SE. —— i,
INK SLINGS.
——How about buying
Thanksgiving turkey early.
—Let us have a new deal all the
way through the court house.
——Getting it in the neckis all
right if it is really the “bottled in
bond” variety.
—Everybody will be at State Col-
lege tomorrow and most of them will
be hoping to see State’s lion eat up
the Navy’s goat.
—Vote for Condo and Stover for
Auditors and assure yourself of hav-
ing a full statement of the county
business transactions.
—The Yanks have won the Nation-
al baseball classic and while Babe
Ruth was a party to the victory he
wasn’t the whole show.
——1If Governor Pinchot imagines
he can scare the coal operators into
a decrease of prices he has a rude
awakening coming to him.
——Senator Vare is about to resign
his seat in the State Senate in order
to resume his seat in the House of
Representatives in Washington.
—The Governor's round about way
to have “capitol hill” declare for him
for President will either make a lot
of hypocrites or a lot of vacant places.
——Secretary Mellen also got a jab
in Pinchot’s Washington speech but it
was coming to him. It is understood
that he positively refused to be for
Gif. for President.
—There is a counterfeit ten dollar
note in circulation and we should wor-
ry. Such large pieces of mazuma
rarely get through the door of a coun-
try printing office.
—When Governor Pinchot goads
President Coolidge just a little more
he will discover that there is just as
positive a man in Washington as
there is in Harrisburg.
——What the Governor of North
Carolina said to the Governor of South
Carolina is vastly different from what
the Governor of Kansas said to the
Governor of Pennsylvania.
——Pinchot may get a seat in the
next National convention to preserve
a long established precedent. But he
is going to have a “heck” of a time to
get credentials for the Mrs.
—All the way from top to bottom
of the ticket, any one can vote for
the Democratic nominees with the
feeling that he or she is helping to
put only clean, capable men in office.
—Claude Herr is making an im-
pressive campaign for Prothonotary.
Wherever he goes voters are rally-
ing to his candidacy. They see for
themselves that he would prove a ca-
pable, courteous official.
—Vote for Lyman L. Smith—fer-
County Treasurer. He is just the
type of man for that office of peculiar
trust. Nowhere could a better one be
found and the county funds in his cus-
tody will be properly taken care of.
—His settlement of the coal strike
having proved a boomerang as a pop-
ularity maker Governor Pinchot is
out with another attempt to keep in
the Presidential spotlight. He has
been telling President Coolidge what
to do. If Cal. gets as mad as he was
at the time of that Boston police
strike he’ll likely tell Gif. where to go.
—Anyway the cat jumps we are
bound to have a Republican in the of-
fice of District Attorney and a Demo-
crat in the office of Recorder. Both
Arthur Dale and John Love are Re-
publicans and both Forest Ocker and
Harry Rossman are Democrats at least
the latter, who is now the Republican
candidate, was a Democrat only a few
years ago.
—Thomas A. Edison doesn’t believe
his friend Henry Ford ought to be
President. He thinks Henry can do
more good for the country outside
than in the White House. As to that
we have nothing to say. But we do
want to relieve Mr. Edison of any fear
he may have in the matter. Henry
will never park a flivver in the presi-
dential garage.
—The last three years Noll and
Grove were Commissioners they had
$225,613.63 on which to run the busi-
ness of the county and they did it
without issuing a note. During the
three years the present board has
been in they have had $410,593.65 to
use and have $63,600.00 in notes out-
standing. Think of it! They have
had $184,981.02 more to run the coun-
ty with, for three years, than their
predecessors had and still they have
to issue county notes to keep going.
And the tax payers pay the interest
on the notes. wor s—
your
Messrs, Austin and Yarnell, Coun-
ty Commissioners, publish a signed
statement in the Gazette of this morn-
ing in which they very naturally try
to gloss over the vast increase in ex-
penditures ‘during the three “years
they have been in office. We have no
objection, whatever. In fact it was
expected that they would try to ex-
plain away the startling revelations
the “Watchman” made last week as to
the way the money of the tax payers
is going. We~do object, however, to
their conclusion to the effect that the
“Watchman” did or ever has charged
them with dishonesty. It never has
entertained such'a thought nor has it
given expression “to anything that
might be distorted into belief that we
have. As to whether they have been
incompetent is a matter for the voters
to decide. We have been publishing
facts, not personalities, and propose
to continue doing so. Comparative
statements from which the voters,
themselves, can decide as to the com-
petency of the gentlemen to continue
in the offices they hold.
