INK SLINGS. —Yesterday morning’s shower was welcome but it didn’t come near wear- ing its welcome out. : ——1It is a matter of record that during Governor Pinchot’s tour his complaints evoked more applause than his praises. —When we remarked some time ago that the “Alfaletics” had a chance for the pennant it was the 1926 flag we had in mind. —Sunday gave every appearance of relief from the long and serious drouth, but the rain that fell was scarcely a drop in the bucket. —The President is back in Wash- ington and it is likely to prove very hot there for him, unless he can put a lot of his party troubles on ice. ——If cranks could be removed from the driving seats of automobiles as easily as from the fronts of the cars there would be reason to rejoice. —It kinda gets under our skin when the young sports writers of the Metropolitan papers refer to Wash- ington’s ace as “old man Johnson.” If they think Walter is old at forty we hope to be spared meeting any of their kind. One of them might ask us if we had “scooped” the rest of the boys when Noah made his hundred and fifty day non-stop flight to Ara- rat. —Don’t forget to go to the pri- maries next Tuesday. If you are not interested in expressing a preference in the matter of the official who will hold the scales of justice over your life and home for the next ten years you might be in having the right kind of a person to assess you for taxes or select the teacher who will play such an important part in the life of your child. —Of course we know nothing of the merits of the controversy that led to the demotion of Gen. Mitchell as head of the government’s air service. Whether there is anything to his charges of inefficiency and inadequacy or not, the wrecking of the Shenan- doah and the PN-9, within a week, and the consequent loss of nineteen lives, is certainly some water on the mill of the Mitchell side of the argument. —The Methodist church at Waddle was closed several years ago. Now there is talk of closing the Presby- terian house of worship at Meyer’s cemetery. Both are in the Buffalo Run valley and, like Samantha Allen, we might congratulate the community on the fact that it has grown so good that there is no more need for churches, were it not for the suspicion that the real cause might be that the numereus filling stations that have sprung up along that road have put them out of business. —Last week Bellefonte was visited by a lot of striking anthracite miners who were hunting work. At the same moment the international officers of the miners union were basking in the luxuries of one of Philadelphia’s most sumptuous hotels where they had es- tablished temporary headquarters. Maybe if being a union officer wasn’t such a soft job there would be fewer strikes and maybe, when the crew that visited our town get back into the coal regions and tell their fellows that me- chanics are happy and well to do here on less wages than the strikers were getting before they quit, there will be some thought among them that it is often well to let well enough alone. —Murder will out. In last week’s number of the Saturday Evening Post the Hon. Josephus Daniels, former Secretary of the Navy, is given con- siderable space in which to tell the world that it was William Jennings Bryan who encompassed Woodrow Wilson’s nomination at Baltimore, in 1912. Wilson and Bryan are both sealed in niches in the silent halls of death. Dead men tell no tales, so it is a question of veracity between the Hon. Josephus and Jim Blakeslie. As a matter of fact Jim might be dead, too, for all we have heard of him since Vance McCormick got him some sort of an Assistant Postmaster General- ship for having helped him reorganize the Democratic party in Pennsylvania so beautifully. Be that as it may, and the veracity of the Hon. Josephus to the contrary notwithstanding, it was Blakeslie who lit a cigarette, thought a little and announced that it had to be Wilson, else we are all wrong as to the claims he made just after the close of that notable convention. —Early last fall, you will remember, we stated that we expected to extract a lot of fun out of the judicial primary race. Well, we've had a lot. Not as much, possibly, as we then anticipat- ed, but realization never comes quite up to anticipation. Some day we will let you in to all of it. It wouldn’t be fair or ethical to do it right now. There is one little incident that touch- ed our funny bone so hard that we can’t “keep it.” Do you know that one of the vice presidents of the Re- publican county committee, whose se- lection for the honor was protested by . the grand Pooh-Bah of Prohibition in Centre county because she was rec- ommended by a “wet,” is now arm- in-arm with her protester of yester- day soliciting votes for a candidate who is not recognized as orthodox by the organization she vice presidents in. Isn’t it awful how everybody is back-sliding? From all parts of the county we hear of Democratic com- mitteemen who are working for Re- publicans and Republican committee- men who are working for Democrats. VOL. 70. STATE RIGHTS AN D FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA.. SFPTEMBER 11. 