PemareaiicWatcom INK SLINGS. —The first half of 1923 is gone. —Yes, thank you, the finger is well enough to push a pencil again. - —A New York jury has convicted a woman of first degree murder, but that doesn’t mean that she will finaliy pay the penalty in the death chamber. —Vegetation is practically dried up. ‘The recent rains might help some but for the most part early garden pro- «duce ana fruit will be small and of in- ferior quality. —The million dollar joy-ride on the Leviathan ended last Sunday and all of Lasker's guests are enthusiastic over the pleasure they had riding on the sea while the rest of us were dig- ging for the million to pay for their fun. —Geraldine Farrar has been granted her divorce from Lou Tellegen and with it given the right to resume her maiden name and take a fresh gan- der, should one turn up. But pity poor Lou! The law denies him the right to grab a fresh goose. —Hogs are bringing only six and three-quarter cents a pound in the Chicago market. The price is the low- est recorded since the last year of Taft’s administration, in 1912. Re- publican policies are surely calculated to make the farmer’s life a happy one —we don’t think. —An now we're going to seize the foreign ships that bring liquor under their own governmental seals into our territorial waters. It is the only thing to do by which we can hope to com- mand respect for our laws, but the consequences of it may be more far- reaching than some of us are able to foresee today. —Next week we take off. Nothing doing but fishing and loafing about a camp in the mountains. If you feel like it we would be glad to have you come to visit us during the week. All you’ll have to do is eatch what trout you hope to eat, take your turn at washing dishes and carrying wood and sleep out in the open if you snore loud enough to disturb the slumbers of those who don’t. —1It would be interesting to know just how much the tenants in Mr. Heverly’s new flats, on Allegheny street, would give to have those grand old elm trees casting their cooling shade over them these days. The les- son of this section and the Bishop and Allegheny street corner is one that owners of property in those sections have paid dearly for and while it is too late for them to correct their mis- takes we feel certain that their advice to others will be to preserve the trees, wherever possible. i: “—Mr. Bryan was in Altoona Tues- day, talking to the Presbyterians as- sembled for their annual get-to-gether. meeting at Lakemont. He closed his speech with these words: “The church cannot lower its standards to get in smart young men, educated fellows with big heads, who would not come in as little children.” Some time ago we announced that we were with Mr. Bryan in his fight for preservation of the fundamentals of faith. It has not been often that we have been with him, but it has not been often that he has championed an issue so vital to the future welfare and happiness of humanity. —The locusts sure got on our nerves. From morning ’til night we heard nothing but their monotonous drone, wherever we went. It was such a mournful, depressing sound, too, to be always in one’s ears. And it made us think so much of the last day of dear old “Daddy” Steele. He was on his death bed. The end was not far off and a few good Methodist sisters had gathered in his humble little home over on north Thomas street to “ease” him “over the falls.” “Daddy” roused from the coma that he had fallen into the day before, and asked some one to sing. Immediately a quavering little soprano began: “Hark! from the Tomb, a Mournful Sound!” She got just far enough for the passing old saint to recognize what she was start- ing, when ‘he opened his eyes, smiled, said: “Stop that. Sing something cheerful,” and then closed them again for the last time. And, always, after the locusts came, we had what must have been the same reaction to their doleful song that “Daddy” had to the good sister’s “Hark! from the Tomb, a Mournful Sound.” —This Mrs. McCauley lady, of Bea- ver, who has followed Marcus Aaron, of Pittsburgh, in resigning from the State council of education, threatens to be Pinchot’s Mrs. Bellamy Storer. Either he’s got to call the lady a liar or let a lot of people think that that’s what he is, one himself. She tells him, right to his teeth, that he and Mrs. Pinchot sought her out, because she was president of the State school di- rector’s association, and secured her promise to support him in the primary on his verbal promise that he would re-appoint Mr. Finegan Superintend- ent of Public Instruction. And, to add insult to injury, she reveals Gif. in the new role of Mr. Henry Peck by writing him that “your campaign manager (Mrs Pinchot)” gave her the same verbal promise. Cordelia is home. She arrived from Europe F'ri- day. She can speak for herself, but what’s Gif. going to do about it. If he rises up and says Mrs. McCauley is fabricating every body will jump on him for calling names at a lady. If he don’t; every body will say what is the truth: You told us last fall that there wasn’t a string to you and that you hadn’t made a promise to any one. Sy TA enacr STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. VOL. 68. BELLEFONTE, PA., JU President Harding’s Queer Ideas. 1 President Harding has made some | very absurd statements and advanced some strangely preposterous ideas since he left Washington on his cam- paign trip through the West, but he touched the climax in his speech in! Denver, Colorado. He must have School System the Victim. In resigning her seat in the State Council of Education Mrs. E. Grace McCauley, of Beaver, Pa., not only administers a sharp rebuke to Gov- ernor Pinchot but makes a charge of grave moral and official delinquency against him. She declares that during Harding’s Absurd Proposition. In his St. Louis speech President | i There are three words, the sweetest words Harding has practically surrendered to Senator Lodge on the question of the world court. In submitting the proposition at the close of the last Congress the President indicated cer- tain reservations which, though of lit- imagined that the people he was ad- | the campaign for the nomination last tle value, might have been accepted dressing are as dense as the moun- | spring, Mr. Pinchot promised, as a bya majority of the Senators and the tains about the city in which he was ' consideration for her support, that court itself. But Senator Lodge pro- an honored guest. For example, he 'in the event of his nomination and : tested that more drastic reservations repeated the foolish statement pre-election he would reappoint Dr. Fine- | must be made and now the President viously made in a letter, that the re- | peal of the prohibition enforcement act by the New York Legislature was | a form of nullification. Nullification | is defined as “rendering void and of | no effect.” The legislation in question simply left to federal authority the enforcement of the federal laws. In the same connection he declared that in repealing the enforcement act the New York Legislature had relin- quished its sovereignty. In repealing | the law the Legislature of New York ' most emphatically expressed its sov- | ereign right to control its own police power and legislate as it pleased on questions of domestic policy. If there is any element of surrender of scv- ereignty in that it is not perceptible to the average intelligence. If the Legislature of New York had forbid the federal authorities to enforce acts of Congress with the State it would have committed an act of nullifica- tion. But it didn’t do anything of the kind, and in approving the legislation the Governor cordially invited the federal authorities to “help them- selves.” President Harding, in lamenting the surrender of sovereignty by the States in this matter, says: “It will be necessary, at large expense, to cre- ate a federal police authority, which in time will inevitably come to be re- garded as an intrusion upon and in- terference with the right of local authority to manage local concerns.” From the beginning of the govern- ment, federal, judicial and police sys- tems have been maintained to treat violators of Acts of Congress, and all violators of postal laws or other Acts of Congress have been tried in such courts and under such auspices. ‘Only the enforcement of the Vol-, stead act requires the co-operation of both courts and police and at an ex- pense in one year greater than all the others from the beginning. ——There is some comfort in the thought that those foolish persons who are trying to make Governor Smith, of New York, and Henry Ford | candidates for President will get tired ' sooner or later. Only Promises for Soldiers. The veterans of the World War will have to wait another year for the bonus which the Republican machine has been promising to their ears for some years. The Supreme court has declared that constitutional amend- ments may be voted on this year but the Attorney General’s office decides differently. Other amendments may be voted on this year, but the amend- ment which provides for the veterans’ bonus must go over until 1924 for for the reason that the text of the resolution fixes that year as the time for the vote. The veterans may be comforted, meantime, by the practical certainty that they will get what is coming to them sometime. But the time is fixed as far in the future as possible. When the resolution providing for this amendment was pending in the Legislature, attention was called to the fact that a vote on it by the peo- | ple might be hastened by an amend- ment changing the date from 1924 to gan as Superintendent of Public Instruction. The constitution of the State requires all elective officers to swear that they have not paid or contributed, or promised to pay or contribute, any money or other valu- able thing to procure their nomina- tion or election. Upon assuming the duties of the office of Governor Mr. Pinchot sol- emnly took that oath. If the state- ment of Mrs. McCauley is true he has certainly committed perjury. No one will deny that an office with a salary of ten thousand dollars a year is a valuable thing. If the Governor promised Mrs. McCauley that in con- sideration of her support and in- fluence at the primary election he would appoint Dr. Finegan to the office in question, he violated the con- stitution of the State, and the sub- sequent betrayal of the promise in no respect mitigates his offense. On the contrary it supplements an odious act by an equally odious pretense and multiplies the moral turpitude involv- ed. Thus far there has been no denial : of the charge made by Mrs. McCau- ley. Possibly Governor Pinchot imagines that the constitution of Pennsylvania is “a scrap of paper” and may be set aside as it was evaded when his salary as Commissioner of Forestry was increased from five to eight thousand dollars a year. The more reasonable conjecture is, how- ever, that the charge is true and can- not be denied. Mrs. McCauley is a woman of the highest character, and public opinion is likely to favor her in a controversy with the Governor,’ who appears to be habitually careless of his reputation for “truth and verac of the State stands to politics in consequence. ——1It isn’t necessary to leave our finger prints “in the sands of time.” The police bureaus will preserve them if they are worth while. Chairman Hull’s Hopeful View. Mr. Cordell Hull, chairman of the Democratic National committee, takes a hopeful view of the future of the Democratic party. He is a member of Congress with long experience in public life and wide acquaintance among public men. Besides that he has an active and analytical mind and has given much and careful study to conditions as they exist. “The rank and file of the American voters,” he writes, “have been accustomed to judge national administrations by re- sults as they come to the voter. The first inquiry that will arise in the mind of the voter next year will be ‘why should we desire another four years of Harding and Harding nor- malcy in the light of recent experi- ences?’ ” Having thus set his premise Mr. Hull proceeds to reason out his con- clusion. The farmers of the country are $30,000,000,000 worse off today | than when Harding was elected and their future is practically hopeless. “Why should they want to continue his administration and policies four years more?” The American laborer a victim 8 comes forward with a proposition so absolutely absurd that no seli-respect- ing nation already associated with the court would think of adopting it. He proposes to make the tribunal per- manent by investing it with authority to fill any vacancies that may occur in the future. The court is already in operation with a membership of upward of fifty nations, including all the important governments of the world except the United States. It provides for the filling of vacancies by the council of the League of Nations and affords op- portunity to keep abreast of the prog- ress of the world. Several vacancies have already been filled in that way to the entire satisfaction of those pres- ent. The proposition of the President would achieve permanency, ne doubt, but it would be the type found in the grave yard. The surviving members would fill vacancies by choosing men committed to their own ideas and pur- poses and utterly ignoring changing conditions and progress. President Harding seems to be one of those curious creatures who imag- ine they “can fool all the people all the time,” He opposed the ratifica- tion of the League of Nations as a Senator in Congress, not because of objection to the principles but because he hoped for partisan advantage. When he discovered that public senti- ment favors the League he undertook to enter by the International Court opening and when Lodge indicated a fight he now offers a condition which he knows is impossible of acceptance but hopes will afford him shelter in ‘ both camps, He wants to “run with the hares and hunt with the hounds,” t is likely to be deceived. pak | ——A certain gentleman was con- siderably exercised a few days ago over the belief that Bellefonte’s big spring was dwindling in capacity. He happened to pass the spring just at a time when all the pumps were running | at full capacity and came to this of- fice with a story in effect that the ! spring was at least eighteen inches lower than usual. Had such actually been the case it would have been a story of vital interest and importance to every resident of Bellefonte, but borough manager J. D. Seibert avers that the man’s eyes deceived him. He admits that when all pumps are run- ning full force the water goes down about eight inches, to the level of the top board in the spillway, but that there has been no decrease in the ca- pacity of the spring and no cause for alarm on the part of anybody. — Last winter, and even up to a month ago, most everybody was com- plaining about the cold weather; now there is just as much complaint be- ! cause it is too hot to be comfortable. ' What a queer world this would be if , the seasons of hot and cold, sunshine and shower, could be given to suit the whims and fancies of every individu- al. A large pan of scrambled eggs would look like angel cake alongside of the weather we would then have. ——As a result of Tuesday’s rain, 1928. The resolution fixing the date | has no greater reason for a desire to | the water in Spring Creek is muddy. for a vote on the amendment to pro- | re-elect Harding. Tariff taxation has Ordinarily this is not an unusual con- vide $50,000,000 for the use of the | Highway Department permitted the | vote at the next general election and ! the Supreme court declares the next increased the cost of living so that working men are unable to lay up any savings and special privilges have so dominated the administration, an ele- dition, but thus far this season it is; for only twice since April 15th have the waters been discolored at all, which indicates the fact that we have general election to be the election next | ment most unfriendly to the cause of . had no heavy rains in that period. November. But the politicians are in- | terested in the funds which go to the Highway Department. In the dis- | bursement of that fund there is a source of graft. But the funds for ! the bonus holds out no such allure- ment. The war veterans are getting used to disappointments, however, and this ! postponement of provision for them will not worry them much. Three years ago the Republican National convention promised them a bonus in the event of Harding’s election, but two sessions of Congress have since come and gone and the pledge is un- fulfilled. The President gave as an excuse for this delinquency that funds were low and a day or two later he urged a subsidy to ship owners which would require quite as much money as the soldiers asked. Since that various extravagances have been in- dulged in by the administration which in the aggregate would have cancelled the claims of the soldiers. But they get nothing but promises. ——1It is safe to say that the histo- ry of Henry Ford’s campaign for President is “bunk.” labor, that “it has gobbled up every benefit the government is able to be- stow.” Why should working folk want Harding re-elected ? In conclusion, Mr. Hull asks, “Why should the average business man feel any friendship or gratitude toward the Harding administration? His business is confronted with hopeless uncertainty as to the future and he is utterly unable to plan ahead on ac- count of the operation of wholly un- sound domestic and foreign economic policies.” There is no reason for such a condition in this country of wealth and abundance and no likeli- hood that an intelligent electorate will vote to continue it. Mr. Harding is certain to be the candidate of his party for re-election. His campaign for the nomination is now in progress and the nominating convention will be packed in his interest. Senator Beveridge is still doing — Senator Pepper rather vehe- meni declares that he is in accord with the President’s desire to enter the world court and that will create sentiment against it. | ——It may interest the public to know that Mr. Lasker is fairly well | pleased with the trial trip of the Le- viathan and entirely satisfied with himself. ——1In the course of time Mr. Hard- ing will come to understand that Her- bert Hoover is a false prophet. The rest of the people already know it. ——Without official authority to speak on the subject it is reasonably safe to say that if the Germans will pay the French will go. ! ——0One of Mr. Bryan’s friends says his best to prove that the people of | “he’s a good loser.” But that is only Indiana wisely defeated him. That scientist who says the sun . has lost its heat isn’t a scientist at all. 'He’s simply a fool. conjecture. Mr. Bryan has never lost any money. —For all the news you should read the “Watchman.” NE 29. 1923. Y disappointed in the b NO. 26. Three Words. By Douglas Malloch. In all of human speech— More sweet than are all songs of birds, On pages poets preach. : This life may be a vale of tears, A sad and dreary thing— Three words, and trouble disappears And birds begin to sing. Three words and all the roses bloom, The sun begins to shine. Three words will dissipate the gloom— And water turn to wine. Three words will cheer the saddest days “I love you?’ Wrong, by heck! It is another, sweeter phrase, “Enclosed find check.” The American Model in China. From the Kansas City Star. In their poor, weak strivings to master the mystery of government as they have observed its workings in more enlightened countries, the Chi- nese, we fear, have not always been given credit for what they have ac- complished. They have worked un- der great difficulties, the chief of which is that they know nothing about the science of taxation. But they have somehow acquired a dim perception that the first duty of government is to tax business, and before we condemn them for their failure to make a complete job of it and lay business out cold, we ought to consider the progress they have made in that direction, even though their methods and the results they have achieved are halting and feeble. These Chinese bandits now are not without the instincts of government. We read that they have worked out a system, crude indeed and inefficient compared with our own, by which business is regularly made to turn over a share of its profits. The sys- tem is admirable in seme ways, being yery economical in administration and involving very little—though .some— paper work. Every taxing system in- volves some paper work. vs own in- volves a great deal, requiring moun- tains of returns, reports, vouchers, certificates, auditings, affidavits. and such things—no end of paper. But the Chinese bandits have instituted a great economy in this respect. They simply take a single piece of paper and burn it under the . of the * This simple system is in effect throughout great areas of China, and shows by its progress that the science. of government is spreading rapidly. Business men are kidnapped whenever they can be caught with money on them and taxed. They are not har- assed by treasury inquisitors or bothered with returns which require the aid of a Iawyer to make them out. They are merely requested to hand over what they have, and if they don’t seem to remember what they have—for taxed persons everywhere never seem to have any notion of their own affairs—the paper-burning be- gins. As the flame begins to tickle the nose of the business man he rea- lizes the obligation business owes to government. He recognizes that gov- ernment must live even if business dies. He pays and the whole trans- action is recorded on that little piece of burned paper, which, for all we know, is not even filed as a govern- ment document. In view of this showing we ought perhaps to take back much of what we have said about the Chinese in- capacity for government. They are really learning. Their system may be wasteful, for it is probable the taxing power sometimes fails to get all that business has. The mer- chants frequently get away with their shirts. This is a defect in the system to be sure, but the Chinese do not claim to have perfected it yet. Government is of slow growth. Even in Kansas City we went years without a gasoline tax. ———— A ——————— A Mild Warning, From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Sometimes political knavery dis- guises itself in the garb of righteous- ness and camouflages its real purpose to such an extent that honest men are deceived. In the political raid upon the Municipal Court for the purpose of establishing the right of the organization to dictate Republican nominations in Philadelphia and to compel obedience to its mandates, there has not been the slightest at- tempt at disguise or camouflage of any kind. The purpose lying back of the bill taking away from the president judge the power of patronage has been open- ly avowed. The character of the po- litical service to which the measure is expected to give aid is subject to no doubt. The bill will confirm the strength of those elements in the local Republican party, against whom the successful effort for the nomination of Governor Pinchot was a protest. The Governor must be acquainted with these facts. They are patent to him who runs, and reads or listens but casually. To ignore them would be unfortunate under any circum- stances and doubly so when such ac- tion would have every appearance of being the settlement of an ac- knowledged debt. —The Governor still declares he made no bargains for legislation and Senator Vare is still confident that all agreements will be kept. ———— ———— —Subscribe for the “Watchman.” Isiness man selected for taxation, ce ms mmm |SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —After an absence of 30 years, Fred W. Meuroth, Connellsville firebrick expert, will return to Germany to make an exhaustive study of brickmaking. —Lewistown council increased the sal- ary of Chief of Police Yeaman from $100 to $125 a month, with instfuctions to get after violators of traffic laws. —While swimming in a dam at Ore Hill, Blair county, Saturday evening, David R. Boyer, 13 years old, of Queen, was drown- ed. He tried to reach a stump in the cen- ter of the dam and exhausted his strength. Three boys, swimming at the time, made an unsuccessful attempt to save him. —1Using the contents of a fire extinguish- er in an effort to induce sleep, Garfield U. Lintner, a contracting painter, of Lancas- ter, went to a field near his home and was suffocated by the fumes, the police say. He was accustomed to using chloroform to induce sleep, but substituted the other liquid instead. —Clarence E. Mentzer, yardmaster at Harrisburg of the Philadelphia and Read- ing railway, was electrocuted on Satur- day when he grasped a sagging telephone wire as he was riding on the top of a train in Steelton. The wire came in con- tact with a high-tension line and Mentzer was killed instantly. —Schuylkill county commissioners last Friday gave orders for legal proceedings to be entered against two-score tax col- lectors who have not collected the increas- ed taxes on the coal lands. The bonds- men of the collectors will be compelled to make good the shortage. The amount of the deficit is about $400,000. —The Rev. Judson Barnes, pastor of the Baptist churches at Ashland and Girard- ville, has resigned, stating that he is una- ble to live on his salary of $60 a month. He was selling automobiles as a side line when the congregation objected. He pre- sented his resignation. The Rev. Mr. Barnes went to Ashland from Shamokin two years ago. —Although "78 years old, A. J. Frederick, a Civil war veteran, of York county, is cutting a tooth. Some of his friends thought it a joke on hearing of it, but Mr. Frederick displayed a tooth cutting through the upper gum. As a matter of fact, he said, he has suffered considerable pain the past few days as a result of the tooth cutting gum. —Palmerton physicians are trying to keep a man’s heart from jumping out of its orbit. Louis Meal, a laborer from Nes- quehoning, was taken to the Palmerton hospital, where surgeons are trying to check his heart from moving further from its correct position. The organ in some mysterious manner has moved two inches toward the center of the body and thence downward two more inches. —An unusual spirit of co-operation is being shown by property owners along the state highway between Bloomsburg and Berwick, where a permanent road is being constructed. In places the road is narrow and lawns, shade trees, a house and several barns encroached. One man will lose ten feet off the end of his barn, but agreed to accept the actual cost of cutting off the end of the building, the county paying the contractor. Other property owners have settled for small sums. —The hot weather last Friday was re- sponsible for a brutal fight near Berwick, ‘as a result of which Chauncey Everhart, of xpwallopen, is under bail on a charge of assault with intent to kill. H. W. Schwep- penheiser, of Berwick, went fishing. Ev- erhart went swimming. Both picked the same hole in Wapwallopen creek, but Ev- erhart was there first and refused to leave the pool. He says Schweppenheiser hit him with a stone, whereupon he left the creek and is alleged to have administered a severe beating to the fisherman. —Talling through a window in a pas- senger coach of a Pennsylvania railroad excursion train, Sunday, William D. Mul- lett, Altoona, is suffering from lacerations of the scalp and a fracture of the wrist. Mullett was on an excursion train being operated from Altoona to Atlantic City. He fell or leaped through the window as the train was passing the RJ tower near Rockville. Just prior to the accident Mul- let had gotten out a flask which was tak- en from him and the contents poured in the drain by the officer accompanying the train. 2 —Picking up a live wire carrying sev- eral thousand volts, George L. Tirsh, a company lineman was instantly killed at Shamokin Sunday evening. He was 25 years old and resided at Osceola Mills. A severe electrical storm had done much damage to the wires and Tirsh, with a gang of repairmen, had been ordered out. While the foreman of the gang was tele- phoning the power station to have the cur- rent turned off, Tirsh picked up the wire. He was instanly killed, the charge having passed through a small hole in a defective glove, to his hand. —Former members of Altoona Castle No. 145, Knights of the Golden Eagle, will be required to pay back to the grand castle of the order the sum of $5,000 which they divided among themselves after dissolution of the local unit, and also turn over to the grand castle $5,000 which yet remains in the treasury. The Supreme courf, in a decision rendered Saturday, sustained the appeal of the grand castle and revers- ed the decision of the Blair county court, which upheld the Altoona castle in its action. The appeal was a test case and the outcome is of interest to all lodge men, . —Stricken while attending services on Sunday evening in St. John’s Catholic church, Johnstown, John C. Ryan, head of the wholesale merchandise house of Ryan- Correll company, of that city, died in his pew. The services were dismissed and Mr. Ryan was removed to the rectory where four physicians worked for two hours with a pulmotor and also made injections of adrenalin in the hope of reviving him. Mr. Ryan was general chairman of the execu- tive committee in charge of the Mercy hos- pital campaign for $250,000 which closed Saturday afternoon with a total amount raised of $283,000. —The Easton police department’s new tear gas weapon was put into use for the first time last Thursday when it was used on Walter Molin, convicted slayer of po- lice officer Rush Stehlin, of Easton, whose death sentence was recently commuted to life imprisonment. Molin had been chang- ed from one part of the prison to another when he began to tear the furnishings of his cell apart. Procuring an iron bar, he hammered on his cell door and threatened to kill any one who came near him. Ef- forts of the prison officials to quiet him were fruitless and the police department “gun” was sent for. But one ‘‘shot” was necessary and Molin begged for mercy and became as docile as a kitten.