~ —That Sing Sing inmate who says he would rather die in the electric chair than serve his twenty y:ar sen- tence knows now, if he didn’t before he committed his crime, what retribu- tion is. —Talking about drives, we feel just like you do—that we are about driven to death. But don’t let us die until the hospital has pulled off the one it has scheduled for next February. There is a worth while cause and Monday a man over ninety braved the storm of snow and slush and treacherous sidewalks to come down to this office to do his bit. It wasn’t a great sum, as money is counted today, but it was a great spirit that prompted the ven- erable John P. Harris to do what he did. —If Senator David A. Reed was saying what he really thought and comprehended and not merely utter- ing words at Harrisburg last week he might turn out to be a real Senator for Pennsylvania. From a partisan Republican viewpoint he might have been then and there reading himself out of his party, but, be that as it may, he did ad nce a lot of ideas so fun- damentally sound that we were star- tled when we read them. We hope that Senator Reed will have the cour- age to espouse such principles on the floor of the Senate and if he does he may lose caste with his party leaders but certainly he will win favor with the masses he was chosen to repre- sent. —The United States Supreme court has decided that Pennsylvania has a right to lay a tax on anthracite coal. In 1913 and again in 1915 our State courts declared such an act as uncon- stitutional, but now that the court of last appeal has legalized it the ques- tion is settled. The consumer will pay the tax, which was designed, primar- ily, to finance the educational system of the State, but by the time the var- jous collectors and accountants are paid how much of it will the schools get? Talking about middlemen in commercial enterprise. They are not in it with the middlemen in govern- ment—the inspectors, collectors, ac- countants and auditors. Why wouldn’t it be better to lay a direct tax for the schools and everything else than to continue this subterfuge of collecting everything - indirectly? What's the use of going ’way around the bush ‘about these things? Why should any- ‘thing be taxed but the individual? Why would it not be better to pay for government just like we pay for but- ter and eggs and meat and bread? —The very unusual demonstration of their loyalty and desire to have Hu- ‘go Bezdek with them that was given "by the students of The Pennsylvania State College a few days ago must have had a terrible heart-pull on the head of the department of physical education at that institution. Bezdek was the manager of the Pittsburgh’ National league baseball team five years ago. He was a successful man- ager, of course, but he left there to come to State because, as we thought at the time and think now, he is a man who measures a life-work in something more than mere dollars, a man with a love for character build- ing, a man desirous to give to human- ity the God-given inspiration that all too few possess. The impress he has made on thousands of the youth of Pennsylvania is impossible of estima- tion. Cleaner, stronger, fairer future citizens of this great country of ours is what this man is making in college work today. He could do little of that in commercialized baseball, and be- cause we feel that Hugo Bezdek knows where his great field is we believe his answer in Pitsburgh last night was that he will stay with “the boys.” —Report has come from Milford, Indiana, to the effect that duck hunt- ers are having wonderful success out there by soaking corn in “moonshine,” then scattering it along the lake shores for the ducks to get. When they get it, of course, they promptly get to that “I don’t care what becomes of me now” state and then the hunt- ers gather them up by the hundreds without having to fire a shot. To many this tale will listen like a lie. We believe it. There comes a time in the life of nearly every regular boy in the country—at least there used to—- when he just had to go into the pig- eon business. We passed through that period of watching our big blue “coax- er” strutting over the barn roof, lur- ing all our playmates’ pigeons to his cote. Sometimes we’d have a great flock and then, again, we’d have none. When our “coaxer” failed to keep the lady birds true to him and the barn roof was deserted we'd fly to Phil Et- tle. The Ettle boys lived on Bishop street and had something to do with the conduct of a feed store that Brock- erhoff’s ran in the place that Hock- man now occupies. Phil never raised pigeons but he always had a pen full of them. The birds knew the alley where wheat and oats and corn filter- ed through the cracks in the farm wagons that were unloading at that feed store and Phil, thirty-five years ago, knew that pigeons would get drunk on the same stuff that knocked men’s legs out from under them. He soaked corn in whiskey and scattered it about the alley. Our pigeons ate it and got so soused that they couldn’t fly home. Then he gathered them up and sold them back to us at a nickel a piece. Personal experience tells us that the Milford story is probably true. ; VOL. 67. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA., DECEMBER 1. 1922. NO. 4%. Pennsylvania “Corrupt and Con- tented.” The official life and political career of Truman H. Newberry ended with his resignation but it did not end the evil of Newberryism. That has be- come an ulcer on the body politic which will require time and heroic treatment to cure. It didn’t begin with Newberry four years ago. It has been a menace to the political morals of the country for more than a quar- ter of a century. But the Newberry episode presented it to public view in a peculiarly flagrant form. There was no concealment of the corrupt practices in his case. bought votes as openly as a house- wife buys vegetables in a public mar- ket. It was so glaring as to become a challenge to public authority. The retirement of Newberry shows some deference to decent public opin- ion as expressed in Michigan, Indiana and other States in which supporters had asked for a vote of confidence. Every S~nator in that group except Lodge, of Massachusetts, and Pepper, of Pennsylvania, was defeated. The reprobation of the crime will not be fully or adequately expressed until it touches the consciences of the voters in those States. It is not enough that six Senators were condemned by their constituents for condoning the crime of Newberry. All those guilty of that offense against popular government must be made to feel the lash of pub- lic indignation as well as those who practiced it must be punished. Gifford Pinchot, the Governor-elect of Pennsylvania, violated the integri- ty of the ballot as certainly as New- berry did. He bought the nomination of his party by the expenditure of nearly as great a sum as was spent to nominate Newberry. Until he is re- pudiated by the people of Pennsylva- nia the voters of this State can claim no part in the improvement of politic- al morals which the resignation of Newberry has set in motion. As it appears now the people of Pennsylva- nia have written approval of the methods of campaigning which New- berry adopted and Pinchot followed. Pinchot and Pepper are twin evidenc- es that Pennsylvania as well as Phila- delphia “is corrupt and contented.” —We're ready-to admit that there’s nothing that can substitute for tur- key on an occasion like yesterday, but we're so mighty thankful that we could even have duck that we just can’t resist quackin’ a bit about it. Subsidy Bill May Pass. Pres‘dent Harding may be able to | force tue subsidy bill through before the expiration of the present Con- gress. It is likely to be voted on in the House before the end of the ex- tra session and that will give the Sen- ate three months to consider it. But even at that it will be a disappointment to some of those who expected to de- rive the greatest advantages from it. John D. Rockerfeller and his son each contributed liberally to the campaign | fund in 1920 and expected to be reim- bursed through the operations of this measure. adopted defeats their hopes. It pro- vides that no bonus shall be paid to ships of owners carrying their own products. The Standard Oil company is easily the most extensive ship master in this country. Its vast fleet of tankers car- ries millions of tons annually to the markets of Europe and other foreign ports. This subsidy bill would have enabled this corporation and its sub- sidiaries to collect a large proportion of the fifty millions of dollars or more to be paid annually to ship-owners. In fact there is a rather widespread be- lief that the major purpose of the leg- islation was to put money in the treasury of the Standard Oil compa- ny. The amendment nullifying this provision will prevent that result. The Rockerfellers, father and son, will have to recoup themselves in some other way. One of the present Congressmen who was defeated at the recent elec- tion warned his colleagues against the passage of the measure in a speech the other day. It was just such selfish and vicious legislation as that, he de- clared, that caused his defeat and if the subsidy is forced through dozens of other Republican representatives will be retired to private life at the next election. It requires no gift of prophecy to discern this fact. The tariff bill designed to reimburse part of the contributors was responsible for the slump in Republican strength in Congress at the recent election, and the passage of the subsidy bill will have a precisely similar effect at the next election. ———France has some reason to feel puffed up over the. treatment of her distinguished ex-Premier in this coun- try. The Mayor of Chicago didn’t kick Clemenceau out when he called at city hall. His friends But an amendment already : | Anthracite Coal Tax is Valid. | The decision of the Supreme court of the United States affirming the va- lidity of the anthracite coal tax, hand- ed down by Justice McKenna on Mon- | day, is mainly a reassertion of the i doctrine of State sovereignty. The i law is declared valid because the Su- : preme court of Pennsylvania had af- {firmed its validity. Other questions | entered into the equation, of course, | but the language of the justice leaves no doubt that if the State court had decided the question adversely, as it . did on two previous occasions, the ac- tion would have been affirmed by the tribunal of last resort. The difference or distinction between anthracite and bituminous coal is largely a matter of imagination. Another important influence on the ' court was an obvious purpose to steer away from the trend to public owner- | ship. “If the possibility or certainty ‘that an article produced in one State | was destined for market in another determined it to be in interstate com- | merce before the beginning of ‘movement from the State,” the court | declared, “it would seem to follow i that it is in such commerce from the !instant of its growth or production, { and in the case of coals, as they lie in | the ground, such a ruling would na- i tionalize all industries.” That doc- i trine so affirmed set up a guarantee | against the seizure and operation of ! coal mines as was once contemplated by Roosevelt and discussed extensive- i ly recently. : In any event the decision. is both | important and opportune for the | State of Pennsylvania for we certain- {ly “need the money” it will bring to the treasury. It will help the move- | ment to further increase the cost of living but that appears to be the prin- ‘cipal purpose of the Republican ma- | chine. It will guarantee the validity ofthe tax on iron ores levied by the Legislature of Minnesota which will be paid by Pennsylvania and encourage | other States to search for subjects of taxation to add to the already oner- ous burdens now being borne. The | southern States may now tax cotton | and the wool growers of the west add { a domestic tax to the tariff levy on the products of theirflocks. . ...... . | ——=Senator Caraway thinks that | Congressmen defeated for re-election ought not to claim the right to vote during the remainder of their term. That would be a happy solution of a i vexed problem but the lame ducks are likely to object. | Senator Hitchcock a Butter In. Senator Hitchcock, of Nebraska, is | building up for himself a somewhat | unenviable reputation as a “butter in.” i Some time before the recent election, | when he was a candidate with a bright ' promise of success, he butted into a controversy on a labor question. He had no direct interest in the question and might as well have left.it to the consideration of those who were in- terested. But he “butted in” with the result that the labor organizations of i the State turned solidly against him and though he had a splendid reputa- ‘tion as a Senator he was snowed un- der while the candidate of his party for Governor had a substantial ma- jority. If he had kept quiet he might have been elected. The other day, in the Senate, Sena- tor Hitchcock again “butted in” on a question upon which silence would have been golden. Some of the re- marks made by M. Clemenceau, in his New York address, might have justified an interpretation which re- flected upon the intelligence and pa- triotism of those Senators in Con- gress who defeated the ratification of the covenant of the Leage of Nations. Senator Hitchcock was not a member of that mischievous group. On the contrary he led the force favorable to ratification with great skill and dis- tinguished ability. But he was the first Senator to rise and voice a pro- test against the language of Clemen- ceau. He took upon himself the bur- den of excusing Lodge. As a matter of fact what Georges Clemenceau said concerning the ac- | tion of the government of the United tates with respect to the Versailles treaty is substantially true. Presi- dent Wilson was largely responsible .for the League of Nations as well as the treaty which guaranteed protec- tion to France against possible attacks from Germany in the future. If the covenant of the League and the treaty of defense had been ratified by the United States there would be no ne- cessity now for Clemenceau or any one else worrying about the future re- lations between Germany and France. But both conventions failed of ratifi- cation through the malice and stupid- ity of Republican Senators who de- serve no defense. Possibly Giff is holding that | cabinet place promised to a woman { for his wife. its. | Senator Reed’s Heretical Language. i Senator David A. Reed, of Pitts- | burgh, speaks surprisingly like a Democrat. Even before the election { he expressed an aversion to the med- ! dling of government in the affairs of . men and since, in an address at Tren- ! ton the other day, he ascribed most of the railroad troubles to the restraints { put upon the managements by the In- i terstate Commerce Commission. He believes in and urges the old fashion- ed competitive system in railroads as in other business. If the railroads ; were permitted to fix rates he thinks, they could meet the demands for wag- es and thus eliminate the causes that produce and maintain strikes. In oth- er words he would give the carrying corporations power to go the limit in rates. In a speech delivered in Philadel- phia last Saturday night, at a compli- mentary dinner in his honor, he sound- ed another discordant note. Refer- ring to the enforcement of the prohi- bition laws he said: “Enforcement is deplorably bad because you and I do not back up the law. As a matter of fact it is not enforced against you and me. It is only enforced against a few unfortunates who cannot escape it. We are all hypocrites on this question and conditions have reached a serious stage. We must back up this law to the limit or wipe off the books the hypocritical sham we are too coward- ly to enforce.” That declaration can be interpreted in no other way than a rebuke of the administration. But Senator Reed’s speeches are not always to be taken at their face val- ue, and while fair competition has al- ways been the Democratic idea of bus- iness policy, the unrestrained right to regulate rates and wages is not a cer- tain guarantee of fair competition. The Standard Oil company, for ex- ample, coined millions of dollars out of an unrestrained right to crush com- petition and it is not sure that Sena- | tor Reed is not striving to give the Steel trust a similar advantage over competitors that are growing increas- ingly troublesome. The Senator is giving some, but not all, of his atten- tion to politics and government. He is still on the legal staff of the Steel truss and has an eye to its interests. —Our very honorable friend, Eli- sha Kent Kane, of Kushequa, who was an also ran in the recent Congression- al race in this district, has sent us the official vote of the counties with the suggestion that possibly our “readers might be interested in knowing how thoroughly he was licked.” Mr. Kane got four thousand out of a total of approximately thirty-four thousand votes. He didn’t do as bad as we ex- pected, because he ran on the Prohi- bition ticket and so many Prohibition- ists have the habit of being Prohibs every day in the year except the one on which they have the chance to vote their convictions. We published the figures necessary to the political obsequies over Mr. Kane several weeks ago, but we're glad that he doesn’t feel all cut up because, as he says, his “campaign was a flat fail- ure.” ——This week the “Watchman” has generously donated a column space to two scientific gentlemen for the purpose of telling all of us how to properly burn coal so as to economize in the use of fuel. Next week we will be equally liberal to any gentleman who can tell us how to get the coal. ——The army football team did fairly well in the contest with the Na- vy eleven, on Saturday, but the real victory of the occasion went to the bootleggers, if current reports are true. ——Why do the Philadelphia poli- ticians imagine that parading in soft hats is a concession to Pinchot? He will probably wear a “topper” him- self on that auspicious occasion. — President Harding never had a good opinion of the Federal Reserve system and his effort to inject politics into its organization indicates that he intends to wreck it if possible. ——Governor Sproul “is solid” for Commissioner Baldy, but the indica- tions are that the Governor’s influ- ence with the next administration will be limited if not negligible. ——If Attorney General Daugherty would follow the example of Senator Newberry the Harding administration would have easier sledding for a time. fp ——Whether Major Warburton wants Dr. Baldy’s job or not his crit- icism of the department has created a good deal of lively comment. -——Pinchot’s first set back will come on inauguration day. He can’t prevent Bill Vare from heading the parade. Root of the Mexican Evil. From the Philadelphia Record. For more than ten years our rela- tions with the Republic of Mexico have been in a state of intermittent turmoil. The bacic cause of friction has been the insecurity of American capitalistic interests in Mexican nat- ural resources. This underlying diffi- culty has been augmented by the ina- bility of the Mexicans during a large part of the time to maintain stable and orderly government. America is great and rich and powerful; Mexico weak, but proud and arrogant. Our capitalistic influences sustain a con- stant urge toward forcible measures for the protection of their rights— property rights—in a foreign land, and the Mexicans foment dissension by their insistent effort to enrich their country and themselves by measures of taxation and restriction amounting to confiscation of the property of their wealthy exploiters. The bloodshed that has occurred on both sides of the border from time to time during re- cent years is but an incident and out- growth of these basic causes. Now there are two points of view regarding the fundamental questions at issue, and there are plenty of people who would like to have our own point of view enforced and established by war and conquest. These people are principally the ones who would not have to do the fighting. But pin- pricks from Mexico, such as the high language she holds concerning our in- terference in her