* INK SLINGS. © Mr. Bryan is likely to find out that he is a bigger figure on the plat- ‘form than at the bar. — Comparatively speaking milk is cheap at present price unless the cost of “white mule” is exorbitant. ~ —Canada will probably prove more attractive than ever for tourists from ‘the States because she is wet all over again. ——Maybe the sudden change in temperature last Sunday was nature’s method of freezing out spring fever germs. — Jt is said that Congressman Vare will stay out of the Senatorial fight if he is permitted to name the candidate for Governor. A high price. —The more we travel around the country the more convinced we be- come that it is full of people who, if they can’t afford anything else they can a Ford. —Judge Dale is still the Sphinx. If he would only tell what route he is going to take to succeed himself a lot of us would have one less thing tc worry about. It is estimated that the average American spends eighteen per cent. of his life standing in line for something. Well if he gets what he wants it is worth the price. ! — Talking about the different lights in which people see the same thing can you think of anything more con- trasting than that in which the moth- et and: her young hopeful view: the: closing of school. Ene —Of course the oldest inhabitant remembers something later, but we want to go on record right here to the effect that before last Monday morn- ing we had never seen snow on the twenty-fifth of May. —The announcement that Harry Thaw has been seen back in his old haunts, the “white light” districts of New York, sounds to us, very much, as if Harry doesn’t know where he is going, but is on the way. — With thermometers registering ninety in the shade at two-thirty last Saturday afternoon and hugging fifty less than two hours later winter seems to be doing something more than lin- gering in the.lap.of spring. —Of course we'll have good base- ball this summer, now that the county league is all set to start, but it will be a good bit better if the fans in the home towns of the teams all turn out with the horns instead of the ham- mers. ring —And it remained for a Penn State athlete to give the flying Finn his first defeat, ‘sérateh, in this eountty. Alan Helffrich, carrying the blue and white colors, ran Paavo Nurmi off his feet in the half-mile at New York, Tuesday. . = . —We note that Queen Mary, of - England, celebrated her fifty-eightli birthday on Tuesday, and are surpris- ed. Every time we see her photo- graph we are convinced that she must have been an old lady when Methusa- leh was born. —Those residents of the Aleutian islands, whose letters inquiring as to who was elected President last fall have just reached Washington, must have made the inquiry merely out of idle curiosity. By the time they get their reply Cal will probably have came and went. — Now since England has cornered rubber and is going to make Ameri- can automobile owners pay her war debt to us why doesn’t France corner the frog market and attempt the same thing. That would end this continual disputation over when payments are to begin, if at all. It’s a round about way of doing it, but there seems to be no doubt of the fact that American automobile users will pay all England’s war debt to America if conditions continue as they are at present. Our imports of rubber, alone, from the East Indies, an English possession, if continued at the present rate will pay all that Eng- land owes us in a very few years. —The Wyoming Democrat, publish- ed at Tunkhannock, is a fine example of a country newspaper. Usually it is for us to admire the carefulness with which it is edited and that ac- counts for our surprise at the faux pas it made last week, when in one editor- ial it attempted to convince its read- ers that “Appearances Count” and in another that “Appearances are Mis- leading.” —The girl of 1890 who happened to get home from her joy ride in a bug- gy as late as ten o’clock, slipped into the house and sneaked to bed as quiet- ly as though she had committed an awful offense against propriety. Many of the 1925 girls roll up in front of the “hang out” at two a. m. and im- mediately start telling the world about it by arousing the whole neigh- borhood to witness the fact that they have had a fellow with an automobile. —The fight is on in Tennessee. Prof. Scopes undertook to teach the pupils that we are descended “from a lower order of animals” and such a theory is contrary to the civil laws of the State that employed him. It’s going to be a great fight because it’s really one between the fundamental- ists and the modernists. We, pity Scopes, not for what the civil law of Tennessee ought to do with him, but for the hopelessness he will find in life after he realizes that he is not for Me ing which he will deliver ‘enemies of is against Me. “VOL. 70. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. Governor Pinchot’s Soaring Ambition. That Governor “Pinchot still cher- ishes the hope of election to the Presi- dency seems certain. His proposed speaking tour of the west can be ac- counted for in no other way. If his aspirations ended with the Senatorial toga he would naturally limit his activities to territory within the State. But he announces a tour which will extend to the Pacific coast, dur- several speeches on conservation and prohi- bition. The recent presentation of the Roosevelt medal gave him a place in the sun which he proposes to culti- vate wherever the soil is suitable, and his record on the question of enforcement is known from the At- lantic to the Pacific. But it is not to be inferred that his ambition to be President will take him out of the race for Senator in Congress. While he is “working the west” for the big harvest in 1928 his family and friends are laying the lines for the Senatorial contest next year. .. The millions he is authorized to ‘sperid in road construction and im- provement will be utilized to the limit in organizing a machine to promote his nomination for Senator. Reports from Harrisburg show that every day the official force is increased largely, and every name added to the pay roll is an enlistment in the army of Pin- chot workers. Those added to the Highway Department force will be especially helpful. When the Republican machine allowed Mr. and Mrs. Pinchot to buy the party nomination for Governor in 1922 it registered the beginning of the end of its control of the politics of Pennsylvania. Mr. Pinchot has never been in sympathy with the funda- mental principles of the Republican party. He is first for himself and after that, in “order, for prohibition and conservation. But prohibition and conservation are incidentals he is always willing to sacrifice. If he had been sincerely for either, he would long ago have left the party, for be- sides’ its partnership with the liquor | interests during the Penrose control it has always been affiliated with the nerdot of SOR Ome enm———————r eee. ——Senator Butler, of Massachu- setts, is undertaking to “correct the unfortunate, condition. growing out of ‘the ‘muddling of ‘government.” That sounds like a threat to quit the Repub- lican party. Heavy Burden of the Captains. The great captains of industry in | this country have assumed a heavy burden and are struggling with it un- der adverse conditions. Their en- gagement is to hold up the drooping wings of prosperity and persuade the people that “everything is lovely and the goose hangs high” in this glor- ious land of opportunity. They take turns at the work and each gilds or otherwise embellishes the picture painted by the other, already radiant in gorgeous” colors. First Charlie Schwab took the platform and assur- ed the public that “prosperity is just around the corner” and ready to en- ter the arena. Then Eugene Grace, president of the Bethlehem Steel, urged his employees to be patient for the good times are coming. Last week it was Judge Gary’s turn. The Judge is a lawyer and jur- ist as well as a magnate and knows better than the others how to “con- vince a man against his will.” He ad- mitted that conditions were less fa- vorable than might be desirable but added that the cloud temporarily ob- securing the sun has a silver lining and will soon turn inside out. The rail- road presidents, who usually carry a share of the burden, are silent now because they are trying to get help from the government under the pre- tense of poor business and can’t even join the chorus in the songs of the steel makers. But the work is never- theless progressing in a fairly satis- factory manner. The most credulous observers are being deceived. With a Republican President, a Re- publican majority in both branches of Congress and Republican policies in force in every direction anything else than the most abundant industrial prosperity is anomalous in view of the promises made by the captains of industry before the election. But the prosperity is of a peculiar type be- cause it benefits only the other fel- low. Of course every right minded man is glad to hear of the prosperity of his neighbor, but unfortunately it isn’t his neighbor but the other fellow who is revelling in the joys of pros- perity, and the closest scrutiny fails to reveal the individual. But the cap- tains of industry are not discouraged. They will promise “till the cows come home.” ——1If Amundsen doesn’t reach the “pole” a good man may be lost, and if he does somebody will have to tell us what has been gained. : law Not Exactly the Right Remedy. | At its State convention, held in Har- | risburg last week, the - Pennsylvania . branch of the American Federation of Labor decided to join with an organi- ! zation known as the Public Ownership | League in a movement looking toward ' national control of electric power. Mr. Carl D. Thompson, of Chicago, head "of the League, addressed the conven- , tion and declared that “if the develop- ment of power system as it is now ' progressing were allowed to continue the time will come when virtually all the power of the nation will be under the power of one person or group of persons.” He stressed the advantage of publicly controlled power plants on account of the cheapness of the pro- ‘duct as well as conveniences to the consumers. : ! We are not able to coincide with Mr. Thompson’s theory that the rem- edy for what seems like a real menace ; lies in the Congressional action. The ' idea expressed in Governor Pinchot’s super-power plan for State control of "electrical energy would be safer as well as more efficient. Public owner- ship of utilities has not proved benefi- cent or economical. But government control of corporate operations has produced both results. Private cor- porations held in proper. restraint by appropriate. legislation would serve to avert the danger of monopoly without "incurring the greater ewil of central- ' ization of power in Washington. That | is precisely the idea expressed in Gov- ernor Pinchot’s super-power enter- prise. . Electricity is certain to become the dominant elemént in the industrial life of the future. The electrical pow- er magnates understand this fact ful- ly and are already moving in the direc- tion.of menopoly. It is hardly neces- j sary to point out the evil of such a i monopoly to intelligent minds. It has already been demonstrated many : times in communities within this‘Com- monwealth. Taken in time it may be curbed, but if allowed free rein in the outset monopoly may secure a foot- hold impossible to remove. If the par- ! ty which controlled the last Legisla- ture. were. less friendly to mp AAR i Be and more ‘concerned of the people Governor Pinchot’s prop- _osition would have fared better. { - ——Register-of: Wills Campbell, of " Philadelphia, has thrown his hat into’ ithe ring without waiting for Vare’s ; approval and something may happen ‘to Bill. neers fp Aer seers Promising Change in Immigration. The inauguration of a system for the inspection on the other side of the sea of prospective emigrants to this country would seem like injecting in- to the problem an element of common sense. It may be said that no activ- ity of the government has produced as many blunders, hardships and ia- justices as the question of immigra- tion. It has been a souree’of contro- versy and disputation in Congress for many years and in‘most instances changes in the law have been for the worse. The last important’ change discriminated against emigrants like- ly to be most desirable and in favor of those less so, because immigration from southern Europe began much later and ‘there were fewer of them here. "* It'may be said that the administra- tion of the law under the present Sec- retary of Labor has been fairly effi- cient and as nearly as.possible. just. But it has been the cause . of many hardships, because it has divided fam- ilies, deported honest and industrious aliens on the required educational test and admitted criminals, conspira- tors and anarchists because a badly purposed schooling had provided them with the necessary education. It cre- ated hardships, because foreigners who had been enticed to emigrate in- vested their last dollars in defraying the expense of the venture and upon arrival here were turned back destitute and despairing. The framers of the law may have meant well but were sadly mistaken. The plan which is now to be adopt- ed, and will be inaugurated at the ports of departure of the Irish Free State, will make the examination there instead of on this side and such as fail to meet the requirements of our immigration system will be refus- ed the necessary vises. That will be a disappointment to them and possi- bly in some cases a loss to this coun- try, for the addition of an honest and industrious man is a gain to any com- munity, but it will not entail the loss of the transit expense nor the time in going and coming. The officials charg- ed with the experiment represent the State, the Treasury and the Labor De- partments of the government, and if the test is satisfactory it will be ex- tended generally. ————————— eam ant—— ——Senator Pepper is touring the State for the purpose of putting spice into the campaign. for the interests "BELLEFONTE, PA.. MAY 29. 1925. | Constitutional Amendment Doomed. The question of submitting to a vote of the people at the ensuing elec- tion the question of amending the con- stitution permitting the issue of bonds to cover a proposed soldiers’ bonus, reforestation and needed buildings and equipment at State College, was ar- gued before the Supreme court at Harrisburg, on Monday, with an ad- verse decision practically certain. It is true that the Supreme court has a wide range of latitude and may put any construction on the language of legislation. Not long ago, it will be remembered, the court decided that judges are not public officials, though they are nominated and elected by the people exactly like public officials. But a question of an increase of sal- aries of judges was involved in that decision and upon the principle that “the Lord helps those who help them- selves” the