Demat
INK SLINGS.
—Spring is surely on the way as
the familiar honk! honk! of wild geese
flying northward was heard on Tues-
day night.
—This winter has been a great one
for all kinds of game that had to de-
pend on the great outdoors for their
food supply.
—Sugar deaiers are already trying
to work up a scare over a predicted
shortage in raw sugar, evidently for
the purpose of running up the price
on the consuming public.
—The Sinn Feiners in Ireland in-
dulged in the pleasant pastime of am-
bushing a train the other day and kill-
ing eight innocent passengers, and
still they wonder why they are not
given self-government.
—The Pennsylvania Legislature
will take a holiday all next week be-
cause of Washington’s birthday on
Tuesday. This will at least delay the
passage of a lot of bills that few peo-
ple have any interest in.
—And now the Republican muck-
rakers in Congress want President
Wilson to account for that one hun-
dred and fifty million war fund voted
him by Congress during the late war
and for expenses at the peace com-
mission. Why not let Dawes tell it?
—1It is rumored that Attorney Gen-
eral Palmer will take up his residence
in Washington permanently after
March 4th and engage in the private
practice of his profession. It will
probably be a good thing for Pennsyl-
vania Democracy if the rumor proves
correct. ;
—Reports coming to this office from
the farmers throughout Centre county
indicate that the wheat never looked
better this time of year than it does
right now, which ought to be proof
that a heavy covering of snow is not
essential to wheat wintering in good
shape, especially when the winter has
not been any colder than the present.
—Only fifty-six days until trout
fishing season opens and the ardent
disciple of Izaak Walton is already
looking up his fishing tackle, etc., pre-
paratory to that big annual event in
piscatorial sport. And while most of
them will have no trouble in making
the tackle size up to the emergency
the big majority will be woefully short
on the “ete.”
—Sixty year old Dr. Evan O'Neil
Kane operated upon himself for ap-
pendicitis at the Kane Summit hospi-
tal on Tuesday, and three hours later
declared he felt very comfortable. Dr.
O’Neil claims he performed his own
operation mostly for experimental
purposes, but as he has removed some
four thousand appendixes during his
active practice he may have had an
eye to the saving of the fee usually
charged in such cases.
Let us hope that Penn State is
taking too long a look into the future.
This thing of adding a course in cook-
ing for men to the curriculum of that
institution appears too significant for
our peace of mind. But come to think
of it, since the country has gone dry
and the bright lights have lost their
lure many an “old man” is spending
his evenings at the place that he once
thought was “nothing like this” so he
might as well be peeling potatoes and
skinnin’ flitch for breakfast, because
he’s in the road anyhow.
~—Only fourteen more days of the
good old Democratic administration
and then the reins of government will
be turned over completely to the Re-
publicans. And won’t there be a scam-
per of the hungry Iiorde for offices
under the new administration, from
the most insignificant postoffice to the
best paying job at the chief execu-
tive’s command? And we'll venture
the assertion that house cleaning this
year will begin quite early in the new
administration; so early in fact that
the present office holder who is a Dem-
ocrat should begin right away to look
up another job. :
—President-elect Harding has ad- .
vised Representative Longworth, of
Ohio, that he does not believe he
should be granted exemption from
paying an income tax on his presiden-
tial salary, but he hasn’t said he
wouldn’t accept exemption if Congress
sees fit to pass the bill recently intro-
duced to that effect. The income tax
on the President’s salary wouid
amount to approximately $18,000
year, and that is rather an attractive
sum to relinquish for any ordinary
man, and so far the President to be
has not displayed any characteristics
that justify putting him in the extra-
ordinary class.
. —The capture of another cargo of
booze at Graysville last Friday by the
state police should awaken the author-
ities to the fact that Centre county '
has been for months past an open trail
for booze runners between the north-
western part of the State and Blair
and Clearfield counties. For months
these illegal traffickers in wet goods
drove their truck loads of whiskey
right through the streets of Belle-
fonte without fear of molestation, but
as the grip of the law began to tight-
en they changed their course and have
been using the Bald Eagle and Penns-
valley routes, preferably the latter, as
it offers a better chance of escape
from officers who might be on the
lookout for them. While a few of
them have been caught and their cars
and cargoes confiscated, it has had no
appreciable deterrent effect and this
wholesale traffic of booze through
Centre county will not be broken up
until local officers in every communi-
ty become more active in their en-
deavors to catch the bootleggers.
VOL. 66.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL CNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA., FEBRUARY 18, 1921.