VOL. 68.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
Pinchot Demands Loyalty.
If the Old Guard leaders succeed
in coraling the Pennsylvania delega-
tion in the coming Republican Nation-
al convention against Governor Pin-
chot they will achieve it without the
open help of the State job holders.
The Governor intends to secure the
fidelity of his own employees. In an
order made public the other day he
says “no person will be retained in
public office who is disloyal to the ad-
ministration. Giving aid and comfort
of any sort, or in any form, to the en-
emies of good government or of the
administration is disloyalty. Disloyal
persons will be removed from office at
once upon discovery.” In the opin-
ion of the Governor “good govern-
ment” and “the administration” are
synonomous terms.
Senators Pepper and Reed, Secre-
tary of the Treasury Mellon and
State chairman Baker are striving to
send an uninstructed delegation to the
convention. Their principal purpose
is to prevent Mr. Pinchot from using
the eighty delegates of the State as
capital in trading for personal advan-
tage. Incidentally they have in mind
some trading on their own account.
The federal patronage for the period
between this time and the convention
is of considerable value and control of
the delegation is a powerful force
when the dispensing agent is “gar-
nering” strength. The realization of
these facts has probably influenced
Governor Pinchot to issue his admo-
nition to employees to be “loyal to the
administration.”
The indications are, however, that
the Governor will fail in his efforts to
control the delegation. His orders to
the job holders will make them cau-
tious, no doubt, but not friendly. In
fact there are signs of clandestine
support of the Old Guard program in
various sections of the State by State
officials whose work counts in their
communities. The Governor seems to
have adopted a misttken policy in his
treatment of the subject. Pennsylva-
nia Republicans have been used to an
“easy” boss, while he is exacting and
his open slurs upon the memory of
Penrose and the methods of Sproul
are likely -to provoke resentments.
But this is his own affair. If he im-
agines he is a Roosevelt he is indulg-
ing in a dream.
——The United States is partici-
pating in a pending conference of the
League of Nations at Geneva, through
“official observers.” In other words
we are still sneaking under the can-
vass to see the show.
‘Passing the “Buck” to Coolidge.
That President Coolidge inveigled
Govenor Pinchot into a trap skilfully
laid for suckers, in the matter of the
coal strike settlement, is generally
believed. That Governor Pinchot is
now trying to force President Cool-
idge into a trap is equally certain. In
an address delivered at Washington,
on Sunday, Governor Pinchot said:
“The federal enforcement service in
Pennsylvania lost its soul through
politics and will never be worth its
salt until it is taken wholly out of pol-
itics. This is the first step in my
State, and, I infer, in the others also.
The second, in my judgment, is to
make the head of it, until the present
situation is cleaned up, responsible
directly to the President of the United
States.”
This is literally placing the “buck”
in the hands of the President. In
some sections of the country that will
work to his advantage but there is an
increasing impression that in other
sections, and at vital points, it will
have the contrary effect. In New
York, for example, which has the
largest number of votes of any State
in the convention, the strict enforce-
ment of the Volstead law will alien-
ate the majority of the Republican
voters. New Jersey has also shown
a tendency to the wet side and Massa-
chusetts and Maryland are in doubt
on the question. If Mr. Pinchot
| should succeed in forcing Coolidge to
identify himself with the radical
“drys” it might seriously impair his
chances of nomination.
In presenting the matter to the cit-
izenship conference the Governor
availed himself of an opportunity to
make insinuations against the Cool-
idge supporters in this State, more-
over. “The thing that has protected
the liquor criminal from the law,” he
declared, “is politics. Politics first,
law enforcement a poor second has
been the order. Bad whiskey, with
beer to help, has supplied the sinews
of war,” he added. That is the whole
truth and to make it impressive he
fastened the responsibility upon the
Old Guard party leaders. He denounc-
ed McConnell’s appointment as a scan-
dal, and censured former Governor
Sproul for his failure to promote law
enforcement. What he said is prob-
ably true but not diplomatic.
——It is said that Germany con-
templates a new currency issue. Let
us.-hope it will not-take the form of a
new issue of marks.
sus gave it a population of 3996.
identical in area and population.
BELLEFONTE, PA., OCTOBER 19, 1923.
Bellefonte and Philipsburg-—a Com-
parison.
Bellefonte is supposed to be just one mile square. The last cen-
We are not advised as to the area of the corporate limits of Phil-
ipsburg, but we are familiar enough with the town to know that it is
not much, if any, smaller than Bellefonte. The last census gave it a
population of 8900, just 96 persons less than Bellefonte.
In facilities for getting around, character of buildings, vacant
lots, etc., the towns are not greatly dissimilar.
In 1922 it cost $1677.00 to assess Bellefonte.
In the same year the Philipsburg assessment cost $762.09.
In 1923 the assessment in Bellefonte cost $1816.59.
In 1923 the assessment in Philipsburg cost $607.78.
In two years it has cost tax payers $2123.72 more to assess Belle-
fonte than it has to assess Philipsburg. Yet the two towns are almost
The Commissioners explain it by saying that the Assessors swear
to the time they put in and there is nothing left for them to do but
pay the bills—with your money. What would you do?
The price paid for Bellefonte this year is higher than it would
have been if one man had been employed at $150.00 per month and
taken every day in the year to do the work
$41,283.65 on January 1st, 1922.
standing.
four years ago.
ing notes mean.
ditures.
affairs.
They couldn’t quite understand how that statement could be cor-
rect if there were, as we also stated, $63,600.00 of current notes out-
What it Means.
Several persons have asked us to explain a statement made in
the “Watchman” last week to the effect that the county was in deb
&
Both statements were correct, if the statement of the County
Auditors published in April was correct.
The county could be in debt only $41,283.65 and still owe notes of
$63,600.00. And such is the case because revenues owing the county
that have not been collected are counted as assets.
tax duplicates have been permitted to remain unsettled and in order
to get money to run the county the Commissioners have borrowed on
current notes $63,600.00, paying interest for it of course.
sumption and hope is that when these old duplicates are settled the
money received from them will pay the notes. But will they? :
im 1919, when the present board took control of the Commission-
er’s office there wasn’t a single note outstanding against the county.
Their predecessors had been operating for five years on a four mill
tax and a total assessed valuation in the county of $14,597,990.00.
We want to be entirely fair in discussing these questions with
you. We have no desire to do anybody an injustice and for that rea-
son we here reiterate a statement this paper made in the campaign
We then said that no matter who might be chosen
Commissioner, whether the Democratic or Republican nominees, the
probability was that the county millage would have to be raised, if the
county hoped to finally wipe out its debt.
In other words,
The pre-
As we all know the present Board was chosen and almost the first
thing it did was to clap two mills extra on the taxes. To us this was
not unexpected then, but in addition to adding the extra millage val-
uations were increased from $14,597,990.00 to $16,373,740.00 and as a
result of both increasing the taxes and increasing the valuation the
present board had $139,156.03 with which to carry on the county gov-
ernment in 1922 whereas their predecessors had only $80,825.28 to
operate on in 1919, which they did without issuing any notes, left all
bills that were due paid and a nice cash balance in the treasury.
From this we think you can see what the $63,600.00 of outstand-
It means delinquency in collections and extravagance in expen-
Paying interest on notes to take the place of money that
should be gathered into the county treasury. Poor management is
the most charitable comment any one can make on such a condition of
Retirement of Joseph R. Grundy.
The declared and voluntary retire-
ment of Mr. Joseph R. Grundy, of
Bristol, Pennsylvania, and Philadel-
phia, from the political arena, pre-
sents that veteran “bearer of bur-
dens” in the light of a pathetic fig-
ure. For many years he has been the
fiscal agent of the Pennsylvania Re-
‘publican machine and the “guide, phil-
osopher and friend” of the party lead-
ers. The late Senator Quay leaned
on him whenever financial stress
threatened and the late Senator Pen-
rose was equally dependent upon him.
As president of the Pennsylvania
Manufacturers’ association and a lead-
ing figure in the Manufacturers’ Club
of Philadelphia, he was able to col-
“lect funds in"vast sums for any par-
tisan enterprise.”
{ Like the late Cardinal Wolsey, the
! fruits of Mr. Grundy’s labor are dis-
! appointments. Ingratitude came as
the reward of all his recent efforts.
He delivered the message which made
Warren G. Harding the Republican
nominee for President, at Chicago in
| 1920, as the emissary of Penrose, and
! Harding rewarded him by slights. He
“made William C. Sproul Governor of
i Pennsylvania and Sproul . spurned
y him. He organized and directed the
forces which made Hampton Moore
mayor of Philadelphia and Moore
turned a deaf ear to all his importu-
i nities for recognition. Finally he
| turned the tide which was about to
immerse Gifford Pinchot last year and
contributed $80,000.00 to his cam-
paign fund, and Pinchot gave him the
cold shoulder.
In view of these recurring disap-
pointments it is small wonder that
Mr. Grundy has announced his retire-
ment from politics. Probably it is
not to be regretted that he has adopt-
ed that course, for his methods were
not to be commended. So far as ap-
pearances indicate he had no ambi-
tions to hold office himself. But he
had friends who wanted office and who
contributed money in the hope of such
rewards, and his disappointments
came from his failure to meet such
sinister obligations because of the in-
gratitude of those who had profited
by his work. If the evil of corrupt-
ing the ballot is diminished by his ab-
sence from the scenes of his former
activities his retirement will be for
the public good.
——Col. Henry W. Shoemaker’s Al-
toona Tribune came to our desk on
Monday morning enlarged to an eight
column, sixteen page paper, instead
of seven columns to the page as here-
tofore. The Tribune has always been
a clean, newsy paper and the extra
column not only gives it a more met-
ropolitan appearance but affords more
space for advertising as well as read-
ing matter.
——Governor Pinchot has appoint-
ed Howard J. Thompson, of Curwens-
ville, but for a number of years a res-
ident of Bellefonte, a member of the
board of trustees of the Huntingdon
reformatory.
~——Lloyd George didn’t know he
was so popular. in this country and he
probably never will know why.
NO. 41.
Grand-Stand Plays,
From the Philadelphia Record.
We entertain the highest regard for
the attainments of the Governor of
Pennsylvania. He is a man of great
ability, decent instincts and boundless
energy; and there can be no doubt that
he desires to serve the people faith-
fully and with a distinction that shall
heighten the contrast between his ad-
ministration and those of some of his
boss-ridden predecessors. And yet—
and yet, we could wish that he were
a little less given to grand-stand
plays. : mines 3 TE
ren?
wr
* * * * * * *
Governor _ Pinchot made a grand-
stand play in the settlement of the
coal strike. There was a deal of fuss
and notoriety about his selection as
mediator, about his handling of the
affair at Harrisburg, and about the
telegrams of felicitation that passed
between him and the President after
an adjustment which the lapse of but
a few days showed to be not as rep-
resented. The Governor held out false
hopes to the consumers as to the re-
sults of his strike settlement, they
were especially dashed. He did not
achieve a settlement on a new basis;
he used the same old formula; all the
costs, as usual—and they exceed those
he fixed as a maximum—were saddled
on the consumer. . The strike settle-
ment, and the official statement that
accompanied it, constituted “an act
done to draw applause,” i. e., a grand-
stand play.
Next the Governor descends upon
the coal regions and the city of Phil-
adelphia with a formidable body of
state troopers and announces that he
is going to close all the saloons by
the simple process of serving notices
upon their proprietors to dismantle
their establishments and quit. He
serves the notices. The saloon-keep-
ers laugh. In 48 hours, he tells us,
the saloon-keepers will learn that he
means business.
Several times 48 hours havé elapsed,
and the saloons are still open, and the
United States District Attorney,
whose business it would be to prose-
cute them, announces that they can-
nok be closed. Another grand-stand
play.
We have no doubt that the liquor
situation in Philadelphia is just as’
bad as the Governor represented it to
be, and we are in hearty sympathy
with his desire to apply a remedy. We
wish that his plan might have suc-
ceeded. But we Tne Som NE fe.
and the Governor himself must have
known, that it was another grand-
stand play. '
There is much that the Governor
can accomplish toward the enforce-
ment of the Volstead act, and possibly
a little—though this we doubt—to-
ward ameliorating the effects of his
strike settlement; but in either case,
and in all governmental affairs, he
had better dispense with the brass
band and trust to the public to dis-
cover and appreciate his achieve-
ments.
Advertising is a wonderful force,
but only when the goods are as mer-
itorious as the advertiser represents
them to be. .
Sr ——— ly ge sin.
When a Man Fails.
From the Kansas City Star.
When business is booming even the
incompetent man may make a suc-
cess. It is in time of stress that the
sheep are separated from the goats.
Often we overlook this fact and
blame general conditions for a man’s
failure when the real blame should
fall on his extravagance and poor
management.
A Kansas banker recently cited
these two instances which he knew
personally. Years ago in organizing
a bank he picked a promising young
German as a comer who would have
influence with the German farmers,
helped him get a few shares of stock
in the bank and made him a director.
The honor went to the young man’s
head. He overreached himself in buy-
ing land, he was not a careful man-
ager and now is in danger of losing
everything.
About the same time another young
fellow from Germany got a job as a
farm hand in the neighborhood. He
was earnest and industrious. The
banker hired him at $18 a month. In
two or three years he had saved some
money and asked his employer for
help in buying: a farm. The banker
had enough confidence in him to lend
him the necessary money, up to 75
per cent. of the value of the land. This
man is now a successful farmer, with
a large farm worth $200 an acre, free
of incumbrance. At one time this year
the banker learned he had had $6,000
on deposit in the bank.
The neighbors all point to the case
of the first farmer as showing that
conditions are runinous; that they
have forced the man to the wall.
They say nothing about the second
farmer. who has gone on prospering
under conditions that smashed the
first man.
Occasionally a competent man is
overwhelmed by adverse conditions.
But ordinarily success or failure is a
personal matter. The intelligent, en-
ergetic, thrifty man usupally prospers.
He makes circumstances instead of al-
lowing circumstances to make—or
break—him.
——1It may be gratifying to delin-
quent subscribers to learn that two
dollar bills are gladly accepted at face
value in most newspaper offices.
——If the highway cops will drive
the reckless motorists off the high-
ways ‘they will achieve something
worth while.
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—While exploding dynamite caps, Theo-
dore Mowery, aged 11 years, of Kittan-
ning Point, lost three fingers and a thumb
of his right hand. A finger nail was im-
bedded in his cheek. P
—Joseph Harris, of Sayre, won $1,000 on
the Giants in the first game of the world's
series. He hid $200 of it in the oil stove
at home. His wife was cold on Monday.
Joe is now only $800 winner.
—Plasterers have been offered $17.50 for
an eight hour .shift by an agent repre-
senting Philadelphia builders. Bricklay«
ers working on several large jobs have
been given a voluntary advance, and their
wages now amount to $97.50 a week.
—As the result of a pea lodged in the
Wwindpipe on Sunday evening, Charles D.
Evans 8r., a prominent Johnstown man,
died on Monday in a taxicab while being
taken to the Lee Homeopathic hospital,
where a throat specialist intended remove
ing the obstruction. >,
—It was determined on Saturday that
the loss of forty or more geese belonging
to foreign residents of Freemansburg, Le-
high county, first thought to have been
due to cholera, was caused by imbibing
too much moonshine, which found its way
into a nearby creek. >»
—Mrs. Clara Leonard, of Lancaster, was
refused compensation last Saturday, al
though her husband fell dead while in the
employ of the John Farntim company, of
that place. It was shown that Leonard
entered the plant, sald ‘good morning,”
and almost intsantly fell dead. Physi-
cians said he died from heart failure.
—The six-wire power transmission line
from McCall's Ferry to York is finished
and ready to operate as soon as the sub-
station, near Violet Hill, is completed. A
steel tower was erected near the breast of
the dam, on the York county side, 152 feet
high. The men who built this tower re-
ceived $1 an hour, against 65 cents an
hour, the usual rate.
—Thieves forced a rear door entrance to
the W. F. Hufford silk mill at Weissport,
and carried off silk stockings to the value
of $22,000 last Wednesday night. Most of
the stockings were in boxes ready to ship.
Two motor trucks which were housed near
the mill, one of which belonged to con-
tractor U. Lesher, and the other to Her-
bert Arner, were also stolen.
—Mervin C. Henry, aged 40 years, of
Hanover, and Herman KE. Keasey, aged .
40, of Pleasureville, York county, commit-
ted suicide by hanging, Saturday night.
The wives of both men found their bodies
suspended from ropes. Each suicide chose
the barn at his home to kill himself. Hen-
ry was despondent over continued ill
health, Keasey, it is declared by coroner
McConkey, was drunk at the time he hang-
ed himself, :
—Daniel H. Kennelley, aged 24 years, of
_Fairpoint, near Lock Haven, was cut in
two by a New York Central eastbound
freight at the Bridgens farm, two miles
west of Lock Haven on Monday morning.
Young Kennelley had been staying with
his cousin, William Kennelley, who resides
on the Bridgens farm and had crossed the
track to take a cow to pasture. Failing to
see the train as it rounded the curve, he
was struck and instantly killed.
—Big Run, a Clearfield county borough
of 1,200, near DuBois, is having difficulty
in inducing one of its citizens to accept
the :job of -constable because the place has
no lock-up. If an arrest is made it is nec-
essary that the person making the arrest
either ‘keeps the prisoner in his home or
takes him to a aear by village, all of
which are smaller, but have lock-ups. A
town of 1,200 people without a jail is con-
sidered a novelty in that region.
—Jiggs, a puppy, was the indirect cause
of the death of his little master, Louis
Rex Brown, aged 5 years, son of Clifford
Brown, of Roselawn, near Altoona. When
Rex and his younger brother returned
from their great-grandmother’s Friday,
they found their home was locked. Jiggs
led the way to6 an open cellar window,
through which the boys entered and built
a fire. Rex’s clothing ignited and he was
so terribly burned he died on Sunday.
—Plans to reopen the city bank at York,
Pa., which institution was closed last
April after shortages of more than $1,-
000,000 were uncovered, have been approv-
ed by the depositors’ protective commit-
tee. Under the plan all persons having
deposits totalling less than $200 are to be
paid in full and the others are to receive
75 per cent. in cash and the remainder in
stock at double par. The authorized cap-
ital stock, under the reopening plan, will
be $750,000. =
—Charles L. Cully, 29 years old, former
ticket agent for the Chesepeake and Ohio
railroad at Huntingdon, W. Va. was ar--
rested at Reading on Sunday on informa-
tion furnished by railway police. An au-
tomobile was one of the clues to his ar-
rest. He is charged with embezzling $900
from the railway company two years ago.
He lived at Reading with his family and
was in the roofing business. He is said to
have traveled from coast to coast while
officers hunted two years for him.
—Antonio Gracello, an Italian of Arm-.
strong county, sold more than 2000 cans
of common cheap corn oil under the name
of “finest imported Italian olive oil” be-
fore he was discovered by State pure food
agents and arrested. Gracello was tracked
to his cache in the wilds of the county,
where fifteen filled barrels of corn oil and
twelve empties were found. Gracello being
caught in the act of filling his cans. A
sample was purchased by the agent and
Gracello was arrested and fined the max-
imum of $460 and costs.
—A supposed telephone lineman, armed
with a screw driver, called one day last
week at the home of J. Horace McFarland,
of Harrisburg, president of the American
‘Civics association, and went over the tel-
ephone lines to make repairs. He spent
several hours in the house. The next day
the police announced they were search-
ing for the man-in an effort to find $2000
worth of old jewelry and valuables report-
ed stolen from the McFarland home. The
loss was discovered after the ‘lineman’
had left. Telephone company officials said
no repairmen had been sent there.
— Bertha Pinkerton, 16 years eld, of
Lancaster, is in a serious condition in the
General hospital from poison she took on
‘Monday night while seated in Reservoir
park with Francis Foster, aged 21, and
Carl Herr, 23 years old. She spent the
afternoon at home with her sister and the
two young men, and about 5 o'clock went
out with her beaux. No one saw her tak-
ing the tablet.. When Herr asked her .if
she wanted a doctor, she said, “You. will
soon see I don't need a doctor, I'll need
an ambulance.” Five minutes later she
was rushed to the hospital in an ambu-
lance. Later she declared she swallowed
the poison because her father beat her.