internal affairs, are likely to augment the numbers of the American fire-eaters. It may be ob- served in passing that the other point of view—the one held by Mexico—is the one which we ourselves maintain- ed a very short time ago when Cali- fornia contemplated anti-Japanese legislation to which Japan objected. We want to call the attention of the misguided voters who helped to kill the League of Nations project as a world-wide instrument for the per- petuation of peace to these salient facts: That the questions at issue be- tween the United States and Mexico are at bottom questions of internation- al morality, capable of judicial untan- glement and settlement; that such a League of Nations as former Presi- dent Wilson contemplated could have taken jurisdiction of these questions and settled them for all time, and could have enforced the settlement; and that by such means permanently friendly relations might have been es- ‘tablished with our next-door (eizh-. bors. Would not that be more profita- ble to the United States than constant bickering, with the ever-present pos- sibility of resort to force, which never really determines matters of right and wrong ? We are aware that the League is regarded in some quarters as a dead issue. We are not trying to revive it. It will revive itself—it must revive itself eventually, when the world has grown old enough to discriminate be- tween wisdom and folly, and to detect spurious patriotism, inspired by dol- lars, from the genuine, inspired by iy of humanity as well as of coun- ry. Let Lenine Come. From the Milwaukee Sentinel. Lenine and his wife, according to an American interviewer, have a consum- ing secret ambition to visit the United States and study America at first hand. Of course, Lenine is bitterly oppos- ed to America as the world’s strong- est “capitalist” nation. But we are as- sured that he has a secret admiration for us, and he would like to know more about the sources of our strength and our methods and ways of doing things. Trotzky, who spent some time in this country, might be in a position to give Lenine some information, and perhaps Bill Haywood’s services would also be available, in addition to those of a few other Americans now in Rus- sia, but this cannot take the place of first-hand experience. Moreover, Le- nine probably has a suspicion that all these gentlemen are somewhat preju- diced against the United States. It is not likely that Lenine will get an opportunity to visit our shores in the near future, but if he is so ex- tremely eager to study America, per- haps our State Department could be induced to waive immigration restrie- tions. His desire to see the United States must be largely prompted by curiosity to find out how this country contrived to grow and flourish and at- tain its present position in the world under what looks to Lenine as a most obsolete and archaic form of govern- ment. He admits America’s strength, but is at a loss to account for it. In that perplexed frame of mind, a visit to this country might be profita- ble to Lenine. He might find out how a self-governing and free nation man- ages its affairs, how public opinion controls our governent, as has just been demonstrated, and how individ- ual enterprise in little more than a century has conquered a continent, while Russia, under Czarist and then under Bolshevist despotism, has never been able to develop its great resourc- es. Confronted with American condi- tions, Lenine’s Communist theories might get a severe shock. If he could stay long enough, he might conclude that America is a better country to live in than Russia and might refuse to return to the Communist paradise. ——The “Watchman” gives all the news while it is news. SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Police officials at Harrisburg are in- vestigating the charge made by Cornella Green that her armless husband, John Green, had beaten her. She is in the hos- pital with a pessible fracture of the skull and lacerations. Green says she fell down- stairs, but Mrs. Green claimis her husband kicked her down. —Director Horner, of the Workmen's Compensation Bureau, announced on Sat- urday that 27 widows and 80 dependent children of the victims of the Spangler dis- aster would receive approximately $100,- 000 compensation. Claims have been set- tled by the bureau, compensation for de- pendent children depending largely upon their ages. —Several hundred property owners in Hazleton are well stocked with anthracite coal for the winter, but can’t start to burn it because heating plants ordered during the summer and early fall haw not yet been received, owing to the embargoes in effect on some of the railroads against all shipments except fuel, foodstuffs and per- ishable goods. —When John Robbins, a state policeman, fell through a hole in the hay mow he broke a leg, but he fell in the midst of a gallon still, fifty gallons of mash and a large quantity of automobile accessories, supposed to have been stolen. The acci- dent occurred in the barn of Edward Hayes, of near Pottstown, Montgomery county, who is in jail charged with the theft of chickens. —Representatives from twenty counties in Pennsylvania met at Lancaster last Sat- urday and organized the Pennsylvania State Farm Bureau federation, and elected John C. Brubaker, of Lititz, president. The representatives were guests of the Lancas- ter county farm bureau, which has taken the lead in fostering the federation. Mr. Brubaker was also elected to represent the State body at the national meeting in Chi- cago. —The Standard American hosiery mill at Mohnton, near Reading, was robbed of $15,000 worth of silk hosiery early Friday morning. The booty was taken away in a truck which was seen making for Reading and then speeding down the Philadelphia turnpike, but the officers have no clue. During the last few months Berks hosiery mills have been robbed of $35,000 worth of finished goods—all taken away in trucks to an unknown destination. —In a verdict rendered under the federal law in the Schuylkill county court, Mrs. Rose Buehler, of Tamaqua, was awarded $8000 damages from the Philadelphia and Reading Railway for the killing of her husband while engaged in his duties as a freight conductor two years age. The woman was refused State compensation be- cause the railroad company alleged the husband was handling cars which contain- ed goods of interstate commerce. —John Magner, possessor of $80,000 to $100,000, died last Friday in the McKean county home in Smethport. He was near- ly 70 years of age, and a fall several weeks ago disabled him. Last Sunday he applied for care at the home, saying he “would pay his way until his health im- proved.” Magner had lived alone for years on a farm, denying himself the simplest comforts, The authorities are making in- quiries in central Pennsylvania for kin. . —QGraydon Platt, of Ridgway, had a thrilling encounter with an airplane while ‘motoring toward Puixsutawney when the ~ airship swooped down out of the sky and settled in a field so close by that part of the top of his automobile was ripped off by the tail of the flying machine. Telling of his experience, he declared he saw the air- ship flying low, but paid little attention to it until it settled almost upon him and came to a stop in a field nearby. Neither aviator nor chauffeur was injured. —Losing his balance while painting on the ledge of a three-story house in Sha- mokin, last Tuesday, George Long, of Bear Gap, toppled into space, and was making a descent of 45 feet to a concrete pave- ment when he fell into a network of tele- phone and light wires. He was able to hold the wires a sufficient period of time to right himself and jump feet first to the ground, where he landed without an in- jury of any kind. Women who were watching the man at work and saw him fall fainted. —The American Refractories company, of Pittsburgh, closed a deal on Saturday for the J. F. Stover farm of fifty-three acres, and the John Bower tracts adjoin- ing, comprising fifteen acres, located along the Pennsylvania railroad east of IL.ewis- town. It is generally said to be for the erection of a large ganister brick factory, with the possibility of red shale brick on the side. The new plant will be located on the south side of the main line track of the Pennsylvania railroad, two miles east of Lewistown. —Curtis R. Smock, of Meadville, went to Erie on Saturday and purchased an over- coat, and went home without it. After he bought the coat, he entered a refreshment stand at Twentieth and Peach streets, where a number of men expressed admira- tion for the garment and engaged him in conversation. ‘“That’s some overcoat you have, stranger,” one remarked. Then after a pause, he said: “I'd like to try it on.” Smock consenting, the man tried it on. He walked to the back of the place, paused for a moment, then disappeared through a doorway—and didn’t come back. —Frank Hooper, of Charleroi, wants a wife—one of those long, slender sylphs. Frank doesn’t care for them built along liberal lines. He wrote to Mayor Frank Gilbert, of Sharon, asking aid in his quest. ‘Women, he says, are the only things he’s afraid of. “I am 25 years old, he writes, “and would like very much to get married, but I never had the nerve to ask any girl. Was with the army in France and am afraid of nothing except women. I can make a good home for a good girl, but she must be a slender, tall girl. I am 25 years old, good looking and don’t drink.” —Resignation of Dr. W. A. Granville, president of Gettysburg College, to take effect March 1, next, was announced Sun- day night. He has been president of the institution known formerly as Pennsylva- nia College, since 1910. He went there from Yale University, where he was pro- fessor of mathematics. Doctor Granville will become president of the Insurance Economics Society of America, and on March first he plans to take up the work of organizing a bureau of insurance edu- cation in Chicago. He is known as the author of a number of college mathemat- ical textbooks and more recently of a book on the fourth dimension of the Bi- ble.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers