INK SLINGS. —The days are growing very no- ticeably longer. —It may be recalled that former Secretary Fall was appointed to the Harding cabinet as one of the “great minds of the country.” — The death of Lenine, who was more dictatorial than any Czar Rus- sia ever had, may have been a Prov- idential removal of one of the great- est obstacles in the way of tranquility in that distressed land. —As for the public esteem for a man who has been trying to do some- thing worth while we would rather have what will be given to Edward W. Bok than what will fall to Sena- tors Moses, Reed or Greene. — Fred Beauvaus, the Indian guide, who was named as corespondent by James Stillman, the New York bank- er, in his suit for divorce, has sued Mrs. Stillman for pay for the time he spent with her in the Grand Anse country. Thus, Fred goes on record to prove that there are such things as Indian gifts. — Councilman Hall and Mayor Ken- drick, of Philadelphia, have joined Mrs. Sinnamon in her claim that Mrs. Barclay Warburton isn’t“ the only one” whenit comes downto Republi- can women in Pennsylvania. Hall and Kendrick are very practical men. They can use the woman who actual- ly delivers the votes to far greater advantage than the one who merely makes speeches as to how they should be delivered. —Having been assured that he will not have to fight his way to Cleve- land the Governor has announced the opening of his fight to have only men who will pledge themselves to sup- port his policies nominated for the Legislature in the spring. Having heard that Mayor Holmes, of State College, is out on a no pledge, no promise to any one platform we are interested in developments. What will the Governor’s friends in Centre county do to Mr. Holmes? — President Murphree, of the Uni- versity of Florida, will be presented to the coming Democratic National convention by William Jennings Bry- an, as his own pick for the presiden- tial nomination. We observe, from Dr. Murphree’s latest photograph, that he wears a very conspicuous scarf pin, so we are for him. Though fashion for men relegated the scarf pin to the pin cushion years ago we've stuck to ours and comraderie in obso- lescence, if nothing else, demands that we support Murphree—until the next edition at least. —Al Munro Elias, writing for the Williamsport Sun, says John Mont- gomery Ward, our “Monte,” is one of the six pitchers in professional base- ball who have pitched perfect no-hit games—that means that no player on the opposing team reached first base. Of course, to some of us, the story is old, old stuff, but Mr. Elias has given us some new with it. He says that “Monte” was a regular Beau Brum- mel or Shiek of the diamond and that he wore “a big black mustache.” Which makes us rise to say he didn’t. Unless he dyed it and we don’t believe Johnny ever did that. —“Beat me if you can” was the defi that Pinchot hurled at Mellon, Pep- per, Reed, Baker, et al, last week, after they had finally decided to leave him off their slate for National dele- gates. The Governor's public an- nouncement that he intended to fight his own way to Cleveland, without paying the organization tribute for the favor of going without a contest, seems to have had its effect. On Mon- day the organization announced that it’s for Gif, committed or non-commit- tal. Really, it’s amusin’, the way the gang quakes when Mrs. Warburton or the Governor start talking turkey. —Mayor, realtor, notary public and general legal factotum John Laird Holmes, of State College, is willing to jmmolate himself on an altar of greater public service than that of making greetings and handing the keys of the “three mile limit” metrop- olis of College township to visiting hordes. He is willing to succeed the Hon. Tom Beaver in the Legislature. We understand that his platform is: “Trust Me.” No pledges to any per- son or for any cause. Only to repre- sent the people of Centre county— Republicans, Democrats, Prohibition- ists, Socialists and political eunuchs,— alike, without regard to race, creed, color or previous condition of servi- tude. Personally, we have a very high regard for Mayor Holmes. Also, personally, we have a very high re- gard for our meal ticket. And be- tween the two—the Mayor loses. —The offer of the Republican mem- bers of the House Ways and Means committee to compromise with the Democrats on the Mellon tax program and frame a non-partisan measure, if accepted, might have a far reaching effect on the political fortunes of President Coolidge. The Mellon bill has been the hope of the Coolidge boom. Under his administration Con- gress has been a riot of discord and disorganization, but it was hoped that the stupendous Mellon propaganda that has been carried on would befog the public mind so that it would not see the failure of everything else. Now if that lack of leadership is shown as so woeful that it must seek compromise with the Democrats in or- der to get any kind of a tax bill through the House we are of the opin- jon that the Republicans will gradual- yy NX 7H) STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. VOL. 69. BELLEFONTE, PA., JANUARY 25 Philadelphia contemporary makes the prediction that a searching investiga- tion of the Teapot Dome oil leases will “place the country upon the threshold of the greatest official scandal that it has known since the whiskey ring disclosures in the Grant administration.” Ever since the res- ignation of A. B. Fall, as Secretary of the Interior, there has been gossip concerning the leasing of the Teapot Dome oil reserves in Wyoming to a group of oil speculators headed by one Harry Sinclair. But it has been studiously and somewhat mysterious- ly kept down. It has been revealed, however, that both the Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Denby, and Assistant Secretary, Theodore Roosevelt, joined in a recommendation that the lease be made. It has transpired that soon after the lease of this valuable property Secretary Fall became suddenly opu- lent and gossip took the sinister form of charging that he had been bribed. He promptly denied the charge and alleged that he was influenced to the transaction by the recommendation of Secretary Denby, and assistant secre- tary Theodore Roosevelt. He explain- ed his sudden opulence by stating that he had borrowed $100,000 from Ed- ward B. McLean, a millionaire Wash- ington publisher. This didn’t seem plausible to Senator Walsh, who was one of the investigators. He went to Florida where both McLean and Fall were sojourning and obtained from both a statement that McLean had furnished no money and that Fall had misrepresented the matter. Something like a climax was reach- ed, the other day, when Archie Roose- velt voluntarily appeared before the investigating committee of the Sen- ate and declared that another em- ployee of Mr. Sinclair had confessed to him that Sinclair had paid large Fall about the time that the lease was destinely left the country and that he, Archie, was so outraged by these evi- dences of fraud that he had resigned his office in the Sinclair organization ‘and sevewed his connection with “the group. His testimony was corrob- orated by his brother, Theodore, as- ment and resign. prediction of the correspondent will be verified. ——Mr. Bryan is in hard luck. His ident says he doesn’t agree with the Commoner in some things. is orthodox in prohibition nothing else matters. Messrs. Mellon and Couzens. Secretary Mellon is an able letter writer as well as a capable financier but he stirred up a nest of hornets when he took his pen in hand to open up a correspondence with Senator Couzens, of Michigan. These gentle- men entertain widely opposed views on questions of taxation and in re- plying to some amiable objections to the Mellon tax bill the Secretary re- vealed some asperity and indulged in what the late Josh Billings would have called “sarkasm.” This provok- ed the Senator to invoke the same epistolary style with the result that most observers will get the opinion that the Secretary got the worst of it. For example, the Senator advanced the proposition in reply to the Secre- tary’s assertion of the opposite, that capital is not forced to investment of tax-free securities by the exactions of the income tax, and the Secretary re- torted that when the Senator sold his extensive holdings in the Ford auto- mobile plant he did invest the pro- ceeds in the tax-free securities. Senator denies this emphatically and states that while some of his money invested in buildings and building op- erations in Detroit. Such investments are certainly not tax-free and as the Senator adds, “are quite as useful to the public as the Secretary’s vast in- vestments in breweries and distiller- ies.” Senator Couzens has paid income tax to the amount of upward of eight law has been in operation and if the Mellon rates had been in force from million dollars of that amount. Mr. Mellon has paid a much larger amount, no doubt, but neither of them was ever obliged to miss a meal on account of the draft upon his resourc- es, and both are quite able to meet their obligations now. Mr. Mellon is anxious to reduce his assessment, as most other men are, but it is hardly fair for him to misrepresent the rea- sons which influence him to that nat- ural desire. ——If General Butler had been op- ly waken to realize that the President isn’t strong enough to lead their bat- tle hopefully next fall. erating in Philadelphia about elec- Prediction Likely to be Verified. | The Washington correspondent of a | amounts of money to an employee of | made, that Sinclair himself had clan- sistant secretary of the Navy, who advised the other to make his state- It looks as if the: newly discovered candidate for Pres- But if he | The | is so invested a large amount is also | million dollars since the income tax | the start he would have saved four Mellon Bill Propaganda. The propaganda in support of the Mellon tax bill takes on various and curious forms. The President has practically declared that no Senator or Congressman who opposes the measure need expect favors from the administration. This is a form of lob- bying which is beyond the censure of Congressional committees but of doubtful efficiency. Senators and Representatives in Congress who are amenable to such influences are not likely to exert a large influence in legislation. But there are other agen- cies at work more dangerous. The banks and corporations are appealing through their officials and by intim- idating employees and dependents, and that method of approach is dan- gerous. Another method of achieving the ' purpose is by lauding Secretary Mel- lon to the skies. One of the under secretaries of the department, in a Governor Pinchot Has been Adopted. At a meeting of the Republican State leaders held in Philadelphia, on Sunday night, it was agreed that the organization will support Governor Pinchot for Delegate-at-Large to the national convention at Cleveland. But no information has been given as to the terms of the agreement. Orig- inally the organization laid down con- ditions which seemed impossible of fulfillment. The Governor was not only required to relinquish his choice of candidates but to surrender his right of utterance. So far as the pub- lic is informed Mr. Pinchot has not done either. All that he has done is openly declare that he is a candidate for the office. Unless there is a se- cret agreement the organization has backed out. Taking one consideration with | another our friends, the enemy, have | a vexed problem to solve. As late as last Saturday afternoon the leaders speech delivered at a dinner in honor | had determined to make a fight of his chief at the Manufacturer’s against the Governor and slate Secre- Club in Philadelphia, the other even- | tary of Labor James J. Davis to the ing, gave Mr. Mellon generous credit | with all the decreases in expenses of | government which have occurred since the close of the world war. “In 1921,” he declared, “the nation’s expenses to- talled fifty-five hundred million dol- lars, while in 1923 it had been reduc- ed to thirty-seven hundred million.” Possibly a group of stupids who be- lieve that European exporters pay the tariff taxes might swallow that bunk, but the average American citizen can- not be so deceived. In 1921 the government of the Unit- ed States was demobilizing an army | of upward of four million men and ' was still maintaining an army and navy on a war footing. In 1923 the army had been reduced to a trifle more than one hundred thousand men and more than half the naval force and equipment had been demobilized. The vast decrease in the cost of gov- ernment is ascribable to the changed conditions rather than to any budget system introduced by Mr. Mellon, though justice requires an admission that he is a capable financier and an efficient business man. Neither is he entitled to credit for .the increased -value- of the Liberty bonds. In the beginning many of them were held by working people who were forced to sacrifice them by an industrial flunk. ; Senator Pepper has positively refused to introduce Governor Pin- i chot’s coal bill in the Senate, which is . additional proof of complete harmo- ny in the Republican party of Penn- sylvania. i Charles Snyder Squelched. i It is a great pity that the Supreme | court did not finally and forever set- | tle the question of the constitutionali- | ty of the Pinchot code in its decision upon the Snyder appeal the other day. It did, as might have been expected, declare the questions raised by Mr. Snyder valid. But it added: “It may be there are some sections which will be found to transgress the constitu- tional provisions hereinbefore refer- red to. We shall determine these questions, however, if any, when they come to us in due form—not before.” That is a sort of invitation to contin- ue the absurd litigation with which Charlie Snyder has been cluttering . the courts for nearly a year. Upon the pretext that Mr. Snyder held the code to be unconstitutional he refused payment of the salaries of certain employees of the State. The basis of his opinion was that the pur- poses of the code were not explicitly declared in the title. The constitu- tion provides that “no bill except gen- eral appropriation bills, shall be passed containing more than one sub- i ject, which shall be clearly expressed in the title.” The code treats of a good many subjects, all grouped un- der the head of “executive,” and the court rules that is sufficient. “The executive department,” the court de- i clares, “is a single subject of legisla- tion, in the sense that it may be structurally reorganized * * * in one Act of Assembly.” As a matter of fact it doesn’t now and never did make much difference | to the public whether the office held by Dr. King is called the Secretary of the Commonwealth or Secretary of ' State. The duties of the secretary and the prerogatives of the official are the same, and quibbling over the mat- ter is a waste of time and energy. | But when, under the authority of the | code, the Governor or his subordinate agents usurp power vested by the | constitution in another department in- : dependent of the Governor, the fun- | damental law is violated and a dan- | gerous precedent is established. But { that question was not raised in the | proceeding in question and the public will be gratified to know that Snyder is squelched. | ——1It has been proved that a tack ! may be removed from the lung of a [tion time the Republican majority as to whether a kink may be taken {would have been considerably less. out of a Governor's brain, place which had been tentatively re- served for Pinchot. But immediately following this decision a conference was arranged for Sunday evening, in the Philadelphia office of Senator Pep- per, which was held according to schedule. Those present were Gover- nor Pinchot, Senators Pepper and Reed, chairman Baker, Secretary Mel- lon and Mrs. Warburton. At the con- clusion of the meeting it was an- nounced that the Governor has been adopted by the machine. Of course there is a possibility that Governor Pinchot has agreed to the terms of the machine and equally possible that the machine has surren- dered to the Governor rather than. risk disastrous defeat in the drawn battle. There is even one more field for conjecture. The Governor may have been taken into the family as a sort of “step-child” subject to the tra- ditional treatment of obdurate boys | and cruel parents. In other words it may be the intention of the machine to lure the Governor along until elec- tion day and then give him “the hook.” There are more names than Jere are places on the slate, and it uld be comparatively easy to put such a trick over on a simple-minded man like Pinchot. —“Zev” wasn’t any faster when he beat Papyrus, English champion run- ner last fall, than was his owner when he heard of the explosion in the Tea- pot Dome affair. The way Mr. Sin- clair beat it for the first foreign- | bound steamer makes us believe that if he and his horse were racing to- gether he could say to “Zev:” “Git out o’ de way and let somebody run what kin run.” Penn State Students Must Leave Cars at Home. College studies and automobile par- ties do not make a good mixture, is evidently the conclusion of the board of trustees of The Pennsylvania State College, and students at that institu- tion will be requested to leave their cars at home, in accordance with a resolution passed at the annual meet- ing of the board held in Harrisburg on Tuesday. The resolution declared “it is the opinion of the board of trustees that students of the college can not keep automobiles for use while at college without interference with their studies and without considerable risk to their personal safety and health. The council of administration is there- fore directed to take such action as may be necessary to prevent this practice and to bring general notice of such action to the attention of the parents of students.” According to reports many Bellefonte landlords are again boost- ing rents this year, and renters are naturally wondering where the end will be. A few years ago a certain house rented for $12.50 a month. Suc- cessive yearly boosts brought the ren- tal up to $25.00 a month last year and now, itis said, notice has been given that the rent next year will be $30.00. Owners of houses that have no mod- ern conveniences are asking $25.00 and $30.00 a month rent, while rentals of a number of business places are also being boosted. And notwith- standing high rents desirable homes are hard to get. In fact, so hard that the only sure way nowadays of hav- ing a comfortable place to live is to own your own home. ent e—— A —————— ——Twenty per cent. increase in taxes and twenty per cent. decrease in the value of the franc is the dan- gerous combination now striking at the popularity of President Poincaire of France. ——The real difference between the Mellon tax bill and the substitute | proposed by Mr. Garrett, of Texas, is baby, but there are doubts remaining that one benefits the millionaires and | the other offers advantage to the millions. . 1924. NO. 4, “Profoundly Pacific.” i From the Philadelphia Record. There was probably pathos in the voice of M. Poincare when he said to the Chamber of Deputies that “some of our Allies have failed to grasp the profoundly pacific policy of France.” It is painful to be misunderstocd after a man has tried as hard as M. Poincare has to preserve the peace. But William II knows how it is. In the interests of peace he built up the most powerful army in the world, and a navy that he believed could at least make the British navy cautious, and yet the world accuses him of militar- ism. Did he not declare that he was for peace? Did he not keep Europe at peace for 25 years by making every country afraid of him? And M. Poincare is also determined to have peace. France has been sit- ting on the chest of Germany for a year so that it should not disturb the peace. France cannot pay its debts of honor to the United States and Great Britain, but it can lend several billions of francs to Poland and the Little Entente for the avowed purpose of equipping their armies so that they would be in a position to prevent Ger- many from committing any belliger- ent act. France is negotiating trea- ties with the several members of the Little Entente, binding both parties to support each other in the event of war, or binding one party to preserve neutrality if the other gets into a war, and all this is designed to preserve peace; to make it impossible for Ger- many to struggle. i If France can get alliances with all the nations adjacent to Germany it will be as confident of peace—undis- turbed by Germany—as William II | was that no nation dared to make war unless Berlin gave permission. The treaty between France and Czecho- Slovakia obliges the latter to go to the help of the former in the event of war. There is a treaty between Italy and Jugo-Slavia which binds each side to remain neutral if the other should be involved in war. Thus the “profoundly n»acific policy of France” aims to make it impossible for Germany to rise, but assures France of allies at the rear and on the flank of Germany if Germany should show any restlessness. It is a pro- foundly pacific policy, but it is not strange that some of the Allies have failed to grasp it because it looks so much like the profoundly pacific poli- cy of William II, which in his "“onest opinion enabled him to preserve the peace of Europe for 25 years. But when the Prime Minister de- clared it necessary to take energet- ic measures against the offensive be- ing conducted against the franc a Communist shouted, “Leave the Ruhr!” Of course this aroused a storm of protest, but it hit the bull’s eye. A Grain Subsidy. From the Journal of Commerce. Senator McNary’s bill providing for an export subsidy on wheat is in line with that type of legislation which was naturally to be expected follow- ing the numerous conventions and conferences held during the past year on the grain situation. Its avowed purpose is to increase the cost of wheat to the consumers, and there- fore ranks even below the level of leg- islative efforts to tax coffee and tea. The frequently proposed taxes on cof- fee and tea at least had the merit of endeavoring to raise revenue for the general expenses of the government, whereas the proposed tax on wheat production would be paid out in the form of subsidy to those merchants who export that commodity. It would return no revenue to the government, but would add to the governmental expenses, inasmuch as some machin- ery would have to be perfected to car- ry out the suggested statute. It would be easy to attack the new bill on the score of its impracticabil- ity and its failure to accomplish what is intended of it, namely, to increase the price the farmer would receive for his wheat, but its class intent is suf- ficient to demonstrate its objectiona- ble quality. Class legislation is nev- er acceptable in our body politic. Even paternalistic legislation which had a purely altruistic purpose has in the past been defeated because it was class legislation. Pinchot and Pepper. From the Scranton Times. Governor Pinchot and United States Senator George Wharton Pepper have reached the parting of the ways not only in things political but policies. Senator Pepper refuses to sponser Governor Pinchot’s coal regulation bill. He gives as a reason that in his opinion the measure is unsound and declares he does not wish to father a bill which he can not conscientiously and whole-heartedly support. Be that as it may the opinion prevails that Senator Pepper utilized the request of Governor Pinchot as a way of in- forming the Governor that henceforth and hereafter their ways run in en- tirely different directions. The Bok Probe. From the Harrisburg Telegraph. Mr. Bok need not be alarmed nor opponents of his plan elated by the investigation which has been started by the Senate of the charge that the whole thing was engineered by League propagandists. The subject of the contest and the award will be ancient history so far as public interest is concerned at least a year before any Congressional in- vestigating committee could make a report. | SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Thousands of railroad crossties are be- ing stored along the old Pennsylvania Railroad right-of-way in the upper part of Duncannon, hauled from the lumber camp of Duncan and Wills, near Sher- mansdale, —REighty-two persons in Lewistown and vicinity lost $41,000 by buying “participat- ing operating certificates” of the Keystone Auto Gas and Oils company for which re- ceivers were recently appointed, it was an- nounced on Friday. —Mrs. Frank Corey was badly burned on Saturday at her home at Ridgway, when her clothing caught fire from a gas heating stove. Her husband tore the burn- ing garments from her and he sustained painful burns on his hands. —The body of John Radomsky, of Hawk Run, was found in the William Slee mine near Hawk Run on Friday morning by mining engineers. It is believed the man was caught in a fall of rock and the life crushed out of him. He was 45 years old and was married. —While counting money in his store at Butler, last Wednesday morning, William Vine was held up and robbed by two masked men. They drove away in an au- tomobile with $170. The police believe thieves who have been operating in Pitts- burgh, are extending their activities to nearby towns. —A jury at Lewisburg, last Thursday, acquitted Walter Keiser, a local barber, on a charge of shooting John Oberdorf, while hunting deer last season. Oberdorf hov- ered between life and death with a rifle bullet in his body. Keiser, with a party of friends, was accused of doing the shoot- ing, but denied it. —Oscar Altland, steward at the York county almshouse, welcomes tramps to the local institution. Before he will give them food or lodging, however, he introduces them to a saw-buck and a large wood-pile. Those who balk at this offer to give food and lodging in return for work are order- ed to keep moving. 3 —A survey of the expenditures of pu- pils of the Lock Haven public schools for the week of January 7, made in order to encourage thrift in the public schools edu- cation shows that the sum of $750.58 was expended during that week for “movies,” candy, ice cream, tobacco and other luxu- ries and entertainment. —When a truck containing sixty hogs fell through the flooring of the Herrs is- land bridge, over the Allegheny river, at Pittsburgh on Friday, John Reimenschnei- der driver of the truck, caught hold of a hog's ears and reached shore in safety. John Richards, helper on the truck, was drowned. Thirty of the sixty hogs were lost. —The Standard Steel works at Lewis town closed its gates on Saturday night. Only sufficient men were retained to keep the plant from freezing in the event of cold weather. The watchmen were laid off and the gates about the plant were all locked, except at the main entrance. Stand- ard officials say conditions look drab and make no predictions when the plant will resume in full. —Lester Daubenmeyer, alias Smith and Obermeyer, pleaded guilty before Judge Thomas F. Bailey at Lewistown, last Wed- nesday, and was sentenced to serve from five to ten years in the western peniten- tiary. He was charged with holding up thirty-eight men in the Harmon pool- room, when he was caught off his guard and hit with a billiard ball by Joseph Henry and landed in the hospital with a fractured jaw. ! —The commercial department of the Dunmore High school at Scranton, was literally stripped of its equipment on Sat- urday afternoon when sheriff James Reap carried out an order of the Lackawanna court directing that thirty-seven type- writers, three desks and eight chairs be seized. Failure of the district to pay $3415.43, the amount due on the articles mentioned, prompted the issuance of the writs of replevin. —Agents of Henry Ford are believed to have taken option on a forty-eight-acre water power site along the Susquehanna river near Sunbury, last week. The per- mit to buy was taken out in the name of Wade H. Cruse, but the residence was not given, and came after weeks of negotia- tions. Theodore Hummell, owner of the property, does not know who the buyer is, he says. The agreed price is said to be $50,000, a record for property there, far- mers said. : —Guiseppe Gremaldo, found guilty in’ the Blair county court, on Saturday, of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Clarence Leonard, of Grafton Centre, N. H., last year, ended his life by hanging himself to the door of his cell in the Hollidaysburg jail Saturday noon, only a few hours after the jury had given its verdict. Gremaldo shot and killed Leonard in a boarding house in that place, after they had quarreled over who would wash the dishes. —Summoned before Mayor Harvey, at Hazleton, on a charge of annoying an un- named widow with persistent proposals for marriage, Michael Fetchko, aged y 14 years, a widower, of that place, turned the tables and declared that he was a victim of the woman’s wiles. She is 68 years old, and Fetchko claims that she has followed him wherever he has gone at nights with invitations that they be wed. The mayor discharged the case, saying that as this is leap year, it was the privilege of any wid- ow to spring the question. —After fifty-five years, the estate of the late Harry Cooper, a Nescopeck man, was finally settled on Saturday at a conference of the heirs. Cooper died in 1869, and un- der terms of his will the estate could not be settled until aster the death of his daughter. The daughter died a few years after her father, but extended litigation, in which the heirs figured, prevented set- tlement of the estate until an agreement was reached out of court on Saturday. The estate, originally worth about $6000, has increased in value until it is estimat- ed to be worth about $30,000. —Colonel David Gardner, aged 84 years, Civil war hero and pioneer in Pennsylva- nia oil fields, died at the Warren General hospital shortly before midnight Saturday night of heart failure following hardening of the arteries. Colonel Garduer partici- pated in sixty-three engagements, was wounded three times, and four horses were shot from under him. He was lieu- tenant colonel and acting colonel ef the First Pennsylvania cavalry at the bat- tle of Gettysburg, and he was selected as the sculptor’s model for the monument at Gettysburg in honor of that command. Colonel Gardner was born on a farm near Hollidaysburg, Pa., February 19, 1840. He was one of six brothers who enlisted in the Union army, two of them being killed in service.