———— Bown tiom. INK SLINGS. —Oh gosh! We almost forgot to remind ourself that the opening is only sixty-three days off. —Maybe the President is waiting to hear what becomes of the third term aspirants in Centre county be- fore he answers Dr. Butler's ques- tion. —-—Ten hundred and sixty six measures have already been introduc- ed in the Legislature and probably ten hundred and sixty of them are without any special merit. —The Legislature is being flooded with election reform bills; so flooded that we fear none of them will get through. Perhaps that’s the reason for the multiplicity. —Having heard of a school boy who wants a nice easy job for next sum- mer we herewith suggest that he ap- ply for the position of driver of the borough snow scraper. —Men who should know say that t. b. is lying in waite for those women who go too far in their efforts to re- duce. Many women, however, would rather be dead than out of style. They prefer being a dead sylph to a live stout. ——We’re bad, but thank the Lord were not as bad as some other com- munities. Down in Columbia county the jail is full and they have no room for the boarders expected to be sent up at the term of court in Bloomsburg this week. —George Young “bummed” his way from Canada to California to try for a twenty-five thousand dollar swimming prize and won it. Now he has started sailing the matrimonial seas and its good-by prize, for he probably has a “gold digger” at the helm. —A bill has been introduced in the House at Harrisburg to increase the pay of Members to four thousand dol- lars a session. We would root for such a measure if we were sure that only four thousand dollar Members would be chosen after its passage. —What do you suppose “Mutt” will say to “Jeff” about that twenty-six thousand a year the courts have taken away from their creator? Cartoonist “Bud” Fisher met, wooed and married his countess all in five days and all the rest of his life he’ll be paying for his folly. —The demise of Dr. M. A. Kirk's twenty-two year old hay motor is an event worthy of mention in this «column. “Maude” started jogging over Bellefonte streets soon after the first automobile made its appearance here and up to the very last never develop- ed tire trouble. —We fear that this new office “Sec- retary of Patronage,” that has been created for A. Nevin Detrich in the Fisher administration is calculated to be Nev’s undoing. He has done very well at keeping himself in some nice post, but he can’t do so well for the great Pennsylvania army of political job seekers. And everyone that Nev. can’t place will be “oft” him forever. —This is February, the month that wheat usually reaches the top price. The market seems to be weakening rather than showing the usual signs of strength. We wish to advise no farm- er further than to suggest to those who are holding their grain that they might do well to weigh their chances of getting a few cents more later against the certainty of the present price. —Capt. Wim. Tetley Jones, English tea merchant, has a new idea of what caused America’s attempt to go dry. He says “the Boston Tea Party” did it oy making tea so unpopular here that we never discovered its value as an antidote for alcoholic beverages. The Captain is going pretty far back for ‘he cause of Volsteadism but, grant- ng that he is right, we have two rreat events to thank “the Boston Tea 2arty” for. —DMore power to Governor Fisher if 1e is really serious in his assertion ‘hat his policy “will be one of opposi- ion to salary raisers.” If salary rais- ng insures better service to the State t might be warranted, but everybody mows that that would rarely be the result. The same old crowd that is rerpetually scrambling to get and hold he jobs at the present salaries would we filling them, just the same, after he raise has been voted. —Senator Jones, of New Mexico, vas stricken with a heart attack in he barber shop of the Senate in Vashington on Saturday and would ave expired, it is said, if whiskey had ot ‘been immediately forthcoming to e administered. We are not ready to gree with the statement that the Sen- tor would have died had there been o whiskey at hand, but we do say 1at the fact that the world has been old that it was at hand isn’t calculat- 1 to command respect for our en- rcement laws. —On Wednesday the Philadelphia ublic Ledger carried a column edi- rial headed “Dr. Butler’s Third Term “sue.” It was called forth by the re- nt declaration of the president of olumbia University that it would be ital for President Coolidge to seek third term. The Ledger is of the dinion that it was merely the begin- ng of a movement to smoke the resident out. Whatever it was we iled to notice anything in the Ledg- “s discussion of the matter that uld be distoried into an invitation to il to try it again, Democrali VOL. 72. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA.. FEBRUARY 11. 1927. NO. 6. Ballot Reform Legislation Probable. League, a group of up-State members of the House of Representatives at Harrisburg, justifies the hope of effec- tive ballot reform legislation at the present session of the Legislature. That the party leaders had no intention of moving in that direction became obvious to those who felt that ballot reform legislation was essentially necessary to safe and sane govern- ment in the State, and a meeting of the Legislative League was called for the purpose of setting the movement in motion. A steering committee, consisting of some of the leading up- State members, was named with ex- | Speaker C. J. Goodnough as chairman. It has already set to work. The plans of the committee are to first prepare a measure or series of measures along the lines of those formulated by the Committee of Sev- enty-six and offered during the extra session of 1926, and expose the bogus measures which have been introduced during the present session for the manifest purpose of creating confus- ion. There are several of these and it is important that they be under- stood and condemned. It will be the policy of the Republican machine to enact some such measures and set up the pretense that the obligation to enact reform electoral legislation has been fulfilled. The members of the Legislative League will strip this mask from the face of the machine. Governor Fisher declared for effec- tive ballot reform legislation in his inaugural address and the Republican leaders profess to desire honest elec- tions in Pennsylvania. The only way of securing honest elections in the State is to enact such legislation as will fitly punish men and women, elec- tion officers and voters, who debauch the ballot and steal elections. The Legislative League proposes to pre- pare and present such legislation, and those members of the General Assem- bly who oppose them, whether by the device of supporting bogus measures or otherwise, will have to reckon with their constituents. The people of Pennsylvania will ne longer be con- trolled by a corrupt Philadelphia ring. Pinchot is still for the old flag. In Washington, the other day, he said he regards “the question of law en- forcement as the greatest moral issue now before the country.” Wise Political Women’s Movement. The W. C. T. U,, of Harrisburg, has started something worth while if the plans adopted at a recent meeting are carried out. It was decided to organ- ize a drive “to make every member of the churches in our district a register- ed citizen and voter.” There has been a good deal of talk among the women political organizations about getting out the vote, but it has usually wound up in efforts to get votes for the Re- publican candidates in any way pos- sible. The enterprise of the Christian ladies of Harrisburg to enlist the men and women of the churches in an effort to make one fulfill his civic obliga- tions by registering and voting at every election, is an innovation. It is universally agreed that exer- cising the right of franchise is a duty of citizenship. Governor Fisher de- clares it one of the highest duties. If the members of the W. C. T. U. will fulfill their personal obligations and influence the church organizations with which they are affiliated, they will be certain to vastly increase the number of ballots that are cast ac- cording to the conscience of the voter. It will have a wholesome influence on the vote and a beneficial effect upon the result of the elections. It may even be predicted that such a crusade will soon make itself felt on the per- sonnel of public offices. That type of voter will seek a high type of candi- dates. An encouraging feature of the Har- risburg movement is that it is pro- posed to make the crusade State-wide. The plan contemplates the offering of prizes not only to the several W. C. T. U. organizations but to the frater- nal organizations. Such of this class of fraternities as are based on patriot- ism will be appealed to especially as under obligations not only to vote but to fulfill the requirements of con- science in voting. The Harrisburg union urge the State executive com- mittee of the W. C. T. U. to request every local union in the State to organ- ize a drive in its district in the interest of a nation-wide drive. Such an enter- prise cannot fail of its purpose. rm—pa A small scratch on the finger appears to have had a more serious effect on Jack Dempsey than the hard- est blows of rival pugilists. : —————r—————— ——Swimming the Catalina channel is getting to be a habit, but thus far only one woman has achieved it. Plenty of Election Reform Bills. | ures dumped into the Legislature this week is not surprising. It is a subject {in which every decent citizen capable lof reasoning feels a deep interest. All | the reputable newspapers of every | political faith have expressed an inter- | est in the subject. The Governor seem- | ed indifferent, though he must have i known that such legislation must be considered at this session. These con- ditions created a natural anxiety | among the members and the result . was several bills were introduced on i Monday and Tuesday and referred to | committees. It was also announced | that the Governor has assistant At- | torney General Schnader at work on | bills expressing his views on reform. | Out of the considerable number of for the Legislature to draft a series of bills which will accomplish the pur- pose. It will not be an easy task, though not an impossible one. The first essential is to eliminate the “voters assistance” clause as it exists now. No assistance should be allowed voters unless they are totally blind or have lost both arms. If that purpose is ex- pressed in the bill eighty per cent. of the source of corruption will be re- moved. The clause in the present law permitting the hiring of men “to dis- seminate information” is another source of fraud. It legalizes bribery and should be eliminated. One of the new bills was introduced by Frank J. Zak, of Pittsburgh. Mr. Zak had been counted out for the nom- ination in Pittsburgh in May and en- tered a contest. The courts awarded him not only the nomination but the election and he took his seat the other day with some feeling against ballot thieves. His bill would amend the cor- rupt practices act and the penal laws of the State “so that no one convicted of election law violation can escape with a fine.” Another of his bills pro- | vides a penalty of three years in prison. Another in which the penalty is a prison sentence of from one to three years, adds, “from which sen- tence there shall be no parole under any law of the Comaomonwealth.?” ——A Pittsburgh physician recom- mends green neckties as a health re- storing agency. He has probably for- gotten that they “were hanging men and women for wearing of the green” in Ireland a few years ago. Tax Reduction Doomed This Year. For some inconceivable reason the entire body of insurgent Republicans in the Senate joined with the regulars in a measure to defeat the Democratic plan for tax reduction the other day. The Democrats in both Senate and House have held that it is highly obli- gatory to reduce taxes as rapidly as possible. The administration prefers the creation of a surplus at the expira- tion of each tax period. The insurgent Senators have seemed to be in sym- pathy with the Democratic attitude heretofore, and their flop over to the administration caused something like consternation in the ranks of the tax reductionists. It practically forces the abandonment of the effort for tax re- duction this year. Following the last surplus of nearly Democrats tried to cut taxes to about the extent of the surplus but the Sec- retary of the Treasury protested that such a cut would rob the treasury. The facts are that he was mistaken, and the tax reduction might have been made without impairment or even in- convenience to the treasury. The ad- ministration is opposed to tax reduc- tion now for the reason that there is more party capital to be made by a reduction next year when it will be fresh in public mind in a Presidential year. In view of recent rebuffs it seems impossible to believe that President Coolidge is a candidate for re-election, vet every act of his administration seems to be directed to the purpose of another term in theWhite House. A considerable tax reduction next year will have a marked influence on the minds of careless thinkers. But it will be at the expense of robbing the pub- lic through excessive taxation this year. It is all right to apply the sur- plus to paying the public debt, but the public debt is being cared for proper- ly and is being paid as rapidly as good business judgment requires. It is poor policy to tax father into poverty in order to leave the son free of burden, ————im eas In his proposition to make a neutral zone of Shanghai Secretary Kellogg seems to have hit a safe key. ———p——————— ——Anyway the Bolshevic smoke screen seems to have blown away from Nicaragua. measures now in committee it will be | | Rejection of Beamish and Golden. Recent action of the Legislative | The deluge of election reform meas- | The refusal of the Senate to con- firm the nomination of Richard J. Beamish, of Philadelphia, and Chris J. Golden, of Shamokin, to the Public Service Commission, indicates that | - that body is not inclined to rescue the : Commission from the control of the ‘public service corporations. | nominations were made by Governor | Pinchot but Governor Fisher indicated i that he was not averse to them by i letting them stand. He could have - withdrawn them and probably would if his mind had been set against them. , But chairman Mellon was opposed to ‘confirmation and after his arrival on | the scene the support of the candi- ‘dates collapsed. Senator Hofman, of | Monroe county, remained steadfast for | the people. ! For nearly twenty years the Public ; Service Commission has been under | complete control of the public service | corporations of the State. Because of this control the public service corpor- i ations have changed from utilities to | masters in the communities in which they exist. Governor Pinchot set out to correct this evil by removing two of the commissioners who seemed to have betrayed public interests. But i the Supreme court restored them to | their seats on the Commission and op- ! portunity to further serve the corpora- (tions. It is worthy of note that the | United States Supreme court has since | decided an analagous case in the op- i posite way. The corporations have less influence on that court. | The nomination of Mr. Beamish and Mr. Golden was made with the avowed | purpose of giving the people of Penn- | sylvania an equal show in their con- | tentions with the pubic service corpor- jations throughout the State. For | years every proposition submitted by ' several corporations has been approv- ed by the Public Service Commission. ; Fares on electric railroads have been | increased not once but twice until the ; maintenance of the service corpora- | communities that maintain them. The | refusal of the Senate to confirm the nomination of Beamish and Golden Fmustbe accepted as notice that the | Senators in the General Assembly are not in sympathy with public interests, ——— i w—— ——It must be the spring-like weather we have had the past week that has set politicians a sprouting. jIn this issue of the Watchman S. | Claude Herr, present clerk to the , county commissioners, annétnces as a i candidate for prothonotary on the Democratic ticket. Four years ago he missed the election by only 54 votes and there is no reason why he should not poll a larger vote this year. It is also stated on good authority that, | ‘for recorder. Four years ago he ran {only 32 votes behind Lloyd A. Stover ‘and with a chance to benefit by his | campaign experience of 1923 he ought to be able to pick up a few more votes i this year. Of course as time passes | other candidates will get in the run- ning and the indications are that the , political pot will be pretty well filled Should ' this year. se ferme —— ——Many men who now own and ‘drive automobiles would be prohibited owner be given registration he must ‘furnish the State Highway Depart- | ment with ample proof that he is, | financially able to pay any claims for ‘damages that might be brought against him up to $6,000. Owners of more than one automobile would be required to prove their ability to pay in an amount of $4000 for each car up to a maximum of $20,000. Of course we have no idea the bill will ever be- come a law, as it would be almost a deadly blow to the automobile busi- ness. ——————————— ——Senator Shipstead’s proposition to form a Central American Federa- | tion might work out all right if some | of the Central American Republics | didn’t get the idea that it was “inter- fering.” ——— lr e——— ——The President has recommended our participation in the Geneva con- ference. We will be in the League of Nations before long. BE —— ——That South Dakota co-ed who rifled a safe to get her tuition fee is not likely to need the money for that purpose. er a i —Philadelphia base-ball fans are happy because a “Georgia peach” has landed on the “White Elephant.” ——Bolshevism appears to be a bogie to Secretary of State Kellogg. These | tions have become a burden upon the | $300,000,000 the administration at- | from both owning and driving if the tempted to rebate certain tax payers | bill introduced in the Legislature by - to that extent but Congress decided to | Representative Patrick Conner, of apply it on the national debt. In the : Philadelphia, should be enacted into a framing of the present tax law the |law. The bill provides that before an | Faulty Election Laws. freon the Philadelphia Record. A “Record” reader writes from | Clearfield to advise us that in his opin- ion the Pennsylvania election laws are | “as good as can be made,” and that what the State needs is enforcement (of the existing provisions for safe- | guarding the ballot rather than the { manufacture of new ones. Pursuing this exposition of this theme, we find : that he concedes the necessity of fur- | ther legislation to curb assistance | to voters, and to make mandatory the opening of ballot-boxes whose con- tents are questioned; but these are the only exceptions he makes to the general rule. We fear that there are some things about Philadelphia elections that our friend does not understand. Does he know, we wonder, that voters are enrolled on the registration books in many divisions by four reg- istrars all of whom are members of the same party, and that this is ac- complished within the law, and that when these four registrars all vote the same ticket on election day none of them can be punished because they had pretended to be members of op- posing parties? Does he think four registrars of one party afford as much guarantee of honest registration as four registrars drawn two-and-two from the ranks of opposing parties? Does he think that the law under which this may be accomplished is a good law? Perhaps our. correspondent is not aware that under existing law the five members of a division election board, who supervise the casting and counting of the vote, may be—and in ‘many cases are—all members of one party. This gives them opportunity to violate with impunity all the laws regarding the count of the ballots, be- cause there are no witnesses. Does he think this is a good law? If he were a member of a club before which an important question was pending, and the club were divided into two factions, and a vote were taken to de- cide the question, would he want the - ballots to be counted in secret by five members of the faction opposing his views ? Our election laws are not nearly as perfect as our friend supposes them to be. They provide for personal reg- istration in cities, and prescribe cer- tain duties for the Registratio®iam- mission in connection therewith, and they fail to give the Registration ' Commission either the time or the i money to perform those duties. Popular Appropriation. From the Harrisburg Telegraph. Governor Fisher made no more pop- “ular budget recommendation than that setting aside $750,000 for new build- ings at State College. Nobody knows better than the Gov- ernor the needs of the school. a member of the board of trustees and rer tm emma f— has done much to further the interests | of the school. Penn State is a State institution, ! Sinie H. Hoy will make another try but it has never been treated as such. Rather, except on rare occasions, ‘the . Legislature has thrown it a sop and ' the Governor has been in the habit of lopping that from 25 to 50 per cent. | The college has done wonderful work under most discouraging circum- stances. It deserves the recognition the Governor has accorded it. As a matter of fact, State College be completely under State gov- | ernmental control. It ought to be the {logical destination of the student graduate of the public schools looking for a collegiate education, and as such should be under the direction of the Department of Public Instruction. Its present method. of government is not calculated to assure wholeheart- ed and consistent support on the part of the State, and there have been those in authority at State College : who resented rather than welcomed | anything approaching governmental control. i But it is only fair to believe that as an integral part of Pennsylvania’s educational system it would fare far better in every way than at present. As the matter stands, unless a Gov- ernor, like Mr. Fisher, is personally interested in the school it is all too apt to be neglected, and even so in the jockeying of big college interests in the Legislature it is all too apt to suf- fer despite the budget recommenda- tion in its favor this session. Kipling Is Too Flattering. From the Kansas City Star. We Americans don’t mind Rudyard Kipling being a bit fretful about us in his poems. We suppose it is only natural he should be cross when he thinks about his income tax and the payments on the American debt, and everything. But we do insist he pays us too great a compliment in the lines in “The Vineyard” in which he says of the American after the war: So he swiftly made his own Those lost spoils we had not won. There weren’t any lost spoils when the fighting was finished. Britain took everything in sight, includ- ing most of Africa and a good share of Asia. Every part of the earth that wasn’t nailed down was made part of that empire on which the sun never sets. As we said, Kipling is too complimentary. We didn’t swiftly make any spoils our own. We couldn’t if we had wanted to. England got there first. t ————— i ————— Subscribe for the “Watchman.” He is! SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —It is rumored that the Pennsylvania Railroad will build a $2,000,000 bridge across the Susquehanna below Shamokin Dam at the south end of Sunbury and that a dam will also be built across the stream at a total expenditure of more than $5,- 000,000. —Andrew Haliffut, of Bitumen, 17 years old, sustained burns of both hands and forearms in an explosion in the mines of the Kettle Creek Mining company at Bitu- men, Thursday afternoon. He was taken to the Lock Haven hospital where hig burns were given medical attention. —Charles Dunn, of Lock Haven, sustain- ed a fire loss of approximately $10,000, and the completion of the experimental work in producing Dunnstable Dust, an insect- icide of high nicotine content, has been put back a year, by the destruction by fire of Mr. Dunn's two-story frame factory build- ing in which the experimental work was being done. —“0ld Joe,” who for 12 years lived a hermit’s life in a cave near West Con- shohocken, has been placed on the payroll of the Valley Forge Cement company, with instructions to go and come as he pleases as a laborer. When the company disturbed him weeks ago to build a plant it selected a bungalow for him, which at first he refused to occupy. —DMatt Untermeyer, 49, a stage gymnast, died in Mercy hospital, Pittsburgh, on Sun- day, of a fracture of the spine suffered on Monday of last week in a theater, when his partner, Henry Willie, fell from the top of a thirty-five foot pole on which he was performing and struck Untermeyer, who was holding the pole. While his fall was broken by his partner, Willie escaped with a fractured arm. —J. A. Boak, of New Castle, overseer of the State Grange, has become acting head of the organization, succeeding Philip H. Dewey, of Gaines, who resigned to be- come manager of the Workmen's Compen- sation Fund, to which he was appointed by Governor Fisher. Boak, who operates a livestock and horticultural farm in Law- rence county, will serve until the anuual meeting next December. —Thirty-two one-inch bolts, three one- and-one-half-inch nails, one half-inch nut and four washers were found in the gizzard of a turkey which she was preparing for roasting on Sunday by Mrs. H. P. Koehler, wife of a Lebanon grocer. The bird is believed to have picked up its unusual feed from the floor of the Koehler garage, where it had been kept for several days prior to its decapitation. —The Pottsvile Firemen’s Relief Associa- tion has been asked to reimburse John Green, a member of a local hose company, for the loss of his false teeth. While fight- ing a blaze a few days ago, Green fell from the second story of a building. He was uninjured, but his false teeth were jolted from his mouth and were destroyed. He values them at $50. The matter has been referred to a committee by the Relief As- sociation. —Jim Yee, tea store and laundry pro- prietor, of Pittsburgh, is a man of action. On Sunday when a Negro entered his es- tablishment and held him up, Yee armed himself with a revolver as soon as the rob- ber had left and started in pursuit. After a sprint of a few blocks, Yee fired at the fleeing holdup man, hitting him in the ab- domen. Yee was locked up and the robber, said to be Henry J. Johnson, was sent to a hospital in a serious condition, —Althoiigh he has beeli grafted cie- setiship papers dnd has beet in this coun- try 25 yedts, Stanley Kowaski, aged 45, of Pittsburgh, couldn’t remember one word of English when he was arraigned in mor- als court on Sunday for mistreating his wife. Through an interpreter Kowaski ex- plained that he had chased his family out ! of the house only because he was inebriat- jed. He was discharged by Magistrate | George H. England when Mrs. Kowaski forgave him. boys on Sunday night bound Winston McLaughlin, 10, also a negro, to a post in West Philadelphia, saturated his clothes with gasoline and applied a torch, burning him so badly that he is not expected to recover. After bind- ing him to a post, the boys went to a near- by gasoline station and purchased a gal- lon of gasoline. Throwing the gasoline on McLaughlin they set fire to brooms and waved the flaming torches, igniting his clothing. Before they could cut the boy's bonds his clothing had burned from his body. —Three negro —The United States circuit court of ap- peals at Philadelphia has handed down a decision upholding the dismissal of Dis- trict Judge Gibson, of Pittsburgh, of the suit of James M. Guffey, Pittsburgh oil magnate, and Democratic leader, to recover nearly $350,000 from the Gulf Production company. The litigation grew out of the sale by Guffey of leases on approximately 1,000,000 acres of oil lands in Texas and Louisiana in 1901 to a syndicate among whose members were Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury, and former Judge James H. Reed, father of United States Senator David A. Reed. —Paul Sheaffer, Perry county murderer, was sentenced to life imprisonment in the eastern penitentiary after pleading guilty at a special session of the Perry county court, on Monday morning, to the killing of Mr. and Mrs. George B. Shull last De- cember. The trial of Sheaffer had been set for February 21. He attempted suicide last week which was believed to have been the reason for advancement of the date of trial with the consent of the court, district attorney James W. McKee and defense counsel. The plea of guilty was made under an 1925 amendment to the criminal code under which a plea of guilty of first degree murder may be entered and the court given the right to fix the penalty at either death or life imprisonment, —One sorrow after another has trailed along during the past year for Paul Po- Deny, well known resident of Frenchtown, Crawford county. February 12, 1926, his daughter, Irene, was seriously burned in the explosion of a gas stove at the home of Harry Bryner, Park avenue, Meadville. She has not yet recovered. In May, 1926, his youngest brother, Virgil, died at his home in Woodcock township. A month later a sister, Mrs. George DeMaison of Frenchtown, died in the Spencer Hospital. Meadville. July 5 William DeMaison, a son of Mrs. DeMaison and his nephew, dropped dead at Lake Canadohta while enjoying a day of recreation with his family. Last Friday William Popeny, a son, died in the Spencer Hospital as the result of injuries sustained when he was struck by an auto- mobile January 27.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers