INK SLINGS, '—The world is full of men who would steal the baby’s milk tickets to get the price of a seat at the coming Dempsey-Carpentier fight. —DMuch of the oats is in the ground in Centre county but it was an unusu- al sight to see farmers sowing on Monday while the snow-flakes were flying. —Anyway the mountains and hills that surround us are protection from such storms as brought death and de- struction to the south-west last Sat- urday and Sunday. —The expected happened. The As- bury equal rights bill has been killed in the Senate and those Philadelphia colored voters who believe that it was designed to meet any other fate cer- tainly need guardians more than they need equal rights. —1It is reported that the courts o New York have enough liquor cases on their calendars to keep them busy for two years. In times like these it is pleasant to learn that some business is going to capacity with enough work on the books to insure it against an early shut down. —The Harding administration an- nounces that it is having considera- ble difficulty in inducing competent men to accept government positions, which sounds very like the beginning of a movement to increase the sala- ries attached to the berths that are to be offered as rewards to the faithful. —Fifty men were put to work on the Pleasant Gap highway on Tues- : day at three dollars a day and more men applied for jobs than there were places for. Last year construction on this same road was seriously delayed because not enough men could be se- cured when they were paying five dol- lars a day. —Uniontown fishermen who steal like thieves in the night into the pri- vate preserves of Bellefonte’s pet trout are doubtless thinking that Bellefonte justice can dig mighty deep into the pockets of those who defy the laws of this Commonwealth. Three hundred and eighty-five dollars was ' ‘some price to pay for one fish. —Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these ye have done it also unto Me. For twenty years Mrs. William Fredericks made a home for Bill Doak, the deaf and blind man who was such a familiar sight on Belle- fonte streets, and what a care he must have been. While all others re- garded him with only casual pity, her concern was continuous. Who can say what a store of treasure this humble woman has laid up for herself in ‘Heaven. \ —It has been brought out in the railroad’ investigations that women who are employed to wash car win- dows are being paid as high as $120 a month. Some time ago we thought | we would like to be one of those con- ductors who get $8.10 for two hours and eleven minutes run between New York and Philadelphia, but possibly being a little light for the heavy work of punching fares we are inclined to think that running a country newspa- per column doesn’t get the mazuma like washing car windows. —Have you stopped to think how gradually yet surely death is remov- ing the “town characters” from the streets of Bellefonte. Twenty years ago a dozen or more men there were in our midst who were known inti- mately by every man, woman and child. Their notoriety had been gain- ed by natural characteristics; some very laudable, others not so much so, but they were known as “town char- acters.” Of the list of local notables we have in mind not one is left. There are two of a later generation still to be met, but their individuality has never been stamped on this communi- ty as was that of the older types who have passed. —A skirt that scarcely tipped the | knees and surely did expose a pair of blue ribbon calves that were encased in full-fashioned gray silk stockings and led on down to a pair of gray suede pumps with straps—and just here we note that we have started at the top and gone to the bottom when the usual eye sweep in such views is exactly the reverse—nearly caused a, bad accident in front of this office Wednesday morning. A gentleman who believes with the “Watchman” that some women are losing all sense of modesty was crossing the street at | the time and when he accidentally lamped those generous gray pedestals he was shocked to the spot and before ' he recovered a big motor truck came within an ace of ending his worries over mortal monstrosities. —The stabbing affray in Bellefonte Tuesday would have been a mere inci- dent in the larger cities where the for- eign element is so great that it can- not be assimilated but in communities | like ours it is regarded as a very ser- ious matter. And should be treated as it deserves. Bellefonte is most friendly and helpful to those of other nationalities who have come to live among us and will continue to be so as long as they show a disposition to improve the opportunity to adapt themselves to our peaceful manner of living and our respects for the rights of others. There is no room here for men who carry knives, however. If they can’t stand up and fight with their fists, if they must fight, let us get rid of them. Montzell and all oth- ers whose passions are so uncontrol- lable that murderous weapons are nec- essary to give them vent should be de- ported or sent into confinement where lives of others are: not in continual jeopardy. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. VOL. 66. BELLEFONTE, PA.,, APRIL 22, 1921. NO. 16. Decision of the Labor Board. The decision of the National Rail- road Labor Board abrogating the na- ing corporations and their employees can hardly be said to be a victory for either party to the controversy. Some of the labor leaders cordially approve it and some of the railroad managers are equally well pleased. Mr. Samuel Gompers sounded a note of dissatis- faction but it came to him on the eve ; of his wedding and men on their way | to the marriage altar are not depend- i able in giving judgment on ordinary business questions. The executive council of the shop trade on the other hand, says the decision, “is a vindica- | tion of the fundamental principles for i which we have contended consistently and persistently.” In any event it promises to lead the way to an adjustment of differences which threatened the most serious , consequences to the industrial life of ‘the country. .In handing down the de- cision conditions were prescribed which seem to justify the estimate of the executive council referred to. It provides for the eight hour day, pre- serves the seignority policy of the men, protects them in their right to "organize for lawful purposes and guarantees such working conditions "as will make for the health and com- | fort and safety of the employees. The right to make collective agreements iis also provided for, though the cor- poration by which they are employed is made the unit instead of the nation wide rule. It was hardly fair to make working conditions the same in Alabama as in Pennsylvania, or require precisely the . same conditions in Maine and Iowa. . There is a vast difference in these widely separated sections of the coun- try, climatic and otherwise, and what might be desirable in one section could be detestable in the other. Therefore, the railroad employees are not likely to object strenuously to this provision of the plan, while the rail- road managers are demanding it as a matter of justice. So the. promise is that a threatened menace to the indus- 1 , trial life of the country has been averted, and. if that be true an inesti- mable benefit has been bestowed upon : the public by the Labor Board. eee pees. We own to a small measure of disappointment at the delay of plac- ing former President Taft on the pay i roll. He is certainly as deserving as | some of those who have been more - promptly favored. | Placing the Responsibility. | To most minds the action of the Re- publican leaders in the Legislature sti- fling the resolution to investigate the profligacy in the administration of the State government will’ seem inexpli- cable. A prominent member of their , own party, one who was recently hon- ored by election to an important of- fice, has publicly stated that the treas- ‘ury is being and has been systematic- ally looted by public officials charged with the administration. The present . Auditor General, who, at the last elec- tion was chosen to fill an equally im- portant office, publicly stated in a speech before a group of Legislators that he appointed inefficient men to office for political reasons and hired efficient help to do the work. The appointing of inefficient men for political reasons is a matter for Auditor General Snyder to settle with ; his own conscience. The law places in his hands the power of choosing his | subordinates and holds him responsi- ble for the faithful and efficient dis- charge of their duties. But in ap- pointing other men to perform the ‘work which his inefficient subordinates were incapable of or unwilling to per- form, he violated the laws of the State "and should be punished as other vio- lators of the law are punished. He takes the people’s money without war- rant of law to meet these illegal charges against the State. The Senators and Representatives in the General Assembly are under sworn obligation to protect the finan- cial as well as the other interests of the State. When Auditor General Snyder publicly confessed that he had been looting the treasury in the way indicated, it was the duty of the Leg- islature to first ascertain the facts and then prosecute the perpetrator of the crime. But when a member intro- duced a resolution looking to this re- sult, leading Republican members of the body stifled it. It is said this was done with the assent and in the inter- est of the administration. It could hardly have been accomplished with- out such inspiration. But if it was it makes the administration responsible for the crime. | : ——There is some. comfort in the thought that Colonel George Harvey will be a considerable distance from New York during the time he occupies the Embassy in London. —— Nobody has : yet noticed any jaterial departure from the Wilson policies at the White House. Political Fiction in Pennsylvania. | The political reporters for the Phil- | adelphia newspapers weave some cur- “It Pays to Advertise.” | That it pays to advertise has been amply proved and frequently. But it! The Senatorial Oligarchy. From the Philadelphia Record. When nine Senators and an ex-Sen- tional agreements between the carry- . ious tales for the amusement or ‘confusion of the public. On Sunday last one of these writers invented a most perplexing story involving sev- eral of the leaders of the Republican organization in quarrels and intrigues of various kinds. Among them is a statement, qualified of course, of a quarrel between Senator Penrose and Mr. Joseph R. Grundy, president of the Pennsylvania Manufacturer’s as- sociation. The absence of Mr. Grun- dy from Harrisburg during last week and his failure to make his usual trip to Washington during the same per- iod is the basis for this speculative venture in political fiction. Another equally preposterous nara- tive of political warfare impending is to the effect that Senator Knox, Sec- retary of the Treasury Mellon, and young Mr. Oliver, publisher of several Pittsburgh newspapers, are organiz- ing a force to attack Senator Penrose in the western part of the State. This combination is said to include State Senator Max Leslie, who would “mix up” with the Oliver forces about as freely and completely as oil would mix with water. Leslie represents the Sproul-Crow crowd in the western metropolis of the State and Oliver is the head, front and bowels of the op- position. Mr. Mellon is a new ele- ment in active politics but for many years has been a silent partner of Penrose. It is true that Senator Knox is tak- ing more interest in the distribution of the spoils of office, since the inau- guration of President Harding than formerly, but not for the reason that he desires to promote the political in- terests of Governor Sproul and Sena- tor Crow. On the contrary he is cod- dling his own laudable ambition to get a new lease on the Senatorial seat he now occupies. His term will expire in 1923 and his openly expressed sym- pathy for Germany during.the world war put such a crimp in his populari- ty that restoration to favor will tax all his ingenuity. Senator Penrose understands the situation quite well ‘and the activities’ of his ‘colleague have his cordial support. ——1It doesn’t require a great deal of perspicacity to discover that Au-, ditor General-elect Lewis is getting himself disliked about machine head- quarters. Policy that Leads to Ruin. During March, 1920, our total ex- ports amounted to $820,000,000 in round figures. In March, 1921, the to- tal was $384,000,000, a decrease of $436,000,000. For the same month of 1920 our imports aggregated $524,- 000,000 and in 1921 $252,000,000, a decrease of $302,000,000. In other words America’s foreign trade de- creased $738,000,000 in one month, ac- cording to a statement issued by the Department of Commerce, in Wash- ington on Monday. For the nine months ending with March, 1921, our exports amounted to $5,509,000,000 and imports to $3,009,000,000. In the same period last year exports were valued at $6,050,000,000 and imports to $3,759,000,000, making a difference of $2,832,000,000 in foreign commerce. These totals are exclusive of opera- tions in gold which amounted in the nine months of this year to $131,000,- 000 exported and $481,000,000 import- ed and $409,000,000 exported against $60,000,000 imported duing the cor- responding period last year. Accord- ing to the official statement referred to and quoted, the exports for March were $105,000,000 less than in Febru- ary and considerably below any month “since the beginning of the world war. On the other hand our imports for March were the largest since Decem- ber and $48,000,000 more than in Feb- ruary. That is unimportant, how- ever, for there are profits to dealers alike in import and export operations and the object of business is to gain. The decrease in foeign commerce clearly forecasts the consequences of the tariff legislation which the Repub- lican Congress with the help of the President is preparing to pass. As President McKinley, himself an apos- tle of protective tariff, said in his last speech delivered at Buffalo, we can- not expect to sell unless we buy and in contriving to shut out our market for buying we are certain to close our market for selling. Our domestic sup- ply, as the records of foreign com- merce abundantly show, are far in ex- , cess of our domestic consumption and | the natural result will be first a sur- feit and afterward a closing of fac- tories. This is the industrial future to which Republicans are leading us. —If Secretary of State Hughes achieves nothing else he has won an | eternal crown of glory by creating an “economic vacuum.” ——Speaking of fidelity, how could Joe Grundy join with Senator Vare in ' a movement to make Senator Crow a ' real party bos? was never more clearly demonstrated than it is being now in Harrisburg. Early in the present session of the Legislature each of the various depart- ments submitted estimates of the money they would need for the ensu- ing two years. And they were gen- erous estimates at that. In view of the extraordinarily large deficiency bills which had been introduced to ' cover deficiencies for the two years covered by appropriations by the last Legislature, they were audaciously large. But they were persisted in and ' pressed until the newspapers took up the matter of profligacy. That caus- ed a pause. A short time ago the newly elected Auditor