increase was allowed. The question now before the court is not thus involved and it may be presum- ed that the decision will be according to the letter of the constitution, which states that “no amendment or amend- ments shall be submitted oftener than once in five years.” As an amendment was unlawfully submitted and approv- ed in 1923 a strict interpretation would forbid another submission in 1925 and the proposed amendments, though all meritorious, will have to go over until 1928. This will entail a hardship on "the soldiers and State College. It is quite likely that if the sol- diers’ bonus amendment had been eliminated no objection would have | been raised against the others. The dominant political machine is not will- ing to take the bonus question out of politics yet and the submission of the amendment on that subject would have taken it out. Now the allegiance of the credulous among the. veterans can be held to the Republican party by promises just as the Civil war vet- erans were held for years in the same way. There was no great interest in he prosperity of State College either, or if the party had been inclined to ptovide the improvements it might hare been accomplished .out of .the : al revenues: on the installment | plan. — The surprising thing about it is ‘that the boy murderer of Pottsville, seems: to enjoy the sensation he has created. : A Pretty Compliment. Writing from Rudd, Iowa, D. M. Kerlin tells us that he has reached his seventy-third year and throughout the long span of life that has stretched since he was able to read anything the “Watchman” and he have been friends. He says that to him, today, it is just as interesting as it ever was and that he feels utterly lost when it is delayed in its weekly visit to his home. Mr. Kerlin is a former Centre coun- tian, gone from the old home so long that few names he sees figuring in the local news of today are familiar to him. It is the same with most of the “Watchman’s” older readers, because new generations have come in to take the place of those who did things in Centre county in the years that are gone. Some ‘are descendants of old families, but more are of names not familiar here forty years ago. It is a pleasure, indeed, under such circum- stances, to know that the “Watchman” is just as interesting as ever to those so far away, for it encourages its con- stant effort to make itself worth reading. er ——— eee. ——The big revolving beacon light erected on Nittany mountain as a guide to night flyers in the air-mail service was tested out last Friday night. It was turned on about ten o’clock and kept in commission almost two hours. So powerful is the light that travelers on the Nittany valley road claim that when the rays were directly upon them there was light sufficient to read a newspaper. The field lights and beacon light on the hangar have been completed and were tested out last night. In fact all the beacon lights between New York and Bellefonte, twenty-eight in number, have been completed and the first test night flight will probably be made to- night between Hadley field and Belle- fonte. While the night airmail serv- ice will not be put into effect until July first trial flights will be made all through June in order to give the pi- lots a chance to.beecome familiar with “the blazed trail” and also night land- ing. : ——The board of trustees of the western penitentiary have accepted the resignation of Rev. C. J. Krahnke, as chaplain at the Rockview institu- tion, effective July 1st. - It is under- stood that a new chaplain has already been secured but his name has not yet been announced. Rev. Krahnke anticipates returning to his old home in Detroit, Mich. NO. 22. SUPREME COURT HANDS DOWN RULING IN CENTRE COUNTY BANK CASE. The long awaited opinion of the Su- preme court of the United States in the litigation arising out of the clos- ing of the Centre County Bank, in this | place, on May 13th, 1922, was handed . down on Monday last.. | It is a very lengthy document. Made so because some of the points of law involved were before the highest tri- bunal of the land for the first time since it was created. By reading the opinion of Mr. Justice Sanford, which we publish in full, those who fully un- derstand the legal phraseology in which it is couched will discover that even the Supreme court has revised former interpretations of its. own rules in consequence of the arguments, jurisdictionally, that were presented in this case. eX In fact, the litigation has’ made le- gal history in the United States be- cause, besides presenting one question never before argued in the courts, it has been a contributory cause of the revision of the rules governing bank- ruptey proceedings. As is only too well known here the litigation began on June 30, 1922, when the late John M. Shugert filed a voluntary peti in bankruptcy praying the Dist Court of the United States that } individually, and the Centre County Banking company, were insolvent, and desired the operations of the bank- ruptey laws. Later he prayed that i George R. Meek, Mary C. Harris, | Florence F. Dale and Andrew Breese, alleged partners, should also be ad- { judged bankrupts and their estates * administered in the bankruptey courts. | Meek, Dale and Breese resisted the attempt to drag them into bankruptcy on the ground that - they were | not partners in the company and in open court suggested that the prayer” be ! granted as to..Mr.. Shugert, individu: i ally, and the Banking Company as an ‘ entity. This suggestion was opposed. And Judge Witmer, of the District i court, on December 8, 1922, without | filing an opinion, denied all the mo- i tions presented by Meek, Dale and wt R gal de hy @ . An appeal was then taker 0 the United States Circuit court of Ap- i peals based largely on the question of : jurisdiction—Rule 8-Sec. 5 of the Su- preme court—so comprehensively dis- , cussed by Mr. Justice Sanford in the decree published below, and on the le- ! gality of combining in the same prayer a voluntary (Mr. Shugert’s) and an involuntary petition (the ‘one he made against Harris, Meek, Dale and Breese.) These questions were argued in the District court at the March term, 1923. Its opinion was later handed down sustaining the ac- tion of Judge Witmer of the District court, but the opinion discussed none of the real questions involved. The Supreme court was then petitioned to grant a writ of certiorari—which merely means an opportunity to pre- sent a case to that august body. The writ was granted. The very fact that it was gave evidence that there was merit in the case. The Supreme court must protect its time from being tak- en up with cases of no apparent merit and you will notice that only a small percentage of the petitions for writs of certiorari presented to it are granted. ro . | The case has been hanging there ever since. Several arguments were made on the matter and an opinion might have been expected a.bit sooner had it not been for the death of Mr. Shugert. That sad eventuality inject- ed two new problems into the situa- tion. First, did his death abate (can- cel) the whole proceeding. Second, how could the Court adjudicate be- tween litigants when there was only one set of them present. Accordingly it filed an opinion in which those in- terested were given thirty days in which to substitute some one for Mr. Shugert. His son then took out let- ters of administration on his estate and asked that he be substituted. At the same time three creditors of the Banking Company presented a peti- tion that they be admitted as parties to the proceeding. The latter were denied the right forthwith, for the reason that they had come in too late. The petition for the substitution of Mr. Shugert’s son you will find in the final opinion has been granted. This, in brief, is a history of all the legal proceedings that have led up to the present decree which reverses the orders of both the District court and the Circuit court of Appeals and sets the whole matter back to where it started three years and more ago. The opinion of Mr. Justice Sanford, which was concurred in by the entire bench, there was no dissenting opin- ion filed, follows: — These three cases involve the same proceedings which were before us at an earlier stage in Meek V. Centre Banking Company, 264 U. S. 499. They arose out of a petition in bank- ruptey : file by the respondents, Shugert in a Federal District Court in (Continued on page 4, Col. 2). KS SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. ~ —Alleging alienation of his wife's af- fections Winfield L. Neas, of Harrisburg, on Saturday filed suit for $10,000 damages against William Rineer. —The Rev. Dr. H. F. King, pastor of the Grace Baptist Church, at Tyrone, on Mon- day celebrated his eighty-fourth birthday anniversary. Dr. King has been pastor of the Tyrone church for five years. —William Ritchey, 60 years old, was in- stantly killed and his son, William Jr, aged 17, seriously injured on Saturday by a delayed explosion of dynamite on their farm near Blue Knob, Blair county. Ritch- ey and his son were dynamiting rocks on the farm and went to investigate a delayed blast. —The Public Service Commission, in a detailed discussion of the complaint of the Viscose company against the refusal of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to change rates for shipment of artificial silk from Lewistown and other points to Marcus Hook, dismissed the application. The rate is held not to be unreasonable or unjust. —The Rochester & Pittsburgh Coal and Iron company, has sold its furnaces locat- ed at DuBois and Punxsutawney to L. W. Robinson, Frank St. Clair and Frank Becker. The furnaces are idle at present but the new owners state that they will be placed in operation just as soon as the price of coke in the region justifies its be- ing used in the manufacture of iron. —Trustees of the Geisinger ‘Home for Women at Danville have announced that building operations would be postponed for three years to permit funds to