1925. NO. 36. Relief for Secretary Mellon. Our heart bleeds for poor “Andy” Mellon, as his intimate friends in Pittsburgh familiarly called the Sec- retary of the Treasury before he found out that he is a statesman. Ac- cording to the records, Mr. Mellon paid $1,882,600.25 tax on his income for 1924. Under the law this was for- ty-five per cent. of his income, which must have been in the neighborhood of $4,000,000. After paying his in- come tax the poor man had little more than $2,117,400 to maintain himself and his family for the year. It is dif- ficult to imagine how he managed to make “ends meet,” in the circum- stances. It is true that he has had much experience in business and is rated as a financier of extraordinary capacity. But what is $40,000 a week to a Pittsburgh millionaire and Mr. Mellon couldn’t have had much more than that. It is estimated there are 25,000,000 income earners in the country. Of these it is safe to assume that 15,000,- 000 earn less than $2,000 each. Prob- ably 20,000,000 fall under the $5,000 mark and 22,000,000 enjoy incomes of less than $10,000 a year. The average wage of unskilled labor is about thir- ty-five cents an hour. Working nine hours a day and 300 days a year earn- ers in that class receive less than $1,000 a year. The average earnings of skilled workmen is about sixty- five cents an hour, making it possible for that element in the industrial life of the country to get a trifle more than $1,600 a year. The average in- come of tradesmen and professional men may be as high as $10,000 a year. Country preachers and school teach- ers are lucky to get about the recom- pense of unskilled laborers. It is small wonder that Secretary Mellon is anxious to reduce the tax levy on big incomes. If his bill had passed the last. Congress he would have saved about $882,600.25 in 1924. The skilled and unskilled laborers, the school teachers and country cler- gymen, and there are a good many in that group, would have derived no benefit but the Secretary of the Treas- ury is not greatly concerned about them. If his purpose had been to help them drive the wolf from the door he would have suggested a reduction of the tariff tax which burdens them on every commodity they consume. In- come tax reduction is a purely selfish scheme to shift the expenses of gov- ernment from the rich to the poor, and is now pressed in pursuance of a promise made during the last Presi- dential campaign to contributors to the slush fund. Secretary Mellon is confident that his bill will be enacted during the coming session of Congress. Presi- dent Coolidge has assured him of ail the moral and “immoral” support at his command, and “the cohesive force of public plunder” is a powerful agent in legislation. Besides the Secretary depends much on the sympathy of Senators and Representatives in Con- gress. Few men are hard-hearted enough to view without emotion the spectacle of the Secretary’s already rather sharp nose being pressed on the grindstone for another period of two years, and maybe longer, and he fondly believes they will come to his rescue. That the school teachers, the country clergymen and the vast in- dustrial army known as unskilled la- borers will continue to suffer makes no difference. They give little to the campaign fund anyway. a rn ——There are 550,000 radio sets in farmer’s homes in this country and Governor Pinchot’s Giant Power prop- aganda appeals to every one of them. ats A New Law Firm in Centre County. We note with considerable interest the announcement that Mr. Edward J. Thompson has been admitted as part- ner in the practice of law by Geo. W. Zeigler Esq., the well known Philips- burg attorney, the firm to be known as Zeigler and Thompson. The junior member is a son of the esteemed A. Curtin Thompson. He is a. graduate of the University of Pennsylvania law school and has been looked upon by older heads in his home town as one of its very best and most promising types of young men. And—we imag- ine—he is a Democrat. If that is so we hope that with all the other suc- cesses we wish the new firm there will come a conversion of its senior mem- mer to the error of his political ways. ee me poo Ss ——The most gratifying announce- ment recently made public is Mr. Hearst’s statement that he is not a Democrat. But most of us knew that. ——DMachine politicians are now making a survey of the fuel problem with the purpose of finding out how to extract advantage from it. eee pammm— The President has returned to Washington but there will be no change in the policies of the adminis- tration on that account. - parent. That the rank and file of the Colonel Mitchell’s Daring Act. In his statement of the causes of the wreck of the dirigible Shenando- ah and other recent air-craft disasters and disappointments Colonel William Mitchell reveals splendid courage but little discretion. No man knows bet- ter than he the penalty of offending high officials of the army and navy. Less than a year ago he was demoted from the rank of Brigadier General in the army air service to that of Colo- nel because he told the truth in testi- fying before a Congressional commit- tee under oath. In telling the truth, as he understands it, with respect to the matter now under consideration he will probably be more severely pun- ished. But it will be penalizing earn- est and faithful service to the coun- try. Colonel Mitchell says that the dis- aster to the Shenandoah and the loss of the PN-9 in the flight to Honolulu ear the “direct result of incompeten- cy, criminal negligence and almost treasonable administration of the na- tional defense by the War and Navy Departments.” This is a grave charge but if proved becomes an important feature in the recent history of the country. In support of the charge Colonel Mitchell states that two offi- cers were killed in an air meet last October because they were sent out in dilapidated machines under an ar- rangement by the War and Navy De- partments that “the navy should take the races one year and the army should take them the next year, thus equalizing propaganda, not service.” He declares further that the recent pacific naval maneuvers which cost $80,000,000 were not only worthless from a defensive point of view but were “framed” for political effect; that another test made at New York to prove that air craft could afford no protection to cities was an absurd “frame up” and that those who knew the facts were muzzled to conceal them. He might have added that the fatal trip of the Shenandoah was con- ceived and undertaken not for any useful public purpose but in order to help an administration candidate for United States Senator in one of the middle western States. In any event the disastrous incidents form a dark | page in history which ought to be ful- ly exposed. ! bosses let him. League of Nations Eulogized. The sixth assembly of the League of Nations convened at Geneva on Monday “in an atmosphere of confi- dence and with the conviction that world peace can be placed on a solid foundation.” Two notable speeches were made at the opening session and Edward Benes, foreign minister of Czecho-Slovakia, said to Mrs. Wood- row Wilson, who was present during the session, “by spending four weeks each year at Geneva, I see every for- eign minister in Europe. Like other ministers I am able to treat in this neutral atmosphere many questions existing between us which are ampli- fied later into important agreements. The League of Nations founded by your husband is a great time saver.” M. Painleve, of France, in opening the session, pointed out the splendid progress already achieved by the League of Nations and predicted greater results in the future. clared that maintenance of peace must have its added that “the negotiations with agreements or arbitration treaties in conformity with the covenant of the League of Nations.” His closing message to the Assembly as the re- tiring president was “hope, venture and persevere,” and his colleagues on the floor cordially applauded the sen- timent. All things considered it was the most auspicious opening thus far held. The new president of the Assembly, Senator Dandurand, of Canada, was equally optimistic in his address. He hailed the League as “a successful and noble enterprise dedicated to make the world safer,” and expressed confidence that “the enlightened collaboration of statesmen gathered in an atmosphere of devotion to the well being of hu- lishment of peace founded on justice.” Three United States Senators, Walsh, of Montana; Jones, of New Mexico, and Capper, of Kansas, were present and greatly impressed. Senator Cap- per, who is a Republican, remarked hatte League is on the right track, favor it on his return *’'and it is possible that he will mere femmes. ——Still the Governor might have | made a better impression on the peo- | ple if he had been able to say that he | exhausted every effort to enforce all | the laws as the constitution requires. | Sounding Alarm Against Vare. That the rank and file of the Repub- lican party of Pennsylvania will not tamely surrender to the control of Congressman Vare is becoming ap- party realizes Congressman Vare’s ambition to control is equally certain. He has acquired absolute dominion in Philadelphia and is certain to use the leverage it affords to subjugate the State-wide organization and bend the local leaders to his purpose. During the late session of the General Assem- bly he and Max Leslie, of Pittsburgh, worked together, thus combining the corrupt forces of “the neck” in Phila- delphia and “the strip” in Pittsburgh in “unholy” alliance. That created a formidable as well as a vicious force. In this connection former Congress- man Ben. K. Focht, of Lewisburg, sounds an alarm. Mr. Focht is an ex- perienced and capable politician, who stood close to the late Senator Pen- rose. In a recent issue of his news- paper he says “it is plain that with Vare backed by every active political agency in Philadelphia, nothing of compromise may now be finally con- sidered without Vare’s feet being un- der the council table and his terms ac- cepted at least in great part.” Mr. Focht ascribes this condition of af- fairs to apathy on the part of the bet- ter element of the party, which is probably an accurate appraisement. But he offers no remedy for the evil. In this failure he defaults on the Pen- rose practice. Unless Congressman Vare is crush- ed at the primary next spring he holds the destiny of the Republican party in his hand. There might have been a chance to curb his ambition at the coming election by defeating his plan to control the Municipal court if there had been enough civic virtue in Phila- delphia to serve a small village. But this can hardly be hoped for now and the only chance is to concentrate against him next spring. Unhappily this cannot be expected if men like Ben. K. Focht can do no better than complain, They must organize oppo- sition and fight as their former lead- er Boies Penrose did in his time and would again if he were in the flesh. —We presume it was because none of the drivers were killed that some of those who attended the Labor day racing in the Altoona bowl think it ——Colonel Mitchell may made a great sacrifice but if he causes considerable improvement in public service he will enjoy a liberal recom- pense. Pinchot Has Reason to be Pleased. zens generally and the institutions,” he said on his arrival at Harrisburg, “has convinced me that the people of Pennsylvania are glad tc have their Governor inspect the State work out- side of Harrisburg and report in per- son what the State has done.” Of course this was a polite fiction which means nothing. The citizens general- ly and the institutions understood that the tour is purely political and were cordial because it is a habit to thus honor high public officials. But the Governor had other and very substantial reasons for being gave him abundant opportunities to expose the iniquities of the corrupt machine which for reasons satisfacto- ry to itself is antagonizing his ambi- tions, and his frequent exposures were received with popular favor by citi- zens generally. In fact the signs which met his eyes at every place he spoke indicated sympathy with his purpose to wipe the machine off the political map of Pennsylvania, gratify his present ambition to become a Sen- ator in Congress next year and pro- mote his future hope to reach the White House some time if not at the next election. Governor Pinchot is developing con- siderable ability as an actor. As a politician he is willing to adopt any method, no matter how vicious, which promises success. ly accepted the fraudulent votes cast for him at the instance of Max Les- lie and those procured for him in “the neck” of Philadelphia by Bill Vare, he fixed his standard as a politician. Now that such methods seem to be under popular condemnation throughout the State he preaches political morality with an air of sincerity that may fool the public completely. Meantime those who are not deceived are watch- ing the progress of his operation with much interest. It is an interesting ex- periment in psychology. Orm———————t—————— ——The man who shouts at the top of his voice in a social group doesn’t have to prove that he acquired the habit in a bar room. Srr————— po seme ——The worst thing about insom- nia is that it gives too much time to was not so thrilling as former ones. think about disagreeable things. He de- | “co-operation for the! Germany are an effort to bring about’ manity will contribute to the estab- | if the party | pleased with the effects of his tour. It: When he grateful- | A Serious Blow to Dirigible Aircraft Development. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. It would be unworthy of this nation if we should abandon ourselves to hysterical denunciation of dirigible aircraft and cease all efforts for their development and utilization, as the result of the disaster to the Shenan- doah. It would be a craven denial of the heritage of countless generations of men who have risked and sacrificed their lives in their efforts to conquer the elements, by land and sea and in the skies. At the same time it would be fool- ish to contend that the science of .lighter-than-air aviation has not re- ceived a terrific setback. That set- back results, undoubtedly, from an en- tirely unwarranted sense of security inspired among the people by the per- ‘ “ormances of the Shenandoah and Los Angeles in the past two years. They had crossed continents and a great ocean, weathered terrific tempests and i won out in the face of disaster. To the man on the ground they represent- ed mastery of the air. To the men i who operated them they were still root in the League of Nations” and dangerous experiments, despite the ! fact that the great factor of risk— hydrogen—had been eliminated. The history of aircraft disasters to dirigi- ble balloons has been an almost con- tinuous record of destruction, but the element which brought it about in nearly every case was the explosion of hydrogen gas in the lifting bags. The metal framework of these great craft had to be light, so special alloys were compounded and the structures were scaled down until the point of real weakness was reached, as in the case of the British R-388, which first cracked and then exploded over the Humber in 1921 while on a trial flight precedent to her delivery to the Unit- ed States. Dirigible engineers imme- diately made the frames of new craft stronger. The Shenandoah was re- garded as the strongest, structurally, | which had yet been designed. The 1 Los Angeles has a wider cross section i and may be stronger still. : Other aircraft of this type are be- jing built. An immense ameunt of planning and construction is under way in this country preparatory to commercial dirigible aviation. Shall that effort be stricken down? Eng- land is building several great air | cruisers to link her with her pos gh ! sions. in the - Orient. Shall mk { scrapped? We must withhold ;our condemnation of these craft. Engi- neers will go over the sad wreck of | our hopes in the Chio hills and, doubt- have | less, will discover why this great ship ‘was ripped to pieces like a paper kite. They may be able to suggest changes in design to meet terrific storm pres- | sures. But this danger never will be Sompletely eliminated, in all probabil- ity. It is possible, even now, to approx- imate what happened. The layman On completing the “second leg” of Who has watched the swirling leaves his State-wide tour of inspection Gov- ! and dust clouds in advance of a storm ernor Pinchot expressed himself as! much pleased. “The generous cordial- | ity of my reception by both the citi- ! gq great combers rise and curl and has seen a miniature “line squall” such as wrecked the Shenandoah. The crash on the beach has seen a tiny replica of the same thing. A storm pressure area comes smashing along and develops a terrific lifting and tearing power through the resistance of the air it meets. Such storms have leveled cities and strewn their ruins with dead and injured. Strong build- ings of steel and stone and brick have been ripped and smashed like match boxes. How could we have expected the Shenandoah to survive under what must have been a similar assault high in the air? These disturbances are seasonable in the Central States. The commander of the Shenandoah knew , of them and feared them. His wife says he wanted to postpone the west- ward trip of his ship till October, when the danger would have been over for the year. We have faced and felt disaster. Perhaps it will be difficult to get Con- gress to invest in further experiments with craft of this type. But it is the nature of man that he should climb out of the wreckage of his hopes and build and dare anew. Farm Acreage Decreases. From the Greensburg Daily Tribune. Pennsylvania is not alone in the re- ports on farm acreage decreases. There are many other States in a sim- ilar predicament although the de- crease has been most noticeable in western Georgia, southeastern Ala- bama, southern Mississippi and west- . ern Maryland. There were 30,000 fewer farms in the United States last year than in 1923 and there was a reduction in cul- tivated area of about one million two hundred thousand acres. Looking at the decreases in percentage, however, the decrease was small, being less than one-half of one per cent. of the total number of farms in the country and less than one-third of one per cent. of the total number of acres un- der cultivation. Southern States seem to have been more badly affected by the decrease in the number of farms, while the de- crease in production extends over the middle east and south. ——The new state highway up Bald Eagle valley is now open as far as Unionville. Most of the road between Unionville and Port Matilda has been completed, but is not yet open to gen- eral traffic. People living in that sec- tion can get in and out by making two detours. SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Indications are the September list of the State Board of Pardons will be one of the largest for the month in a long time. —Lehigh county’s biggest pumpkin, ac- cording to reports received by the farm- ers’ bureau, was raised on the farm of Per- cival Derr, at Lynville. It weighs more than 200 pounds, being 6 feet and 4 inches in circnmference. It will be exhibited at the Allentown fair. . —George R. Curtis, champion Sunday school scholar of Pennsylvania, who at- tended thirty-one years without missing a Sunday and was never late once, died at his home in Hollidaysburg on Friday, aged 85 years. He was a veteran of the Civil war, served as councilman and school di- rector ,and was a Mason, Odd Fellow and Baptist. —Sheldon McKean, of Beech Creek, is at the Jersey Shore hospital with one ear al- most severed and other severe. cuts about the head as the result of an automobile ac- cident near Antes Fort. McKean was. a passenger in a car operated by James Wil- son, of Lock Haven. Two young women, whose names could not be learned and whom the men are said to have picked up at Avis, were also in the car. They and Wilson did noi need the attention of a physician. —William G. Baltzover, aged 35 years, was crushed to death under a falling tree at Hawstone on Wednesday night of last week. Baltzover was employed in the Gan- ister stone quarries at the Haws Refrac- tories on the Blue Ridge mountains, when fellow employees cutting timber out of the way warned him to look out, but Baltzover laughingly assured them trees didn’t fall up the mountain when cut. In this case it did and the top catching Baltzover lashed him to his death. —Miss Alice Matlack, 23 year old grand- daughter of the late Robert Crane, ice cream millionaire, of Philadelphia, was ready to sail for London on Saturday to marry Rodney Oliver, wealthy rubber plantation owner of Singapore. She called on her friends to bid them good-bye. One of the friends was J. Mitchell Henkels, son of Stan V. Henkels, Philadelphia art deal- er. A few hours later Miss Matlack. be- came Mrs. J. Mitchell Henkels, at Elkton, Md., and later a cablegram started on its way to the jilted fiancee overseas, aanounc- ing the marriage. . —Miss Mary Emma Walter, who has made the Friends meeting house at Cata- wissa her love and her life work recently, in her quiet way, celebrated her eighty- fourth birthday anniversary. Many years ago she went to Catawissa from Elysburg to rejuvenate the meeting house that had fallen into a state of neglect and had be- come a sort of dumping ground. Her work brought an improvement in condi- tions and now the entire community is in- terested in the movement to perpetuate the meeting house and keep it permanently in the best of repair. —Twenty-eight freight cars were wreck- ed on Monday morning at Marietta, when three trains figured in a series of colli- sions.. Two members of the crews were in- jured slightly, and taken to the Columbia hospital. The trains were on the low grade division of the Pennsylvania rail- road, two going in a westward direction. ‘When they collided at a switch, they push- it toppled over the embankment. The wreckage took fire and the Marietta fire department was called to extinguish the flames. All traffic was tied up for most of the day. —Carried for a distance of nearly three miles, the body of an unidentified colored man was found Monday night lodged un- der the tank of a Pennsylvania railroad engine in a badly mangled condition, as the train stopped near Huntingdon. Ieet and arms of the victim were later found by a trackwalker near where it is thought the man was “picked up” by the locomo- tive. How he came to be on the track and visitor to the seashore who has watch- | whether or not he was dead when the train ran cover him, is not known, but railroad police are conducting an investigation to learn more details of the accident and the identity of the man, if possible. —Seeking to discover the reason for the failure of the last of a series of blasts to explode, Russell Murphy, aged 38 years, an engineer and member of the contracting firm of W. H. Murphy and Sons, was in- stantly killed, last Thursday, on the Ta- maqua-Hazleton road when the blast ex- ploded as he stooped over the powder charge. Murphy, who lived in Harrisburg, and who is survived by his widow and three daughters, had been on the highway construction job for nearly a year. Two of his brothers, Robert and Baird, who are fellow members of the firm, were on the scene at the time of the accident. —Trying to get relief from a severe at- tack of lumbago, Abraham Myers, 85 years of age, retired farmer, of York county, in- advertently branded himself on the middle of the back with a hot stove lid several nights ago. The lumbago caused Myers to suffer severe pains in the back and to stop them he heated a stove lid, wrapped it up in cloth and went to bed with it. The pain from the lumbagoe was so great-that he didn‘t notice that he was being burned by the hot stove lid upon which he was lying. The heat took the lumbago away but My- ers is now spending his time nursing the stove-lid brand upon the middle of his back. —After all attempts to learn the identi- ty of the young man who was fatally in- jured on Friday afternoon when struck by a Pennsylvania railroad train at Portage proved futile, the remains of the accident victim were buried at Hollidaysburg on Monday morning. The young man was aged about 28 years and suffered a frac- tured skull and badly crushed legs. There were no marks of identification on the clothing. The man was rather tall, had reddish brown hair and blue eyes and wore a pair of brown trousers, brown oxfords and silk hose. He wore a ruby ring on his right hand and a silver ring on his left and the buckle on his belt bore the initial “K.” —Barly Saturday morning an armed bandit entered Stanley's cafe, in Wilkes- Barre, and forced the owner, Harry Gans- ton, to turn over his cash, which amounted to $50. After the thief left Ganston thought it was too much money to lose so early in the day, so he dashed down the street in pursuit. After a chase of five blocks he overtook the bandit and gave him such a beating that an ambulance was called to take him to the General hospital. Twice the bandit turned and threatened to shoot, but the restaurant owner kept on and when within reach gave the robber a few well- directed punches that put him out for the count. Ganston is a brother of Tommy Ganston, Wilkes-Barre boxer. ed an eastbound train from the tracks and . =