General, though without an official voice in the matter as yet, pub- | licly announced that the estimates for his department were largely in excess ' of the requirements of the service. He said that upward of one hundred thousand dollars might safely be cut off the estimate of his predecessor in office and asked that the appropria- tion be cut down to that extent. This circumstance was widely published by the newspapers of the State with the result that all the other departments are now coming forward with more modest demands and the Board of Public Grounds and Buildings has asked for a cut of fully half a million dollars. These signs of returning sanity and reasonable economy are most gratify- ing. It is to be regretted, however, that it hasn’t taken hold in the Legis- lative halls so that a halt might be called on the salary increases. But we are unable to see any signs of im- provement in that direction. During the present week several salary in- crease bills have been passed and as fast as they get through the Legisla- ture they are approved by the Gover- nor. Maybe some of the revenue bills will fail of passage, however, and in that event the Governor will be oblig- ed to do with his veto what the House and Senate ought to have done. But if the “boys get the money” it will be . spent. ——The “Watchman” this week is starting a “Buy at Home” campaign which has the endorsement of forty- three merchants of the town: If the campaign should result in even one- half the money that is now being sent out of town being spent at home it would mean a big thing for the mer- chants of Bellefonte. Just the other morning while the writer was in the postoffice one man got a money order to send to a well known mail order house for an amount that would have meant a very nice profit to any home merchant. And every day orders go from Bellefonte to out of town mer- chants for goods that ought to be pur- chased in Bellefonte. And one big reason for this is the persistent ad- vertising campaign of the mail order houses. They flood the mails with their advertising matter not alone by catalogues but in the newspapers and magazines, and this is the one definite reason why they get the trade. If more of the Bellefonte merchants used their home papers to convey to the public what they have to sell there is no question but that it would largely increase their sales during the year and do more than any other one thing to help along the “Buy at Home” cam- paign. —~Secretary Hughes made quite a hit with his “economic vacuum” in Russia. It only goes to show, how- ever, how prone the American public is to forget and how superficially it reads. There was nothing in the Sec- retary’s note on Russian relations that had not already been given publicity by the Wilson administration but that “economic vacuum” was something new and Hughes is being acclaimed as a wonderfully wise man all because he threw that “economic vacuum” dust to conceal a suggestive vacuum. ——Late news from Washington in- dicate a change of mind on the part of the big man with respect to the Gov- ernor’s plans for making the adminis- tration one of “magnificent achieve- ment.” The air from the Potomac seems to be blowing cold. —Speaking of ourselves, alone, there are justas good fish in the streams as were taken out last Friday. And being wholly honest they are darned poor streams if there are not better ones in them. ——The current agitation of econ- omy in Harrisburg may work a cur- tailment of appropriations to some of the departments but it doesn’t disturb Gif. Pinchot. He wants. ——There ‘are indications that the word “Americanization” is being over- worked. It is making the public tired. will get all he very painful. ator and George Harvey picked out { Mr. Harding for the Presidential can- 'didate the oligarchy, whose encroach- ments on the Presidency Governor Me- Call, of Massachusetts, ‘has pointed , out, thought it had completed its ad- ; venture. It imagined that it had cap- , tured the Presidency and confined it ,In one of the Senate cloak rooms, and installed the Senate committee on Foreign Relations in the Department of State. The encroachments have been going on for a good while, as Governor Mec- Call has explained to us. They have gone on when both Senate and Presi- dent were Republican. The favoite time was when there was a Democrat- ic President, but Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Wilson vigorously defended the prerogatives of their office. Mr. Taft had his experience. Two arbritration treaties which he negotiated and . which would have been a long step to- ward permanent peace, had “the heart cut out of them” by the . Republican i Senators, who did not wish peace any i more than the Imperial German gov- ernment wanted peace. Mr. aft could not prevent the action of the Senate, but he could refuse to submit to it; he discarded the mutilated trea- ties, and then denounced Mr. Wilson | for not allowing the Republican Sena- tors to shape the peace treaty for him. But a month after his election Mr. Harding made a significant speech in the Senate. He expressed a determina- tion to respect the prerogatives of the Senate, but he declared