INK SLINGS. —A warm rain or a few days of real sunshine would bring a flood of damaging proportions. ~ —Anyway, the Leglsiature adjourn- ed when it said it would. That's something by way of keeping faith with the people. ——The organization is cock sure ii has Pinchot down and out but it was equally certain of that four years ago, at this stage of the campaign. —Every time we get set to say something mean about the weather a wee voice, from somewhere, keeps piping: Don’t do it, it might be worse. ——1It is generally admitted that whoever Secretary Mellon favors will be the Republican nominee for Gover- nor, but nobody can‘ get Andy to speak above a whisper. —My, what a happy week it would have been for us if Helen Wills had defeated the Lenglen woman. She didn’t do it, however, so we’re just trying to be happy, anyway. —The further we read into the diary of Col. House the more amazed are we at the versatility of the silent Texan. As a private citizen he certain- ly essayed roles never before under- taken by men clothed with supreme authority. —Now that the coal strike is ended the public should worry over the con- troversey as to who settled it. Pin- chot, personally, and friends of Sproul, Davis and Grant started a precipitate scramble for the glory. Nobody cares who gets it. All the public wants is the coal. —Natural ice costs so little that few people care to bother about putting it up. If someone should corner all the ponds in Centre county and charge more for it than the artificial product could be bought for there would probably be a wild scramble to clean out and fill up all the old ice houses in the neighborhood. " —Efforts of some of the Republican papers of the State to pin a wreath on Secretary of Labor Davis for having settled the coal strike make it appear to us as though mention of his name in connection with the gubernatorial nomination has not been as casual as it seemed. This attempt to glorify the Secretary looks very much like he was being groomed for the race. —— —During the year just closed Ash- land planted ten thousand trees, Bloomsburg four thousand, Chambers- burg fifteen hundred, Williamsport seven hundred and fifty, York over twelve thousand and other towns and cities planted in great numbers. And during the same year Bellefonte did ~mothing but-cut-— down some of her stateliest elms and maples . —VFarmers should not attempt to laugh off the warnings against the ad- vance of the European corn borer. It is probably the most dectructive pest agriculturists in this country have ever had to combat. Some years ago, when science warned against the chestnut blight the skeptics said: “Oh, that’s just another of them things.” What happened ? Living chestnut trees are as scarce as hen teeth. Talking about a scarcity of good Democratic gubernatorial tim- ber, why the woods are full of it. Right now our mind is wandering up the Bald Eagle valley and in Tyrone looms J. K. Johnston. Where could a cleaner, better type of successful bus- iness man be found? And, besides, Mr. Johnston knows his Pennsylvania, its past problems and its present needs and never having been in poli- tics he would prove a leader behind whom all factions could heartily rally. —Mrs. Maude Seymour, vice presi- dent for Pennsylvania, made a signif- icant statement before the Pottsville, W. C. T. U., on Monday evening. Mrs. Seymour called attention to the fact that four years ago every candidate for Governor was “dry”, whereas at present every presumptive candidate is “wet.” Necessarily Mrs. Seymour views the situation with alarm. We don’t. The country is dry and going to stay dry, unless the Eighteenth amendment is repealed and nobody alive today will live to see that done. The sooner there is an end of befog- ging every election with an issue that has been settled the sooner the coun- try will get down to the matter of electing men to office because they are fitted for it and mot because they have taken a drink on occasion or refrained from it. —The front page of Monday’s papers were certainly mirrors that the country couldn't have much pride in looking into, nor were they design- ed to dispel the general gloom of the day. All of them were devoted to fog, hail, rain, thunder, moral turpitude, stock dynamiters and sucker lists, the Salm baby, boot-legging and mystery killings. The only uplifting thing we could find was the announcement that young Rockerfeller is to give ten mil- tion for a museum in Egypt and that lifted us only high enough to see gaso- line go up another cent a gallon. With the metropolitan papers filled with nothing but murders, infidelity and trials of government officials caught with “grease” on em and our own crowded with notices of festivals, bake sales, thimble bees, card parties and this stuff what in the world is there for a person who abhors sensation and tittle-tattle to read? Its back to the cross-word puzzle and the dictionary for us. VOL. 71. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA.. FEBRUARY 19. 1926. . NO. 8. Defy Decent Public Sentiment. When the extra session of the As- sembly on the second legislative day of its existence fixed the day for final of assembling the Watchman suggest- ed that it might have a good or evil effect on the work before it. If the purpose had been to expedite business, to give assiduous and honest attention to the work for which it had been called, it was a commendable act. On the other hand, if the early date of adjournment was set in order that the ed off the caiander by dilly-dallying, proposed legislation might be jockey- ed off the calendar by dilly-dallying, frequent and long continued recesses and other methods of killing time, it was in a high - degree reprehensible. That fact must have been obvious to all men. We hoped, though it was a feeble emotion, that the proceedings of the session would reveal the high purpose. We thought that at least a majority of the Senators and Representatives would make a show of responding to public sentiment. Common sense plainly dictated that policy. The Leg- islators were chosen not to express their individual prejudices or personal interests. They were expected to rep- resent the sentiments of their constit- uents. It is impossible to believe that a majority of the men and women of Pennsylvania favor corrupt elections. Yet their representatives in the Gen- eral Assembly have so registered them. They have chosen to entrench fraud. Senator Bonebrake voiced the pur- pose of those who have prevented bal- lot reform legislation when he said that a declaration by Governor Pin- chot that he would not be a candidate for Senator in Congress would present the proposed reform legislation in a different light. They know that with an honest vote and fair return the Governor would defeat their pet can- didate by a large majority. If the Governor is a candidate, they want the opportunity to debauch the elec- tion, continued. But they are “cher- ishing up wrath against the day of wrath.” The people of Pennsylvania are mere concerned for honest elec- tions and just government than they are for individual candidates, and unless the signs are misleading they will show it next fall. ——Just as a subject for mental speculation we predict that the defeat of the ballot reform bills will do Gov- ernor Pinchot more good than harm. Tax Bill Giving Trouble. The tax bill, known as a bi-partisan product, has passed the Senate after a somewhat acrimonious debate and is now in the hands of a conference committee. As the measure passed in the House of Representative it pro- vided for tax reductions estimated at $327,000,000. In the Senate commit- tee additional cuts made a probable tax reduction of about $356,000,000. As passed in the Senate the reduction would amount to at least $456,000,000. Secretary of the Treasury Mellon rec- ommended cuts to the total of $300, 000,000. The ranking Democrat on the House committee on Ways and Means, and the ranking Democrat on the Senate committee on Finance pro- tested that a cut of $500,000,000 might and should be made. The administration in Washington is much perturbed over the condition which the action of Congress implies. In a recent speech Mr. Coolidge boast- ed of the economy which enabled him to effect a saving of the $300,000,000 which his plan contemplated and promised other decreases at intervals. The decrease in taxation this year was expected to appeal to voters in the Congressional campaign this fall and the next Congress could make a simi- lar appeal to serve in the Presidential campaign of 1928, when he expects to be re-elected. But the present de- crease of $456,000,000 will disappoint his expectations, It will leave enough revenue to meet the requirements of the government, but little surplus. Senator Simmons believes that a cut of half a billion dollars might have been made at this time without im- pairment of the service and he is prob- ably right. But the Republican party is in the majority in both branches of Congress and it was impossible to secure a greater decrease in taxes. The figures in the bill now in confer- ence are much closer to his estimate than to that of the administration, but a strenuous effort will be made to alter it. If by application of the party whip the taxes are increased to the figure which the administration is now willing to concede, $356,000,000, the country will have the Republican party to blame. It will be taxing the people for other than revenue purposes. ——The trouble with Senator Borah is that he imagines nobody is good enough to associate with him, adjournment five weeks from the time ' Settlement of the Coal Strike. 1 | | An agreement having been arrived . at between the coal miners and mine ! owners for resuming operations a new and vexed subject of controversy has arisen. The Republican political ma- chine has set out to show that Gover- nor Pinchot rendered no aid in the achievement. Considering that the Governor has been investing much of his time and thought in the matter ever since the negotiations began in August at Atlantic City, and that one of the plans considered was known as his plan, this would seem to be a diffi- Grave Offense if True. If the charge publicly made by Governor Pinchot that Auditor Gener- al Martin “padded” his expense ac- “count in responding to the resolution cult undertaking. But the machine politicians are resourceful and un- restrained by conscience and may be | able to confuse the minds of a good many well meaning people on the sub- ject. Thus far the only palpable progress asking for a comparative statement of the expense of his administration as compared with those of some of his predecessors is true, the Auditor Gen- eral is guilty of an official atrocity that has an only parallel in the act of | former Attorney General Daugherty when he sent secret service men of the government to “frame up” something against Senator Wheeler, of Montana. The purpose of the resolution was to ' show that Governor Pinchot’s claims of economy were false and that in- stead of saving money for the State , he wasted vast sums. made in this direction is the setting up of a claim that the influence or the effort of Secretary of Labor Davis, a possible candidate for the Republican nomination for Governor, and former Governor Sproul, who also indulges political aspirations, accomplished the result. It is true that Secretary Davis maintained “a listening post” during the Atlantic City conferences but thera is no record of any plan of set- tlement or suggestion of terms made by him, while no mention was made of Mr. Sproul’s activities during the entire period of the strike. President Coolidge frankly declares that neither he ner any agent of the federal gov- ernment had anything to do with the matter. The truth is that the coal miners and mine owners settled the differ- ences between themselves for the rea- son that they were alike convinced of the folly and futility of further con- i tention. It had already cost the { miners something like $150,000,000 rand the owners vast sums, and both sides had wasted as much as they [could afford. The late President ‘Roosevelt acquired the Nobel prize for getting Russia and Japan to agree to | terms of peace when both combatants | were so completely exhausted that it i was physically and financially impos- ‘sible to continue the struggle, and the { Republican politicians are now trying | to emulate his example by securing for some party favorite a more or less valuable political prize. | : Congressman Vare is gradually , getting down to his proper level. First i he demanded the nomination for Sena- , tor. Next he aspired only to name the ‘candidate for Governor. Then he | dropped back to a plea for the candi- i date for Secretary of Internal Affairs. | Maybe in the end he will be allowed to select the candidate for constable of ‘the First ward. Ballot Reform Defeated. Among the ballot reform bills de- feated in the Senate, on Monday even- ing, were compulsory opening of bai- lot boxes on allegation of fraud: re- striction of assistance to voters; per- mitting citizens to inspect election records; eliminating the chain ballot system; requiring jail penalties for election law violations; and prompt computation of the vote. There were others upon which honest men might disagree, but it is not easy to see how or why an honest man or woman could object to the purpose of the measures enumerated. They could do no harm to any candidate or party who or which had a majority of the votes in the voting district. The only effect they could have on the result would be to guarantee justice. An analysis of the discussion of the measures in the Senate reveals the impression that the opposition was based on a theory that the bills were administration measures. That is absolutely false. It is true that Gov- ernor Pinchot favored the legislation but he did not originate it or put it in form. After the exposure of gross frauds in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Scranton, last fall, the Governor in- vited a group of high class citizens to assemble, investigate and suggest remedies for the evil which was uni- versally admitted. This body of eminently respectable and admittedly intelligent men and women framed the legislation. It was neither partisan nor faction- al in construction or purpose. It was simply, in the estimation of the volun- tary commission, a medium of pre- venting fraud in the casting and counting of votes. The Republican organization opposed the legislation for the reason that the leaders of that party realize the fact that an honest vote and fair count in Pennsylvania will drive the party out of power and might send some of the leaders into prisons. It remains to be seen whether or not the people of the State will justify such a betrayal of faith. If they are just to themselves, if they are true to the voice of their con- sciences, the conspirators will be dis- appointed in their expectations. ' given period of time. The fact is that administrative ex- travagance is not measured by the amount of money distributed within a | If that were the standard it might be possible to show that the Pinchot administration | has been expensive. It is certain that the revenues were increased consid- erably by doubling the gasoline tax and adding other items to the subjects of taxation. But the increased reve- nues were needed to pay the increased | appropriations made by the same Legislature that added to the revenues and to meet the demands upon the treasury caused by deficits of the Sproul administration. When Gov- ernor Pinchot assumed office there was a debt of nearly $30,000,000 hanging over his head. This has been paid and there is now a big balance in the treasury. As a matter of fact the Governor has very little to do with the disburse- ments of the State except in so far as he approves the appropriations made by the Legislature. He can exercise some discretion in exacting full ser- vice for the money paid and may cut the appropriations to a point within the limit of the revenues. But he has no right to expend money without ap- propriations, or in excess of the ap- propriations, and this seems to have been the cause of complaint against his predecessors. No one has accused Mz. Pinchot of this form of misfeas- aneé and no one has a right to juggle figures to make the public believe that his administration has been profligate instead of economical, as he claims. —The House diary of his associa- tion with Woodrow Wilson ought to be of intense interest to every one, since it is a close-up of what went on during the greatest crises that ever confronted our country. It is of pecu- liar interest to us because it aids in the obfuscation of three old Democrats who stopped reading the Watchman because, after devoted advocation, it realized that Mr. Bryan was a forlorn hope as a presidential possibility. We have reason to believe that each one of our critics fell for the K. K. K. movement. And just because we know they are klansmen we take an unholy delight in hoping they will see this paragraph because it is written only to tell them that it was Bryan who urged Wilson to put a Jew and a Catholic in his cabinet. ——We are not yet convinced that the groundhog has anything to do with the weather, or is any more competent to prognosticate than the paid gov- ernment forecasters, but whether he has or not, we have had nothing but real Simonpure winter weather since Candlemas day. But there is an end to all things and March will soon be here when we may naturally expect some nice days scattered among the dis- agreeable ones. ——Senator Pepper somewhat in- dignantly denies the rumor that he had entered into an agreement to make Vare a Senator in Congress. We don’t blame him for resenting such an aspersion. ——The man who ended the coal strike has become enveloped in the mystery which has so long concealed the identity of “the man who struck Billy Patterson.” ——The income tax payers are in. debted to the Democrats in Congress for the reduced levies. Even Secre- tary Mellon ought to feel grateful. ——1If Governor Pinchot should not become a candidate for Senator the Republican leaders will wonder why they made fools of themselves. oa. ——Premier Mussolini has managed to maintain power in Italy longer than | was expected, but present indications are that he is getting: too gay. ——The Tener gubernatorial boom is creating little comment these days but it is still hovering around. A mss nmmm———— ——The man who embarks on the sea of matrimony should never rock the boat. | Who Did It? From The Philadelphia Record. i The identity of the miscreant who struck Billy Paterson is one of the insoluble enigmas of the age, and even ‘the victim of the historic assault is known but by a shadowy name. To that baffling mystery is now added ; another: Whose was the genius, if ‘any, that accomplished settlement of | the anthracite strike? After the months of dreary and profitless wrangling over such triv- ‘ialities as the fate of a great industry rand the rights of the public, it is a ‘relief to turn to a controversy not less intense and a good deal more en- | tertaining. The agility and prompt- -itude exhibited by the claimants and | their partisans have evoked universal ‘admiration. Governor Pinchot is even j accused of snatching for fame with a | premature announcement of the peace. : The Secretary of Labor modestly | broadcast an account of his own achievements. President Coolidge, Senator Copeland, the Republican party, the Democratic party, policies of intervention and policies of master- ly inactivity—all these were instantly and clamorously acclaimed. Perhaps the most effective voice was that of Richard F. Grant, a coal operator of Cleveland, who caught the public ear with a satirical repudiation of all political influences whatsoever and pinned the medal of distinction upon his own breast. The scramble for credit has pro- duced highly diverting spectacles. The Republican leader in the House con- gratulates that body upon having saved the situation by refusing to at- tempt or advise intervention. Mr. Copeland declares that the Senate “precipitated the settlement” by pur- suing a course exactly the opposite, while he himself is decorated by Sen- ator Pat Harrison. The New York Herald Tribune prostrates itself be- fore “the President’s sound policy,” while the White House spokesman emphatically disclaims any part in the affair. Meanwhile an anti-Pinchot organ laboriously seeks to brand the Governor as a marplot, and to exalt Secretary Davis and former Governor Sproul—a partisan performance which is sufficiently discredited by a cordial tribute to Mr. Pinchot from the leader of the miners. All these attempts to attribute the settlement to a single influence are in- consequential and patently absurd. The result was due to many diverse causes and forces. Both sides were under financial strain, which to the miners was becoming insupportable. Adjustment of the consumers to the subject of Governmental regulation, use of substitute fuels not only de- prived the contending groups of sup- port from the public, but warned them that the market for anthracite was being permanently impaired. Laws making the industry a public utility as proposed three years ago by the Federal Coal Commission, were being advocated in Congress and by Gov- ernor Pinchot, and both the operators and the union shrank from the ‘Pros- pect of such control. If there was one factor of outstanding importance, it was the rational plan formulated by Alvan Markle, the rejection of which left the deadlock without a shred of justification. . In a word the struggle was term- inated when the cumulative effects of the various considerations forced a compromise. The voluble Mr. Grant had the good fortune to be accept- able as mediator in the final negotia- tions, but his idea that he is the only figure in the parade of peacemakers Is a rather amusing delusion. The Motor of Faith. By B. C. Forbes, in Forbes Magazine. Pity the human being that is not able to connect a motor of faith with- in himself with the Infinite. The man without faith is as a ship without an anchor, as an airship without a rud- der, as an auto without a steering wheel. More, he is as a tree whose roots have no water, a human being trying to breathe without oxygen. The man whose inner motor of faith draws power from the unseen has within him a strength unconquerable, a spirit in- vincible, a confidence that can move mountains. He who has not faith has ego—ego swollen to the nth degree. And that never has a happy ending. He who has faith has also humility. He knows his own littleness by and of himself; but he has an inward res- ervoir of courage, hope, confidence, calmness, an assuring trust that all will eome out well—even though to the world it may appear to come out most badly. Is not the acme of ‘achievement by the human soul the attainment of that state whereby it can say with all sincerity and rec- onciliation and cheerfulness, “Thy will be done ?” Is not faith after all, the only abid- ing fount of human happiness? And is not that what we mortals thirst for most of all? ——The extra session will cost ex- actly $254,000. The machine controll- ed newspapers which declared it would “waste a million dollars” were about as nearly correct as usual. ——The improvement in the meth- ods of collecting’ the gasoline tax will yield more than the cost of the extra session and all the other benefits will be cledr gain. . SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Bloomsburg bricklayers have given notice that after March 15 they will in- crease their rates from $1.25 to $1.50 an hour, —Charles H. Hoffman has been elected secretary of the Lewistown Chamber of Commerce to succeed Charles I. Myrick, who disappeared in December. —The twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Altoona diocese of the Catholic church will be celebrated by the laying of the cornerstone of the cathedral in Altoona on May 30. —A verdict of $10,389.50 has been return- ed in the Franklin county courts in favor of Jacob R. Statler, farmer, in his action for damages against the Pennsylvania Railroad company, as the result of the burning of his barn in 1923. The Statler farm is adjacent to the railroad tracks. —An aerolite which weighs sixty-five pounds has been presented to the Histori- cal Society, of York county. This rare curiosity of astronomical science landed on the farm of Emanuel Knaub, near the borough of Manchester, about two years ago. The stone is composed of nickel, iron, silica, sulphur, aluminum, manganese, ete. Facing charges of forgery and embazzle- ment, Mrs. Mary D. Camwell, 32, pretty widow, a clerk in the Midland Savings & Trust company, of Midland, is in the Beaver jail in default of $10,000 bail for a hearing on Friday. Information against Mrs. Camwell was made by W. C. Ferry, an examiner of the State Department of Bank- ing in Harrisburg. —A sentence of not less than ten or more than twenty years in the eastern penitentiary, was given Quentin Tarr, Shamokin negro convicted of the murder of Edward Purcell, av Shamokin last month. He was convicted of second de- gree murder, just a month after the killing. District Attorney Raker said it was the quickest conviction for a major case in the history of Northumberland county. —One of the largest verdicts returned against the city of Pittsburgh in recent years as a result of personal injury was found by a jury in common pleas court before Judge Nelson McVicar last Thurs- day, in the case of Henry Harris who was awarded $10,500 for permanent injuries suffered October 22, 1922, when he stepped into a hole on Creighton road, in the Twentieth ward. The plaintiff, who is 62 years old, was unable to appear in court and his testimony had to be taken in a deposition at his bedside. —“Ring,” J. L. Headlee’s black and tan coon dog which had the distinction of be- ing the first canine prisoner ever lodged in the Greene county jail, was sold for $60 to Clarence Taylor last week by Sheriff Arno S. McClelland. His value had been placed at $100. The sale attracted a large crowd of coon hunters and bidding on the dog was lively. The dog was seized by Sheriff McClelland when he executed a lien on Headlee's personal property for nonpayment of a debt. The dog was the only property Headlee had. —Mrs. Minnie Torrance, of Parnassus, who last week was granted a divorce from William P. Torrance, was a good pro- vider, according to her testimony in the divorce actien in which she charged cruel and barbarous treatment and desertion. Mrs. Torrance told the master that when married 12 years ago there was mo honey- moon. Determined to have a wedding trip, Mrs. Torrance said she earned $100, after which the couple went to Niagara Falls, at her expense. She paid her hus- band's tailor bills, his liquor bills, and finally, when her husband gave three notes for $100 each on money he borrow- ed, she paid them. —Learning on Friday of the agreement to settle the anthracite strike, William Kittson aged 29 years, who was in Potts- town in search of work, and who was practically penniless, started to walk from there to Shenandoah, a distance of skventy miles, in order to be ready for work in the mines when the official order was given. He tramped day and night over the snow- covered raods, having had no sleep, and had reached St. Nicholas on Sunday, almost fagged out and only a mile from home, when he was run down by an auto- mobile driven by Chester Klechner, of Bos- ton Run, and now lies in a eritical condi- tion in the State hospital. —A 10-pound piece of cast iron, hurled through the air for half a mile, from Atlantic furnace of the Republic Iron and Steel company, at New Castle, which is be- ing dismantled, crashed through the roof of the home of J. R. Gush last Wednesday night and just missed Bud, 6 years old, and Irene, 3 years old, who were playing in a second floor room. The iron broke one of the roof rafters, tore off a clothes press door and made a large hole in the floor where it stopped. A baby on the first floor under the point where the iron stopped would have been crushed had the iron gone through. The Gush home is situated at an elevation of at least 200 feet above the site of the furnace. —Lawrence I. Ewing, former chief of police of Juniata, is under arrest charged with breaking into and robbing Harry E. Leonard's poolroom in Juniata last Tues- day morning, $1,500 worth of merchandise being taken. A search of Ewing's house resulted in the finding of several hundred dollars’ worth of silk in rolls and dresses supposed to have been stolen from Miss Lydia Lang's dry goods store in Juniata last April. The goods were hidden under a partition in the attic of the Ewing home. The goods taken from the poolroom were also found. Ewing is employed as a brake- man in the Juniata yards of the Pennsyl- vania railroad company. During his ser- vice as chief of police he shot and serious- ly wounded a man he was attempting to arrest on a charge of disorderly conduct. —Mr. and Mrs. H. T. McFadden, their daughter, Madeline, 11, and their sons, Thomas, 9; Merle, 4, and Walter, 2 years old, of Bellwood, were painfully injured on Saturday afternoon when a touring car driven by the father skidded off the bridge in Mann's Narrows, turned over and land- ed on the top in Kishacoquillas creek, twelve feet below. All would have drown- ed only for the prompt action of the in- mates of other cars who saw the accident and fished them from their perilous posi- tion. Mrs. McFadden sustained a fracture of the nose. The others escaped with con- tusions, lacerations and an icy bath. The bridge is a one-way temporary span, built by the State Highway Department one year ago after a furniture van had gone into the creek, endangering the lives of two men,