pena fica. INK SLINGS. —We can save Pennsylvania from Vare-ism by electing William B. Wil- son to the United States Senate. Let’s do it. —The Dunkirk, N. Y., Judge who spanked a forty-two year old culprit, has another way of demonstrating “the strong arm of the law.” —The faculty of Princeton has voted in favor of modification of the Volstead law. Goodness, gosh, Agnes, isn’t it awful? That old blue-stockin knitiin’ mill doing a thing like that. —With frosts almost every morning the beans and the lettuce and parsley that won’t poke heads through the ground must be given credit with more wit than we thought they had. —Charles M. Schwab blames the poor earnings of the steel industry on high priced management. Charley ought to know. He's taken down some mighty handsome pay checks in his day. —Even Senator Stanchfield, of ‘Oregon, who made his campaign on stand back of Coolidge because I did is in the discard. This doesn’t seem to be the season for supporting the President. —OQur friend Eugene C. Bonniwell also seems to have gone to the well once to often with his pitcher.—No, the container Eugene carries into his political forays isn’t a pitcher. It’s a “growler.” : —With Judge Shull as our candi- date for Governor and William B. Wil- son for United States Senator we Democrats are sitting pretty. Well, the cards are on the table and we in- vite everybody to sit in the game. —The Haugen bill was a ridicu- lous attempt to do something for a class that needs to be let alone more than it needs anything else legisla- tively, but its defeat in Congress will lick the next Republican eandidate for President. —How many of the Republicans who were praying for Maj. H. Laird «Curtin when he essayed the manage- ment of Vare’s campaign in Centre county are there who are going to get down on their knees in November and ask for forgiveness. —JFor Heaven’s sake, Democrats, now that we have a chance to do something for Pennsylvania, listen to the plan that the Anti-Saloon League has of taking over the man- ‘agement of our party in the State. We haven’t much, but what there is «of it will be shot to pieces if Homer W. Tope and his gang gets to driving from the back seat. - 5 asd —Our dear old friend Mrs. Hannah E. Osman again writes from State College that she can’t get along with- out the Watchman and we write this paragraph to tell her and all others that it isn’t the dollar and a half they send us annually that makes the Watchman requisite to them. It is the assurance that it is read and ap- preciated by a class whose opinion counts for something that inspires us to make the Watchmen what it is. —The last Democratic Senator Pennsylvania had was the late Wil- liam A. Wallace, of Clearfield, who served from 1875 to 1881. Senator Wallace didn’t wreck the government. He didn’t disgrace—he honored the State. The Republicans who helped send him to Washington never had cause to regret it. Let us hope that there are enough Republicans in 1926 as broadminded as were those of fifty- one years ago to save Pennsylvania in a greater crisis than confronted the State then. —Naturally England doesn’t like the American made film “The Big Parade.” John Bull is indignant be- cause he reads between the “titles” that America won the war. The mat- ter of who won the war interests America about as much today as the identity of “who struck Billy Patter- son” does. But we’d like to ask Eng- land, France and all the rest of our Allies what would have become of them if Germany hadn’t realized, when it was too late, what America means when she gets up on her ear? —Old Howard Sargent is still a kid. He’s never put away childish things. He’s still goofy over circuses. An excess baggage letter we got from him Wednesday was full of Ringling publicity and subtle insinuation that we are slipping. Howard had only to walk across the street from his home in Pittsburgh to get the smell of the menagerie in his nostrils. We drove clear to Williamsport for the same thrill and came home convinced that a circus chair in 1926 isn’t any more of an anatomical easement than was a circus bleacher in 1878. —Brother Dorworth, of the Re- publican, really pulled a big thing. He worked the county out for Fisher when it was set up for Beidleman. But what is that going to get for C. E. D.? Fisher isn’t elected yet and if he is he’ll have to make terms with the very people who gave brother Dorworth the position he held under the Sproul administration and will have a lot to do with his ambition to land on the Public Service Commis- sion. Mr. Scott is the state commit- teeman—as you will notice from the primary returns—and Mr. Scott is one of the kind whose desires will not be treated lightly by whatever faction gets in control of the Republican State organization. don’t’ be inthe Aemacra YOL. 71. What Will Qur New County Chairman Wilson Can be Elected. Pennsylvania Not a Referendum on the Volstead Do? William D. Zerby Esq. has been