tion of the selective service law, and
advised against enlistments in the ar-
! my for service in the war. The only
| difference was in the fact that Mr.
Berger had protested against the eli-
gibility of the sitting judge to try the
case against him and Debs made no
such objection. All judges look alike
to him.
At the time that Berger was con-
victed he was a member of Congress
for the Milwaukee district of Wiscon-
sin and was subsequently unseated by
a vote of the House. Afterward he
was re-elected and refused the seat on
the ground that he was disloyal to the
government. It seemed to be a just
determination of the question. He of-
fered no sign of contrition. He made
no apology for his action. And the
decision of the court giving him a new
trial is in no respect a vindication. It
is based entirely on the fact that his
protest against Judge Landis as the
trial judge was disregarded and as
Justice McKenna said in substance it
ought not to have been so disposed of.
His rights were technically invaded.
In the Debs case conditions are the
same. Mr. Debs has not altered his
views on the subject of the war and
persists in his offensive - attitude
against the government. Possibly
the sentence of ten years’ imprison-
ment was severe. But his offence was
great and might have been disastrous.
Clemency under the circumstances
might influence others to similar of-
fences in future if the conditions re-
curred. Mr. Debs is no stupid. He
understood and understands the full
measure of his responsibility as a cit-
izen and persists in obduracy and re-
joices in his turpitude. His friends
may imagine that He has been suffi-
ciently punished but the deterrent ef-
fect on others might not be achieved
if he were pardoned.
———Probably Harding went to
Florida to escape the “great minds”
that were pestering him at Marion.
————— A ———————
——We are not yet entirely per-
suaded that hiring men at a dollar a
year is wise economy.
| during the last fiscal year are to be
i
i
i
{
i
Deficiencies to be Investigated.
According to information from Har-
risburg the expenditures of the State
investigated. This is to say, the
heads of the several departments of |
the State government are to be sum-
moned before the Governor in the near
future to show cause for a deficiency
of several million dollars for which
funds are asked from the present Leg- |
islature. It appears that the last Leg- |
islature appropriated $104,000,000 for
all purposes. The Governor cut into
this sum with his veto ax to the ex-
tent of $2,000,000, leaving $102,000,-
000 for expenses for the year. The
disbursements have exceeded this vast
aggregate by from six to eight mil-
lions and the Governor wants to know
why.
This is an interesting subject and
the result of the inquiry will be await-
ed more or less patiently. It comes a
trifle late, of course, but such things
are better late than never, for while
it may fail to result in recovery of
waste or loss, it may prevent recur-
rences of the faults in future. While
the orgie of profligacy was in prog-
ress the Governor was so busy criti-
cising the extravagance of the admin-
istration at Washington that it was
impossible for him to see the leaks at
home. But now that deficiency bills |
of extraordinary proportions have
called them to his notice it is gratify- :
ing to learn that he not only disap- |
proves of the extravagance but is
willing to expose the delinquents.
That the Governor had no knowl-
edge of the profligacy that was riot-
ing around him may be clearly infer-
red. In his message to the Legisla-
ture he recommended the passage of
laws which would increase the reve-
nues from fifteen to twenty-five mil-
lion dollars in order to meet addition-
al expense. If things had gone along
quietly he would no doubt have press-
ed those measures and thus enabled
the enterprising fiscal agents of the
Commonwealth to continue the profli-
gacy. But those pestiferous, not to
say impertinent, newspaper chaps
made a fuss about it and an inconsid-
erate public began to kick. The con-
sequence of this is the investigation
and a pompous proclamation of a lim-
it to future expenditures.
—_ John F. Kramer, federal prohi-
bition enforcement officer, of Wash-
ington, D. C., was a Bellefonte visitor
on Sunday, speaking in the Lutheran
church in the morning and in the
court house in the afternoon. Owing
to the inclement weather only a fair
sized audience gathered at the court
house to hear the man who holds the
destiny of many million gallons of
liquor virtually in the hollow of his
hand. Mr. Kramer told of the efforts
being made by his department to sup-
press the illegal traffic in liquor but
declared that much of the abuse of
the present law is due to the lack of
vigilance on the part of local and
state officials. He also admitted that
another deplorable fact was that men
caught in the act of bootlegging were
left off with sentences of light fines,
paid their money and promptly got
busy again. There is no doubt but
that this latter fact has been a very
potent agent in the persistency of the
bootlegger, and it calls to mind the
fact that one individual captured in
Centre county not so many weeks ago
was let off with a fine of fifty dol-
lars and five dollars for the driver of
the car; though, of course, his load of
liquor was confiscated. Since that
time, however, he has continued in the
business and is alleged to have clean-
ed up from six to seven thousand dol-
lars. If that is correct, what does he
or any other individual engaged in
the game care for a fine of fifty dol-
lars? It is only when the penalty is
made severe enough that the bootleg-
ging practice will be broken up.
—Altoona has discovered that the
churches of that city are using too
much water and a movement is on foot
to make them pay for all consumed in
excess of ten thousand gallons. How
be it that such a discovery is just be-
ing made. There couldn’t possibly be
any connection between this unusual
consumption of water and the fact
that the country has gone dry.
cere eee.
—If we are to believe the interest-
ing historical sketch of the old Union
cemetery in Bellefonte, that is pub-
lished in another column in this issue,
there are a lot of folks up there who
are keeping mighty quiet about not
having paid their room rent.
——Those who earned big wages
during last year and bought silk shirts
at exorbitant prices may have trouble
in getting money to pay income taxes
next month.
e———— ef
——1If the late Kaiser loves the
Fatherland as ardently as he professes
he will give a generous part of his
vast fortune toward paying the’ war
| maintained then was to buy out the
indemnity.
The Anthracite Monopoly.
From the Philadelphia Record.
Chairman Thompson, of the Federal
Trade Commission, in supporting the
Calder bill before a committee of the
Senate, said that Congress must either
“restore competition in the coal indus-
try, or face nationalization.”
We do not believe the American
people desire the nationalization of
any industry but their objections to
that form of State Socialism are being
steadily and rather rapidly undermin-
ed by the anthracite coal interests.
The public is exceedingly averse to a
monopoly, and the anthracite industry
is substantially a monopoly.
The independent producers had
some little competitive influence 20
years ago. But as they could reach
tidewater only over one of half a doz-
ens lines of railroad owned by con-
cerns that were also deeply interested
in coal mining, their freedom of action
was extremely limited. They project-
ed a railroad of their own which would
enable them to compete in fact with
the coal roads. The latter attacked
the project in the New York courts
and before the Public Service Commis-
sion, but were beaten. ‘The only way
the anthracite monopoly could be
or thorities are investigating a story of a
man who said he fired a shot through a
door in the hotel where he lives and going
out into the street a little later found the
body of the policeman on the sidewalk. No
motive, the police say, has been found for
the crime.
—During a prayer meeting at 7 o'clock
p. m., in the United Evangelical church, in
Slocum township, near Wapwallopen,
Lackawanna county, a dynamite explosion
from outside damaged the building badly.
All the windows were broken, plaster fell
and the walls were weakened. A few wor-
shippers were slightly hurt. The explo-
sion is thought to have been caused by
boys. The state police have not yet re-
ported any arrests.
—If you invite a man to ride with you
and he is injured you are responsible, ac-
cording to a decision rendered by a jury
in civil court, at Uniontown, Pa. Edward
Hawkey, of Shoaf, has just been awarded
$1500 damages under these conditions. He
was returning home from work one even-
ing recently when he was invited to board
the motor truck being operated by John
Puskar. On the way home he was thrown
from the vehicle and permanently injured.
—Hail the boy champion pork producer
of Pennsylvania! He is Robert Webster,
a member of the Huntersville pig feeding
club, of Lycoming county, and was sue-
cessful in making his pure bred Poland
China pig put on weight at the rate of
2.43 pounds a day for 112 days. No other
boy or girl in pork production clubs
throughout the State could touch this ree-
ord, which will probably stand for some
time. The average daily gain for the mem-
bers of 22 clubs in the State was 1.33
pounds.
—TFive men were burned late on Monday
when gas flowing from a well on which
they were working, exploded and caught
fire. The well is located on the Hopkins
largest of the independent producers.
The Erie Railroad made the purchase
through a large banking house, which
admitted making a profit of well over
two millions in a transaction complet-
ed within six weeks, and in which no
money was advanced by the bankers.
The price was very high.
With the largest independent in the
ownership of one of the coal roads,
the independents could not go on with
their railroad. They dissolved their
Ee eT farm, two miles from Monessen, West-
assoc n odica :
ps hon Sovped free. ahold Sical, moreland county. The injured are: Coo-
tru ’ ney Noll, Elmer Sasey, Earl Chambers,
mining properties to a railroad when-
ever they had a chance.
There has been no competition since.
Congress has tried to separate the
transportation and the mining inter-
ests, but with only superficial results.
Back of both interests were the same
persons. Prices have been moderately
advanced. But with the orgy of high
prices precipitated by the war, the an-
thracite interests saw opportunities
they had never realized. They found
out “how much the traffic would bear,”
drillers, and Watson Shepler and Walter
Hopkins, farmers. The accident occurred
when a drill struck a gas pocket. The gas
exploded as it reached the surface, engulf-
ing the five men in flames. They are ex-
pected to recover.
—The Northumberland county court om
Monday sentenced John Wilmer, of Sun-
bury, to serve twenty years in the eastern
penitentiary, after he had confessed to an
attempted holdup and safe breaking be-
fore Judge Cummings. Wilmer is alleged
Anthracite is not scarce. Produc-. to have attacked Josh Gass, a railroader,
tion compares favorably with previous and robbed the Sunbury Bottling works.
years, but half a dozen men can deter- Stanley Korchup, aged 19, who confessed
mine how much the RE r+to robbing preachers’ homes at Mt. Car-
for a necessary of life, and the prices mel, was sentenced to ten years as a min-
are higher than they were during the imum and forty years maximum in the
war or during the scarcity produced | eastern penitentiary.
by strikes. The anthracite companies
have made a mistake. They imagined
that the public aversion to govern-
ment ownership was proof against
anything they might do. It is not; it
is rapidly fading away under the in-
fluence of coal bills, for which there is
no adequate explanation except mo-
nopoly. In recent years there has been
a marked increase in Socialistic sen-
timent. The coal miners have already
begun to demand nationalization, be-
cause they believe the Congressmen
they would elect would vote higher
wages to them. These influences mak-
ing for the nationalization of the an-
thracite industry are powerfully re-
inforced by the prices the anthracite
companies are exacting.
—Speaker Robert S. Spangler has for-
bidden the pages of the House of Repre-
sentatives at Harrisburg to accept tips.
Following up his declaration of last week
that the stenographers employed for the
correspondence of members must not fake
gratuities, the Speaker informed the pages
they should “not accept money. The sten-
ographers and pages, he said, are well paid
by the State for the services they render
and must not expect to accept extra pay.
Furthermore stenographers are not to take
extra work while they are in State service.
—Max Corbett, an automobile driver for
the Viscose company, of Lewistown, was
badly burned about the face, neck and
eyes last Wednesday morning when a red
hot pipe filled with sand for the purpose
of bending it exploded throwing the sand
in his face. Mr. Corbett was carried to his
home on Belle avenue and while his wife
was rendering first aid pending the ar-
rival of a physician, Samuel, a little son
of the house, procured matches and paper
with which he set fire to clothing in a clos-
et burning all of the family clothing and
endangering the house and neighborhood.
—Representative John C. Hampson,
Democrat, of Greene county, may quit pol-
ities if his new oil well becomes a regular
gusher. Hampson used to be a farmer,
but several years ago he gave up agricul-
tural pursuits and retired to a quiet home
in Waynesburg. He has followed the cus-
tom for several sessions of moving his fam-
ily to Harrisburg during the Assembly.
Hampson just got his family settled in
Harrisburg, when he received word from
home that oil had been struck on his old
farm, which he still owns. He and his
family left at once to investigate the
strike.
They Are Worried.
From the Norristown Times.
Republican leaders at Washington
confess that the tariff problem which
they have before them is extra grave
and hedged about by all sorts of
knots and complications. They view
the great, unprecedented exports of
the United States, and the condition
of Europe, financially and industrial
ly and admit that the matter of adju-
dication of schedules is going to prove
a task for an intellectual Hercules.
They know full well, but dare not say
so, that the situation at present calls
for no revision of the tariff, unless it
be downward; and when they refer to
an intellectual Hercules they can only
mean a man who is able so to resort
to cunning and subterfuge as to make
apparently tenable any new tariff
which may be brought into existence.
Reference has already been had by
Republicans to the Payne-Aldrich tar-
iff law of 1909, the feeler being put
out that possibly this may be accept-
ed as a short-cut to the G. O. P. goal.
However, deep deliberation will be in
evidence in ring circles on such a pro-
posal, in view of the manner in which
the people received the Payne-Aldrich
act at the 1910 elections, and we
scarecly expect to see that old law of
special privilege revived.
There is positively no need for a
change of the tariff at this time. Only
two “reasons” exist for the suggested
upset of the customs duties: One is
that the present tariff law, under
which American trade has developed
to an unprecedented stage, is a Dem-
ocratic measure; and the other is be-
cause the Republican leaders have to
recognize the yawps of the big inter-
ests which ‘contributed to their mam-
moth fund in the late campaign—
yawps whose real meaning is that the
big interests want their reward in a
tariff law that will permit them to
shut out competition and to gather in
unearned increment.
—Jacob Harke, for many years a depu-
ty game warden in Fayette county, charg-
ed with larceny and cruelty to animals,
was adjudged guilty and sentenced to
serve seven months in the county jail. The
costs of the case, $346, were placed upon
Harke. It was charged Harke received
more than $1000 in bounties for killing
dogs which he said were strays. The dogs
in question, it was testified, had license
tags. In passing sentence, Judge J. C
Work said: “You have become a menace
to the community. You have used your
position as a cloak to violate the laws you
have sworn to enforce.”
—Albert Smith, the 19 year old son of a
wealthy real estate owner of Fairhope,
Westmoreland county, pleaded guilty in
Criminal court at Uniontown last Satur-
day to thirteen charges of arson, and was
sentenced to serve not less than forty-two
nor more than eighty-five years in the
western penitentiary at Pittsburgh. Smith
was arrested several weeks ago after the
entire countryside had been aronsed by a
series of incendiary fires, whick caused
damage estimated at no less than $750,000.
It was stated by the authorities that he
had, made a complete confession, and soon
afterward the confession had been repudi-
ated. Saturday, however, he appeared in
court and entered the pleas of guilty, six
of them being to charges of felonious ar-
son. The incendiary fires, which continued
for a period of three months, not only de-
stroyed farm property and houses in a
number of villages, but also valuable school
buildings. Not all of the fires were charg-
ed to Smith.
2
Has Surplus.
From the New Orleans Times-Picayune.
If France has any more cabinet
trouble, President-elect Harding might
place at her disposal a part of the sur-
plus cabinet material he has been ac-
cumulating since last November.
——