unequivocally that he should defend the prerogatives of the office he was about to assume.: Apparently the Republican Senators attached little importance to this. But they are waking up now to their mis- . SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. i —The State Highway Department main- tains 250 miles of road in Lancaster coun- ty and employs 250 men in keeping it in order. Their wages run about 35 cents per hour. ! —Extraction of a tooth three weeks ater she was married caused the death of Mrs. Anthony Knarr, 15 years old, of Sha- ! mokin. Meningitis developed after the tooth was drawn, and death resulted. —“Sick” people who require the booze i treatment may suffer a relapse when they i read the amended Chaplin house bill : at Harrisburg, fixing the voltage and price of whiskey sold for medicinal purposes. Amendments made leave in the proviso j that whiskey sold for medicinal purposes must be 100 proof, but cut out the clause | fixing the maximum price at $2.50 a pint. | The bill is out of committee. —Potter county people who have suffer- ed from depredating bears and have asked legislative relief are going to have aid of the Game Commission. It is said no limit will be placed on | Potter county bruins this year and that pens and traps will be permitted the coming season. The com- mission will also pay a reward of $25 for each bear captured alive, and properly crated, between July 1 and January 1. —Decision to hold the state convention of the Woman's Christian Temperance Un- ion in Sunbury on February 14 to 18 of next year was made at a meeting of the executive committee of the state organiza- tion held in Sunbury last Friday. Mrs. Ella M. George, of Beaver Falls, state pres- ident, presided. It was also decided to keep up a lobby at Harrisburg in the in- terest of the repeal of the Brooks high li- cense law. —Much improvement has been noted in the mental and physical condition of George C. Tompkins, of Philadelphia, con- victed slayer of the Edmund I. Humph- ries family, also of Philadelphia, and un- der sentence of death in the Blair county jail. He has been engaged in fancy bead work, the material for which was sent him by a brother in New York. Tompkins has recently been spending most of his time in daylight making necklaces and other arti- cles of personal adornment. —Notwithstanding the fact that witness- es testified that two children of Charles R. Holland, of Uniontown, wore the same dresses to school for three months, proba- bly having been washed at night, Mr. Hol- land testifying in his own behalf in a ha- beas corpus proceeding to get possession of the two little girls, told the court that during their ten years of married life he had bought his wife 500 dresses. He could not remember whether he had bought her any hats other than the one in which she was married. —The building of the Johnstown Ledger, take. They busied themselves makin Cabinets for Mr. Harding, and he pai ; little attention to them. They object- i ed vigorously to Mr. Hoover, and Mr. i Harding disregarded them. |" Then the committee on Foreign Re- lations set itself about the preparation of a foreign policy for the country, and before they had got far they found the President or Mr. Hughes i was writing notes to foreign govern- ments fixing the foreign policies of the United States without consulting the Senators. They found that Mr. , Hoover, as well as Mr. Hughes, was advising the President, and if Mr. { Lodge and Mr. Knox were called in, it was not to get advice from them, but to tell them something. The oli- . garchy seems to have been dished by a President of its own creation, hand- i picked with the idea that he would show no more independence in the | White House than he had shown in i the Senate. They overlooked the fact , that the Pesidency is a tremendous _ educational institution. . {| “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth (it is to have a thankless” colleague in i the White House! Eastbound. : From the Philadelphia Public Ledger. Ever since the armistice Europe has ! been looking hopefully for a resump- I tion of the tourist visitation from America that used to be a golden har- vest for the landlords and the shop- | keepers; and at the same time petty bureaucracies and lynx-eyed official- dom have lain awake o’nights devising new passport botherations fer the traveler. It looks as though this sea- son the hopes of those who have yearned for the return of the Ameri- can are in a fair way to be realized; and gloomy forebodings as to boats laid up for want of patronage are set at naught by the statistics. : We find two of the lines ddding nineteen new oil-burning vessels, with a tonnage of 1,018,000. One of these lines, which is to operate all but six of the vessels, lost a tonnage of 220,000 during the war through attacks by submarines; and this was half of the total tonnage it then controlled. Itis an impressive rejoinder to those who maintained that the: ships destroyed would not be replaced for a long time to come, just as some omniscient | economists who now keep mum were very sure that the shell-torn fields of : France would never be tilled again. The figures for sailings on all the lines already promise to break the records for passenger traffic since the year before the war. More ships than ever are in the business, and the in- crease of patronage keeps pace with : them. The fares are high compared with those that were charged a decade ago; but the tragically low rate of ex- change in Europe invests the. dollar with a purchasing power that is com- pensatory. Great as is the company of those who plan to visit Europe, there are still enough who plan to “see America first” to assure those who will spend the vacation in their own land that they will not be lonely. ! Finegan? From the Philadelphia Record. Pennsylvania-bred politicians are apparently learning something, too, from the recently imported state su- perintendent of public schools, if we are to credit the Philadelphia Inquir- er. Surely the people will not permit the public school system of the Com- monwealth to become a part of a po- litical machine. The Inquirer says that is the plan. Is it? ——New York is being persuaded that the Volstead law can be enforced but the educational process has been . a morning newspaper; the Western Union Telegraph office, the engineering office of O. P. Thomas, county surveyor; the hard- ware store of W. A. Snook and two de- partments of the Schwartz department store in Johnstown were destroyed by fire last Thursday, causing a loss of about $300,000, one-half of which is covered by insurance. It was a hard fight for hours in keeping the flames confined to the build- ing in which they originated, but this finally was done. ! —One gallon of whiskey and thirty- four gallons of colored water cost N. L. Rundio, of Williamsport, $525, according to evidence before Alderman Fleming when Charles L. Magoon was held on a charge of fraud. It was testified Magoon sold Run- dio “a barrel of whiskey” after he had giv- en him a sample. Magoon, it was averred, * received a check for $523, which he cashed before Rundio found the booze sample had been drawn from a metal vessel placed un- der the bunghole of the barrel, which held thirty-four gallons of water. —Late pedestrians in Pittsburgh one night last week were astounded to see a “copper” rolling a heavy barrel over the streets in the hill district in the wee small hours of the morning. Patrolman Harry P. Lempp discovered the barrel while walking his beat. The first thought that * came to Lempp’'s mind was that it was a barrel of hooch. Lempp decided to-take it to the station, so, rolling the barrel along, he finally arrived at the Center ayenue po- lice station. There it was opened and found to contain not hooch, but ancient sauerkraut. f —Admitting that he is one of the men who shot Andrew Ernesto, a Hyde Park hotel man, early Sunday morning, and robbed him of over $700, Demetrio Luna, 23 years old, a Porto Rican, was lodged in a police cell at Reading, on Monday. He charges another man, whom he refuses to name, with doing the shooting. The mon- ey has not been found. Luna was captur- ed in Pottstown by State police Parker, Hughes and Banks, after a Reading Rail- way ticket agent in Birdsboro had tipped off the officers. The second man ‘has not been captured. n Tia —“I'm the king of a Fiji island,” writes Norman Albert, of Herndon, given up for dead twenty years ago, in a letter to J. C. Billman, postmaster of Herndon, in whieh he inquires if any of his relatives are liv- ing. “T&ll them to join me, and I'll share my crown with them,” he adds. Albert does not say how he got to the Pacific group. He was a sailor and his friends had long ago lost all hope of ever hearing from him. From the tone of the letter, it appears that he is now rolling in wealth and living a life of ease. The letter was mailed from Lantoka,’ South Sea islands, Fiji. . —A session of court was held in Lock Hdven, on Saturday, with Associate Judg- es J. H. Mussina and J. W. Miller on’ the | bench, when Charles H. Donnelly, of Re- novo, pleaded guilty to the charge of lar- ceny. He was an employee of the Penn- sylvania Railroad company and took a , large variety of articles from the shops. Sentence was imposed by president judge Robert B. McCloskey, who is confined to his home by illness, who signed the pa- pers in the case in bed. The sentence was $1000 fine and costs, restore the goods stol- en, if not already restored, and to serve one year in the county jail. The jail sen- tence is to be remitted if the fine is paid. —The Franklin Sugar Refining compa- ny, of Philadelphia, has brought suit in the Northumberland county courts seeking to recover $36,201.3¢ from the Dewart Milk Products company, of Dewart, Northum- berland county, for alleged breach of con- tract. According to the plaintiff's state- ment, the milk corporation ordered 241,500 pounds of sugar last June, at 2214 cents a pound, ‘which was placed through John C. Huston, a broker, on a basis of an allot- ment of 115 barrels monthly, to a total value of $54,627.25, but, it is asserted, the contract was repudiated and deliveries re- fused on March 7, last, causing the refiner the loss, it alleging sugar was contracted. for the Dewart people at the price stated. and had to be paid for at that price.