NO. 7.
mma
Something the Matter With the Work.
The fact that deficiency bills aggre-
gating several millions of dollars are
necessary is ample proof that some-
thing is the matter with the fiscal pro-
cesses of the State. The last Legis-
lature appropriated funds for the ex-
penses of government upon estimates
made by those charged with that serv-
ice. Small differences either above or
below the figures might have been ex-
pected and accounted for by unlooked
for conditions. But a general defi-
ciency bill of nearly four million dol-
lars and other deficiencies that make
a total of nearly eight million dollars
are so extraordinary as to create sur-
prise and demand investigation. Such
a difference between estimate and ex-
penditure is just cause for suspicion.
Because expression had been given
in the newspapers of such suspicion
Governor Sproul called a secret con-
ference of three men and cut three or
four hundred thousand dollars out of
the general deficiency bill. But in the
absence of an explanation why that
much excess was needed in the first
place, that cutting was not satisfac-
tory and the newspapers continued to
talk. Thereupon complaint was made
that criticism of this kind is “attack-
ing Governor Sproul’s program.”
Possibly that is true, but a welfare
program which cannot stand the pro-
cess of inquiry may be set down as a
spurious welfare which would better
be checked in the beginning. Secret
programs are always dangerous.
There has been something going on
during the past two years that cost
large sums of money and was not au-
thorized by law, or else something is
contemplated in the future which it is
necessary to conceal from the public.
The tax payers of Pennsylvania have
‘a right to know exactly what is done
| with every dollar they put into the
treasury and covering up profligate
‘expenditures by blanket deficiency
bills is not a satisfactory way of
transacting the public business. If
"any department of the State govern-
' ment has been “eating up” money the
‘fault should be revealed and the re-
' sponsibility, placed. Demanding this
| right for ‘the public is not attacking
any welfare. program worth protect-
ing. :
The truth*will find its way out.
| The Buffalo Times has discovered that
| eighty-four per cent. of the business
| failures during 1920 “were of firms
| that didn’t advertise.”
Valid Objections to Crow Plan.
Mr. E. Lowry Hume, special assist-
‘ant Attorney General of the United
' States, scores a strong point against
Senator Crow’s plan for a constitu-
' tional convention. The Crow bill pro-
| vides for the appointment by the Gov-
ernor of one-fifth of the membership
of the proposed convention. Mr.
Hume says: “This 20 per cent. will
undoubtedly be the balance of power
on all disputed questions. Consequent-
ly it will be within the power of one
man to determine what rights the peo-
ple shall surrender and what limita-
‘tions shall be prescribed for the se-
' curity of their liberties.” No such at-
‘tempt to monopolize power has ever
been made before in Pennsylvania.
| Mr. Hume is not equally forceful in
| his objection to the selection of the
‘other members of the convention.
{ From the beginning our government
has been one by “party” and the prop-
osition to elect delegates to a consti-
tutional convention by the same meth-
“ods that members of the General As-
sembly and Congress are chosen can
hardly be condemned as subversive of
i the principles of popular government.
| Members of every previous constitu-
| tional convention held in this State
i have been chosen in that way. In the
' convention of 1873 a number of del-
egates at large were chosen on 2 non-
| partisan basis by agreement and there
was provision for minority represen-
| tation. But party lines were drawn
in the elections.
It would be a sad thing indeed if at
some near or remote period in the
future a constitutional convention
should be made up of “representatives
i of certain industrial groups or relig-
ious denominations and disqualifying
from participation all those not prop-
erly affiliated with the groups or de-
nominations in control.” But we have
no fear that such a condition will ever
exist in this country. The constitu-
tion of the United States stands as a
guarantee against such a misfortune,
and though bigotry has been putting
spurious patches on that immortal in-
strument in recent years, it is not
probable that such an absurd limit will
ever be reached. !
reese pee me.
England’s pathetic plea that
her war debt to the United States be
remitted places our old friend John
Bull in the attitude of a mendicant.
——We can see no actual harm in
the fact that railroad executives have
been notified that they are not “the
whole cheese.”
Good May Come Out of Evil.
Governor Sproul’s purpose to in-
crease the State revenues by levying
new taxes is meeting with hard
knocks. In the first place a considera-
ble number of Legislators in both
branches of the General Assembly
are coming to the opinion that with
proper business methods employed
and reasonable economy exercised,
‘there will be no need for additional
revenue. This view of the subject has
been advanced frequently by this
newspaper and other close observers
of events, who have expressed surprise
that the fiscal agents of the State
have never given it a thought. Mon-
ey has been spent as freely as if it
grew on trees with the result that ex-
perts have been kept busy hunting up
. new subjects of taxation.
The chances are that if there had
been no factional quarrels in the Re-
publican party the old order of things
would have been continued and the
Legislature would have proceeded with
the enactment of such legislation as
the Governor recommended. But Mr.
Grundy and Senator Crow disagreed
upon certain subjects involving labor
legislation two years ago and Gover-
nor Sproul enlisted under the Crow
banner. Because of this Mr. Grundy
made up his mind to punish Sproul
and the available means was in at-
tacking his legislative program. The
conditions favored this for the reason
that the Sproul program contemplat-
ed taxing manufactures and coal and
the manufacturers of the State feel
that industry is not in shape to bear
additional burdens.
So for as the tax on coal is concern-
ed it was felt that it was futile. It
was attempted during the Pennypack-
er administration and though it caus-
ed a considerable increase in the price
of coal it never put a cent in the State
Treasury. With shops and factories
closing down all over the State the
prospects of getting revenue from a
tax on manufactures seemed equally
hopeless and that left the entire
Sproul program open to attack. It is
now charged that Grundy is behind
the demand for investigation of the.
deficiency bills, which is net denied;
and that intensifies the bitterness of
the factional fight in progress. If it
will result in economy of administra-
tion, however, the public will regret
it.
nme
——Mr. Fordney promises the tar-
iff mongers “the highest tariff in the
history of the country.” .The Aldrich
tariff also enjoyed that distinction and
look what it did to.the Republican
party. %
Big Fox Hunt Scheduled for Rush
Township.
The Philipsburg and Rush township
division of the Centre County Conser-
vation Association - are planning to
pull off a big fox hunt on next Tues-
day, Washington’s birthday. Dogs
will bé used in the hunt and according
to information reaching this office
yesterday those who have originated
the affair expect at least four hundred
men to take part. Hunters from all
over that section are lining up for the
big event and if the plans do not mis-
carry it should prove an innovation in
sport circles that may become an an-
nual institution.
The hunt, by the way, will not be
the kind of a fox chase pulled off in
England in olden times, or one similar
, to that indulged in to this. day down
in Chester county, where a captured
' reynard is turned loose and hunters
and hounds chase him to the death.
This is to be a real hunt after the
wild animal and the purpose is to
i rid the woods of this beast of prey.
; The hunters will go forth for the in-
: tent purpose of killing foxes, and not
for the glory of capturing the brush.
| This will be the first event of the
kind to be pulled off in Centre ounty
, since the organization and under the
“auspices of a unit of the Conservation
| Association, and the outcome will nat-
,urally be awaited with considerable
interest. It is the aim of the Associ-
ation to conserve game of all kinds,
birds, forests, etc., and if in doing so
it becomes necessary to destroy the
enemies of game, that will undoubted-
ily be in the direct line of conserva-
, tion.
| And this is but one way in which
the great work of conservation can be
carried on effectively in Centre coun-
ty. There are many other ways, of
i course, but the Conservation Associa-
tion has already become so deeply
rooted among the enthusiastic sports-
men of the county that we feel cer-
prove beneficial in more ways than
one, and the way to help it along is
to become a member at once.
e———— reteset ——
——It is to be hoped that General
Dawes didn’t visit Harding for the
purpose of making apologies for his
plain talk to the smelling committee
of Congress. hoe
——Subscribe for the “Watchman.”
tain that its work in the future will |
Deposits of State Funds.
I
The suggestion recently made by
Auditor General-elect Lewis that the
deposit of State funds be based on
contract rather than favoritism is al-
ready in process of crystalization. A
bill has been introduced in the General
Assembly requiring ‘the board of rev-
enue commissioners to place the funds
with the highest responsible bidder.
The plan is to advertise for bids and
award the favor to the highest. Un-
der the existing system depositories
of State funds are required to pay
two per cent. interest on balances.
Mr. Lewis imagines that this may be
increased to three per cent. or more
without impairment of the security.
If that be true the innovation would
be an advantage.
The revenue derived from State de-
positories now averages something
over three hundred thousand dol-
lars a year. It is estimated that
this might be increased about two
hundred thousand, which is a
worth while improvement. It seems,
Mr. Lewis says, that individu-
als and corporations get consider-
ably more from banks though their
deposits are in lesser sums. But Mr.
Lewis overlooks the fact that banks
are not expected to make campaign
contributions in consideration of in-
dividual and corporation accounts
while the Republican machine wouid
be greatly disappointed if not actual-
ly incensed if managers of a bank
generously favored by State deposits
failed to meet the campaign collector
with a liberal contribution.
But we can see no reason for ob-
jecting to the Lewis plan on that ac-
count. The practical politicians who
- manage the Republican machine will
find a way to “get the money” neces-
af {o finance the campaigns of the
futlire, as they have in the past, and
if good will come to the publie with-
out great harm to the politicians by it
the experiment is worth a trial. Mr.
Lewis states. that his plan is in opera-
tion in Ohio with excellent results,
which reminds us that it was one of
the improvements introduced by Gov-
ernor James M. Cox, recently the
‘Dismocratic candidate for: President,
and the people of Ohio gave his oppo-
nent for the office a majority of sev-
eral hundred thousand.
——When Thaddeus R. Hamilton
walked into this office on Tuesday
morning we immediately realized that
another year of life had been chalked
up to his credit, because he makes it
a point to come here just as regularly
this time he was two days ahead of
time, as his anniversary was yester-' : : .
' From the Philadelphia Public Ledger.
day, when he was just eighty-five
years old. For the past ten or fifteen, tor Penrose’s remarks on the present
years friends of Mr. Hamilton have
been complimenting him on how well
After the G. O. P. Landslide.
By Horace V. Blue in Philadelphia Rec-
ord.
It is just wonderful how the great
Republican landslide continues to cir-
cumvent the United States. Those
people, particularly the wage-earners,
who were clamoring for and voted for
a change are getting it in leaps and
bounds. To say, as some do, that we
are still undér a Democratic adminis-
tration, is obviously misleading. From
the moment the Sixty-sixth Congress
(elected in 1918) began to function,
and the Senatorial oligarchy “breath-
ed forth contagion,” and Senator
Lodge with a nasal accent, said, “I
am fighting Wilson,” and hell-roaring
Hi Johnson let loose the dogs of war,
and the wild man, Senator Borah, of
Idaho, started on a rampage, the ex-
ecutive or Democratic branch of the
government was powerless. ;
The fact that the greatest prosperi-
ty ever enjoyed by our people and the
highest wages ever paid in the coun-
try took place under a Democratic ad-
ministration, and also the faet that
the greatest war in the history of the
world was brought to a successful con-
clusion under a Democratic adminis-
tration, brought the Old Guard and
their satellites to a degree of despera-
tion unknown in the history of Ameri-
can politics. With the aid of an un-
limited amount of money, wrung from
certain tender and susceptible busi-
ness interests in the good old Mark
Hanna way, a subsidized press, and
the horde of hungry officeseekers, who
have been kept away from the pie
counter for nearly eight years, a prop-
aganda was so successfully spread
that they elected a President by a tre-
mendous majority; but the landslide
continues and the Labor Department
survey shows that 3,473,466 people are
, unemployed, and we might add that a
large number of banks and banking
institutions have also gone Republi-
can. At least, they have been closed.
And so it goes; and it is very likely,
highly probable and extremely possi-
ble that when Mr. Harding is inaugu-
rated with Jeffersonian simplicity on
the 4th of March, we will be almost
back to “normalcy.”
It was indeed a g-r-r-and and glor-
r-ious victory.
I wish to say, however, that the
ranks of the nine million (100 per
cent. American) men and women,
God bless them! who voted the Béo-
cratic ticket because they believed in
the League of Nations, and hoped to
bring about and make operative that
‘ magnificent plan of “peace on earth,
‘good will to men,” will be greatly aug-
mented. Even now the hosts are
marching; already we hear the thun-
der of the tramping feet, and embla-
i zoned on their banner is that immor-
tal sentiment, “Government of the
. people, by the people, and for the peo-
ple shall not perish from the earth.”
as he celebrates his birthday, although :
Job-Hunters.
It is not difficult to detect in Sena-
activity of officeseekers an undertone
ginning to seem as if he were going !
backward in years instead of forward
and his friends ought to wait until he
begins to grow old before they talk
about how well he is carrying the
weight of years. And how he has
managed to do it so easily and grace-
fully is a secret that many a man, and
woman too, would like to have. At
some time in his strenuous career he
must have taken a drink from the
spring of life without knowing it and
is now reaping the benefit. Candidly
speaking, Mr. Hamilton is a splendid
example of the fact that hard work
will kill no man, and he has been a
hard worker all his life and today at
eighty-five, is able to do a better day’s
work than many men are willing to do.
