Bruni Hid
INK SLINGS.
——An over-estimate of his capa-
city has caused many a failure in busi-
‘ness and politics.
— Probably the Army and Navy
foot ball players hope to get some
pointers from “Red” Grange in Chi-
cago.
— Colonel Mitchell may not look
as imposing in civilian clothes but his
voice will be just as strong as when he
wore the uniform.
——We are beginning to think that
the principal reasons why the coal
conferees do not agree is that they
don’t want to agree.
— Friends and foes of the Gover-
nor admit the need of ballot reform
legislation and the majority of the
people are fair-minded.
—The funny part about this effort
of the new burgess to end unessential
work on Sunday is the crabbing of the
fellows who look upon Thursday after-
noon as their divinely appointed time
to do nothing.
—One of the many anonymous com-
munications burgess Harris has re-
ceived pays the police force of the
town a great compliment. It winds
up as follows: “Yours, for a God fear-
ing, not a police fearing town.”
Go far enough into the domestic
affairs of parents who rail about the
Curfew and you will find either those
who haven’t made a home that is more
of a lure for their children than the
streets or those who don’t want to be
bothered with the little folks they
have brought into the world.
—We haven’t sufficiently digested
the Scott panegyric that Mr. Hughes
gave the world in last week’s Repub-
lican to do more than inquire as to
who had the headmaster’s ear. It read
to us very like Wilson I. is essaying
the role of dean of the school of poli-
tical strategy in Uentre county.
—Let us see, this is the fifth of Feb-
ruary. The opening of the trout sea-
son is only nine weeks off. Isn’t it
about time for us to get a line on the
- whereabouts of our private boot-leg-
ger?
Where, oh where, has our good friend gone
Where, oh where, can he be?
Always there's hope of a bite or a strike
In the neck of a bottle of tea.
—The announcement that J. Mitch-
ell Chase Esq., of Clearfield, will be a
candidate for the Republican nomina-
tion for Congress in this District will
be rather confounding to the ambi-
tions of the Hon. Evan Jones, of Mc-
Kean, to stage a comeback, as well as
to the supposed, but not yet publicly
annotinced, desires of the Hon. Wm.
1. Swoope to have a third term.
—Thermometers rarely agree and
now it appears that yardsticks vary.
We measured the depth of the snow
yesterday morning and made it 17
inches. Messrs. Gates and Coxey did
the same thing and declare it was 18
inches. We can’t explain why the
Gates measure varied with ours, but
we can offer an explanation of the
Coxey variance. He’s a trout fisher-
man and who ever heard of a 12 inch
trout that isn’t 13 or 14 when its cap-
tor gets to telling of his fight with it?
—Mrs. Ella J. Mountz, of Clearfield
county, has become quite a factor in
Republican councils in this congres-
sional and senatorial District. Mrs.
Mountz is reported to be very, very
rich and quite generous; fitting per-
fectly into the machinery of Republi-
can activities, and quite worth culti-
vation. We note she has endorsed
George Wharton Pepper for the
United States Senate and quotes
Browning in saying of him “Its safer
being meek than fierce.” Possibly the
Senator told Mrs. Mountz that he was
only whistling to keep up his courage
when he declared that he was politi-
cally fearless enough to “spit in the
eye of a bull dog.”
—Twenty-five years ago the sphere
of activity of a Jew was generally
supposed to be circumscribed solely by
the mercantile business. How things
have changed. Today men of eminence
in art, in letters, in law and in finance
are Jews. In every field of endeavor
you will find sons and daughters of
that race proving that it was oppor-
tunity, not lack of versatility, that
seemed to brand them as merchants
only. To us the surprising feature of
the evolution is the number who have
gone in for the rougher, harder, less
profitable pursuit of agriculture. A
quarter of a century ago there were
two hundred Jew farmers in the Unit-
ed States. Now there are seventy-five
thousand of them and they own a
million acres of land.
—That coal miners are not badly
paid has been known to some of us
for a long time. The many who clamor
to the contrary might find some
elucidation in an article published in
the Morgantown, W. Va. Post of
January 26. It is a report of the Beth-
1ehem Mines Corp., made to the fed-
eral census bureau, and shows that ail
classes of labor in their operations
averaged per man from $5400 down
to $2000, for the year 1925. The great
majority of them ranged from $3000
to $3700. They are working there on
the basis of the 1917 scale and in the
District there are 2009 non-union and
286 union miners working. The figures
are authentic. They show that the
miners in that field where the scale is
supposed to be low are earning more
than any class of skilled labor in this
section, with the possible exception of
brick-layers and plasterers.
VOL. 71.
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
BELLEFONTE, PA.. FEBRUARY 5. 1926.
Swift Politics Certain.
enn
The political dopesters seem to have
come to the opinion that Mr. Bill Vare
is a full-fledged candidate for the Re-
publican nomination for Senator in
Congress against Senator Pepper and
regardless of the aspirations of Gov-
ernor Pinchot. Last week a somewhat
pretentious pamphlet was issued from
the Vare headquarters in Philadelphia,
more or less fulsomely eulogizing the
“neck” boss, and it is interpreted by
the politicians as “a declaration of
war” against Pepper. The Pepper
organ of Philadelphia had previously !
declared that if Vare is a candidate
Pinchot will be nominated and as it is
universally believed that Vare has no
chance the suspicion of an alliance
with the Governor is aroused.
Mr. Vare has not heretofore reveal-
ed a poetic tendency but his biograph-
er, if the author of the pamphlet in
question may be so termed, seems to
have been touched with “the divine
afflatus.” He “drops into poultry” with
this beautiful couplet, “he followed
the plow and milked the cow” which .
is naturally construed as an appeal to
favor the farmers among whom the
boss has not been able to establish |
cordial relations. The hard-hearted
editor of the esteemed Philadelphia
Record intimates that tlie plow in
question was the political machine he |
has ruthlessly driven in that city and |
the cow he milked was the treasury of |
the complaisant and said to be “cor-
rupt and contented” municipality.
In any event the practical certainty |
that Mr. Vare will shy his hat into the
Senatorial ring will be welcomed by
the grafting piliticians of his party
and the State for it serves to guaran-
tee a rich harvest of loot in the cam-
paign. Vare is himself a multimillion-
aire, Pepper has the big corporations
with their abundant resources behind
him and, the Governor will consider
the golden stream which flowed from
his private purse during the primary
campaign four years ago. We will
not undertake to predict the result of
such a contest, as the Pepper organ
has done, but it is safe to say that it
will contribute liberally to “the gayety
of nations.” It will afford a “halcyon
and vociferous” campaign.
Republicans as well as Repub-
lics zre ungrateful. John Bell, who
contributed thousands to the campaign |
fund had to go to jail because he
couldn’t get $30,000 bail.
Pinchot Makes Enemies His Assets.
Governor Pinchot is a glutton fer
making enemies or a genius for turn-
ing the liability of enmities into poli-
tical assets. Last week we referred
to an accusation which he presented
to a committee ~f the General Assem-
bly against former State Treasurers.
The charge he preferred was of grave
character. It implied not only a gross
misuse of the public funds but a ser-
ious betrayal of public confidence.
Naturally the accused former officials
were indignant. One of them threat-
ened a suit for libel and probably
would have instituted such a proceed-
ing but for the fact that under the con-
stitution the Governor had the right
to make the charge.
As we stated last week the charge
was that Harmon Kephart and
Charles Snyder as State Treasurers
enticed or compelled depositories of
State funds to accommodate them with
loans on inadequate security or no
security at all. This system of jug-
gling the State funds must necessarily
result in defaults either at the banks
or at the treasury. In some cases the
demand for money under such condi-
tions would be equivalent to banditry.
The withdrawal of a large deposit
might wreck a fairly substantial bank
and if the only alternative were an ac-
commodation loan, there would be no
escape. Probably the accused officials
did not employ such raw methods, but
any way of achieving the result is re-
prehensible.
But the Governor promptly convert-
ed the incident into a rather valuable
political asset. Mr. Kephart was too
wise to thus play into the hands of
his accuser, but Charlie impulsively
plunged into the pool, head over heels.
Practically admitting the charge he
defended himself on the ground that
no harm had been intended or done
and turned a voluminous stream of
vituperation against the Governor.
Probably that is precisely what the
Governor wanted him to do. Abusing
an opponent is futile even in defense
of a wrong charge. But when it is
accompanied with a practical admis-
sion of guilt it is actually destructive.
That is what Mr. Snyder did.
——Some enterprising or feeble.
minded Legislator might simplify
matters by introducing a bill disquali-
fying the Governor from public office.
Setting Colonel McCain Right.
m———"
We read with much interest Col. George Nox McCain’s. remimiscent
story of the campaign for Governor in Pennsylvania, in 1902. Col.
McCain knows a lot of contemporary Pennsylvania politics. We have
in mind only two living writers probably more intimately informed
as to what was doing a quarter of a century ago than he. We are not
one of them, but we do know a lot about the campaign of 1902 and it
pleases our present mood to set Col. McCain right on two statements
he made.
The late Samuel W. Pennypacker was in no sense the condidate of
the Republican party for Governor that year. John P. Elkin was the
logical man from the machine's standpoint, but Quay was slipping,
even though he had just disposed of the “Hog Combine,” and was
afraid to go before the people with a politician as a candidate, so he
threw his cousin Sam, eminently respectable and innocent as a babe,
forward as a sop—nothing more. It was flop doodle, pure and simple,
and there were enough fools in Pennsylvania to feed on it.
“The Philadelphia Press and Senator Matthew Stanley Quay
were “not as Col. McCain states,” for once in a blue moon working
harmoniously together.”
On the surface it might have given that
impression, but underneath we know that the Press had no stomach
for either Quay or Pennypacker.
The Philadelphia Times had just
given up the ghost and over the Press office there was beginning to
fall that sinister shadow that has brought into total eclipse the inde-
pendence of editorial pages of metropolitan journals.
In the last analysis, it is the counting room and not the editorial
that dictates the policies of our great American dailies. The days of
the Greelys, the Danas, the Wattersons, the Reids, the McClures, the
Gradys, the Singerleys and the Smiths are gone and in their stead
have come editorial writers who are paid to argue that black is white
if by so doing it will boost circulation and draw advertising in conse-
quence.
We mention this only because it is a material witness to what is
to follow.
The Philadelphia Press struggling for its ideals, and losing ground
for doing it, wakened up one morning to find the advertising of three
great department stores in that city unexpectedly withdrawn from its
columns. Seeking an explanation its managers discovered that the
Quay machine was disciplining it. One of the stores had elevators that
did not comply with new regulations of the Department of Public
Safety, in another the aisles were an inch or two too narrow. They
were threatened with the padlock or hundreds of thousands of dollars
of expense unless they withdrew their advertising from the Press.
Confronted with such an alternative what could they do?
The result was that Charles Emory Smith, in order to save the
Press, gave up his Cabinet portfolio, Rost-master General, and came
home to stump Pennsylvania for Penn
- ing harmoniously “for once in a-blue moon” with Quay?" Spa
ker. Do you call that work-
You might. We don’t. Pennypacker made his maiden speech at
Fogelsville, on Aug. 23, and said nothing. He hadn’t yet concluded
that Quay was a greater statesman than Webster or Clay. The cam-
paign really opened at Grange Park, Centre Hall, this county, on Tues-
day, September 16. There the big guns began to boom, for on the
platform together with the candidate were Hastings, Penrose and
Charles Emory Smith. We shall never forget Smith’s speech. It was
a classic. Clean in thought, eloquent in manner and choice in language.
He talked for forty-five minutes and the name of Quay or Pennypacker
never once fell from his lips. He toured the State with the Governor's
party in that campaign and one newspaper man who was traveling
with the caravansary told us afterward that so far as he remembered
Charles Emory Smith ended the tour as he had commenced it at Cen-
tre Hall.
Later in the campaign we rode with the gentleman from Sunbury
to Williamsport where he was billed for a speech to the Republican
club of that city and we learned then, positively, what we are telling
Col. McCain now that the Press was working but not “harmoniously”
with Quay.
It was a memorial campaign.
Is Durham was the boss in Phila-
delphia, Clayt. Erb was his secretary and it was Clayt. who was
credited with saying that it didn’t matter a damn how many of the
counties of the State went against Pennypacker Philadelphia would
count enough votes to put him in, and that was the year that Rudolph
Blankenburg made his memorable reply to Quay’s appeal for funds
for the campaign.
Yes it was a memorable campaign and not without its local after-
math. Only a short time before Jack Dale, Vic Gray, and Al Dale had
openly opposed the Hastings effort to throw Centre county’s delega-
tion into the “Hog Combine.” As we say, they were in the open, but
the late Judge Love, the present republican county chairman Wilson
I. Fleming and Ned Chambers, who was a cousin of Pennypacker and
expecting something to turn up, were loyal organization men but not
wishing to affront Hastings, laid off in that fight. The result was
that when Hastings gave a reception to Pennypacker, after the Centre
Hall meeting, not one of them was telephoned for.
We recount these incidents not so much to set Col. McCain right
as to try to arouse an interest in politics in the present generation
of Democrats and Republicans in Centre county. Our government
will not live unless there are virile political parties to struggle for the
manipulation of its machinery. The men of yesterday—some were
self seeking, some were ambitious, few were dishonest—played the
game for the love of it only and God save the Country when that spirit
becomes extinct.
New Burgess Will Not Stop Curb
Market.
Somebody is evidently trying io
malign Bellefonte’s new burgess in the
eyes and ears of Centre county farm-
ers. This is evident from the fact
that John B. Payne has received sev-
eral inquiries from farmers as to the
truth of the report that the burgess
is going to put a stop to the curb
market during the coming summer.
While we have not consulted the
burgess we assume responsibility for
the statement that there is not a word
of truth in it. We know the burgess,
and we know that he likes fresh vege-
tables and berries about as much as
any man, and he is not going to inter-
fere with anything in that line.
Last year the curb market was a
little late in getting started because
farmers were not notified in time to
—— Meantime the private monopoly
in electrical power is spreading in
every direction.
prepare for it. This year, it is report-
ed, truck gardeners and farmers will
plant early and more abundantly, and
will make an effort to have fresh
garden stuff in Bellefonte at the ear-
liest date possible.
——Our thanks are extended to that
wily little animal, the groundhog, for
not being able to see his shadow on
Tuesday. Now let us all hope that the
hardest part of the 1925—'6 winter is
a matter of history. Between shovel-
ing snow off the pavement and shovel-
ing coal to keep warm we have had a
busy winter and look forward to dig-
ging garden and killing cabbage
worms as a sort of relaxation.
——The Legislature may adjourn
finally on the day fixed but it will be
the last legislative adjournment for
a good many of the Legislators.
—After having shoveled about 150
ft. of sidewalk we have come to the
conclusion that “beautiful snow” poets
must live in apartment houses.
NO. 6.
The Entangling Alliance Bugahoo.
| From the Philadelphia Record.
If we had not been forced into the
world war within 10 years, with no
World Court and no League of Na-
tions, the fear lest we should involve
ourselves in associations that might
compromise us would be intelligible.
But with the world war fresh in our
minds it is incomprehensible that any
persons should fear that our connec-
tion with either of these would drag
us into hostilities. Our proposed as-
sociation with ether nations is to pre-
vent war and not to precipitate it. We
have found that we can get into a war
without a League, or a Court. We
want one or both to help us keep out
of war.
Teh foreign interests against which
both Washington and Jefferson warn-
ed the infant United States were en-
tirely unlike those that exist or have
recently existed. In the Napoleonic
wars the American people were pas-
sionately divided in their sympathies
between England and France. The
partisans of England wished us to
make war on France. The partisans
of France—and they were numerous
and rather coarse in this vicinity—
were determined that we should help
France against England. Washing-
ton and Jefferson warned us against
taking part in the Anglo-French quar-
rel. We heeded their advice in 1914,
and continued to heed it until we were
convinced that our rights were involv-
ed, and that civilization and demo-
cracy were at stake.
Most persons emerged from the
horrors of the world war determined
to do all in their power to prevent a
repetition. Hence the League of Na-
tions and the World Court. If partic-
any military operations, just consider
the vast military operations we be-
came involved in when there was no
League and no Court. The isolation
which was possible in the time of
Washington and Jefferson is no long-
er possible. The oceans are not the
barriers they were once, and our com-
merce reaches everywhere. To as-
sume that we can maintain national
isolation is as absurd as the notion of
fighting now with smooth-bore flint-
lock muskets. There is no sugges-
tion anywhere of our uniting with one
nation against another, which was
the issue in the time of Washington
and Jefferson, If we should, join he
League we should merely follow the
repeated admonitions of Theodore
Roosevelt and identify ourselves with
his “posse comitatus of nations.”
Washington and Jefferson wisely
warned us against allying ourselves
with one nation against another.
Neither of them would have dreamed
of advising us not to join 54 other
nations in an effort to prevent war.
At present the League is not an is-
sue. The World Court, even with no
force to put its decrees into operation,
is a powerful factor for peace. It ac-
customs nations to argue their cases
before an impartial tribunal instead
of standing on their military or naval
resources. The very existence of such
a Court makes every Government
less likely to assert its own opinions
or interests by force. The habit of
fighting cannot be summarily erad-
icated, but the effect of the Court dnd
of the League is to make all Govern-
ments less disposed to fight.
To say that in participating in the
Court, or even in joining the League,
we should sacrifice something of our
national sovereignty is a puerility,
because the nations that have joined
the League are as jealous of
their sovereignty as we are of ours,
and because in every treaty we make
we part with some of our sovereignty;
we agree to do, or not to do, certain
things in the future, and we are not
free to ignore such an agreement un-
til we withdraw from it in proper
form.
There isn’t a decent or plausible ob-
jection to the World Court, and it is
hard to have patience with those that
are urged against the League.
meres etme ef ene EASA
State Conservation of Wild Life.
From the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Since the close of last hunting sea-
son the State Game Commission has
distributed 40,000 Kansas and Mis-
souri rabbits in the woods of Penn-
sylvania. Another 10,000 are in the
process of release. Secretary Seth
E. Gordon, therefore, expects 1926 to
be an unusual year for game. The de-
partment is importing no deer, as the
recent reports of kills show that fur-
ther additions are unnecessary for the
present. An effort to scatter them
about more uniformly has been under-
taken. Those trapped in sections of
plenty have been sent to regions
where the deer are scarce.
These plans to restore the fauna of
the State are quite as impressive as
the restoration of the flora. Popular
support seems cheerfully accorded to
both movements. Reforestation has
an economic purpose for whose bene-
fits we must wait a while. The prop-
agation and dissemination of game,
which have a recreational motive, are
more immediate in results. In this
connection the plan to turn Solebury
Deer Park in Bucks county into a
State fish hatchery shows that avail-
able sanctuaries may still be found
near great cities as well as in the re-
mote wildernesses.
A pleasing feature of the State’s
effort to co-operate with nature is
the assistance that comes from the
various fish and game associations.
ipation in them should involve us in.
| SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
— Representative Magrady introduced a
bill in Congress to appropriate $200,000 for
a Federal building at Bloomsburg.
— The third annual mid-winter Colum-
bia county products show will be held the
week of February 22, at Bloomsburg.
—Dr. Charlés L. Fullmer, of Renovo, has
been appointed medieal director for Clin-
ten county, succeeding the late Dr. R. B.
Watson, of Lock Haven.
—SHlpping on the ice while doing chores
about his farm, Thomas McMichael, 70, re-
tired farmer of near Christiana, Lancas-
ter eounty, was instantly killed when he
fell and fractured his skull.
— Three families were made homeless
on Friday when fire of unknown origin
destroyed a double house and a single
dwelling in Plains township, Luzerne
county, entailing a loss estimated at $25,-
000.
—Police departments of Eastern Penn-
sylvania have been asked by the Allentown
authorities to assist in locating Frank
Killo, 11-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs.
Frank Killo, who has been missing since
Wednesday.
—Thrown from a motorized pumper
while responding to a fire alarm, Joseph
Thornburg, 50, a volunteer fireman of
Reading, was rum over when the truck
backed, suffering injuries which resulted
in his death.
— Because of lack of coal for fuel, the
Beaver Meadow school board Friday night
decided to close the schools until furthef
notice. Four hundred pupils of the bor-
ough, which is situated four miles from
Hazleton, are affected.
— Back fire from a gasoline engine that
was used to operate an electric light plant
on Friday caused a fire which destroyed
the public garage and barn of Henry Mec-
Kinstry in Warrington Township, Berks
county, for a loss of $8,000.
—Mr. and Mrs. Grover Gloecker and four
children of Coopersburg, were seriofisly
burned when an oil lamp exploded at their
home, causing also to explode a five-gal-
lon can of gasoline. A babe in the crib
was the only one uninjured.
— With their wages reduced from forty-
two and one-half cents an hour to thirty-
eight cents, laborers at the Northampton
plant of the Atlas Portland Cement com-
pany left their places in the plant on Sat-
urday and were followed by other work
men.
—The Reading and Pottstown Gas com-
pany’s lines and equipment has been pure
chased by the West Chester Street Rail-
way company, it was announced last
Thursday. The lines will be combined
with other routes of the Chester Valley
lines.
—Apparently convinced that he would
not recover from a prolonged illness, and
unable to participate in festivities attend-
ing the celebration of his sixty-second
birthday. Wayne G. Kulp, of near Eph-
rata, committed suicide on Saturday by
hanging.
—The glass bottle plant burned at Shef-
field, 10 miles from Kane, McKean county,
last Thursday night, with a loss of $45,-
000, will be rebuilt at once. The factory
has orders to keep it in operation two
years, one item being 200 carlaods of half-
pint flasks.
— For the first time in the history of
Company I. 111th Infantry, at West Ches-
ter, a member of the company has been
sent to jail on the charge of non-attend-
ance of drills. He will face a summary
court before Maj. John C. Groff on Mon-
day evening.
—Henry Gross, of Scranton, and Henry
A. Stultz, of Pittsburgh, were arrested
while at work on the safe of the Irving-
King Clothing company of Altoona. Police
found on them $1800 in cash, which they
had obtained earlier from the safe of the
Westfall company.
—Depositors in the defunct banking
house of Gardner, Morrow & Co., Holli-
daysburg, which failed in September, 1896,
will share in another distribution of cash,
the sum of $2,000 being available for this
purpose. The court has appointed an au-
ditor to distribute the money.
__Mrs. Hattie Davis, of Norristown,
mother of 19 children, has been granted
a divorce by the courts on the ground of
desertion by her husband, Martin Davis,
a bricklayer by trade but not by occupa-
tion. She testified he worked little at any-
thing, not even to chop wood to keep their
house warm,
—Rev. DE. J. Vernon Bell, pastor of the
First Presbyterian church of DuBais for
more than two score years, has tendered
his regisnation, effective March 31 next,
when his forty second year will be com-
pleted. His advancing years are his only
reason for resigning. He served the con-
gregation forty-two years,
—~Searching parties consisting of rela-
tives and friends of Walter Zelinski, 18
vears old, of Mt. Carmel, went into the
mountains last Saturday to attempt to
find some trace of the youth who wander-
ed from his home on Wednesday. Zelin-
ski, whose mind is slightly deranged, is
believed to have been frozen to death.
—-Forced by the miners’ strike to go out
and get his own coal, John Strake, of
St. Clair, Schuylkill county, dropped dead
while wheeling home a barrow of
coal which he picked on Sunday at a culm
bank. Physicians found he died from heart
failure. Strake was a striker and was ac-
customed to have his coal hauled home on
trucks.
—One of the biggest damage suits start-
ed in the courts of Lycoming county was
filed with the Prothonotary last week
when Mrs. Amanda E. Horn, of Newberry,
brought suit for $100,000 damages for the
death of her husband of injuries suffered
when he was struck by a freight car of
the Reading company, named as the de-
dendant in the proceedings. Horn was
struck while crossing the tracks of the
Reading company at Newberry, near his
home, on June 12, 1925, his death result-
ing the following day.
—Bequests of $5,000 each to Tressler
Orphans’ Home and the Board of Church
Extension of the General Synod, Evangel-
cal Lutheran church and $2,000 to the Good
Shepherd Hoine, Allentown, are contained
in the will of the late John K. Lauder-
milch, retired jeweler of Lebanon. The
$110,000 estate is to be distributed among
nephews and nieces after $20,000 is paid
to Anna Grace Meyer, who was Mr.
Laudermilch’s ward. Following her death,
the Tressler Home and Church Extension
Board are to divide the $20,000 heid In
"trust for her.