chosen chairman of the Democratic organization in Centre county. Be- fore the primaries we expressed the opinion that it would be better for our party to select a chairman located somewhere else than in Bellefonte and since the gratuitous advice was not accepted by the voters we hope that Mr. Zerby’s con- structive efforts for the party will be such as to demonstrate that the voters were wiser on primary day than we thought ourselves to be prior to that date. Our reason for personally favoring the candidacy of Mr. Freeman, of Philipsburg, was not personal either as to him or Mr. Zerby. It was only because we felt that party unity has not been as it should be and the virile, winning organization of twen- ty-five years ago has been in a decline that has left it a mere shadow. Just why this should have occurred we shall not discuss at this time. But those intimately acquainted with local conditions know enough as to its cause to understand why we thought a chairman removed from Bellefonte ' and without interest in or knowledge of the squabbles the various Belle- fonte leaders of our party have had, one with another, would have been able to arouse more earnest co-operation among them. It has been voted other- wise and we here record our accept- ance of the verdict of the ballot and pledge our wholehearted, unselfish support to every unselfish move Mr. Zerby makes to build up the county organization and revive the militancy of years ago. His is a great opprotunity. Not within our memory has such a one presented itself to any chairman. There isn’t a shadow of doubt but that Centre ‘county can be brought to give William B. Wilson a majority of two thousand or more next fall. And what a heartening effect such a re- sult would have on the Democracy of the county and what a feather it would : ap of the new chairman. . Political laurels look easy ‘to win just now and political laurels are some times very valuable assets. Within the week dozens of Republi- cans have come into this office to say that they are with us to the finish in the support of Mr. Wilson. Not one of them has been of the type we know so well, that jumps over the fence in June and then jumps back in Novem- ber. Every one of them will vote for Wilson in November and there are thousands like them in Centre county. All that is needed is an organization that will get out the solid Democratic vote so that the accessions to the party strength will be reflected in the re- sult. Mr. Vare can be defeated. The country counties of Pennsylvania can do it, if in every one of them there is a local Democratic organization ready to lead the fight. We're hoping that Mr. Zerby will begin now, right now, to cultivate the fertile soil that lies before him. We want to see Pennsylvania saved from Vareism and we’d like to see Mr. Zerby prove to us that we were wrong in thinking that the chairmanship of our party ought to have been moved out of Bellefonte for a while. The opportunity—and it is a great one—is his, Will he rise to it? Wasting the Taxpayers’ Money. The law.is the law, of course, but what a sorry and expensive figure it makes of itself at times. Justice has been holding the scales in the Centre county court house for almost two weeks. Thousands of dollars of the taxpayers’ money have been spent in order to give every man “his day in court.” And the sum and substance of it all is a lot of petty cases that should never have been there at all. + Last week two entire days were de- voted to a controversy over a dog that might have been worth ten dol- lars. This week two entire days were taken up with a claim that was sat- isfied with a verdict of twenty dollars. The two cases probably cost the coun- ty five hundred and why? All because Justices send cases to court that never should get there. Of course the committing magistrate gets more in fees, but has he no thought of what it costs the taxpay- er? We have always been of the opinion that there are too many laws but in the light of litigation in our own court recently we think we would favor a law that would permit juries to place costs on Justices, insicad of the county, in certain cases. That would have the effect of set- tling petty controversies where they should be settled. It would be a con- stant admonition to Justices that the expensive machinery of a county court is not to be put in operation for every trivial controversy that comes before them. BEL STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. Can be Saved from Vare. Those who think that William 8S. Vare, Philadelphia Congressman, who is now the candidate of a minority of the Republican party for United States Senator, cannot be beaten endently jump at conclusions. They think because he can apparently count ‘as many votes as he likes in Phila- ‘ delphia county and is reasonably cer- | tain of carrying Allegheny, Lancaster, ' Dauphin, Chester, Montgomery, Dela- ware and Bucks that a real fight ‘ against him is tilting at windmills. | Banish the thought. Vare can be beaten and easily. He carried only ‘two counties—Dauphin and Philadel- phia—in the recent primaries and his vote in one of them will be less in November than it was in May. Penn- ' sylvania can defeat Vare. But will it? That is the question that is up to i Pennsylvania. The State is overwhelmingly Re- | publican. Vare is one of the politi- | cians whose methods gave rise to the i thought in the mind of the late Elihu Root that his kind is only masquerad- ‘that can be milked with the hope of Vares into politics in Pennsylvania. Undoubtedly they would have been sheviks had any of the latter parties been in control of the government of Philadelphia when - they sought city stree{ cleaning contracts as a stepping stone to they knew not what. There's nothing to them, there never was-- more than the admirable trait of no- body trying to become somebody. We call the trait admirable because it is when the nobody—with native genius such as Lincoln’s read and studied until he became somebody. Vare has : never done that. His only thought is as to where political control is going to get him. If he can force himself into the United States Senate he will name every postmaster, every revenue are many because Pennsylvania’s votes in the electoral column are po- tential. Vare is in politics for what there is in it. All he will ever become will have been made out of politics in Pennsylvania if Republicans of our State are ready to admit that their party is so much their fetish that the worst Republican looks better to them than the best Democrat. We don’t believe all of them are. There were enough who were not, Pennsylvania in Congress. who were not to help us elect Berry State Treasurer in 1906. And there are enough who are not to help us tor next fall. All of the Republican opponents of Mr. Vare in the recent primaries, with the exception of Gov. Pinchot, and practically all of the leaders who fought his nomination will come out with pledges of their support of his candidacy. That will mean nothing. It is only political ethics. They would be poor sports if they didn’t, but it will be mere lip service and their fol- lowers will go where they please. Thousands of them are already look- ing to our party as the only salvation for the State from its most consum- mate disgrace. Yes, Vare can be beaten, notwith- standing the fact that he carries so much of the electorate of Philadel- phia in his vest pocket. We are not ready to believe that in the forty-four thousand square miles of Pennsylva- nia outside of Philadelphia there are not enough people to overwhelm those inhabitants of its one hundred and thirty-three square miles who vote not principle but at the crack of the con- tractor’s whip. ——— et ———— Some Democrats, because they are wet, might go to Vare in the general election, but very few. On the other hand many Republicans will come to Wilson, not so much because he is dry as because they think too much of Pennsylvania to have it go on record as having sent a man like Vare to represent it in the United States Sen- ate. ———— a t——— ——Bellefonte got away to a poor start in the new Susquehanna base- ball league, but we'll show the river towns how to play the game before the season is over. ——Pennsylvania railroad painters have been at work the past two weeks repainting the interior of the passen- ger depot in Bellefonte, which natur- ally is a decided improvement. ing as Republican. They are Repub- licans because it is the dominant party , vote can properly be regarded as in the State and the only political cow ‘gregate of it is not alarming it is im- getting a good percentage of fat. ' That is the spirit that brought the | Recently, in these columns, we ex- ' pressed the hope that Pennsylvania “will have a referendum on the ques- Democrats or Prohibitionists or Bol- | tion. ' politics and the only way to accom- plish that end is through a yes and no “vote of the people. Once that question is definitely settled there will be an collector, every -federal appointee to which the State is entitled—and they’ defeat of their superiors, simply be- (cause they have declined to take a | stand on a question that by no distor- | i tion of the mind could have anything to do with the duties they aspire to away back in 1875, to help us elect : perform. We have seen the Prohibi- William A. Wallace to be Senator for tion ballot stolen and prostituted to There | the support of soaking wet candidates. | were enough who were not to help us | elect Pattison Governor in 1883 and cials in Centre county, all personally again in 1891. There were enough | Wet as water, whose election was ac- : complished solely by the votes they | | received on the Prohibition ticket which had been stolen for them. elect William B. Wilson as our Sena- | { worthwhile men would not be sacri- | ficed and nondescripts put in high ‘places all because a fa: ‘ticism has LEFONTE, PA.. MAY 28. 1926. : Act. : The Vare nomination was not a ref- erandum on modification of the Vol- stead act. In the first place, his cam- paign was among Republican voters only. In the second, he had two hun- dred thousand less votes than his two | opponents combined. Doubtless num- bers who voted for Pinchot and Pep- per would vote “wet” on a straight “wet” or “dry” issue. Certainly some who voted fur Vare would vote “dry” on the same question, so that the re- sult of the recent primary cannot be regarded as a determination of senti- ment in Pennsylvania. It is significant, however, that Mr. Vare should have gotten as many votes as he did when he had nothing else to recommend him to the State than his declaration for modification. Everybody knew that. In his own city and in Dauphin, the only two counties in the State he actually carried, it was machine politics that rolled up great majorities for him. The results there would have been the same had he been running on a “dry” platform. In all of the other counties of the State his favoring modification. While the ag- pressive, none the less. It ought to be taken out of end cf electing unfit men to office simp- ily because they have been. tricky | enough to capitalize “wet” and “dry” sentiment as it might most effectively further their own ends. Vare would probably have been nominated just the same, but he certainly would not have received as many votes as he did had he been running purely on his own merits and not on an issue that ap- pealed to a class who can never be brought to believe that the Volstead 5 not a curtailment of their per- Centre county would undoubtedly vote dry. It voted for local option years ago and every time since that there has been an opportunity for a, square expression on the question the result has been the same, yet, year in and year out, the old bogy: “Is he wet or dry?” is trotted out to elect unfit men for office by accomplishing the We can cite half a dozen public offi- Really it makes a travesty of the! franchise. And it will continue so to do as long as politicians can keep the ! question in politics. A referendum would settle the question at once. If Pennsylvania should vote “dry” there would be no ' candidates for the United States Sen- | ate talking about modification of the . Volstead act. Every Congressman, every State Senator, every member of the Legislature would know the sen- timent of his constituency and act accordingly or suffer defeat should he attempt to succeed himself. Then i ' warped the judgment of = great peo- ple. ge LC) Figure It Out. Let those who think there is no chance of defeating Vare for Senator take a look at it this way. Cleveland had 452,000 - votes in Pennsylvania in 1892. Bryan had 427,000 in 1896, and 424,000 in 1900, and 448,000 in 1908. So there must be, to say the least, 450,000 Democrats in the State. At the recent primaries Vare polled 592,000 votes, Pepper 509,000 and Pinchot 336,000. Now give Vare his 592,000 primary vote, give him half of the Pepper vote 254,000 and give him a quarter—he ought not to get one—of the Pinchot vote, 84,000, and he will have 930,000. To meet this give Wilson the 450,- 000 Democrats—and we believe there | are more—in the State, give him half of Pepper’s vote, 254,000, and only ' three quarters of Pinchot’s and he will Zuisigr 956,000 against Vare’s 930,- | ————————— rae crs ——What this community needs, and needs badly, right now is & rain maker and one who ean really make it rain. ination in the Republican primaries "of a man like Bill Vare for United ‘and protection for the people. . enforcement of the law are chosen | Thus, belately, he was able to tell his it’s all true. NO. SL. There’s a Way. From the Harrisburg Evening News. Pennsylvanians whose sense of de- cency has been outraged by the nom- States Senator need not despair if they are in earnest about wanting a real man to represent them at Wash- ington. Of course if they are party- bound, politically provincial and pref- erably Republican than right, theirs is a dismal state of mind. But for those men and women who believed that both the Republican party and Pennsylvania have been dis- graced by what took place Tuesday there is balm for their souls next November for with William B. Wilson remaining as a candidate for the Sen- ate, Pennsylvania and the Republican party need rot be humiliated at the sight of Bill Vare, as a Senator. There is no need for despair in Pennsylvania over the outcome of the senatorial primary. In Mr. Wilson the people of the State have a man, fully able to represent them admir- ably. He is a man of great experi- ence in public life. He knows prob- lems, national and international. As Congressman and Secretary of Labor during some of the most critical years in the nation’s history he came in con- tact and determined problems and policies a man of Vare’s experience would not recognize if charted for im, - Mr. Wilson is eminently equipped for the office of United States Sena- tor from Pennsylvania. He has cour- age. He has character. He has the qualities and experience of states- manship. After all that has been said in con- demnation of Vare and Vareism, their triumph in the primaries is less a threat to the good name of Pennsyl- vania than if William B. Wilson’s candidacy were not an opportunity If half the things said by Repub- licans about Vare are true, if the 800,- 000 Pepper-Pinchot votes were pro- tests against Vare, of the people real- ly are disgusted with Vare’s eandi- dacy, the alternative is support in No- vember for Mr. Wilson. Between now and then the degree of sincerity of demand for appropriate representa- tion of Pennsylvania in the United States Senate will be determined. Immigration Law Silliness. From the Philadelphia Record. Some laws in this country may zd- mit of humanitarian elasticity, but never the immigration law. Whether it is because the mere fact of one’s be- ing an alien is such a henious offense, or because the officials entrusted with for their lack of a sense of humor—- or even of plain common sense—it does seem that no other law in our statute books is so plentifully produc- tive of bad breaks which are either utterly ridiculous or atrociously un- Just, or both. The news columns not long ago car- ried the strange story of Rafaele Morello, who had been paroled and released from the State prison at Trenton after serving eight years for a crime which he did not commit. It was through his inability to command the English language that he was not able to speak up for himself when arraigned in Court. He was charged with the murder of his wife. It seems now that he was not even aware of the charge against him when he stood up before the Judge, for the Court in- terpreter himself did not understand the particular Italian dialect. that Morello spoke. The interpreter, guessing at the meaning of the man’s words, took them for a confession of guilt. So Morello went to prison. But in the eight years that have followed he has learned the English language. story. The Pardon Board heard it, and he was released. There is no re- dress for the injustice of those long years of confinement, although it must be admitted that something by way of amends is due to him. Morello was happy to be free—but his happiness has been short-lived. For now come the immigration author- ities, who insist that he must be de- ported. Oh, yes, he has been adjudg- ed innocent, but he was once convict- ed, and, having been convicted of a grave crime of course he must be de- ported. The law says so and the im- migration authorities are great stick- lers for the law. Could anything be more ridiculous? Scarcely; but if anything could the immigration offi- Sisls will eventually perpetrate it, no oubt, It Was Not a Genuine Referendum. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. As was to have been expected, all newspapers with wet tendencies hail the nomination of Mr. Vare as a great victory for the modification of the Volstead act. They persist in looking on it as a referendum. But it was such only in a limited degree. It may be accepted as a fact that the votes cast for Vare were wet votes. But if those cast against him are to be counted as dry then the verdict is op- posed to Volstead amendment for Vare wins on a minority ballot. He is im the minority by upwards of 200,- SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —Sunbury went on a tiger hunt Tuesday and also corraled a herd of elephants that stampeded with the tiger from a circus. —A Pottsville jury directed the Read- ing Railroad to pay Mrs. Mary Oneil, of Ashland, $3476 for the death of her son at a crossing. : —The ‘corner stone of the new Most Holy Sacrament church, being erected at Greensburg, at a cost of $100,000, was laid .| on Sunday afternoon. —A herd of twenty-four deer destroyed 700 cabbage plants in a single night on the farm of the Rev. C. D. Peachey, in the Kishacoquillas valley. -—Mrs. John Rachefski, aged 55, of Shen- andoah, was critically burned when she attempted to hurry a slow fire in her kitchen range with kerosene. —Elias Ashkan, of 2105 I'renton avenue, Williamsport, on Sunday reported to the police he had been knocked down and robbed by two masked men of §79 in money, and that jewelry valued at $4,500 had been taken from his home. —A stone hurled by a child in Montours- ville, struck the rear window of an auto- mobile just as Mrs. Wilson Mendenhall turned to look out of it. Broken glass embedded itself in her eyeball. It is thought the sight of one eye may be saved. —Leaving a note asking to be buried in his new suit and that there be no flowers at his funeral, John A. Burkey, 55, of Reading, committed suicide by gas on Sun- day evening. His daughter, Mrs. Fdna Longacre, with whom he lived, found him dead in his room, one end of a rubber tube, attached to a gas fixture, in