—————————
INK SLINGS.
—Garden seeds will soon be appear-
ing in the store windows.
——The bankers in session at Har-
risburg, the other day, assured us we
are enjoying “unprecedented prosperi-
ty.” Thanks for this information.
—The calendar tells that in twenty-
three days spring will be here. Lets
hope that the calendar does better by
way of making good than the ground-
hog did.
—If there were no jobs and other
perquisites to be handed out there
would be no machines in politics and
the really fit man would then be elect-
ed to office.
——-It looks as if Vare really in-
tends to run for Senator. He has al-
‘ready promised his seat in the House
to another fellow, according to news-
paper gossip.
——The Patriotic Sons of America,
of Dauphin county, in session on
Washington’s birthday, adopted reso-
lutions condemning Legislators for
killing the ballot reform legislation.
—Some day we're going to turn the
pile of “unfinished business” on our
desk up-side-down and then two spe-
cially facetious readers——one in Col-
orado, the other in Maryland are
going to have an entire column -de-
voted to them.
—The new bird is a starling. Joe
Undercoffer, Tom Lamb and George
Brown are nature fakirs. They were
only trying to scare us when they de-
clared it to be the “cow-bird”. Any-
thing alar, with cow attached to its
name strikes terror to us.
—Only a few weeks ago new May-
ors and Burgesses all over the State
were in the spot-light because of the
general reformations in municipal con-
duct they promised. Today we hear
little or nothing of them. Have they
made good or are they back trackin?
——This matter of worriment about
getting Bellefonte “on the map”
would be taken more seriously by a
lot of us if it wasn’t invariably the
disease of someone who only located
here because Bellefonte is on the map
and was put there, long ago, by her
unselfish men and women.
—Just wait until the next Congress
of the D. A. R. When the ladies get
into session they’ll put a stop to this
unseemly scramble of the “wets” and
“drys” to raise the ghost of George
‘Washington at the head of their
armies. Their’s is the right to see
that George reposes in peace and
we’ll bet they’ll resolute with many
whereases and therefor be it resolveds
just as soon as they convene in Wagsh-
ington.
—Mrs. John O. Miller is on the
stump again. This time, she says she
is out to urge the League of Women
voters to “get out the vote” in order
to rout the gang. Isn’t Mrs. Miller
just the best little applesauce peddler
in Pennsylvania. What she is
really trying to do is get out
the vote to keep the gang in.
It will name the candidates of the
Republican party and it will control
them after the Mrs. Millers of Penn-
sylvania have elected them—and she
knows that far better than we do.
—The Republican party made Pin-
chot Governor of Pennsylvania. Its
Governor called the special session of
the Legislature. Whether the special
convention was necessary or not is im-
material. The fact remains that it
cost the tax payers nearly half a mil-
lion dollars and simply because the
Legislature that the Republican party
has given the State was out of harmo-
ny with the Governor the Republican
party has given the State the time
was frittered away without a single
constructive enactment toward law
enforcement as applied to the poisoned
rum traffic or corruption of elections:
Isn’t it time that those Republicans
who are honest, christian men lay
aside the narrow partisanship, that
drives them into party lines at elec-
tion time, long enough to purge their
party of little men and make it some-
thing that away down in their hearts
they don’t feel like having to apolo-
gize for.
—After we get through reading all
the communications we have received
in response to our inquiry for informa-
tion as to the unidentified bird we think
our alma mater would be justified in
decorating us with the degree of
Doctor of Onithology. They've written
from California, Maine and Florida
and one whom we had always regard-
ed as a friend sat down at his desk in
Wilmington. Delaware, and crushed us
with the following: “Anyone as fa-
miliar with ‘chippies’ as you once
were, and who has looked over as
many ‘chickens’ as I know you have
becomes a pathetic figure to me when
he has to ask someone else to intro-
duce him to a new bird.” Isn’t it
awful, the mess we've gotten into.
Even the family cat brought a starling
in and laid it at our feet on Sunday
morning. We mention this latter fact
because of the pleasure we have de-
rived from the discovery that the
papers we find spread over the freshly
mopped kitchen linoleum are not put
there to protect it from the smudges of
our sloshy foot wear. They are there
for the erudition of the cat. And the
Sunday morning episode has convinced
us that the cat is reading the Watch-
man else, why would it have started
out to catch a starling just after in-
tently eyeing one of those papers on
the floor.
Bema ftn
Demgera
i
VOL. 71. BEL
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
LEFONTE, PA.. FEBRUARY 26. 1926.
NO. 9.
rama
Woodward Bill Wisely Vetoed.
Governor Pinchot has wisely vetoed
the emasculated Woodward bill, the
only ballot measure passed by the
General Assembly during the extra
session. It had been previously re-
pudiated by its author and justly con-
demned by all sincere supporters of
ballot reform. Under existing law
judges “may” order the opening of
ballot boxes on petition of five voters
resident in the district, alleging fraud.
Under that provision judges who
favor honest elections would be likely
to order the opening of boxes. The
Woodward bill substituted the word
“shall” for “may.” It meant an im-
provement. But it was amended by
order of the machine, so that if the
alleged fraud were not shown the com-
plainant would be penalized.
The Woodward bill was a substitute
for a measure recommended by the
committee of Seventy-six which pro-
vided that the petitioners might be
residents of other voting precincts
within the county. The committee was
influenced to its recommendation be-
cause in the election districts in which
the evil prevails the party machine
terrorizes voters to such an extent
that they are afraid to complain. But
the Woodward bill was an improve-
ment on the present law and in its
original form was accepted by the re-
formers. But with the amendment of
Senator Stites, it became a shelter for
ballot box stuffers. For that reason
the machine managers gave it eager
and earnest support. They have even
agreed to reward Stites.
Under existing law an election
board may withhold the announcement
of the result of an election and the re-
turn of the ballot boxes indefinitely.
In the event of a petition to open a
ballot box the board has ample time
to secretly open the box and correct
the fault complained of and the peti-
tioners may then be prosecuted for
perjury. The Stites amendment, there-
fore, becomes a most ingenious scheme
to protect fraud and encourage ballot
polution. In vetoing it Governor Pin-
chot has courageously performed a
valuable public service. If the Repub-
lican machine rewards Senator Stites
with the nomination for Lientenant
‘Governor it willbe a high and im-
perative duty of the electorate to de-
feat his election.
——Senator Pepper is now in favor
of branch banks but the Senator is
likely to be for anything from this
time until the primary election.
A Growing and Menacing Evil.
There is one evil, probably of recent
origin but of increasing proportions,
both in Washington and Harrisburg,
that presents a menacing aspect. It is
the encroachments of one branch of
the government upon the prerogatives
of others. Both the federal and State
governments are based upon the
theory of three separate and inde-
pendent departments. Of late years
there have been maintained a constant
and some times a threatening conflict
between the executive and legislative
departments of the governments at
Washington and Harrisburg. During
the recent extraordinary session of
the General Assembly this conflict has
been present and menacing from start
to finish.
The constitution of the United
States and the constitution of Penn-
sylvania alike authorize the President
and the Governor to give Congress or
the General Assembly information of
the state of the Union or the Com-
monwealth but neither is authorized
or expected to draft legislation or
frame bills for passage and offer them
as personal expressions of public
policy. Until within recent years no-
body ever heard of “administration
bills,” and such a thing as group or
bunch legislation marked as adminis-
tration bills was never dreamed of
until a comparatively short time ago.
During the extra session of the Leg-
islature some measures were opposed
by some Legislators for no better rea-
sons than that they were “administra-
tion bills.”
The Governor of Pennsylvania has
a legal and moral right to resist en-
croachments upon his prerogatives by
the Legislature, and it his duty to do
so in order to maintain the dignity of
his great office. But it would be just
as well and possibly a good deal bet-
ter if he refrained, in future, from
framing legislation “in bunches” and
sending it to the General Assembly
stamped with his approval and marked
“administration bills.” If the Senators
and Representatives in the General
Assembly are incapable of framing
legislation they desire to pass, they
are unfit for the position they occupy.
But fit or unfit for the job, the Gov-
ernor has no right to force his meas-
ures upon them.
—-Some of the alibis delinquent
One Issue Clearly Defined.
One of the important issues of the
impending campaign in Pennsylvania
is so clearly defined that it will not be
necessary to write it into the platform
of either party. The extra session cf
the Legislature fixed it indellibly. The
Republican party has declared posi-
tively and unequivocally in favor of
ballot pollution. The committee of
Seventy-six, a group of men and
women of high character, uninfluenced
by partisan considerations, unani-
mously recommended a series of bal-
lot laws which would have made
fraudulent voting hazardous .if not
impossible and the Republican organi-
zation deliberately killed every one
of them. That was a willful, wicked
and wanton declaration in favor of
ballot frauds.
For many years the Republican or-
ganization has maintained political
control of Pennsylvania by fraudulent
votes and false returns of the elec-
tions. This evil had become so flagrant
that thousands of honest men and
women of that party faith have be-
come disgusted and asked for correc-
tion. But the leaders of the party, in
their zeal for plunder, forced a ser-
vile Legislature to defeat every meas-
ure that promised reform. They rea-
lize that an honest vote and correct
return will drive them out of power
and possibly send them into prisons.
The defeat of honest ballot legisla-
tion is a confession of weakness. They
see the “hand writing on the wall” and
tremble for the consequence.
In the campaign soon to begin one
of the dominant issues will be fair or
fraudulent elections. The Republican
managers realize that thousands of
voters who cherish the principles
which influenced Lincoln to accept the
political philosophy he adopted will
vote against their candidates. But they
believe that frauds in voting and false
returns of the vote will compensate
for such losses. It is a sinister hope
based on criminal impulses. But the
challenge has been issued and the
Democrats will accept the guage of
battle. The Democratic party has
done all it could to correct the great-
est evil of present day politics and if
it is vigorous and vigilant it will win
the fight. :
——The Democrats in Congress
didn’t get all the tax reduction they
wanted but they got nearly a hundred
million dollars more than the adminis-
tration wanted to give.
mm
Malice Plainly Shown.
On the last day of the extra session
of the General Assembly Senator
Barr, of Pittsburgh, not only refuted
the statement of Auditor General
Martin with respect to comparative
expenses of the Pinchot and Sproul
administrations but proved that the
Republican machine has been wickedly
perverting records of the government
in order to discredit Governor Pinchot
in the public mind. Auditor General
Martin reported to the Legislature
that within three years the Pinchot
administration had cost the public
$54,000,000 more than the four years
of Governor Sproul’s term. Senator
Barr shows that the excess was used
in paying debts of the Sproul term.
When Pinchot entered upon the
duties of his office he found unpaid
claims against the State amounting to
a trifle more than $31,000,000. The
Legislature of 1923 increased the ap-
propriations for schools and other pur-
poses to an amount in excess of $24,-
000,000. The Sproul debt and in-
creased school appropriation totaled a
sum greater than the increased ex-
penditures referred to by Auditor
General Martin. When it is consider-
ed that the Pinchot administration
paid the Sproul administration debt,
the increased school appropriation and
had a balance in hand at the close of
the last fiscal year, it is plain that
it was economical rather than pro-
fligate.
This “bearing false witness” is of
itself a grave crime and the malice
behind it is clearly revealed in the
circumstances attending it. On Tues-
day, February 9th, the resolution ask-
ing for a comparative statement of
expenditures of the Pinchot and pre-
vious administrations was read in the
Senate. On Wednesday, February
10th, Senator Barr offered a resolution
asking that the report define the uses
to which the expenditures were put.
Auditor General Martin was able to
make his false report in response to
the McDade resolution on Monday,
February 15th, but was unable to re-
ply to the Barr resolution of a day
later by February 18th, the day of
final adjournment,
——Pinchot still withholds his an-
nouncement but it is a safe bet it will
come in due time and cause a lot of
noise.
Legislators will invent will be amus-
ing, but all of them will be absurd.
——The just and unpust walked in
slippery places yesterday morning.
Exposure of the Aluminum Trust
Coming.
Recent incidents justify the hope
that the iniquities of the aluminum
trust will be revealed. The adminis-
tration has been employing every
available expedient to shield this
monopoly from exposure. But ap-
pearances indicate that its defensive
resources are about exhausted. The
Democratic Senators having dispaired
of forcing a Senatorial inquiry now
propose to ask the President to em-
ploy special counsel, as was done in
the Teapot Dome scandal, “to take
such action, civil or criminal, as the
facts might warrant.” The adminis-
tration Senators will oppose such pro-
ceeding, of course, just as they op-
posed an investigation of the mono-
poly. But it is believed a majority of
the, Senators will adopt it.
The aluminum trust, the most dan-
gerous monopoly of all, has been op-
erating from the beginning under the
protection of the administration. The
leading figure in the combination is
Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the
Treasury. For more than five years, in
fact ever since the beginning of the
Harding administration, it has been
robbing the people by excessive
charges on aluminum ware which has
come to be a domestic necessity. For
more than three years strenuous ef-
forts have been in progress to check its
plundering processes. But the admin-
istration has been able to defeat every
measure proposed to expose its
methods or check its operations. It is
hoped now that a plan has been de-
vised that will succeed.
The opposition of the administration
to the plan has already been indicated.
Senator Cummins, chairman of the
Judiciary committee, protests that “it
would be usurping the functions of
the executive department of the gov-
ernment.” Even if that is true there
is a precedent for it. When the Tea-
pot Dome oil scandal had attained
such proportions that it could no
longer be concealed the Senate not
only directed but ordered the Presi-
dent to take precisely the same course.
Harry Daugherty was at the head of
the, Department of Justice then and
was discredited because of his venal- |
ity. The present Attorney General
may be honest enough but he is so
stupid that nothing can be expected
from him.
I ———— fp —C——C— TT
——A good many landlords in Belle-
fonte have added another boost to
their rents this spring, running any-
where from ten to as high as thirty-
three per cent. The high cost of
everything these days, the increase in
property valuations and the demand
for comfortable homes are the reasons
given for the increase, and the ordi-
nary workingman and the average
salaried employee are the ones who
will be hit the hardest by the increase.
There has been no advance in wages
and salaries and many families will
have to figure closely to meet the
raise in rents.
Washington had a variable
birthday in Bellefonte on Monday.
The banks and the postoffice were
closed tight but all other business
places were open as usual. It was
194 years on Monday since the birth
of Washington and 150 years since
he won the declaration of independ-
ence. In his wildest imaginings at
that time he probably never dreamed
that the day would come when the
country he fought so hard to free
would one day become the greatest
government on earth.
——Did you read the Tree Survey
for Bellefonte, in last week’s Watch-
man, if not, do so at once, that you
may be sure to plant the right kind
of a shade tree and put it in its right
place. By this you are only doing for
posterity what your ancestors did for
you, in addition to having the satisfac-
tion of knowing that Bellefonte is
your home town, and what you do for
it, in adding to its beauty you are do-
ing for yourself, in increasing the
value of its properties.
——If the county commissioners
make all the changes and improve-
ments recommended by the grand jury
this week they have a busy time ahead
of them. One recommendation made
is one that should have been done long
ago, that of a separate place in the
jail for the detention of female pris-
oners. The main question to decide
is whether the present office will be
the proper place for such quarters
and whether it will be big enough to
hold them all.
——Senator Stites is trying his best
to earn the promised favor of the ma-
chine, but unless signs are misleading
it will be an empty honor.
——Governor Tener proposes “to
prove his faith by works.” He is going
An Indefensible Session.
From the Pittsburgh Post.
The lack of results of the special
meeting of the Legislature from the
standpoint of public interest leaves
the session itself in an indefensible
position.
It is true that Governor Pinchot
was unable to convince the public of
the necessity of a special session,
which is supposed to be summoned
only to meet emergencies, and that
the personal politics of the Executive
cropped out at times in an offensive
manner.
It is true that the Republican state
organization played ruthless politics
in connection with the session, acting
at times as if it were more disposed
to favor bootleggers and election
crooks than to serve the public.
But the unwisdom and shortcomings
of neither Pinchot nor the Republican
state organization afford an excuse
for dereliction on the part of the Leg-
islature.
The Legislature is supposed to have
some standing, independence and re-
sponsibility in its own right. It is
supposed itself to know something
about the conditions of the State and
to have some regard for the public in-
terest.
With the session called, whether it
was generally deemed necessary or
not, it was the duty of the members
of the Assembly to make the best of
the situation in the interest of the
public. The legislators knew that
frauds mark every election in the
State and that legal procedure against
those engaged in such treasenable
crimes was difficult. Irrespective of
how they stood in principle on the
subject of prohibition, they could not
be expected to be indifferent to such
phases of bootlegging as manufactur-
ing and selling poison as a beverage.
Regardless of their attitude toward
Pinchot or toward the Republican
state organization, their regard for
the public should have been such as
to cause them to keep the public in-
terest constantly above their factional
prejudice.
When the majority of the Legisla-
ture virtually ignored the election re-
form measures simply because Pin-
chot advocated them they were deal-
ing a blow not at the Governor but at
the very heart of the American sys-
tem of government. Pinchot himself
had been censured for not aiding
such propositions when they were be-
fore the regular sessions timed with
his. administration. They Were not
Pinchot measures so much as they
were proposals that had been put for-
‘I ward for years by civic bodies and
supported by the great majority of
newspapers of the State. The adop-
tion of a resolution to amend the con-
stitution to open the way for installa-
tion of voting machines, looking to-
ward final action at another time,
cannot take away the taste of the
spurning of the other measures and
the mangling of the bill for the com-
pulsory opening of ballot boxes so
that at this writing there is a debate
over whether it will operate against
election crooks or those who attempt
to expose them.
The starting of the process of con-
stitutional amendment to enable con-
solidation in the interest of Greater
Pittsburgh was, no matter what its
importance, wholly incidental to the
Pinchot program for the session.
Throughout, the session did not sit
well upon the public mind and the re-
sults make it indefensible.
Since the Republican party of the
State is responsible both for Pinchot,
whom it elected, and for the organiza-
tion, it has its share in accountability
for the latest “mess” at Harrisburg.
4 Te special session has left a bad
aste.
A Sordid Confession.
From the Philadelphia Record.
The slaughter of the entire pro-
gram of election reform by the gang-
controlled Legislature at the late
special session has a significance
which should not be lost upon think-
ing voters.
By refusing to enact laws for the
protection of the ballot the Legisla-
ture deliberately created an issue
which in the next election will turn
many thousands of votes against the
Republican party. It is quite evident
that those who control the action of
the Legislature weighed in the bal-
ance the loss of votes that would re-
sult from an honest count against the
loss that would result from the flout-
ing of the popular will, and decided
that the fictitious and fraudulent vote
returned by crooked election officers
is an absolutely indispensable asset.
That decision was cynical and bru-
tal, but extremely practical. What
does it matter how many votes the
gang loses by affronting the people of
the Commonwealth so long as its
agents do the counting, under what
amounts to a guarantee of immunity ?
If 200,000 indignant and disgusted
Republicans should vote for Demo-
cratic candidates next fall as a re-
buke to the leadership that has
brought disrepute upon their own
party, it will serve only to make gang
election officers a little more active
with the pencils.
——The Philadelphia Public Ledger
declares it will oppose Mr. Pinchot
for Senator. The Governor should
worry. The Ledger strenuously op-
posed tolls on the Delaware river
to tour the State in his canvass for the
nomination. r
bridge and there was one vote on its
side.
aaa i ——————————————————AS——_—————
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—Two big snowstorms and a blizzard
are still in prospect for the season, James
B. Yeager, of Hazleton, weather prophet,
said yesterday.
—Thieves broke into the Hallowell gar-
age on the Bethlehem pike, near Ambler,
for the third time last night and stole
tires and automobile accessories valued at
$2,500.
—Resdents of Raubsville, a suburb of
Easton, are eating and sleeping with guns
at their sides as a result of an epidemie
of petty thievery in the community. The
thieves take vegetables, chickens and
horses. .
—Contracts on the Delaware River
bridge totaling $1,250,000 were approved
yesterday following the authorization by
the Joint Commission of drawing up a
tolls agreement between New Jersey and
Pennsylvania.
—While a driver of a coal wagon was
in the office of his company in Lancaster
obtaining the necessary delivery papers
for his load, a thief backed another auto
truck up to the loaded machine and re-
moved the entire load.
—Trolley and motor traffic over Free-
port road between Springdale and New
Kensington was interrupted by slides of
tons of earth and boulders which were
loosened by recent thaws. Traffic on the
Pennsylvania Railroad was not delayed.
—Charged by the father of his bride of
two days with falsifying her age by swear-
ing that she was 18 when in reality she
was 16, Arthur Buttle, 23, of Chester, was
arrested by police and returned to Garrett
county, Mr., where the license was obtain-
ed.
—One thousand dollars in awards and
certificates, donated by Edward Bok, was
given to relatives of two Philadelphia
policemen, a third member of the force
and two firemen for deeds of herosim dur-
ing the year. The awards are given annu-
ally.
—Nelson Stackhouse, restaurant propri-
etor at Phoenixville, and Thomas Ettinger,
clerk, were held under $600 bail each on
charges of conducting a disorderly place,
following the finding in the restaurant of
two intoxicated girls, one of whom was 13
years old.
—The February term of Montour county
court scheduled for Monday, was called
off because of the illness of Judge Evans,
giving an entire year without a jury trial.
Two previous terms were called off because
of lack of cases but this term there were
three, two criminal and one civil, for trial.
—Because of his critical illness with
Bright's disease, David D. Coleman, for-
mer justice of the peace of Juniata, was
released from the Blair county jail last
Thursday, one week before he served his
sentence of forty-five days for malfeasance
in office. He refused to eat or take medi-
cine.
—Availing itself of the ‘efficiency oper-
ation” clause contained in the new agree-
ment with the miners, the Delaware and
Hudson Coal Company, of Wilkes-Barre,
closed the No. 4 shaft of the big Loree
Colliery, declaring it unproductive and
throwing more than 300 miners out of
work.
—The Gazette and Bulletin, Williams-
last Saturday, when interests headed by
Albert W. Fell, general manager of the
Pennsylvania Publishers’ association,
bought the property outright. Control
as provided by the ownership of over 80
per cent. of the capital stock is vested in
Mr. Fell,
—Overcome while they slept, by gas eg.
caping from a stove and a light, Jas. M.
Dautrich, 58, and his wife, 55, were found
dead in a room at the hotel of James
Janorski, in Reading, on Sunday. Discov-
ery of the tragedy was made by a daughter
of the proprietor, who passed the room and
smelled gas. A large four burner light in
the center of the room was turned on full
but unlighted.
—Paralyzed for months after his neck
was broken in a bathing accident at Nar-
ragansett, R. I, last summer, Rody P.
Marshall, Jr., 16-year-old son of a prom-
inent Pittsburgh attorney, has regained
a slight use of his fingers and physicians
are holding out hopes for his recovery.
Physicians said the boy’s ability to use
his fingers indicated there was a regefle
eration of the injured spinal cord,
—The measles epidenic which has been
steadily increasing at Shamokin, on Tues-
day reached its highest point when seven-
ty-six children were reported ill with the
disease, according to the health authorities.
The total number of afllictions since Janu-
ary 1 is over 225. Many classes in the pub-
lic and parochial schools are depleted and
in some families as high as six children
are down with the disease.
—According to report, the contract for
the new State road on Route 29, on the
Mifflin county side of the Seven Mountains,
has been awarded to the Lod Contracting
company, and it is said the work will be
started as soon as the weather permits. The
project will make work plenty in that sec-
tion during the summer, as the job is a
big one and will require a large number of
men and a big quantity of material.
—Worry caused by the fact that he
would have to sentence two men who had
been friends of long standing, is believed
to have caused the death of Judge John
Faber Miller, of the Montgomery county
courts, in his home near Norristown on
Friday night. Judge Miller was 61 years
old. The two men to have been sentenced
by Judge Miller on Saturday are J. Tru-
man Miller and Walter R. Moyer, officials
of the Norristown Penn Trust company,
for their peculations from that institu-
tion.
—Four days after their marriage, Mr.
and Mrs. Alfred Searfoss, of Port Alle-
gheny, are in a critical condition as the re-
sult of what is believed to have been a fit
of temporary insanity suffered by the
former late Saturday night. The husband
shot and dangerously wounded his 19-year-
old bride, shot himself twice and then
drove to the Port Allegheny hospital. The
shooting took place in the motor car which
Searfoss had given his wife as a wedding
present last Tuesday and occurred while
the pair were returning from Smethport.
Searfoss first shot his wife and she drop-
ped from the car. Then he turned the gun
on himself, inflicting two serious wounds
and then drove his car to the hospital. A
passing motorist picked up the injured
woman a few minutes later and took her to
the hospital. Searfoss says he does not
remember anything about the shooting
and admits suffering from a mental ail-
ment for some time.
port’s morning newspaper, changed hands
Ne