accu- mulate from the return on the principal now in the hands of the board from the es- tate of Mrs. Abigail A. Geisinger, who left most of her several million dollar estate to the home and the Geisinger Memorial hos- pital. —Dr. Charles F. Hastings, missing for- mer interne at the Homeopathic hospital in Pittsburgh, was discovered at Erie on Saturday as “John Hugh,” proprietor of the Erie Toy Exchange. He is heir to an estate of $50,000 left by his mother, it is said. A country-wide search has been made for Dr. Hastings. He learned only Friday, he said, that he was being sought, and Saturday revealed his identity. —An airplane is blamed by fire tower- man Bruce Henrle for a blaze that swept over seven hundred acres of valuable tim- ber land on Kno¢ mountain, near Berwick, last Wednesday night, causing a loss of ‘many thousands of dollars. He discovered the fire a few minutes after an airplane, flying low; had passed over the wooded section. Henrie is confident something was dropped from the plane to start the fire. ~The New York Central is assessed $40,- 000, Tioga county $25,000 and the Stdte Highway Department required to build a bridge; and relocate roads and Shippen township fo pay certain ‘costs of relocat- Ang a township road in the Public Service ‘@ominission’s order abolishing the Ansonia Lon the grade crossing on the Roosevelt “| Highway. It will be a notable improve- ment on a much-traveled northern tier highway. ; —Mrs. Homer Bishoff, of Farmington, Westmoreland county, is in.a serious con- dition from shock and burns received on Sunday when a bolt of lightning, entering nace and followed a heating pipe to a floor register near which she was sitting. The bolt entered her body through the right foot and, jumping at her hips, went through her left foot. Her legs were bad- ly burned. The bolt felled four trees be- fore hitting the light wire. —After having spent 14 months in build- ing a new home entirely with his own hands, working at nights and on holidays, William Knapp, of Valley Camp, Fayette county, saw it burned to the ground at 1 o'clock Monday morning. The house was a three-story, eight-room frame building and was valued at $7,500. He carried no insurance. Knapp had completed his work , on Saturday and this week expected to move in his household effects. The cause of the fire was undetermined. —William Stewart, negro garage worker, died last Thursday in the Chester hospital from injuries sustained when he was changing a tire at an automobile school in that city. ‘He had his attention diverted after applying a compressed air hose to the tire. The tire burst and the steel rim srtuck him flush in the face. In addition to fractures of the jaws and.nose, Stew- art suffered concussion of the brain and in- ternal hemorrhages. He did not regain consciousness after the accident. —When a pot of tar being heated on the stove, boiled over on Saturday morning and ignited their clothing, Mrs. Lena Al- berico, 23 years old, and her 3 year old daughter, Philoment, of New Castle, were so badly burned that they died a few hours later in Shenange Valley hospital. Marco Alberico, 60 years-old, father of Matt, Mrs. Alberico’s husband, was so badly burned that he is not expected to live. A second daughter of the dead woman, Mary, also was burned but will ‘probably recover. —The dedication exercises of the Memor+ ial bridge over the Juniata river in Lew- istown, built by the county of Mifflin at a cost of $275,000, will be held Memorial day, May 30, at 2 p. m., under the auspices of the commissioners of Mifflin county. Unit- ed Spanish war veterans and the American Legion. With a very appropriate program the magnificent bridge will be dedicated to the memory of men who made the supreme sacrifice for their country during the Spanish-American war and the world war. —While neighbors looked on, under the impression that club members were re- moving their belongings, thieves loaded a truck with the contents of the Chippewa Canoe club building, at Morrisville, Bucks county, last Friday, and drove away. Charles Muschert, secretary, discovered the theft when he went to get his minute records. Silver trophies, furniture, rugs and personal effects were taken, valued at $700. The truck was not large enough to carry the piano and this was the only ar- ticle left. The truck bore New Jersey li- cense tags. —Disappointment met the efforts of ex- pert “shooters” to get oil or gas in paying quantities from the well drilled some months ago on the W. T, Thorpe farm, near Grampian, Clearfield county, when they set off a charge of 60 quarts of nitroglycerine in the well Friday morning. This well produced an estimated flow of 350,000 feet of gas when first tapped, but rapidly de- clined until the output became negligible. The well had been drilled to a depth of 2,701 feet and it was hoped the explosion of nitroglycerine at this depth would release the gas or oil that was believed to under lie the Thorpe acres. fer hoineron a light wire struck the fur<