——Judge Henry C. Quigley will
soon establish a reputation in Pitts:
burgh that will naturally make him
feared by criminals if he continues to
hand out such salty sentences as he
did on Tuesday when he sent a nine-
teen year old youth to the peniten-
tiary for an indeterminate term of
not less than fourteen years nor more
than twenty years for the theft of an
automobile.
! ——Senator S. J. Miller on Tues-
day sponsored a bill introduced in the
State Senate appropriating two mil-
lion dollars for carrying on construc-
tion work of the new penitentiary at
Rockview.
——1It is officially stated that cat-
tle on the farms have diminished in
value a couple of billion dollars with-
in a year, but cattle on the butcher’s
block have not decreased in price in
proportion.
I
——The Harding cabinet may be a
trifle shy in intellectual equipment
but in the matter of boodle it will
_ shine resplendent. :
|
| ~——When Germany defaults on the
late Kaiser’s allowance we may begin
to think she is too poor to pay the war
indemnity.
rr — oS ————
|
i ——Get your job work done at this
office and get it right.
. of regret for the days when no vexa-
he carries off his age and it is really be- | ti55 civil service legislation checked
the aspiration of loyal partisans to
get on the payroll of the government.
Carrying on the Civil war was for
Abraham Lincoln a less laborious task
than apportioning the postoffices. Mr.
Penrose appears particularly restive
under an order of President Wilson
which, if it stands, will prevent the
Republican party from rewarding the
faithful with postoffices. Its obnox-
ious effect is to prevent a clean sweep
of postmasterships for the sake of
those who expect to enjoy an open
season of bloody reprisals.
Nothing is more difficult than to
persuade an Old Guard politician: that
public office belongs to neither party
and is for the service of the country.
The politician professes to be quite
unable to detect the slightest ethical
obliquity in filling public places to pay
off his private political debts. He bit-
terly resents the impertinent intrusion
of taxpayers upon his selections.
Theirs is to a silent and a static part-
nership; they provide the salaries and
he provides those who are to receive
them. Sometimes we blame ignorant
immigrants for submitting with such
docility to the yoke of the padrone.
Yet we meekly bow to the dictates of
a political system which, in certain
spheres, is quite as absolute as any
industrial despotism.
Make It Unanimous.
From the Detroit Free Press.
: The Rhode Island Board of Agricul-
ture claims to have discovered a fer-
tilizer that will grow grass and kill
weeds at one and the same time.
Couldn’t they get up an improvement
that will also mow the lawn.
: Killing a Sport.
From the St. Joseph Gazette.
The doctor who prescribes perman-
ganate of potash instead of whiskey.
for snake bites has taken all the thrill
out of snake-hunting.
—— pi 2
News Notes.
From the Des Moines Register.
The ticket agent at Marion, Ohio,
is going to sell some tickets to Wash-
ington, D. C., very shortly.
——Upon “sober, second thought”,
the Republicans in Congress have con-’
cluded to make no change in the plans
for the navy at present.
inches high.
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—H. Frank is the oldest citizen of Punx-
sutawney, and perhaps of Jefferson coun-
ty. He is 96 years old, erect, straight of
limb, eyesight keen and hearing only
slightly impaired. He looks to be twenty-
five years younger and believes he can add
twenty-five more years to his age. “And
why not?” he asks, “my grandfather lived
to be 120.”
—A quarrel over boarding house biscuits
ended on Sunday in the death of Sylvester
Williams, of Uniontown, from a bullet and
the serious wounding of Benjamin Brown
with a knife. Williams and Brown were
at the table when the former made a re-
mark about the quality of the biscuits.
This was resented by Brown, who is said
to be an admirer of the cook. A fight fol-
lowed.
—Notices have been posted at the loco-
motive shops of the New York Central
railroad at Avis, that the shops will close
on Saturday until further notice. These
shops have been working day and night
shifts and employing 550 men. The order
to close was not accompanied by any fur-
ther information than that it would be in-
definite. The car shops at Avis have been
closed since January 15.
—The season for sap, maple syrup and
sugar has arrived, and work was started
last week in many of the sugar camps in
Columbia county. Hundreds of trees were
tapped and the tapping will continue for
séveral days. The season is about a month
earlier than usual, and owners of the su-
gar camps are of the belief that spring is
here. Early reports are that the sap has
begun running in as great quantities as
when the trees are tapped in the middle
of March.
—Describing high heels on women’s shoes
as a “menace to the human race” and the
cause. of specific injury to health, mem-
bers of the Blair county Osteopathic So-
ciety, in convention at Tyrone last week,
unanimously adopted resolutions asking
the Legislature to pass the bill prohibit-
ing the manufacture, sale, display or wear-
ing of heels more than one and one-half
The removal of mechanical
interference with health is the aim of the
bill, say the physicians.
—Earl Webster, aged 14 years, of Tul-
lytown, died last Thursday in the Harri-
man hospital, at Bristol, Pa., a victim of
complications which arose after the boy,
an invalid, had jumped into the Delaware
and Lehigh canal, near his home, and res-
cued three children whe had broken
through the ice while skating. The heroic
action of the boy, who sacrificed his life
for his young friends, is to receive recog-
nition by a medal, subscription for which
is to be taken up by residents of the bor-
ough.
—Just before submitting to an opera-
tion for appendicitis in an Easton hospit-
al, Bill Faust dictated a will disposing of
a $200,000 estate. He. gave the attorney
who drew ‘it a bad check for $75, and,
while convalescing, lived in luxury, with
three nurses working eight-hour shifts,
and several extra waiters. He had Con-
gressman Kirkpatrick draw up a power of
attorney for two men to tap his security
boxes in a Reading bank, and bring the
contents, some $30,000, to Easton. He is
in jail all right now, but he fooled many
wise and some few otherwise people.
—Only a few ‘inches space separated
John and Charles Ney, brothers, as they
walked side by side to their work at the
Mill Creek colliery, at Trement, last
Thursday, yet John was killed by a fall-
ing boulder and nearly: every bone in his
body crushed, while Charles was not
touched. The boulder, weighing several
tons, descended with crushing force, leav-
ing the uninjured man without a serateh,
but breathless from his narrow escape
from death and prostrated with grief over
the sudden death of his brother. John
was active in P. O. 8. of A. circles. His
father and a number of brothers and sis-
ters survive.
—Theft of mail containing money from
lock boxes at the postoffice in Bloomsburg
that may run into hundreds of dollars was
revealed Thursday when postal authori-
ties caught a small boy rifling mail from a
box. They refused to divulge his name, as
he has implicated a half dozen others.
Money, stamps and checks mailed to bus-
iness men, and particularly to County
Treasurer Dresher, have miscarried. Bus-
iness men have complained that letters,
torn open, have been found in their boxes
and that some had been delivered to them
without the money. Two checks were
found on the street last week, each made
payable to the county treasurer.
—A Glen Campbell, Indiana county, man
was locked up in the borough jail at Punx-
sutawney, Jefferson county, after he had
consumed a goodly portion of the white
mule brand of liquor popular in the latter
town. Not many iron bars or locks are
required to hold a victim of Punxsutaw-
ney white mule, so when the prisoner was
thrown into jail both the outside door and
that of the cell were left unlocked. While
the fellow from Glen Campbell was slcep-
ing it off, a Punxsutawney youth entered
the jail and demanded the valuables of
the prisoner for safe keeping, claiming to
be an officer, securing $1.35. The follow-
ing day the young man was rounded up
and fined $7.75 for robbing a prisoner in
jail.
—After N. R. Buller, State Fish Com-
missioner of Pennsylvania, finished a
speech urging a company of sportsmen
representing Union, Northumberland and
Snyder counties in session at Lewisburg
last Friday evening to support the pro-
posed tax of $1 on fishermen which, he
said, would give his department sufficient
funds to do efficient work, Harry S. Strine,
a borough councilman of Milton, took the
floor and stated very determined opposi-
tion to the tax. When put to a vote of
the assemblage the proposed tax was over-
whelmingly defeated. The sportsmen took
the ground that when the fish commission
could show some drastic action looking to-
ward the end of stream pollution the fish-
ermen would gladly pay such a tax.
—The man who contemplates mortgag-
ing his property to the limit bankers will
allow and fails to take friend wife into his
confidence had better take into account a
bill that the Pennsylvania Federation of
Women’s clubs is about to have introduced
in the Legislature. The measure, which
has the backing of practically every wom-
an’s organization in the State, would re-
quire the written consent of the spouse
before a husband could take out a mort-
gage. Women behind the bill declare that
numerous instances have come to light
where widows, in settling up estates, found
to their surprise and chagrin that their
late hubbies had burdened his possessions
with mortgages. In consequence the wid-
ows were left high and dry on the finan-
-cial rocks.