his mouth. —A quartet of bandits, two girls and two boys, “stuck up” Harold Wise, Mifflin- burg young man, on the State highway just west of that city, but got only $4 and a comb and knife. After raking him over the bandits ordered him to beat it towards town, which he did. When he got back to the scene of the crime accompanied by a young posse, the quartet was gone. —-Jobn A Bell, former head of the Car- negie Trust company, of Pittsburgh, con- victed of embezzlement as a result of the failure of the institution, has been allowed an appeal from the decision of the State Superior court under an order of the Penn- sylvania Supreme court in session at Har- risburg, this week. The case is to be argued at the next session of the court in Pittsburgh. —The will of the late Mrs. Eva M. Hoff- man, who met death in a fire in the home of a relative with whom she was visiting at Tioga, several weeks ago, probated last week, shows that most of the estate, esti- mated at between $600,000 and $700,000, has been left to local charities. The Trinity Memorial Episcopal church, Warren Gen- eral bospital, Children’s Aid Society, and Visiting Nurses Association, share in be- quests. —A. discarded soup bone left by a dog in the middle of the street in West Chester, the other day caused excitement and dam- age there for a time. An automobile came along, a tire pinched the bone which flew across the sidewalk, smashed a $200 plate glass pane in a show window of the place of Harry Slavitz and wrecked the display. "| Slavitz has failed to discover the driver of the car who, unaware of the accident, kept on his way. —The flaming form of Samuel D. Over- field, aged 8&8, a pioneer suminer resort proprietor of the Delaware Water Gap section, ‘was found by a neighbor in the chicken yard of Ris home on Saturday after his wife, frightened by his absence, had summoned aid. It is believed Over- field was using kerosene to rid the chick- ens of vermin when it became ignited and set his clothes afire. He died shortly after his removal to a hospital. —Earl Hunsicker, of Allentown, a Le» high Valley railroad trainman, had a re- markable escape from ferious injury, on Saturday, when he fell sixty-five feet from a trestle at Philipsburg, N. J. Hunsicker, believing that the engine on which he was riding had cleared the trestle, stepped off the tender. His fall to a bed of mud below was broken by telephone wires. He had a slight scratch on his right leg, but hastily scrambled up the bank and caught the caboose of his train, completing his run, —A block and tackle, used to transfer pianos, was called into service last Satur- day, at Pottsville, to remove the coffin con- taining the body of Mrs. Elwood Hughes from the third story of her home to a waiting hearse. Mrs. Hughes weighed 300 pounds and because of the size of the coffin, it was impossible to remove it from the house through the doors. The appa- ratus swung the coffin high in the air, while the mourners looked on. Mrs. Hughes was the wife of the librarian of Schuylkill county court. —Nine children and an adult were bitten when a mad dog ran wild through West Scranton on Friday afternoon. The dog rushed into a group of children on their way from school and bit them on the face, hands and legs. All those attacked were treated at the State and Westside hos- pitals. Police headquarters sent a squad of motorcycle men to the scene and the enraged animal was shot. Four other dogs were bitten by the mad canine be- fore it was killed, Three of them were captured by the police and killed. —When Herman Kugler, aged 29, of Harrison City, was sentenced by Judge Charles E. Whitten in court at Greensburg on Tuesday forenoon to serve three months in the county jail, his mother, Mrs. Mary Kugler, aged 67, suffered a stroke of para- lysis and eollapsed in the court room. Physicians were summoned and found that it would be impossible to remove the wom- an to a hospital. Judge Whitten then ordered that a cot be brought into the courtroom and placed there for her. He adjourned court for the remainder of the day. —Melvin Miller, 19, Lewistown, was fatally wounded in the abdomen on Mon- day night when Mrs. Vinton L. Hess, also of Lewistown, walked into the Earl B. Strange poolroom in that place looking for her husband with a revolver concealed in the folds of her coat. Mrs. Hess made no remarks, but opened fire at her husband. Four shots were fired before the husband got close enough to grasp her arm, and the fifth was fired through the ceiling into the Mifflin County Hardware Store above. One of the bullets, all OF which went wild, struck Miller in the left side of the abdo- men, passing through his intestines and lodged in his spine. His condition is re- garded as serious. Mrs. Hess, when placed ~—It’s all in the “Watchman” and under arrest, charged her husband with gambling and drinking in the poolroom.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers