INK SLINGS. ' . —One after the other two para- graphs appear in the County Corres- pondence columns of this issue. One tells of the purchase of a new auto- mobile by one family. The other records that a neighbor has purchas- ed a cow. Neither is unusual, but they started us to thinking. In this instance we happen to know that the purchaser of the automobile can very well afford the luxury, but there are thousands of others who might more advantageously have bought cows in- stead of the motors they race over the country in. —Last week we suggested that in- stead of building the levees along the Mississippi higher it might be better to dredge the channel deeper. Hav- ing since been informed that the old Mississippi is two hundred and fifteen feet deep, just opposite the city of New Orleans, we hasten to beseech the government not to follow our sug- gestion. Were the channel scooped out much more water might seep through and make it necessary for the Chinese to carry umbrellas every time the Father of Waters goes on a rampage. —Just as we predicted months ago, when we argued that Congress should have reduced taxes further than it did, a great surplus is piling up in the treasury. Secretary Mellon, the fi- nancial wizard of the age, told the world that the government couldn’t stand even the paltry reduction that the Democratic minority in Congress forced the Republican majority to make. On Monday he announced that at the end of the current fiscal year more than half a billion will have piled up as surplus in the treasury. We call attention to this fact because we believe that the country has been wilfully, needlessly and exorbitantly taxed so that the Administration” can start in paying the public debt and reducing taxation on the eve of its bid for retention in power. —Next week the drive for enroll- ment for the local hospital will be made. The call from each individual is so small that very few will have real reason for refusal to respond. Some will be honest when they say they don’t have the dollar to spare. Others will conjure up varied excuses for getting out of a contribution. Mark this prediction: More evasion will be based on the intimation that “I don’t like the way the institution is run” than any other cause. We've had some experience in helping to run a hospital. W know something of the criticism that always was and always will be heaped on the heads of those who gratuitously try to do something for the public. The present board, some of the Jmeihers: of which thought the preceeding board incom- petent, have doubtless heard the same thing said of themselves.. Humanity would be very unhappy if there were not something to kick around and, naturally, the job that there’s noth- ing in and few people want is the one on which the anvil.chorus always har- monizes. Let us get that spirit out of our hearts and minds next week. Let us remember that the person who hasn’t made a mistake has never done anything. Let us tell you that the hos- pital, with the means at hand, always was and is today being conducted just as well as most and better than many of the hospitals in the State. Let us rise above the petty grievances of self and rally to a movement in which there is no proper place for selfish- ness. : —On Sunday a seventy-two year old murderer died at Rockview. A hapless old, colored man who had shot another of his race to death, but slip- ped away to the great bar of Justice without knowing that in his cyanotic fingers there laid a pardon. A belat- ed forgiveness in the name of the State for a crime that a just God probably forgave the instant it was committed. Charles Newell was sent up for having killed a drunken acquaint- ance who was trying to rob him. He had always been known as one of those intensely = spiritual old negro persons. One, per chance, who might recall to some of us that mysteriously inspired christian character Edward “baber” Stevenson. In the eyes of the law Newell was a condemned convict of Rockview. In the eyes of those who are authorized to administer the law there he was a saintly, simple child of God who had wandered into a strange path and, though bewildered, never forgot that he was the good Samaritan and not the Pharisee. Scant ceremony is that of the bur- ial of the dead in our penal institu- tion. But the prison life of Charles Newell made friends who demanded that the dark casement of a white soul be laid away in a shroud purged of stripes by the esteem of his fellow inmates. Instead of being hurriedly buried in the prison lot the body of the righteous old character is resting in a beautiful cemetery in Centre coun- ty. Five hundred friends assembled for the funeral service Monday even- ing. There was a real casket, flowers in tribute, women to sing and a chap- lain to do more than read “the serv- ice for the burial of the dead.” The soul of the old Christian negro was gone, but its lesson was vibrant among those mourners and also in the heart of the chaplain of the in- stitution, so he took the very unusual ceremony as his text to get across the message that merit will always find its reward. STATE RIGHTS AN D FEDERAL UNION, PA.. MAY 6. 1927. NO. 18. VOL. 72. identity of the Official Spokesman Revealed. The identity of the “Official Spokes- man” at the White House has been revealed. This mysterious and in- teresting individual was born in Ver- mont and in early life settled in Mas- sachusetts. He promptly entered into , the political activities of that State with the result that after receiving several lesser favors he was elected Governor. He is a rather small man, dresses well and in good taste and has a long and pointed nose. By good luck he was elected Vice President in 1920 and by accident advanced to the office of President in 1922. He punctually pays his political debts in the currency of public patronage unless the Senate refuses to ratify his appointments, which happens fre- quently. Some months ago the administra- tion at Washington began dispatch- | ing troops of marines to Nicaragua for the ostensible purpose of conserv- ing the lives and property of Ameri- can citizens who had gone there to “get rich quick.” A great many American. citizens who had not ven- tured into such enterprises questioned the propriety of the proceeding and a vast majority of the leading news- papers of the country, irrespective of party affiliation, vigorously protested against what seemed like an attempt by force to control the politics and policies of a friendly but weak sister Republic. Thereupon the newspaper correspondents of Washington were summoned to the White House and the Official Spokesman was born. He lectured them freely on their lack of patriotism. The other evening, in New York, a number of newspaper publishers and editors were assembled and President Coolidge addressed them. The prin- cipal feature of his speech was a plaintive plea to the public press of the country to support the President’s foreign policies, right or wrong, in order to maintain the prestige of the nation in the sight of the civilized world. Curiously enough the burden of the speech of the Official Spokes- man on the occasion of the conference at the White House some months ago was the same plea in almost the of all the President’s speeches are taken from the sayings and writings of others it can hardly be said that he : and fraudalent but is now being used is a plagiarist, and the inevitable con- clusion is that the Official Spokesman is Mr. Coolidge. : ——Judge Gordon, of Philadelphia, veveaied something of the mettle of partnership, for in eagerness for had one of the best curb markets of his distinguished father in sentencing a grafting magistrate. Grafting in Public Life. Last week the courts in three coun- ties in Pennsylvania were occupied in the investigation of charges of graft against public officials, In Philadel- phia voluminous testimony was given BELLEFONTE, af rable part Our Relations with Mexico. | Charles Michelson, Washington ' correspondent of the New York World, writes: “When President Cool- idge made his announcement of the ! improvement in our relations with Mexico, at a Press Association din- ner in New York the other day, he ‘neglected to tell what brought it i about. Senator Borah is more respon- | sible for dispelling the war cloud than | 2nvbody else. If it had not been for { him in all probability Ambassador i Sheffield would have been withdrawn. "The arms embargo would have been lifted and Mexico would have been in ‘chaos again. He raised such a row ' when the extent of the administration blustering was revealed that he woke i the country to a realization of what [lay ahead if the ship of state contin- ! ued on the course charted by the cap- tain.” | A group of mercenary American | capitalists, who had by one means or | another acquired valuable conces- | sions, were operating some of them 'in violation of the laws of Mexico. : The government of Mexico had de- | clared a purpose to require strict ! observance of law in the exercise of ' these concessions, and while a con- ! siderable number of the concession- : aires agreed to comply, a few protest- ed and appealed to the administration "at Washington to “protect their prop- | erty rights.” Obviously without in- i vestigation of the subject the Secre- tary of State in Washington, in the expectation of terrorizing our weak sister Republic, issued threats of severing relations, lifting the arms embargo and even sending troops to invade and devastate the country. At this stage of the proceedings Senator Borah, chairman of the Sen- ate Committee on Foreign Relations, arrived in Washington and promptly | entered protest against this ruthless 'and inexcusable action. As Mr. Michelson states, this timely inter- ference aroused the country “to a re- | alization of what lay ahead,” and : stopped the blustering as well as the preparations for war. Negotiations were subsequently begun anid resulted in the improvement in our relations with Mexico, to which the President credit for which he has somew i feloniously taken. Like his profes- sions of economy, this claim is false ap las a wasis for his claim for a third term in the cflice of President. It’s hard to tell which is the “wicked” member of the Mellon-Vare spoils they are alike. A... Governor Fisher Vetoes a Bad Bill. In properly vetoing that vicious piece of legislation enacted during the closing hours of the recent session "of the General Assembly, obviously intended to prevent any organized effort to expose graft, Governor in his New York speech. the Invisible Government in. Action. The incident of absorbing interest in political circles last week was the resignation of William H. Connell, of Philadelphia, chief engineer of the | State Highway Department, and for “some time acting as secretary of that _Gepartment. Rumors that his resig- nation was desired by the administra- "tion had been current for some time but were not confirmed by those in “authority and his friends hoped that his fitness for the office and efficiency in the service would guarantee his retention for “four years more,” not- withstanding the clamor of Pitts- burgh politicians for one of their number to be put in the $12,000 a year job. Mr. Connell had supported Gov- ernor Pinchot for Senator and had no claim for favor. One of the newspaper correspond- , ents at Harrisburg, and apparently a close observer of the movements on “Capitol Hill,” in summarizing the strife for this fat job says that “for some time Connell is said to have disagreed with Stuart and Mellon or- ganization leaders on requests for rebuilding of reads in various parts of the State. The situation became more and more acute until these poli- ticians went to W. L. Mellon and de- manded the deputy’s dismissal.” That settled the question. Mr. Mel- lon promptly issued orders to have Connell dismissed and to avoid the humiliation of that process he resign- ed. The Pittsburgh aspirant for the job, Samuel Eckles, was immediately appointed to the vacancy. This is an exhibition of the power of “invisible government” more fla- grant than is usually shown. W. L. Mellon is no part of the State admin- istration. He has not been commis- sioned by the people of Pennsylvania to either appoint or remove public servants. He is responsible to nobody for the good or bad service rendered f, by public officials in the employ of the State. But he assumes and exercises the power to employ or dismiss in every department and those who are responsible are compelled to submit to his usurpations, meekly or other- wise. He began with the assembling of the General Assembly by dictating seem ly intends to continue indef- initely. RE ——The season of the year will soon be here for the opening of the i Bellefonte curb market, and farmers ,and truck growers generally have probably arranged their garden plots accordingly. Last year Bellefonte ‘any of the surrounding towns, farm- ers coming here from the lower end 'of Nittany and Bald Eagle valleys, from as far down Pennsvalley as Aaronsburg and from College and ors of = both branches ‘and Good Work by the Governor. { From the Philadelphia Record. Governor Fisher has met public ex- pectation in signing the so-called election reform bills passed by the recent Legislature. Indeed no other action could have been reasonably looked for, for the measures were very largely of his own framing and constituted an important part of the program laid down in his inaugural message. It is natural enough, there- fore, that he is vastly pleased with what has been accomplished and that he expatiates at some length on the benefits he expects to flow from these bills, with some rather fulsome com- mendation of the part played by the Republican leaders in putting this legislation through. Some advocates of election reform may be disposed to differ with the Governor on this point, but will nonetheless welcome the approval of the measures, on the ground that half a loaf is better than none. , Of greater significance is the Gov- ernor’s veto of the bill intended to bring about the division of the Twen- ty-second ward by providing that all wards of over 70,000 population should be split up. This is a direct slap at the Vare machine and can be ' construed in no other way. No one in the Twenty-second ward wants it i divided except a small group of gang politicians headed by ex-City Treas- urer Tom Watson, who represents it ‘in the Republican City Committee. | Mr. Watson finds this burden so oner- | ous, especially as the people of the ! ward are notoriously given to inde- | pendent voting, that he wants it ‘lightened by the creation of a new | ward, which would be assigned to some other equally altruistic states- man. The people of antown and Chestnut Hill have defeated this prop- | position several times, and it was to | deprive them of all further voice in the matter that this very objection- able measure was jammed through the Legislature. It was a direct blow at self-government under the guise ‘ of seeking to advance the public wel- are, . | Governor Fisher gives excellent reasons for his veto, which comes as a bitter pill to William S. Vare and his henchmen. It serves notice upon them that purely factional measures {of this kind will not find favor at ' Harrisburg. For this the people of uel will: wen ‘ward, will return thanks to My." Fisher. He hats (them from a particularly obnoxious EE trick. : x 1, 1 | What Will Calles Do? + From the Altoona Tribune. i The horrible massacre of a train- load of passengers on a Mexican railroad will focus public attention on conditions in Mexico as it has not been focused heretofore. It matters nothing whether the barbarians who buined and shot the inoffensive trav- elers are rebels or revolutionaries, if ‘there be any real distinction between the two types of opponents of the Calles administration. What is im- + . especially of the | ‘saved’ |SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —A buck deer, wandering into the cen- ter of Altoona, jumped through the wind-- shield of an automobile, injuring Mrs. J. B. Krebbs, 42, a passenger. The deer was so badly injured that it was shot by police. —Over fifty ‘deer grazng in one herd were seen by motorists on the top of Hyner mountain, between Lock Haven and Renovo, on Monday morning early. Herds of deer are grazing nightly on the moun- tain tops along the Coudersport pike. —Frank Hartzell, an Allentown brick- layer, aged 56, last Thursday was the see- ond man killed in the construction of the new Pennsylvania Power and Light build- ing, that city’s tallest skyscraper. Slip- ping on the fourth floor, he fell sixty feet down a hoist hatch and broke his neck. —The belfry of the new John S. Bell memorial chapel of the Masonic home at Elizabethtown, Pa., is soon to be endowed with a large bronze chime of bells, ship- ment of which has been made by the Me- neely Bell company, of Troy, N. Y., after nearly a year was consumed in its manu- facture. —From $150,000 to $200,000 will be ex- pended in the erection of a new Scottish Rite cathedral at Coudersport, and the ceremonies for breaking ground for the new edifice will take place in June, when hundreds of members of the organization from all parts of the State will return to Coudersport for the annual reunion. —Twenty-seven years to the day from the time he became a rural mail carrier at the postoffice in Gettysburg, John H. Eckhart will become postmaster, succeed- ing R. C. Miller, who recently resigned. Announcement of the appointment was made by the Postoffice Department at Washington. The appointment is tempor- ary. —While 14-year-old Johnny Fedder was recovering in the Butler county Memorial ' hospital from an operation for the ampu- tation of his leg, his parents moved out of town and left him homeless, police re- ported last week. Efforts to locate the boy's parents have proved fruitless. He will be taken care of in the Butler county home. —Two officials of the Moose Lodge in Lewistown were fined $250 each on charges of vielating the prohibition laws by Judge Albert Johnson in Federal court on Monday. They are J. H. Smith and Roye E. Raker. Nine other lodge mem- bers arrested at the same time were re- leased later because of insufficient evi- dence —Two days after birth, the fourth son of Mr. and Mrs. Antoro Intelicato, of Wilks-Barre, was a barber shop customer. The hair of the child, Jasper, was coal black and nine inches long at birth. It s0 disturbed the infant that he was unable to sleep the first two nights following birth, but since the hair cut, his disposi- tion has improved greatly. —William Hunsicker, an excentric but highly successful farmer, who died last week at his home at Hamlin, Lebanon county, left an estate of nearly $100,000, which is disposed of in a will probated at Lebanon in 146 bequests of cash to neigh- ' bors and friends for miles around, rang- ing from $50 to $500, and in about a doz- en other bequests to churches and dispos- ing of real estate. ~-At the request of the Lock Haven mo- tor club, the New York Central Railroad company has unofficially signitied its in- tention to place an electric warning de- vice at the King crossing, between Lock Haven and Beech Creek, when the large crew of men laying new rails at that point have completed their work. The crew is living in ten box cars while constructing the road, which are on the siding near Beech Creek. —Because a little girl threw a stone af him while he was at target practice on | Monday, 12-year-old William Urich, son of | W. J. Urich, Steelton’s assistant postmas- ter, is being held at the Dauphin county . house of detention on a charge of murder. He is charged with killing 10-year-old Norma Gray, a negress, daughter of Mr. Ferguson townships. They came be- ! pressed upon the minds of people | and Mrs. Edward Gray, of Steelton, by cause better prices were obtained in everywhere is that such a desperate shooting her through the head with a 22- Bellefonte than anywhere else. —————— mn rs ——— ——The Vare machine managers in. to prove that one of the magistrates ' Fisher said: “There are a number of Philadelphia are anxiously waiting had been collecting money from de- fendants charged with the violaticn of the Volstead law for ten months to the amount of $87,000. In Wilkes- Barre the board of school directors of Hanover township, Luzerne county, had been in conspiracy with contract- ors to loot the school treasury to the extent of several thousand dollars, which they divided among them- selves. In Chester, Delaware county, the members of the school board were on trial for a similar offense. In the shown that Magistrate Rowland, Vare ward leader, sitting in one of the minor courts of that city, with the as- sistance of his son and a clerk, levied tribute upon every defendant brought before him and either “discharged” the case or suppressed the record in consideration of payment. The clerk turned “State’s = evidence,” and be- came the star witness against him. In Luzerne county the entire school board entered into a conspiracy with an architect and building contractor and let contracts at an enormously excessive price. Subsequently, for some unexplained reason, one of them “squealed.” In Delaware county the charge was letting contracts without competitive bidding. This is certainly a shameful record for one week of court activities for Pennsylvania. There might have been other cases of the kind in other coun- ties if the authorities had been vigi- lant or the reformers militant. But “it is enough.” Yet it is not surpris- ing. Malfeasances and misfeasances are the logical consequences of the machine methods of selecting public officials, which is the rule in the domi- nant party in this State. From the highest to the lowest positions in the public service the consideration is not the fitness or integrity of the aspirant, but his or her ability to get votes for the party. Grafting is the natural result of this system and will always be. ict amos ——The “Watchman” is the most readable paper published. Try it. Philadelphia case it was ! objections to this measure. The most "important is that without any com- ' pensating advantage it would require , organizations of -public-spirited eciti- zens who have associated themselves together for public purposes to incur unnecessary expense in' preparing . with scrupulous care, and in causing ‘to be registered in two public offices, the names and addresses of all of . their members.” That is surely a ! valid objection but not the most im- portant. The most important objection lies An the fact that if that malignant measure had become a law it would have bestowed upon the political pirates of Philadelphia and Pitts- burgh a blanket license to loot indis- criminately and stuff ballot boxes, make false returns of elections and utterly destroy every effort for civic improvement. Organization is as es- sential in a fight against the evils of misgovernment as it is in setting an army on the field of battle. No indi- , vidual, however wealthy and strong, could achieve success in a contest against organized vice and crime as it exists in the two great cities of Pennsylvania. Even the united ef- forts of many good men seem inade- quate. The inspiration for this atrocious piece of legislation lies in the hatred which the managers of the Vare ma- chine hold against the Committee of Seventy. That hatred has existed for many years and was further inflamed by the activity of the committee in exposing the frauds perpetrated at the last primary and general election in that city. If the Committee of, Seventy had been quiescent it might have been possible that the “stolen and purchased” majorities in the two cities would have secured to Mr. Vare a seat in the United States Senate. Fortunately the committee asserted its right to investigate with the result that William B. Wilson will occupy , the seat or it will remain vacant. a -——The Watchman publishes news when it is news. Read it. i ‘Jamison, Centre county, breaking and {and inhuman deed could be provoked ‘only by intolerable wrongs inflicted upon a people. Therefore President , Calles is looked to for redress of the grievances and the pacification of his ! caliber rifle in a field near the girl's home. —Harvey Schlee, aged 54, of Renovo, sustained injuries which necessitated the "amputation of the left leg midway be- : tween the knee and the ankle when he for Mr. Grundy to make up the Gov- , country in manner to make, impossi- | was struck by a car in the Pennsylvania ernor’s mind on the question of nam- ing a successor to Magistrate Row- land, row in jail. i ——Senator Willis, of Ohio, is tell- ing eastern audiences that the “corn belt” is “solid” for Coolidge, but the leading newspapers of that section declare Willis doesn’t know what he is talking about, ——Now that the Highway De- partment is completely under control of Pittsburgh politicians those want- ing road improvements will find it to their advantage to zee Mr. Mellon. ——The young man who shot him- self because his “sweetie” refused to marry him is hardly to be commend- ed, but it is a better way than shoot- ing the girl. . ——1t is a safe bet that if Coolidge is not nominated by the Republican convention the favor will go fo Hoover. Obviously they are working together. ~ I ——Insurance rates on stored liquors in New York have been in- creased 150 per cent. because of the activity of bootleggers in stealing stocks. ——Former Magistrate Rowland now knows how Wolsey felt on that mournful occasion referred to by the late William Shakespeare. rsa Qt ae — ——The boys are having a “haleyon and vociferous” time this week, and so far as reports have been received they have behaved becomingly. + ——Among the pardons granted at Harrisburg, last Thursday, was that of Harry Lutz, Centre county, charg- ed with breaking and entering. Clare escaping, and George Gables, also of Centre county, impersonating an of- ficer, were refused. ’ ble a repetition of the outrage. | Already the administration at Mex- ' ico City has given earnest of its in- tent to pursue the culprits and dis- patch them without mercy when caught. It has acted so in numerous other instances of lesser gravity. : Some scores of bandits, rebels or rev- olutionaries, have paid with their lives for the murders of foreign citi- zens, Americans among them. It is apparent that wholesale executions j do not meet the need. The cause of | the Juifage lies deep. It is not to be | eradica by force. Experience over a long series of years has demon- ‘strated that. Conditions in Mexico steadily worse. Conditions affecting the Mex- ‘ican millions, and not foreigners. | This is the fact for President Calles , and his advisers to consider. If they ; would have an orderly country they , must provide conditions acceptable to the Mexican people. They only can do it. If they do not apply appropri- ate correctives very soon they will be unable to remedy a situation for the continuance, if not the making, of which they are largely responsible. Tow The Money Value of an Education. From the New York Yorld. 3 Dean Lord of Boston University is undertaking a new country-wide sur- vey with a view to ascertaining the effect of an education on one’s earn- ing power. Some years ago he made a similar study which indicated that the average earning power of a college-trained man, from graduation until the age of sixty, was increased $72,000 by his collegiate preparation. By similar statistical methods the average earning power of a high- school education was gauged at $338,- As compared with a grammar school education, therefore, a college education should be worth $105,000. rn r————— atte An Optimistic Thought. From the St. Paul Pioneer Press. If all laws were rigidly enforced it would be necessary to build a fence around America and call it a jail. —————— re A ——————— railroad yards at Renovo. Mr. Schlee, who is a Pennsylvania railroad brakeman in the Renovo yards, was taking cars to ' the end of the yards to make up a train Monday night about 9 o'clock, and was "crossing the track to return, when a car ' coming from the opposite direction struclk him, inflicting the injury. —(Gieorge Birney, 22, of Athens, was still ; alive in the People’s hospital at Sayre on Tuesday more than 48 hours after his neeix | as broken in a niotereycle accident on the Athens-Towanda stdte highway. The "crash occurred Saturday afternoon when Birney was starting out on a machine he had had in his possession only about 20 | minutes. His attention was attracted to ; something at the side of the road and as , he looked, the motoreycle ran into a tree. ; His right leg was broken and his skull fractured besides his neck being broken. —Walter Darlington, connected with the Department of Welfare, has been dropped by Mrs. E. 8S. H. McCauley, secretary, Mr. ° Darlington was former State editor of the old Philadelphia North American and is considered one of the best political writers in the State. He has been with the department since shortly after that paper ceased publishing almost two years ago. The position paid $5,000 a year Mrs McCauley said to-day she did not plan to fill the vacancy. Mr. Darling- ton looked after welfare legislation in the General Assembly and since adjournment the new Secretary found little for him to do, she said, so gave him thirty day's notice of dismissal. —Biddle Woed, 57, member of a prom- inent Conshohocken family, lost in the dense fastnesses of the mountains of Un- fon county on Monday of last week, was found late on Friday three miles west of Buffalo Mills and about five miles from the point where he became separated from bis attendant. Mr. Wood, an invalid, was found by Charles Sterling and Samuel Barnitz, of Mifflinburg, who were fishing along Buffalo creek. He appeared dazed when they came upon him, the fishermen said, and was unable to tell of his exper- iences. Physicians were summoned to care for him as he was very weak from hunger and exposure. A reward of $500 was offered by the Wood family and many farmers, woodsmen and forest rangers were engaged in the search. The hunt was directed by district fire warden Miles —Subscribe for the Watchman. Reeder,