Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, January 30, 1925, Image 1
nordic ~rpD 1S INK SLINGS. —— Now that a method has been discovered by which “static” can be eliminated something besides the statements of the “announcer” may be heard distinctly on the radio. ——Our Senator, William I. Betts, of Clearfield, is sponsor for a new tax bill that is likely to attract consider- able attention in this session of the Legislature. being to include real estate of various public utility corporations in the list of taxables is calculated to draw fire from the railroads and other enter- prises of this class. —The Governor and the anti- saloon league have composed their differences on the matter of enforce- ment legislation to be proposed at this session of the Legislature. Their squabble is said to have ended be- cause both sides agreed to “give and take.” That's a surprise to us, for while we have felt that both Gif and Homer Tope are long on the “take” we never dreamed that either one of them had even a speaking acquaint- ance with the meaning of “give.” Burgess Harry Todd has taken issue with the town council of Philips- burg as to who is boss of the police department over there. At its last meeting council elected a new force which meant the elimination of the old chief, Daniel Brink. The burgess immediately dismissed Council’s offi- cers and directed Brink to continue on duty, and so the situation is charged with controversy as to who is boss so strong that an explosion is expected when the council of that borough meets again. —_When Bellefonte invested $20,- 000 in two modern fire fighting ma- chines one of the c‘rong points in favor of their purchase was that if they didn’t reduce insurance rates, they would, at least, be strong argu- ments against any suggestions of raising them. We have heard that the old line companies have decided to advance rates in Bellefonte by about forty percent. If this is true it would seem that there is little encouragement for municipalities that assume heavy financial burdens for the purpose of minimizing losses by fire. —Any who might be thinking of joining us on the trip we proposed last week are advised to cease the mental process of evolving how it could be done. We're not going to win the grand prize for solving cross- word puzzles. We know it. Because we never won, but once in our lives and then the accident of chance was blighted by the evil eye that seems always to have us as its focal point. We might get one of the dollar Li for ES iy nursed a. fifteen pound dictionary on our bread-basket for thirty nights in succession, but we won’t get the thousand, so what’s the use of planning .a; perigrination into fields we haven’t seen since we were credulous enough to believe that two--now four— could live as cheap as one. We ‘wander afield, however. We started to tell of the only time that “lady-luck” ever really played into our hand. It was in April years ago. The late Chas. Cruse was continuing his departed father’s well establish- ed tobacco store in the Bush house. He had bought heavily of pipes for the Christmas trade, but had most of the costly ones still on his hands when spring came. To convert them into cash he bethought himself of pooling them off to the loafers in the hotel lobby, one of which we were. The night before we had planned a fishing excursion on Logan’s branch we bought a dozen numbers on a fifteen dollar meerschaum. Early next morn- ing we walked to the “Blue Spring” and fished with constant hope to the plant of the Nitany Iron company— four miles by the creek. There we met “Donny,” rarely known as Morti- mer O'Donoghue, superintendent of that since scrapped industry. Foot- sore and wet, hungry and dry we stated the tale of ill-luck when he an- nounced that we had won the pipe. We never had won anything before so you will understand why we replied that he take his seat by the side of Ananias. Then he offered to trade an eighteen inch brook trout—which he didn’t own and we knew it, on our equity in the pipe, which we believed we had every- thing but any. We accepted, stepped into the Company office and put it in writing. After that we were con- ducted to Jim Miller's spring house where all the trout in Logan’s branch and Spring creek seemed to have se- lected as their safety zone and, sure enough, among them was an eighteen inch brook trout. This piscatorial prodigy we put into a bucket, not in our creel, and started for home where a new porcelain bathtub had just suc- ceeded the one of tin vintage. Filling it with water we dumped the ill-got- ten fruit of the expedition and started over town to seek glorifiers of our skill. We found three, but when we got back to prove the verity of our claim that we had caught the daddy of them all there he was, lying dead on the bath room floor. Released from the confines of the bucket he had gotten gay in our absence and raced out over the edge of the top to a death that made thoughts of eating him nauseating. We had won the pipe. “Donny” got it and forthwith present- ed it to Kelley, his boss-furnace man and Kelley busted it that very night “knocking it out” against the stack, as was his manner of cleaning the old clay boy that was built for furnace men. One of its provisions | a STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNIUN. VOL. 70. BELLEFONTE, PA.. JANUARY 30. 1925 NO. 5. The Cambria County Outrage. The palpable injustice perpetrated by the court of Cambria county in giving a certificate of election to a candidate shown by judicial investi- gation to have been defeated is at- tracting attention and provoking com- ment outside of Pennsylvania. The Springfield, Massachusetts, Republi- can expresses amazement that the Supreme court of Pennsylvania should have sanctioned such an outrage upon justice in view of a decision handed down by that tribunal in another case, less than a year ago. “If a return is in such shape either from mistake, ignorance or fraud, that nothing can be predicated upon it,” the State Su- preme court declared in March last, “it could not properly be determined that the court must find its hand palsied when it would raise the lid of the box.” In the case in point both claimants to the election had suspicions, of the integrity of the returns in certain election districts and upon motion of counsel of both candidates the judges of the court, one Democrat and the other Republican, decided to recount the ballots in the districts named. The recount showed a majority for the Democratic candidate, Warren Worth Bailey, who in the interest of honesty as well as decency, ought to have been given the certificate of election. But the defeated candidate interposed a claim that the court had no right to open the ballot boxes be- cause the question in dispute was the election of a Congressman rather than an officer of the Thereupon the Republican judge re- versed himself and sustained the point. Another Republican judge was called in and he concurred in the poli- tical view expressed by the Repub- lican judge of Cambria county. An appeal to the State Supreme court failed to correct the injustice because of an equal division of the judges. It is only proper to say that all the judges participating were Re- publicans but three of them favored a reversal of the lower court while the other three deelared “the court must find its hand palsied when it would raise the lid of the box.” A subse- quent appeal to the Supreme court of i, ited tates X it “dismissed on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction and thus by the sanction of the highest courts of the country a grave crime is approved and a great wrong perpetrated, for it can hardly be expected that a Congress with a large Republican majority and under no moral restraints will humiliate the men “in robes” responsible for the outrage. — Senator Wheeler, of Montana, is a modest man but recent events show it is dangerous to monkey with him. : Coolidge Reveals Signs of Program. Addressing a conference on “the causes and cure of war,” at Washing- ton on Saturday, President Coolidge said: “I. believe that the next step which we may well take is by parti- cipation in the Permanent Court of International Justice. I believe that our adherence to that tribunal, for which I earnestly hope, will become one medium in which may be grad- ually precipitated and crystalized a body of international law and pro- cedure which, by avoiding the dangers that would attend the establishment of a super-government, will ultimate- ly command the respect and approba- tion of the world’s public opinion and the co-operation of the nations.” This is certainly a sign of progress. The super-government, the shadow of which “strikes terror to the soul” of every “bitter ender” within or without the Senate, to which the Pres- ident refers, is the League of Na- tions, which is no super-government at all. An association of governments which requires unanimous consent of all its signatories to any major proposition as the covenant of the League of Nations provides is neither dominant nor dangerous. Viewed from that angle the Permanent Court of International Justice is quite as potential as the League and in sup- porting one and denouncing the other the President simply reveals a mental weakness that belittles the great office he occupies. For the reason that adherence to the proposed International court is a step in the direction of ultimate en- trance into the Legue of Nations it is dsirable. The proposed court is a creature of the League. The Hughes reservations cast some doubt upon the sincerity of our participation in the court and the honesty of our purpose in affiliating with it. But notwith- standing this fact adherence to the court is an acknowledgement of the League of Nations and should be en- couraged by all thoughtful men and women of the country. In the course of time the malignity which influenc- ed Senator Lodge and others “to fight Wilson” will give way to better impulses. Paying Political Debts. | There is a good deal of anxiety in official Washington over a recently ! developed opposition to the confirma- . tion of the appointment of Attorney | General Harlan F. Stone to be asso- | ciate judge of the Supreme court of the United States. At the time he was appointed Attorney General the favor was ascribed to a college friend- ship. Since his promotion to the higher office it has been alleged that the first appointment was made at the solicitation of certain trust in- terests and the college story was a pleasant fiction. It is alleged, more- over, that Mr. Stone was on the legal staff of the Morgan bank, which was declared an unpardonable crime dur- ing the recent Presidential cam- paign. Whether Mr. Stone was a Morgan attorney or not ought to be of little consequence provided his relations with the firm were legitimate and of a character which a reputable lawyer might espouse. Fairly considered that would mean only that he is a good lawyer, for the Morgan bank can afford to employ the best and usually does so. It is claimed, how- ever, that the case in which Stone represented the Morgan bank was not that kind of a case. An old Colorado pioneer asserts that through Stone the Morgan bank robbed him of a vast estate. This charge is the ori- ginal cause of the opposition to con- firmation. Mr. Stone’s connection with the Daugherty “frame-up” against Senator Wheeler is an added State or county. cause of objection. ! Whether the nomination of Mr. Stone is confimed or not, and the prob- abilities are that it will be, it is anoth- er link in the chain of evidence that Wall street interests are in complete control of the appointing power. of the Coolidge : administration. Mr. Stone, being a corporation lawyer, and be- cause he was a corporation lawyer, was made Attorney General and sub- sequently promoted to the bench of the highest court in the country. Be- cause Charles B.-Warren, of Michigan, is a corporation lawyer and counsel ‘for the Sugar trust he is nominated to succeed Stone as Attorney General and he also will be confined. - The ob- “ligations to the campaign contributors must be met. —-—Obviously the President misin- terpreted thé lesson of - the "election. The Senate is now pointing out that the big majority didn’t mean an ab- solute boss in the White House. Harrisburg Not a Bed of Roses. A careful survey of the present Legislature involves the proceedings in doubt. The decided defeat admin- | istered to the Governor in the selec- tion of the Speaker indicated an over- whelming opposition to his pro- gramme for legislation. But a closer inspection of the personnel of both Houses reveals the fact that while the Governor may be disappointed in ‘his expectation ‘with respect to dry legislation those who hope to put over certain measures of a wet char- acter will also fail in their purpose. In the House of Representatives the wets seem to be in the majority but there are enough dry Senators to sus- tain the veto of any wet legislation they may enact. It will require thirty-four votes to carry any measure over the Govern- or'’s veto in the Senate. It is safe to say that no wet measure vetoed by the Governor will get that many votes. The friends of the Governor boldly and somewhat freely claim that | seventeen of the fifty Senators will support the Governor in his veto of any bill, and if that be an accurate estimate, the victory scored by the machine in the organization of the House will degenerate into’ an unim- portant skirmish of doubtful value. Pinchot may be depended upon to keep up his sniping operations and with his appeal to the public, plausibly presented, he may hold his enemies in a state of terror to the end of the ‘session. Of course this line of procedure will not “bring much bacon” to the Governor’s political larder but it may divert a good deal from the path that leads to the pantry of the machine. The managers, who have been con- ducting a systematic war against the Governor since early last summer, have been making promises rather freely and if they are not fulfilled, at least in considerable measure, they will cause trouble. outlook is not radiant for either side. The indications point to a life and death struggle between the factions of the party with an indifferent pub- lic complacently watching the moves and reflecting that “when rogues fall out honest men come by their own.” The equipment of a Ilepresen- tative in the Legislature this year is a bunch of stationery, a fountain pen, a Smull’s hand book, a revolver and a stiletto. ve oy Edi dee SR A , \—Under "date of ‘January 24 the , New York papers announce the return In any event the | Pinchot a Help to the “Wets.” Governor Pinchot is again playing into the hands of the “wet” interests, according to news dispatches from : Harrisburg. That is, he is setting up an impracticable line of enforcement legislation which threatens to divide the “dry” forces in the Legislature and thus defeat all legislation on the subject. The Harrisburg correspond- ent of the Philadelphia Public Ledger writes: “Continued differences of opinion of a grave character between the Pinchot adminstration. and the Anti-Saloon League over supplemen- tary prohibitory legislation are re- ported here.” The result is likely to be a repetition of the Speakership fight. The “wets” will have their way in everything. | - This is in the main an expression of the abnormal egoism of Gifford or Cornelia. They insist on creating a court or tribunal consisting of “heads of departments” of the State gov- ernment. The Governor or Cornelia appoints the heads ¢~ the departments in question and er vs the power of removel. Under the ..rcumstances the Governor could, if so inclined, control the decisions of the tribunal. In ‘ other words, he might constitute him- self judge, jury and prosecutor. The (plan of the Anti-Saloon League is , said to be less drastie but more prac- tical. It would amply serve the pur- | pose of enforcing the law but without i giving the Governor so much power ~over the operation. | © As a matter of fact Governor Pin- ¢hot appears to be absolutely in- | sincere in his pretense of devotion to {the cause of prohibition or the en- ‘forcement of prohibition legislation. . He has by some process of reasoning : persuaded himself that it is the popular side of a present. contro- versy.and has espoused it as a medium ‘ of promoting his selfish ambitions. If he had acted with even resonable : intelligenee in the contest for = the | Speakership a “dry” man would have been chosen and there would have “been no occasion for dispute over the -Law and Order committee. If pro- hibition fails during the present ses- sion it may be aseribed to the same cause. : } ‘ from a. trip abroad of John W. Davis. Possibly you have forgotten the name. He was our candidate for President in 1924. Forty-one Below at Clarence. i { { . There can be no questioning of the statement that Wednesday morning {was the coldest of the winter, thus : far. | In Bellefonte thermometers record- ‘ed variously, according to their loca- . tion and accuracy. Reports came into i this office running all the way from 12 to 20 degrees below zero. i Clarence, however, always regard- ‘ed as the coldest spot in the county, ; broke all records that we have mem- ‘ory of. On the porch of O. J. Harm’s store at that place the thermometer | recorded 41 degrees below at 7 o’clock {in the morning: An hour later the ‘mercury rose to 39 degrees and at “noon it was still 8 degrees below zero. The trouble with the child ' labor amendment to the constitution | is that at every step in its progress it encounters a memory of the Eigh- - teenth. ' <——-Weather prophets last week pre- dicted that the backbone of the winter was broken with the passing of the eclipse, and the warm weather of Sun- day and Monday seemed as if such might be the case. But a decided change on Monday night brought an- other four inch fall of snow and this week has been just as wintry like as any time since the early part of De- cember. In fact we have had a long stretch of cold weather without a general breakup, but next Monday i will be groundhog day and let us hope | the pesky critter will not be able to 'see his shadow from morn until night. — legislatures are in session in | forty States and it’s small wonder | that credulous folk are preparing for the end of the world next month. ——The President is opposed to the elevation of warship guns.. He prob- ably wants to show respect for the twelve mile limit. — Governor Pinchot appears de- termined to enforce prohibition in his own way or prevent its enforcement in any way. Attorney General Stone now realizes that butting into other peo- ple’s business is a dangerous thing. ——The eclipse is over and the country safe, but the 6th of February is yet to come. ‘France loaned a great de Poland and France. From the Philadelphia Record. There was an interesting con- trast on Friday between the Polish Diet and the French Chamber of Deputies. After the war we sup- plied Poland with food, and the credit given to the new nation was $178,000,000. The agreement for the funding of this sum was passed by the Diet unanimously, and speeches of gratitude to the United States were interrupted by tumultu- ous applause for this country. While the war was going on, and when France was showing signs of exhaustion, the army was mutinous and the “defeatists” were trying to arrange a peace on German terms, we entered the conflict, put 2,000,000 soldiers in France, incurred a debt of $15,000,000,000 on our own ac- count, besides about $10,000,000,000 loaned to the Allies, of which France got nearly $4,000,000,000, and we saved that nation. On Friday the Chamber of Deputies experienced its most disorderly session because a large proportion of the members were wroth at the Government for refusing to adopt as its own the preposterous speech of Louis Marin repudiating all obligations to the United States and insisting that we were indebted to France for, begin- ning the war when it was invaded by Germany. At the previous Herriot made a speech supporting Marin’s repudiation, but later it is evident that the men responsible for the French Government realized that this sort of thing would not do at all, the Government refused on sober second thought to make Marin’s speech its own, and it was supported by a majority of 60 in a vote. But the opponents were able to make the session of Friday the most riotous in its history : het It is hardly necessary to.comment upon the gratitude of Poland for a piece of bread and the attitude. of a great part of the Chamber . of Deputies toward the United States which saved the life of France, = But there is : which it is worth while to note. of money to the Czar’s Government, ‘much of which was spent in a criminal war with Japan over some’ Gortupt thn. ber concessions in Korea...Later the French bankers brought ‘the war to an end by refusing to lend any mere money to Russia urlléss’ the war wa closed. Japan . also was un; borrow abroad, and the natiens. to make peace. : The Czar’s Government was as- suredly not a Government of the Russian people, and it has been de- stroyed by a revolution, yet France insists that the Soviet shall pay the Czar’s debts. It has refused until recently to recognize the Soviet be- cause it denies its obligation to do so, but a few weeks ago it gave diplomatic recognition in the belief that the Soviet had consented to its liability. Some doubt about this has arisen. : Here are the illuminating con- trasts between France and Poland, e: to and between the French attitude to- | ward the Russian debt and toward its own debt to the United States. We have our full quota of fools, and we do not hold all France responsible for Louis Marin. But the applause of the Chamber of Deputies at Marin’s speech, and the disorder re- sulting from the Government’s re- fusal to adopt this speech as its own sentiment, indicates a good deal of French sentiment for repudiation, while France is demanding that the Russian Soviet pay all the obliga- tions of the Romanoffs. Will Hear From the People. From the Connellsville Courior. Bl If members of the General Assem- bly do not now realize the fact, they will very probably learn later, that the people of Pennsylvania are in no mood to sit complacently by and watch the spectacle of our state legis- lative body wasting time in struggles and wrangles over “wet and dry” or other issues which will prevent the business of the session being disposed of as expeditionsly as possible. Everywhere throughout the State the sentiment has prevailed that the present session of the General As- sembly should promptly get down to business, enact only such legislation as imperatively needed, then adjourn. Any other program will meet with the degree and kind of disapproval it will merit. —————— ee ee. Scandals in Government. From the DuBois Express. Considering the number of revela- tions during the past year of crime and shady dealings in the Federal government and in the governments of various States, the average close readers of the newspapers probably believe that crookedness in public life is more prevalent today than at any other time in the history of the country. Frank R. Kent says that is not a fair conclusion. In the past there may have been just as many unworthy persons administering the affairs of the community, but they were not caught in their criminal ac- tions. Mr. Kent thinks crooked pub- lic officials have been either more clumsy or more unlucky this year than were their prototypes in other years. ——————————————————————. > ——1f vou see it in the “Watch- man” you know it’s true. session Premier: destroyed ". the Browns ¥ Reedsville early on Sunday. The build- ‘| ing: was owned by the Spanogle and Yeag- _anothér contrast was. ad ‘SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Joseph Wyehanis, 50 years old, and his som, 22, of Shanandoah, were serious- ly burned about the head, face, chest and hands in a gas explosion at Maple Hill Colliery. —Charged with the embezzlement of $4334.51 of the funds of the Shamokin State Hospital, Marlin W. Kaseman, 21, chief clerk, was committed to the North- umberland county jail. A safe containing between $800 and $1,000 was missing from Walter Speineck- er's market in Pittsburgh, when he went to work on Monday morning. A rear win- dow had been broken and the safe, which was found open several blocks away had been carried out. —Attempting to scale an eight foot fence in search of a deck of playing cards, Melvin Park, of Juniata, at 11:15 Satur- day night was instantly electrocuted when he came in contact with Penn Central transformer connections at the rear of the Juniata silk mill. He was only eighteen years old and the sole sup- port of his widowed mother. —A petition with approximately 100 names has been presented to the Hunting- don county court for the parole of William Filson, of Yeagertown, whose automobile collided with' that of the Rev. Bell mear Mill Creek last summer which resulted in the death of the minister. Filson was sen- tenced to six months and has served about half of the sentence. — Mrs. Mary Zuganda, who died in a private hospital at Pottsville on Saturday, is said to have been the largest woman in Schuylkill county, if not in the State. She stood six feet two inches in her stockings and weighed 515 pounds. Mrs. Zuganda was 48 years old and lived in the east end of that county. A specially prepared coffin was built for her and the body shipped to Tamaqua for burial. —Reading health officials are preparing for the departure of the woman afflicted with leprosy whose case was discovered there recently. According to word from Washington, she will not be removed to the government institution at Carrville, La. Officials of the public health service at Washington have been informed by health authorities of Pennsylvania: that the woman will be returned to Greece, the country of her birth. : — Her clothing entirely burned from her body, Mrs. Anna M. Cogan, 80 years old, was found dead sitting in a chair in the kitchen of her home in Juniata Gap shortly after noon, Saturday by her hus- band, C. 8. Cogan. The aged woman's clothing had apparently caught fire from the stove in the kitchen near ‘which she was sitting. Apparently she had" been unable to beat out the flames or rise from her chair and was burned to death with but little struggle. : __Fire’ originating from a defective flue Mills. hotel at er Milling company, Now in the heands of a receiver. It was built more than a cen: tury ago and was popular in the social circles of the Kishacoquilas valley in stage conch days. The building was used as an apartment house and the occupants escaped in their night clothing. —Tony Bertullo, 14, was rescued from * | an abandoned mine in Mount Washington on Sunday after haying been imprisoned for 20° hours by a cave-in. The boy was exploring the mine on Saturday when a { portion of the roof fell, confining him in a space ‘about five feet square. He was rescued ‘by his father and a neighbor after an all-night search had led them to the abandoned mine. With the exception of being hungry the boy showed mo ill effects of his experience. al — Attacked by three yeggmen, whom he surprised while they were blowing a safe in the office ‘of George H. Philips! and company, wholesale jewelers in the heart of the business district of Scranton, at 8 o'clock Sunday morning, Patrolman Wesley Kresky, 55, was relieved of his revolver, beaten into unconsciousness, and handeuffed to the piping of a steam radi- ator in a nearby office. The safe-crackers, however, got no loot, having made their get-away, it is thought, immediately after tying the officer to the radiator.: : — Thomas B. Bookhamer, -of Roaring Springs, and John W: Bookhamer, ‘of Ty- rone, two of the oldest twins in central Pennsylvania, recently celebrated. their eightiy-second birthday. They: were sol- diers in the Civil war and. are both Metho- dists, active in religious circles, and mem- bers of the Odd Fellows fraternity. The father of the Bookhamers ‘was’ one of twins, as was the mother. Thomas is the father of twins and several other sets have been born on both sides of the fam- Hy. a . a —The place where Tom Mix, of movie fame, learned to “ride the range’ has been purchased by. the State Game Commis- sion as a game refuge, it was announced on Saturday. A tract of land containing 8800 acres at the headwaters of Mosquito creek, Mix run and Madix run, in Elk and Clearfield counties, was purchased "for §26,400, the game commission announced. Mix run derived its name from Tom Mix’s father, who was a horseman of note in the region where Tom Mix roamed as a boy. . . — With a population of 800 the village of Ringtown, Schuylkill county, " reported only eight deaths during 1924, and those were of persons with an average age of 80 years and 3 months, the state depart- ment of health announced recently. The youngest of the eight was 58 and the oldest 95, and all the deaths were of dis- eases common to old age. Six were women and two men and all were native Penn- sylvanians. There were seventeen births in the village during the year with no deaths among the infants. : 3 —The barn of Milliard Swope, in Hill Valley, several miles from Mount Union, was destroyed by fire last Thursday evening, although the Mount Union fire company responded to the call and every- thing possible was done to save the build- ing. There was a high wind and the weather was bitter cold and the fire had gained a great headway before being dis- covered. Fourteen head of cattle, includ- ing one horse, were burned in the fire. Two mules were gotteen out but it was impossible to reach the other livestock. The barn was insured for $500 but the Joss will exceed several thousand dollars Mrs. Swope was helping a neighbor woman do some work and saw the fire from her neighbor's home. = It is believed that the fire was the work of incendiaries.