Donan fad
INK SLINGS.
—Most people are hard up because
they find spending money so much
more to their liking than earning it.
—Just now Pleasant Gap has the
rather unenviable distinction of being
the measliest place in Centre county.
It is a lovely little village with a fine
lot of people but its just polluted with
measles.
—The Senate has passed the co-op-
erative. marketing bill that originated
in the House so that soon the farm-
ers will have another one of those
panaceas for their depressed condition
that won't pan.
— Anent the difficulty that council
is having over the selection of a fire
marshal, if all that is desirable is
somebody who can be depended upon
to be around when the conflagration
happens why not “Dixie” Freeman?
—The Y. drive has gone over the
top. With the budget for the current
year thus practically assured there is
nothing more to be done than help
make it supply whatever need the
community may have for an Associa-
tion.
—Work has been stopped on four-
teen ships that were building for our
navy. This is part of the scrapping
and limitations program and will be
good news to the tax payers who
would have had to settle the bills
finally.
—Congress, having fooled all of its
time away, now realizes that the time
when the public will have a chance to
pass upon its foolishness is fast ap-
proaching and expects to spend the
rest of the present session conjuring
up alibis.
—From those Republicans who are
‘inquiring as to whether Senator Crow
-will be physically able to perform his
duties should he be nominated and
elected to succeed himself will be in
for a lot of condemnation but they're
right. Every person regrets the Sen-
ator’s illness and hopes for his recov-
ery, but if there is any uncertainty as
to the time he will be restored to full
vigor it should be known.
—Having scanned the proofs of the
erudite contributions making for gen-
eral intelligence, that appear else-
where in this edition, almost we are
persuaded to charge C. L. G. with pla-
giarism. Among the locals he has an-
nounced that it is just fifty-eight days
until the opening of the trout fishing
season. Any one who reads the
“Watchman” will know that he stole
that from us, because we have had it
down pat, copyrighted for our annual
use for lo, these many years. Next
thing, we presume, he'll be having the
temerity to throw hints to our private
Dboot-legger.
—Judge Bonniwell is giving the
people of the State a lot of facts and
figures about the government at Har-
risburg that the organization would
‘much prefer to have suppressed. The
‘more he discloses the more unbiased
-people are convinced that there should
be such a cleaning out at Harrisburg
as has never been made before. Every
county in the State feels the effects
of the treasury bankruptcy. Schools
and hospitals can’t pay their bills and
those who have been furnishing sup-
plies for them have to wait for pay-
ment because the hordes of useless
state officials grab the little bit of
money that gets into the treasury as
salaries.
— The drive for funds for the Y. M.
C. A. ought to be supplemented with
a drive into the ivories of those fool-
ish folks who think a few ought to
pay for all the pleasures, conveniences
and general welfare of the many.
Provision has been or will be made for
worthy persons who really can’t af-
ford to pay the regular fees. but the
person who could save the price by
cutting out petty luxuries and non-
essentials for a few weeks—and does
not—and then expects some one else
to put up for his pleasure at the Y.is
looking for something he ought not to
have and in all probability won't get.
‘We have never made a compilation of
them, but we hazard the statement
that we could take two hundred men
and women out of Bellefonte and
leave the old town so flat on her back
that she would never even attempt to
turn over. Churches, schools, lodges,
clubs, fire companies, welfare work,
business enterprises and everything
else would wither up and Goldsmith’s
Deserted Village would look like 34th
and Broadway by comparison with
our town.
— Mrs. John O. Miller’s advice to
the women voters, of whose League
she is president, is rather ambiguous.
After telling her sisters to have a
care that only such party leadership
be supported as will “be wholly devo-
ted to the welfare of the people” she
warns that “the leadership of her own
party is at stake” and “the reaction-
ary bosses will seek, also to have a
hand in the control of the Democratic
party organization.” We can read in-
to this nothing else than that Mrs.
Miller is reactionary herself and
wants both party organizations to re-
main as they are at present constitut-
ed. So far as her advice to the Re-
publican women of Pennsylvania is
concerned we are not greatly interest-
ed, but women who know and have
faith in the principles of Democracy
will be little impressed by her sugges-
tion that they continue a leadership
that has left them only the remnant
of a party to affiliate with. All the
more so will Democratic women ac-
cept “with a grain of salt” gratuitous
counsel from one whose public utter-
ances so often begin with “Of course
1 am a Republican, but.”
| al by the Supreme court.
wm”
Demi
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 67.
BELLEFONTE, PA., FE
BRUARY 10, 1922.
NO. 6.
unanimous opinion handed down the
other day, has affirmed the constitu-
tionality of the Act of Assembly im-
posing a tax on anthracite coal. This
was the pet measure of Governor
Sproul. It was one of the reasons for
the invasion of the last session of the
Legislature by the state constabulary
and the revolutionary proceedings that
followed. It was necessary to the
profligate plans of the Governor to
make his administration one of “mag-
nificent achievement.” It is expected
to produce revenues to the extent of
ten or twelve million dollars. Inciden-
tally it will increase the coal bill of
the people of Pennsyvania to the ex-
tent of double that amount.
A similar bill was passed during
the administration of Governor Pen-
nypacker and declared unconstitution-
Governor
Sproul supported it then as Senator
in the General Assembly and resent-
ed the action of the court. From the
beginning of his term as Governor he
has been striving to reverse the court.
In this purpose opportunities have fa-
vored him. ‘He has been able to ap-
point two justices of the Supreme
court and all three of the judges of
the Dauphin county court. The unan-
imous decision of the lower court in
the case proves that he selected his
appointees intelligently. The chances
are that changes in the Supreme
court will equally serve his purpose.
The late Governor Pennypacker was
the inventor of the theory that profli-
gacy is good politics. When the cap-
itol graft exposures spread panic
among the leaders of the party he was
unperturbed. He organized excur-
sions to view the building, confident
that inspection would convince the
people it was worth the price. That
saved the day and the party. Gover-
nor Sproul is of the same mind. He
imagines that the public will not care
for the expense if their vanity is fed
up by boasted achievements. The coal
tax is for that purpose and it may
work the result. It will impose a
heavy burden on an already over-
burdened people. But in the language
of an ‘esteemed contemporary “who
cares 7” :
tt toe eee eerie.
Senator Pepper speaks plainly
nus. He probably thinks the veter-
ans are as foolish as they were two
years ago when they voted for Hard-
ing.
Teachers’ Retirement Fund Looted.
Some weeks ago the public learned
in payments on school appropriations
to the extent of several millions of
dollars. The delinquencies ran back
over a period of three years and were
on appropriations for teachers’ sala-
ries, building construction and main-
tenance. Within a day or two the
fact has leaked out that the State
owes the teachers’ retirement fund
$1,800,000, covering
for three years. Yet according to the
Grange News and other dependable
sources of information the State De-
partment of Public Instruction is
spending money like the proverbial
“drunken sailor,” in the payment of
exorbitant salaries to officials.
hundred dollar dog, was Auditor Gen-
eral that Department was the asylum
for political “lame ducks.” It seems,
however, that now the custody and
care of those birds has been shifted
to Dr. Finegan, the imported head of
the Department of Public Instruction.
At the last election one of the com-
the departments of the State.
machine bled for the suffering vic-
tim of popular disapproval and Fine-
gan appointed him counsel for the de-
partment at five thousand dollars a
year.
generous recompense of deputies, as-
Public But the most
amazing
Instruction.
ers’ retirement fund. That fund was
created in the full spirit of benefi-
cence. It was a token of popular ap-
preciation of the great service the
school teachers have given and are
giving to the people in the work of
education. Now it transpires that the
fund has been systematically robbed
for a period of years and is at pres-
ent in imminent danger of collapse.
What additional shame has the Re-
publican machine for the people ?
eel pee ee
ended but “for ways that are dark
and tricks that are vain, the heathen
Chinee is peculiar,” and it looks as
if Japan has been too amiable.
Coal Tax Legislation Affirmed. | Mrs. Warburten “Knocked Out.”
The Dauphin county court, in a We deeply regret to learn that the
‘application of Mrs. Barclay H. War-
favors, has conferred the honor upon |
. they want as “guide, philosopher and
upon the question of the soldiers’ bo- |
| without accomplishing much in the
that the State Treasury is delinquent
appropriations :
“ical conditions throughout the coun-
' with Congress because there has been
During the period that Charley
Snyder, of the gold piano and fifteen
ten” and growing worse day by day.
- Propaganda issued by the Republican
mon pleas judges was defeated for | even casual inquiry shows such state-
re-election and left without a job. i ments are without foundation.
The constitution and the law provides | per centage of unemployment is con-
that the Attorney General’s office stantly increasing and the distress is
shall perform the legal service for all | becoming a menace. These conditions
But | are clearly ascribable to the faults of
the sympathetic heart of the State | the administration. If we had gone
| with the rest of the civilized world in
' an effort to readjust conditions imme-
| stead of poverty would be present.
We have previously referred to the
— The Washington conference is |
| National committee and the efforts of
sistants, chief clerks, inspectors and
other employes of the Department of |
| But the efforts should have their be-
information that has yet!
come out of the department is this
concerning the looting of the teach- |
' work of the organization in striving
| for the rejuvenation of the party. It
| is in the home environment that work
burton, of Philadelphia, for appoint-
ment as boss of the female portion of
the Republican machine has been re-
fused. Mrs. Warburton was appoint-
ed vice chairman of the Republican
State committee by Governor Sproul a
year ago and had some claim to the
position to which she has since aspir-
ed. The vice chairmanship seemed a
soul-satisfying solace when it was be-
stowed. But experience soon devel-
oped the fact that it was an “empty
honor” for the reason that limita-
tions expressed, divested it of all
power and influence. But Mrs. War-
burton was the pioneer, so to speak,
in the movement and entitled to the
usufruet of her enterprise.
Ter expectations in this
have been rudely shattered, however
if information contained in the Phila-
delphia papers of Sunday are depend- |
able. It seems that Senator Vare,
who is the dispensor of such party |
respect |
one Mrs. Archibald R. Harman, also |
of Philadelphia, and more or less a
rival of Mrs. Warburton in political
ambitions and activities. Mrs. Har- |
man probably resides south of Walnut |
street and environment oes a good
way in such matters. In any event,
within a day or twe after Mrs. War- |
burton had “filed her ciaim” to the
organization Senator Vare announced |
that Mrs. Harman will have the pow- |
er of review and revision of female
activities in politics.
Of course it makes no difference to
the women voters of Centre or any!
other county which of these amiable
and charming women politicians shall |
select the candidates or define the pol-
icies of the party. It is enough for
them to feel that Senator Vare under-
stands his business and that the wom-
an he selects fo boss the women vot- |
ers of the State may be depended up- |
on to justify his preference by servil-
ity to his mandates and devotion to
his interests. A good many of them
share in our profound régret that Mrs.
Warburton has been spurned. But
the fates of war and politics are
equally uncertain and Senator Varc:
knows better than the women whom |
friend.”
—— The President is a great ma-
nipulator but in removing Senator
Kenyon from the Senate and Repre-
sentative Peters from the House by
placing them on the Bench, he is
bringing the court into disrepute
way of settling party troubles.
Inspiring Information to Democrats.
Representative Arthur B. Rouse, of
Kentucky, chairman of the Democrat-
ic Congressional committee, gives the
public the inspiring information that
the Democrats “will make gains this
year in every State in the east, north
and west and will redeem the districts
we lost in the last election in Tennes-
see and Texas.” He bases this esti-
mate upon a careful survey of polit-
try. “The people are not satisfied
with the present administration,” he
states, “and are especially displeased
a complete failure in redeeming the
promises of relief that were made dur-
ing the last campaign.”
Inquiry among the people of any
community confirms this statement
of facts. Business is certainly “rot-
managers make the false pretense of
improvement but investigation or
The
into the League of Nations and joined
diately after the war prosperity in-
The activities of the Democratic
the Congressional committee to rem-
edy these evils are most encouraging.
ginning at the bottom instead of the
top. The Democrats in the towns
and townships should supplement the
of this kind proves effective. The
| county, ward and precinct committees
| should wake up to the importance of
, activity. We hope the Democrats of
| Centre county will set an example in
| this direction and that without delay.
It will encourage the big committees
| to know that leaven is working at the
| bottom.
Se
——When the Supreme court pass-
es upon the constitutionality of the
coal tax the public will find out just
how successful the Governor has been
in fixing the courts.
ian in the country will hope that the
| “faith plighted” will be “kept in na- |
| hope of the
End of the Washington Conference.
The Washington conference ad- |
journed finally on Monday in the spir- |
it of a “mutual admiration society.” |
Several of the members spoke in ful- |
some eulogy of the work performed |
and the results achieved and Presi- |
dent Harding pronounced the benedic-
tion in terms of most extravagant:
praise. “This conference has wrought i
a truly great achievement,” he said
“It is hazardous,” he added, “to speak
in superlatives and I will be restrain- |
ed. But I will say with every confi-
dence, that the faith plighted here to- |
day, kept in national honor, will mark
the beginning of a new and better |
epoch in human progress.” As a
matter of fact it will simply be a
clandestine ratification of the work of
Woodrow Wilson.
Every right minded man and wom-
i
A}
1
tional honor.” But every intelligent |
man and woman in the country will
feel that the ratification of the cove-
nant of the League of Nations by the
Senate of the United States would
have accomplished the result more
speedily and with greater certainty.
That action would have secured the
cordial co-operation of the whole civ-
ilized world in the purposes expressed
in the several treaties signed on Mon-
day while these treaties merely hold
a big stick of five great nations over
the heads of weaker nations to coerce
them into good behavior. It is the
substitution of force for reason.
The probabilities are that the treat-
ies will be ratified because they rep-
resent, though in a feeble form, the
world for permanent
peace and for the reason that Demo-
cratic Senatorial minds are not so cor-
roded with bigotry as to subvert their
feelings of patriotism and sense of
justice. But the glory is mot to
Harding who, as Senator in the last
Congress, voted against the principles
expressed in these treaties. The tri-
umph belongs to Woodrow Wilson, |
who laid the foundation of this “bet- |
ter epoch in human progress.” The
ratification of the treaties will be a
stultification of the action of the Re-
publican Senators in opposing the
ratification of the eovenant of the
League of Nations.
Senator Crow is taking a good,
long rest in that Pittsburgh hospital,
but he is pursuing a poor way to make
people think he is getting well.
emt eee Aer.
An Appeal to Voters.
Mrs. John O. Miller, president of
the League of Women Voters of Penn- |
sylvania, in a statement to voters gen-
erally, says:
“I feel that I should fail in an ob-
vious duty, as chairman of the Penn-
sylvania League of Women Voters,
which includes members of all parties,
if I did not direct attention to the su-
preme importance of the approaching
primaries.
Pennsylvania is about to enter an
entirely new political era. The result
of the May primaries will determine,
to a large extent, the leadership of
both the Republican and Democratic
parties. The great problem is to see
to it that this leadership is alert, pro-
gressive, honest, sincere, and wholly
devoted to the welfare of the people.
This cannot be had by sitting idly
by while machine bosses set up slates
23 fix up things in their own inter-
es
The leadership of the Republican
organization is at stake. The reac-
tionary bosses will seek also to have
a hand in the control of the Demo-
cratic party organization. They know
if once they can get their hands on
the two party organizations, that it
will take a long time to loosen their
grip. And they are at work.
Just reflect on the important ques-
tions which will come up in the pri-
maries. Two United States Senators;
a Governor; a Liuetenant Governor;
Secretary of Internal Affairs; the
whole membership of the State House;
a Congressman for every district are
to be nominated. In addition, the
State committeemen are to be elected.
These nominations and elections
mean control of the political and ad-
ministrative course of the State.
The political bosses will stop at
nothing to win the biggest prizes in a
generation.
Don’t let them make up a ticket
and jam it through the primaries.
You have something to say about it.”
It seems that Mexico is the
place to sell stolen automobiles, and
by the same token it is a good mar-
ket in which to buy booze.
With a deficit in the Postoffice
Department of $25,000,000 for three
months Will Hays had ample reason
for looking for another job.
— Next Wednesday will be the
twenty-fourth anniversary of the
sinking of the battleship Maine in the
harber at Havana, Cuba.
—1Let us hope that Pope Pius XI
may be preserved long for the service
of peace to which he has dedicated his
life.
Naval Curtailments.
From the Philadelphia Record.
The substance of Sir Arthur Hun-
gerford Pollen’s article in a recent At-
lantic Monthly is that while England’s
safety demanded it its navy was main-
tained the most powerful in the world.
When the danger ceased the navy was
permitted to decline. Sir Arthur says
that England has built, or is building,
only one superdreadnaught since the
battle of Jutland, and that was plan-
ned earlier, while America and Japan
have built, or building, 16 ships em-
bodying the lessons learned at Jut-
land. England has suddenly dropped
from the foremost naval Power in the
world to a peor second, or even a
third.
It is perhaps the converse of this
that The Paris Temps presents when
it traces the growth of the American
navy as compared with that of Great
Britain, until, it adds, “Britain saw
herself doomed to lose her naval su-
premacy, which the dominions refused
to maintain for her at their expense.
She then preferred to compromise.”
British safety long required that she
maintain a fleet as powerful as the
fleets of France and Russia combined.
But about 80 years ago Germany
started on a career of naval expansion.
England could no longer maintain the
ratio of 2 to 1, and had to content
itself with the ratio of 1.6 to 1. Twice
it tried to secure an agreement with
Germany for a naval holiday.
But the enemies of Great Dritain
have perished, and the rivals, in Eu-
rope, have ceased their rivalry. Ger-
many and Russia are no longer naval
Powers; France and Italy have drop-
ped out of the race because the world
war compelled them to do their ut-
most on land; the sea lost its relative
importance for them. Thus in Eu-
rope Great Britain had nothing to
guard against. But across the Atlan-
tic the United States was developing
a navy with which England could not
compete unless its national existence
were at stake.
The danger of a conflict with the
United States was extremely small,
and for the time being England sus-
pended its efforts to maintain the most
powerful fleet in the world. And yet
England could hardly afford to occupy
a secondary place. The United States
had the resources, and was beginning
to develop the wish to be the foremost
naval Power. England, therefore,
glady accepted an invitation to cen-
fer on the limitation of navigs, for she
had already ceased to expand her own
navy, and the American navy was
likely to surpass the British in 1926.
A limitation of armaments was a
promise by the United States not to
outbuild Great Britain. Hence Mr.
Hughes had the cordial support of
Mr. Balfour throughout the confer-
ence.
Whoop Er Up Stuff.
From the New York Herald.
Former Senator Beveridge hit a fal-
lacy on the head the other night in
Indiana when he said “It is nonsense
to tell people that if they will just
cheer up everything will be all right.”
The whoop ’em up brethren won’t
like Mr. Beveridge’s stand, but he was
telling the cold truth. The profes-
sional optimists have been preaching
a gospel of deception. They mean no
harm, but they produce no good. They
talk the platitudes of the boom town.
They paper the dead walls with mes-
sages of cheer. Everything is all
right, they say, if you will only be-
lieve that it is all right and act ac-
cordingly.
It is one thing for buyer and seller,
for capital and labor, to get togeth-
er and work together. That goes a
long way to make business and pros-
perity. But trying to fill the sails of
business with the wind of mere op-
timism is futile.
The professional optimist, as Mr.
Beveridge said, is unwittingly an
agent of the forces of upheaval. “His
vain and impossible prophecies, un-
fulfilled, merely destroy confidence.”
He leads people to expect immediate
prosperity, produced by some mira-
cle, when the fact is that prosperity
will come in on the slow but sure
freight train of work and economy.
The beaming smile of the whoop
’em up orator will not start goods
moving across the country as long as
the freight rates paralyze business.
Smug posters of good cheer will not
open the doors of closed factories so
long as capital stays under cover,
knowing that the moment it shows its
head it will be hit with a legislative
sandbag.
All the phrases of the professional
optimist will not cause a man to build
a house or a shop when he knows that
the price of labor will make the build-
ing cost twice as much as it will be
worth in five or ten years.
The devil of depression is not going
to be successfully exorcised with
sweet words. It will take a hammer
to drive him out.
Editors in New Bloc.
From the Boston Transcript.
Sixty farm paper editors at the Ag-
ricultural Conference in Washington
are said to have formed a bloc of their
own. Who is the bloc head?
The new Irish Free State is
doing fairly well. She has borrowed
$5,000,000 already and some old
States couldn’t do that in a hundred
years.
——Senator Newberry feels that he
is vindicated but he doesn’t indulge
in much boasting over his victory.
hee,
'SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—Altoona bakeries cut the price of large
! loaves of bread from 15 to 13 cents or two
| for 25 cents.
| —Rudolph Trinkle, a hotel proprietor
{ of Allentown, is defendant in a suit for
| $25,000 damages, started in court there on
| Monday by Wilson G. Woodring, of West
i Catasauqua, who alleges that Trinkle's
automobile ran down his wife near Naza-
reth and killed her.
— Poison is believed by the police to
have caused the death, last Friday, of
Arthur Dubbs, of Harrisburg, who was
to have been the star witness next month
in the trial of John Toney and Jack Stan-
off, indicted for the murder of Mike Ka-
noff, who was clubbed to death.
—While Mr. and Mrs. John Newcomer,
of Williamsport, were busy in their kitch-
en one day last week there was a sudden
explosion and pieces of the cookstove were
hurled about the room. The man and his
wife escaped without injury, although the
stove was blown into so many pieces no
stove man could repair it.
—When his horse took fright at a piece
of paper in the road, Charles Haughawout,
of Lower Augusta, Northumberland coun-
ty, jumped as the team plunged over a
sixty foot embankment. He escaped with
a few slight bruises. The horses landed
at the bottom practically unhurt. A wag-
on load of bottled milk was spilled.
—1In the pulpit of the Lutheran church
at Bloomsburg on Sunday night, the Rev.
Norman S. Wolf attacked the rent gougers
of Bloomsburg, and declared that they
were acting contrary to the best interests
of the community. Iis sermon caused
much comment locally because most of the
large property owners have recently made
considerable increases in rents in town.
—When flames destroyed the Mrs. Mar-
garet Griste apartment house at Sunbury
on Monday, Mrs. Moses Long, who lived
on a top floor with her three children, was
cut off from escape by the stairway, and
passed her children out of the window to
firemen, who caught them safely in a
sheet. Then she jumped and suffered con-
tusions of the body. The loss was $3000.
—Thomas McCole, aged 36 years, an em-
ployee of the Atlantic Refining company,
of Allentown, saying he was wolfishly
hungry when he sat down to supper at
his boarding house Saturday night, rav-
enously tackled the roast beef. He took
too large a bite and was unable to swal-
low it. A physician was called who hur-
riedly summoned an ambulance. On arri-
val at the hospital it was discovered that
he had died on the way of strangulation.
— Mr. and Mrs. John Miller, of Wood-
ward township, Clearfield county, have
started suit against three hunters for $10,-
000 damages. In the bill of complaint the
Millers say that on November 5th, 1921,
Orville Waite, John Gemill and James
Mapestone, of Woodward, saw a rabbit
near the Miller house. All three shot at
the animal. Although the rabbit escaped,
one of the bullets went through the Mil-
ler house and hit Mrs. Miller in the shoul-
der. She has been in a hospital ever since.
— Charles Steele, of the Whitmer Steele
company, Northumberland, has ordered
from the State for reforestration purposes,
26,000 young trees. These seedlings will
be planted on his farm at Lamar, in Nit-
tany valley. Of these, 16,000 are Norway
spruce, 5,000 are hard maple and 5,000 yel-
low pine. The order was placed through
Dill Conrad, state forest fire warden, of
Northumberland. The spruce will be used
for paper making at times when the trees
mature. The trees will cover about 12
acres.
—Harry T. Ebling, a lineman for the
Eastern Pennsylvania Light, Heat & Pow-
or company, was electrocuted within full
sight of companions at Easton, last
Thursday, it being impossible to aid him.
Ebling was at work on a high ladder on
Mill creek avenue, when wires carrying
high voltage crossed, throwing him to the
ground. A severe burn across the palm of
his left hand indicated that he was almost
instantly killed by the electric current.
He made but a few gasps after the acci-
dent. Ebling was 22 years of age and un-
married.
—The Cameron County Press and the
Emporium Independent, weekly papers of
Emporium, have been consolidated, and a
corporation to be known as the Empor-
ium Publishing Company will issue the
resulting product. It will be under the
management of J. R. Klees, former pro-
prietor of the Independent. Advanced
printing costs during the war and since
made the publication difficult for the two
weeklies. The offices had to help each oth-
er in getting out their respective papers.
There is enough business in the communi-
ty, it is believed, to keep the consolidated
paper going nicely.
—The European starling is anybody’s
game now and threatens to become a
problem, probably as great as the English
sparrow. The starling resembles the
blackbird and is often taken for the black-
coated visitor in winter time. The star-
ling does not migrate, but remains all the
year and in winter time goes into cities
much like the sparrows. It is pugnacious
and destructive, and State game authori-
ties say it is not protected, but may be
shot. Secretary Seth E. Gordon, of the
State Game Commission, has been getting
letters about the starling from farmers,
who want to know whether they can kill
off the bird.
—Dauphin county authorities on Satur-
day ordered the arrest of Lloyd Smeltz,
23 years old, of near Elizabethville, and
charged him with the murder of his fath-
er, John Smeltz, shot to death Wednesday
night as he drove into the lane of his home.
The boy, who accompanied his father at
the time, said bandits had murdered his
father, but later made contradictory state-
ments. A fatal admission that he had a
revolver in his possession the night of the
murder and had thrown it away directed
strong suspicion toward young Smeltz.
The gun was recovered. Edward Smeltz,
a younger son, is being detained. The au-
thorities believe Smeltz was killed as the
result of a family quarrel.
—Judge Bechtel, of Pottsville, was con-
siderably shocked last Thursday when
Mrs. Oliver Fenknor, of Mahanoy City,
with six small children hanging to her,
was brought before him on a trifling
charge. The oldest of the children was
only 11 years. It was alleged the mother
was cruel to one of the children. The
husband told the court he was suing for
divorce. “Six small children and suing
for divorce!” exclaimed Judge Bechtel.
“Let me tell you, you will support those
children even if you do get a divorce.”
Fenknor, a railroad employee, draws $200
a month, but wants to have the children
sent to a home. He has been contributing
$50 a month to their support. Court will
make a full investigation of the circum
stances.