—— — ARTE ERR ware Wd. INK SLINGS. . —It is a little early to shear the lambs but that’s what they’re doing in Wall St. right now. ‘ —Now that the starling matter is settled we'll have to devote a little intensive thought to our dandruff cure. An opportunity to get in on this—it’s better than Florida lands—is offered in another paragraph. : —We are looking for someone with a few thousands to invest in a good proprietary remedy. We have a sure cure for dandruff and we’ll either sell the formula or put it in the business that anybody is offered the chance of establishing. —When you see a fellow at a farm sale who hasn’t already attached to himself some one willing to go bail on his note you can make up your mind that he is not there to buy. All he’s after is to see the crowd and get the bag of lunch. —Let us start a campaign for the election of Congressmen, Senators and Legislators who will pledge them- selves to fight for the unmaking of obsolete and bad laws on the statute books of Nation and State. Let us forget, for a few years at least, this chronic cry of “there ought to be a law.” —If the Democracy of Pennsyl- vania is wise enough to take advan- tage of the opportunity that gives every appearance of offering itself to our party we will have a Democrat as United States Senator and a Demo- crat as Governor of Pennsylvania. And what a blessing to the State that would be. —The excuse offered for the new action in the Centre County bank case, that it will save thousands of dollars and much delay, is a flimsy one indeed. If this is so, why did the same crowd that is really behind this proceeding to get it back into the Federal courts petition Judge Dale to take it out? They were either deceiving the cred- itors then or they are doing it now. —Boss Vare is showing signs of getting out of the way of Senator Pepper’s ambition to go back to the Senate. The Philadelphia contractor boss would like to be a member of the Republican National Committee and, of course it is only a coincidence, it seems that Senator Pepper is weary of his membership on that body. Nice, isn’t it, for Pepper to get tired just when he can cut it into bait to get Vare out of the Senatorial race. —Senator McKellar is needlessly “heted up” over the “intimate papers of Col. House.” If the gentleman from Texas thinks he was the whole cheese in the first Wilson administra- tion what difference does it make? He must have been a pretty potential personage, for while Wilson is dead the King of England, William Hohen- zollern and a few other men who played in the war game are still living and they haven't, as yet, called House to account for inaccuracies in his statements. —The Associated Business Men of Bellefonte are inquiring as to what they can do to make their organiza- tion more useful. To our mind they should join in a general movement to reduce over-organization, over-lapp- ing of attempted service by a dozen and one half-hearted organizations thatsprings up in every community to sap on one another and render all im- potent. All of them do some good, but one virile organization can get more results in its field than a half dozen weakened by division. —=State College Democrats have launched a boom for Judge Thomas Bailey, of Huntingdon, for Governor and Supt. J. K. Johnson, of Tyrone, for United States Senator. Last week we suggested the latter as available timber for Governor and already the reception of the suggestion has been quite beyond our expectations. Supt. Johnson, however, has put a quietus to the proposal. He is devoted to his present work and proposes to finish it before considering any suggestions of giving time or thought to politics. We could support Judge Bailey most enthusiastically. The State needs an- other Pattison and he would be one of that kind. —We want to serve notice on the creditors of the Centre county bank, right here, that we don’t propose to be the “goat” any longer in the legal “foozling.” New litigation has been started and we are supposed to throw up our hands and walk right into the parlor of the wily spider. If we don’t, a great hue and cry will go up to the effect that we are delaying the settlement. Let the credulous who believe that stuff continue in their present mental processes and their equity in the bank’s resources will continue to decrease. We are not morally or financially liable to them for a cent. We have done more to try to help them out of their difficulty than any living person. The only de- lays that have resulted in the legal processes have been due to blunders on the part of those who are repre- senting them and we’re plumb tired of the whole mess, but not too tired to stand up and fight the attempts of a few personal enemies who have been cloaking their own avarice by deceiv- ing the creditors. We are doing ex- actly what any other red-blooded per- son would do in similar circumstances and we want everybody to know, he was credited with being a resident friends and foes alike, just exactly where we stand. | _ VOL. eC 1. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL“UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA.. MARCH 5. 1926. i. NO. 10. Pepper Manoeuvering for Votes. Senator Pepper has again decided to give up the honor and relinquish the influence which goes with membership of the Republican National committee, and at a meeting of the State com- mitee soon after the May primary his successor will be chosen. The Sena- tor wanted to get away from the rough work of the office some time ago but was restrained by the fear that Con- gressman Bill Vare, who seems to want everything, would be chosen to succeed him. Even now the friends of the Senator allege that he is some- what fearful of Vare’s selection but believes that an arrangement made during his recent visit to Pittsburgh will bring Mr. W. L. Mellon into the fight with certainty of winning. Other abservers of the political movements are inclined to the belief that Senator Pepper’s offer to resign from the National committee now is not for the purpose of keeping Vare out of that august body but with the view of letting him in. It is generally admitted that if Vare is a candidate for United States Senator against Pepper and Pinchot the Governor will have a walk-a-way, even if the flood- gates of corruption are thrown wide open. Now Mr. Vare is as anxious for one office as he is for the other and if Pepper would turn over to him the membership of the committee his chances of retaining the Senatorial seat would be greatly enhanced, and those not so enamored of Pepper be- lieve a deal is on. Pepper is not popular among the vote getters in Philadelphia, and in a contest between Vare and himself he would be beaten anywhere from a hun- dred-to-one up. The Senator would get only votes that were actually cast for him and probably not all of them. In Pittsburgh he would lose that sub- stantial element of the voting popu- lation which stuffs the ballot boxes in “the strip,” and that is a considerable element in the equation. But with Vare out of the fight Pepper would re- ceive, and would gladly aceept, all the fraudulent votes possible to get, and with the help of that contingent he might defeat Pinchot. But the Gov- ernor has a good fighting chance to win, even if the wet vote is solid for Pepper. eee tenn —Those farmers who didn’t sell their wheat when we told them that one-eighty was a good price and the chances were that it wouldn’t go much higher are still holding the bag. Wheat is down to one sixty now and as the stock market is going down at a | terrific rate grain will likely go into a further slump. Secretary Davis Stages a Come-Back. Something like a come-back has been staged at Washington for the boom started a year or so ago to make Secretary of Labor, John J. Davis, of Illinois, Republican candidate for Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania. It is not cer- tain at this time whether the friends of Mr. Davis or the enemies of State chairman W. Harry Baker, are respon- sible for the movement. In any event it centers around a personal enmity between those important figures in the political life of Pennsylvania. It is alleged that Mr. Baker said if Davis were nominated he wouldn’t get three votes in Dauphin county and that Davis, having exhibited nomination petitions containing 3000 names chal- lenged Baker to “put up or shut up.” The significance of this challenge, if it have any significance at all, is not apparent. It is true that Mr. Davis associates Mr. Baker with the man- agement of the Pepper Senatorial campaign and there may be an im- plied threat that the offenses of Baker will be visited on the head of Pepper. That would be a surprising turn of affairs. Pepper is the one man in Pennsylvania politics who concerns President Coolidge, and Davis being a member of the Coodidge cabinet, would hardly punish the President to get even with the State chairman. Moreover the story has doubt cast about it in the language attributed to Baker. Mr. Baker has his faults and plenty of them, but they don’t take the form of indiscrete speech. It is true that in recent years Mr. Davis has not been a resident or a citizen of Pennsylvania. Many years ago he lived in the vicinity of Pitis- burgh and was associated with the iron industry, He then became affil- iated with the Loyal Order of Moose in an organizing capacity and located in Illinois. His connection with the Moose is highly creditable and his services to the organization have been helpful and valuable. But it must be admitted that such services establish a doubtful claim for the nomination or election to the office of Governor. In support of the statement that he is not a Pennsylvanian it is alleged that of Illinois when he was appointed to the Cabinet. Bellefonte and the Firemen. The fire that broke out in the west- ern section of Bellefonte at two o’clock : last Friday morning, was in a district { largely of frame structures where it | might easily have spread and become ,a conflagration of disastrous propor- | tions. Of course the wind was against ' that, for it was blowing away from immediately adjacent buildings, but “that was not all. There was something else against it. There was a fire de- partment, made up of willing, intelli- gent workers whose voluntary service to Bellefonte is of inestimable value. We arrived on the scene very soon after the first general alarm was sounded and then both companies were in action as perfectly as if they had been set up on the spot and waiting for the first flicker of flame. It was a blustery, cold night, one of the kind that requires a fine spirit to make a man who has worked hard all day jump from a warm bed to rush to the work of saving another’s property and we wondered whether the others in the crowds of curious onlookers standing about us were giving a thought to the unselfish work of those who were fighting to stop what we had merely come to see. Very often we hear the remark: “Where are the firemen?” “Why don’t they get here?” To us the query has always been: How do they get to a fire as promptly as they do. As a matter of fact they are under no obli- gation other than their will to help to go at all. Besides, the critic should remember, if he beats them to a ¢on- flagration, that he has only done it because he happened nearby at the time. He loses sight, entirely, of the fact that the fireman may live squares away from his engine house and must run there and thence to the scene of his activities. Several years ago marshall Robert : Kline, in his annual report, brought to {the attention of Bellefonte for the first time just what its fire department | is doing, year by year. Prior to that time we had heard the alarms sounded, . seen the boys rush past, inquired as to , “where is the fire” and gone on about our business without a thought of , What might be the consequence of even an incipient blaze. Marshall Kline's i report of fire facts for the year gave jus another view point. One fire ‘might look inconsequential, but the aggregate for every year in Bellefonte | is astounding, when viewed from the | standpoint of combined losses that might result were it not for the i promptness and efficiency of these , voluntary firemen. i We are not appraising their service by comparison with the paid depart- ments of the great cities, nor with volunteer departments in other towns. { We are referring to only what we have { personally observed and that convinces {us that Bellefonte owes more to the splendid spirit of the members of her two fire companies than she has ever stopped long enough to fully realize. How We Benefit. The proposed change of service rates for electricity by the Keystone Power Corporation will be glad news to many of its consumers. Any an- nouncement of reduction of prices is hailed with delight by the consuming public, but we always have a fear of the Greeks bearing gifts. The plan to charge all current through one meter will be a great sav- ing for the corporation, since it will eliminate the expense of maintaining two and sometimes three meters in houses and industries where current for light, heat and power have been consumed and charged for at desig- nated rates for each character of use. Instead of having to make out two, three or four bills to each consumer who uses electricity for as many dif- ferent purposes the Corporation will save in time taken for meter reading, clerical cost of making up bills, and large sums in printing and postage. So much for the advantage to the Corporation from the new system. Speaking from an application of the proposed rates to the February con- sumption of electricity at this office there will be some consumers who will have to juggle their mathematics a lot if they hope to figure anything but increase of cost out of this promise of decrease. Here current is used for lighting, power and heating metal. Each serv- ice is rendered at a rate in ratio to amount consumed. Our total bill for all consumption in February was $24.- 28. Applying the new rate to the same items our cost for the same amount of electricity after April 1, will be $33.03, or an increase of $8.75. While it will not operate against all users as disappointingly as it will against those in our class we are in- clined to believe that the net result to the Corporation will be increased revenues and to no consumers except the exceptionally large ones any ap- preciable reduction. Supt. Etters Gives Interesting School | Statistics. In another column of this issue of the Watchman will be found the legal call. of county superintendent David 0. Eiters for a convention of school - directors to be held in Bellefonte on Tuesday, April 13th, for the purpose of electing a county superintendent . to serve from the first Monday in May, 11926, to the first Monday in July, 1930. As stated before in the Watch- . man Mr. Etters is not a candidate for | re-election because he has reached {the age of retirement and during the | remainder of his life will be on the | teachers’ pension list. But there are ' seven other candidates, and as all of them have been making a pretty thorough canvass of the various school i boards in the county there is no tell- ing who the successful man may be. | Anent Supt. Etters’ retirement he i stated that in looking over the school | records for Centre county recently he discovered that the first school appro- priation granted by the State was in 1857, when Centre county’s appor- tionment was $2100.70. This amount was not increased much for a num- ber of years. In fact it was not until within the past quarter of a century that the appropriation was increased to a sum where it has become a de- cisive factor in the upkeep of the schools, as the annual appropriation now received by Centre county is $170,600. In 1857 the average month- ly salary paid teachers was $23.73. Men teachers drew 26.75 a month and women $20.70. Now the minimum salary is $85.00 and the average $131. 00 a month. Mr. Etters has had a longer career as county superintendent than any other man who has held the office. All told he will have served twenty-two years when his term expires the first Mon- day in May. And notwithstanding the fact that he has reached the age where he has been compelled to retire from the superintendency he does not pro- pose to spend the remainder of his life in idleness, principally because he believes in the adage that an idle #n would soon be a dead one. He as one or two things in view but has not yet decided on which one to take. ——Spring creek carried a three foot flood; last Thursday, and for a few hours it looked very much as if the Watchman would have to take water-—in it’s press room—but for- tunately it blew up somewhat colder in time to stop the rapid thaw and we were left dry as ever. And now we can breathe a little easier, as the dan- ger point is probably past for this year. The most damage done so far by high water in Bellefonte is out on east Howard and Wilson streets. The melting snow and rain formed a small lake in the hollow on the east side of Wilson street between Howard and High, and the water ran out onto the road and followed the deep ruts in the ice north on Wilson street to Howard then west on Howard sev- eral hundred feet where it cut off in- to the field. So swift was the current that deep holes were cut in the street at various places, the limestone fill- ing being carried into the field north of Howard street. Bald Eagle creek was also quite high and while it over- flowed a little at several places down the valley it was not enough to do any great amount of damage. A AE dts Ap fp mrt —— -——Notwithstanding the fact that a fairly good crop of potatoes was grown in Centre county last year the tubers are not only unusually high in price but apparently scarce as hen teeth. Either the farmers disposed of their crop during the fall and early winter or are holding them in the hope of getting a still higher price than prevails at this time. Grocers in Bellefonte have a hard time getting a sufficient supply to meet the demands of their customers and are compelled to parcel them out in small lots in order that they may go further and last longer. eee -——John M. Bullock, of the Mont- gomery & Co. store, Bellefonte, was elected president of the Pennsylvania Retail Clothing Dealers’ association in Philadelphia last week. As the president is ordinarily selected from one of the larger towns or cities the election of Mr. Bullock is a de- served compliment to the interest he has alyays manifested in the associa- tion. —We hope that winter gets it all out of her system by March 21, so there’ll be no lingering in the lap of spring. —Bellefonte High is at the top of the League basket-ball race right now. Here’s hoping that the local boys stay there, ——March came in quite lamb-like on Monday, but let us hope that it won't go out like a lion. Work for the Prisoners. From the Pittsburgh Post. The statement from the western penitentiary that within a month ninety per cent. of the more than 1,200 prisoners will be working at some trade is one of the most satisfactory that has come from that institution in a long time. Idleness has always been recognized as not only one of the most baneful features of prison life to the inmates themselves, but also as an economic waste and an injustice alike to families of the convicts and the public. No one thinks of putting the prisoners into money-making activi- ties in competition with free labor. The aim is simply the common sense one of serving the three-fold purpose of improving the condition of the prisoner himself, of enabling him to earn something for himself or depend- ents and reducing his expense to the public. The desirability of keeping the mind of a prisoner occupied with the wholesome thoughts of work, dis- tracting it from the things that cause brooding, is so generally recognized as to require no comment. It is alike cheering and instructive, however, to hear of the progress of the policy to teach trades to the unskilled workers among the inmates, particularly the younger. An insight into this policy is ob- tained from the fact that making of automobile tags, of which the State now requires about 2,000,000 annually, has been transferred from the indus- trial reformatory at Huntingdon to the western penitentiary. re ob- viously is not so much trade training value in that work, It is more suit- able to the older prisoners. The Huntingdon reformatory, we read, is being equipped with shops having greater trade-training opportunity for the boys. In a recent statement dis- tributed by the State Public Charities Association on the work of the Wel- fare Department emphasis is laid up-, on the fact that experienced trade superintendency and modern equip- ment are furnished to the institutions. The prison industries include shoe- making, weaving, knitting, garment- making, tailoring, printing and license making. - A tailoring shop is now a feature of the western penitentiary. In addition to the farming and gard- ening at Rockview, there have been established a forest tree n Seryy concrete block plant and a Sap factory. As a reminder of the of the prison management to guard against encroachment upon outside activities, ‘Warden Ashe announces that the broom and brush department of the western penitentiary is to be discontinued, There is enough work for the men without it, to leave the broom and brush-making of the kind involved to the institutions for the blind. ie policy all around commends it- self. The Davis Boom Launched. From the Philadelphia Record. It may be accepted as a settled fact, in our judgment, that Secretary of Labor James J. Davis is an aspirant for the Republican nomination for Governor of Pennsylvania. : “Are you going to become a candi- date?” the Secretary was asked re- cently. Note the implications of the reply. “I am more interested right now in the new baby coming to our home. We have five children already, the young- est two and a half years old.” ~ It was not necessary for the Secre- tary to enlarge, as he thereupon did, upon his deep infatuation for children. He need not have told the interviewer that he was going on Sunday to Wil- kes-Barre to look over the new Moose home site there, or that “we have 1500 children now at Mooseheart, our na- tional home, and my one thought right now is taking care of those children.” A man may be fond of children—his own and other people’s —and desire nothing under the sun that his fellow-citizens can give him. But when he begins to talk about children to newspaper reporters he will soon be going around Kissing babies, and you can paste in your hat a memorandum that he wants votes. Senator Betts a Candidate for Second Term. From the Clearfield Republican. Senator W. I. Betts has practically determined to ask the Democrats of the Thirty-fourth senatorial district, Clearfield and Centre counties, to give him the nomination again at the May primaries. The Senator has been a hard and consistent worker for the best interests of his district ever since elected. His record is an open book and all who wish ean read for them- selves. He has nothing to explain or apologize for and is quite willing to be judged by what he has done and attempted to do for the people of the district and the Commonwealth. ————ee ——Quite a number of Bellefonte people motored to Lock Haven, on Sunday, to see the flood in the Sus- quehanna river, and were somewhat disappointed to find it not at all dan- gerous. But those who continued down the river to the big ice jam were amazed to see ponderous cakes of ice fully three feet in thickness. It is the jam that is causing the greatest un- easiness to residents of Lock Haven. A g re SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —The Vulcan Trading company’s store, at Chester Hill, was broken into and robb- ed Saturday night. ~—One hundred and fourteen children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren all except one living within a radius of 50 miles, survive Mrs. Harriet Manchester who died at Potterville, near Towanda, on Sunday. She was 90 years and 23 days old. —Engineer John R. Brett, of Pittsburgh, and C. R. Welsh, of Altoona, who were scalded when the locomotive hauling the Pennsylvania passenger train known as the Gotham Limited side-swiped a derail- ed freight train near Kittanning Point on Saturday died in the Altoona hospital on Sunday, —When her clothing became ignited while playing with matches in her home near York, Pa., last Wednesday, a 3-year- old child ran more than 100 yards to a nearby woods where she burned to death. The mother found the charred body a few minutes later after tracing the child's footsteps through the snow. —While a rescue party headed by Wil- liam A. Geise, chief mining engineer for the Susquehanna Collieries company, scoured the mines of the Hickory Swamp colliery, last Friday, for Philip and Joseph Rodgers, diamond drill contractors, who were thought to have been drowned in the workings there, both youths were visit- ing friends in a neighboring town. —Driving his automobile into the rear of another machine, an unidentified man was killed last week on the State highway near- Milton. He was about 50 years old. The car bore a Pennsylvania license 659- 459 issued to Walter Crownover, of New- manstown. He crashed into the machine of William Beidlespach, of Point Town- ship, who was turning into a lane. —It cost $80 to remove a nickel from the throat of Robert Kushinsky, 3 years old, of High Park, near Greensburg. Edward Kushinsky, the lad’s father, gave his son the coin and instructed him not to put it into his mouth. Robert did. The coin lodged in his throat. A specialist spent nine minutes removing the coin after an X-ray picture showed where it had lodged. —When one of two hold-up men feigned illness early on Saturday, they gained en- trance to the home of John Huzzard, a grocer, at East Altoona, and at the point of a revolver demanded his money. Huz- zard put up a fight and was beaten so badly he had to be taken to the hospital for treatment. The bandits jumped through a window and escaped, empty- handed. —-H. T. McFadden, of Juniata, who with his family had a narrow escape from death at the Mann’s Narrows bridge two weeks ago, is now improving at the Lewistown hospital. Mr. McFadden, who was driving the car when it went over the bridge, was at first thought uninjured, but later it was found that he was seriously hurt, Mrs. McFadden and children have left the hospital and are with friends near Lewistown. —Four children, the oldest 4 years and the youngest 3 and one-half months, were burned to death near Indian Head, about 10 miles from Connellsville, when a fire partially destroyed the home of their par- ents, Mr. and Mrs. Irvin Snyder, it was learned last week when telephone service, disrupted by a storm, was reported. The house took fire while the father was at the barn .and the mother at a nearby store. The former made an attempt to reach his children, but was forced back by the flames. —=S. M. Woodring, merchant of Drums, a farming community near Hazleton, turned the tables on a hold-up man who entered his store last Thursday afternoon. The stranger who had refused to pay for some refreshments he had purchased, pull- ed a gun and told the proprietor to throw up his hands. Woodring, who is 65 years old, quickly reached for a gun he had un- der the counter and taking the stranger by surprise was able to hold him at bay, until “a call was sent for the State police who placed the man under arrest and lodg- ed him in the Hazleton lock-up. —In the will of the late Stoddard L. Driggs, Clearfield theatre owner, filed last week, it is revealed that he leaves an es- tate valued at about $250,000. Among the bequests is one leaving $5,000 to the Pros- byterian church of Clearfield, $5,000 for the Children’s Home and $10,000 to be invesi- ed for maintenance of room or ward at the Clearfield hospital to be known as the Stoddard L. Driggs room or ward for the free use of poor children admitted. The balance of the estate is to be divided be- tween his sister, Mrs. Flora A. Hartman, and his brother; Frank L. Driggs. —Mre, Sarah G. Turets, 109 years old, died on Monday in the Jewish home for the Aged, in Pittsburgh. She passed away as she lay sleeping in her bed. Mrs. Turets was born in Russia. She came to this country in 1866 and lived nearly 60 years in the Hill district, Pittsburgh. Up to three years ago, she did not wear glasses and walked with a firm step. A short time ago she took to her bed. She was known among hundreds of Jewish families in Pittsburgh, especially on the Hill where her philanthropies are widely remembered. Until two years ago Mrs. Turets visited her great-grandchildren in Chicago and Atlan- tic City nearly every year, going alone every time. Three years ago she went to Atlantic City to see one of her great-grand- children married and her last appearance at a great-grandchild’s wedding was March 2, 1924, in Pittsburgh. —Mystery still surrounds the finding of $5, $10 and $20 bills, so far to the amount of $800, each torn in three pieces, along the tracks of the Pennsylvania railroad, near Lewistown, since February 12. All were Federal Reserve notes, all were torn clean and could not have been cut by the wheels of passing trains. The bills have been wind-tossed, snow-covered and picked up from time to time along the eastbound track used by passenger ' trains. The Greensburg robbery first was suggested, but no currency of that kind was missing there. Then the post office robbery at Mifflin was investigated, but postmaster 8S. C. McClellan stated that no money was missing there. The money has been found by railroad employees in amounts from $1 to $120 each. All of the torn notes have been turned into the office of Superintend- ent N. B. Pitcairn, at Altoona, where it will be held for 30 days, after which it will be returned to the finders, who are Charles Reynolds, Walter Pennebaker, W. T. Hollenback, T. E. Kirk, W. W. Dannerd and C. B. Hart.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers