ct ————————————————————————————————————————— Bema Witdm INK SLINGS. ——If Vice President Dawes had free choice in selecting his company he might not pick “Cautious Cal” as a political partner. ——The question of who is entitled to the credit for the Federal Reserve Act is becoming as much a mystery as whe struck Billy Patterson. —Those who are looking around for an explanation as to why the popula- tion of Centre county has increased only two and three tenths per cent during the last thirty years while that of the State as a whole has ad- vanced thirty-eight per cent might find part of the cause in our infant mortality rate. The death rate of live born babies in Centre county is among the highest in the State. Prospective infants should arrange to be born somewhere else. —The death of W. Harry Baker has removed ‘the most widely known man in Republican politics in Pennsylva- nia. In a way its effect will reach into every county in the State. Take Cen- tre, for instance. Senator Scott’s best touch with the organization was through Mr. Baker. While the latter was publicly deposed and supposed to be entirely outside the breast-works, even though retained as secretary, everyone who knew anything of the situation knew that Mr. Baker was still a potential political factor. He was Senator Scott’s good friend and through him the Senator was more of a threat than he can be with Baker gone. Harry’s passing might not have serious effect on the struggle for control of Centre county between the Scott and Dorworth factions, but it will have some. —We have a card from our old friend A. Curtin Thompson, who gave the Hon. Holmes such a scare in the last legislative contest in the county. In it he says: “For the first time in all the years I have been taking it the Watchman failed to make its ap- pearance this week. How do you ex- pect me to get along without it?” Among other activities Mr. Thomp- ‘son is a sort of grand exhalted ruler of Sunday School workers. Such em- ployment of his time would imply an inclination, at least, toward truth- fulness. In fact we have ever regard- ed him as an exemplar of the ninth Commandment. And in order that our faith in this virtue of his may not be shattered we are going so far as to make ourselves believe that we have only been dreaming these many years that we have thought the Watchman has “failed to appear” every Christ- ‘mas and Fourth of July week. —Chemists from all over the world are in conference at The Pennsylva- nia State College. The scientists are: there for an interchange of ideas and no group of humans are as full of ideas as scientists. In fact science would have made no progress what- ever had it not been for notions that this, that or the other of its exponents have had that soand so ought to be true and, because of such conviction, have spent years of research in the proof of it. Up to the moment of their success, however, many of them are looked upon as “nuts.” It is a sad ‘thought to contemplate, but we are fearful that one of the high-brows up at the College is destined to re- main forever in the class of those be- lieved to be minus a few pieces of the mental running-gear. In discussing ‘modern warfare and means of in- capacitating enemy armies he proved, the other day, that poison gas -—generally abhorred as inhuman— is really very much less disastrous in its effect thin are bullet and bayonet. He was so enthusiastically insistent that gas is the least harmful of all ‘engines of human destruction that he thinks some city of at least ten thous- and population ought to volunteer to "be gassed in order to prove his theory ‘beyond peradventure. The learned gentleman might be right, but where’s the city that’s going to per- mit itself to be gassed just to prove “that he is? " —In another column of this issue appears a political advertisement which is designed to give the impres- sion that Governor Fisher is not in- terested in the matter as to whether Hon. Jas. C. Furst or M. Ward Fleming Esq. should be made the Re- publican nominee for judge of this district. According to the statement of Dr. Jones the Governor likes both “boys” so well that he is sorry he couldn’t have appointed them both to succeed Judge Keller on the bench. We call attention to the matter be- cause it was only a few months ago that the Governor’s Secretary of Forests and Waters, Mr. Dorworth, in his own paper, the Bellefonte Repub- lican, stated that the administration was unreservedly behind the candi- dacy of Judge Furst. There seems to be an African concealed somewhere in the political wood-pile. Mr. Dor- worth would scarcely have made such an assertion without the sanction of the administration unless, per chance, he imagines himself to be it. On the other hand the Governor could easily say what he is quoted as hav- ing said to Dr. Jones without even committing any of his lieutenants. In a district where Democrats have been fired from jobs because they de- clined to register as Republicans in order to vote for Judge Furst at the primaries it is hard to make people believe that even if Governor Fisher isn’t personally interested his admin- istration is keeping hands off. i \ STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL'UNION. BELLEFONTE. PA.. JULY 15. 1927. NO. 27. Responsibility for the Filibuster. Coolidge a Candidate in the Open In a speech delivered at Pottsville, the other evening, Senator David A. Reed declared that Senator James A. Reed, of Missouri, chairman of the Slush Fund committee, was respon- sible for the filibuster that defeated much important legislation at the close of the Sixty-ninth Congress. In this absurd statement he deliberately insulted the intelligence of his audi- ence. The filibuster was a vicious en- terprise. It crippled the federal courts in all sections of the country by de- feating appropriations necessary to enable them to function, impaired many other agencies of government and postponed for a time the complete exposure of frauds perpetrated in the Pennsylvania Senatorial election of 1926. During several weeks preceding the starting of the filibuster Senator David A. Reed professed sympathy with the effort to lay bare to public view the frauds which had created a. fictitious majority for William S. Vare over his Democratic opponent, William B. Wilson. Thus assured of co-operation from the Republicans of the Senate Mr. Reed had delayed ask- ing that the Slush Fund committee be authorized to continue its investiga- tion after the adjournment of the ses- sion until within a few days of the end. In similar situations, previous- ly, such authority was given without objection. But on this occasion Sena- tor Reed, of Pennsylvania, objected and checked all business of the Sen- ate to support his action. Chairman Mellon, of the Republi- can State committee, has since ad- mitted that the filibuster was for the “good of the party.” It held for the Republican party a majority in the Senate for the purpose of organiza- tion at the opening of the Seventieth Congress. What happens afterward is of less importance. The formation of the standing committees will be accomplishd, and even if Mr. Vare is subsequently thrown out and the election of Mr. Smith, of Illinois, pro- nounced “null and void,” the vast in- fluence of a majority in the commit- tees will remain with the Republicans. It will be a stolen power like the Vare ‘majority=in Pennsylvania, but it- will be a potent force nevertheless. ——It doesn’t matter much what kind of bait the President uses in fish- ing for trout in the Black Hills, there will be a roar that may “be heard round the world” if he fishes for votes for a third term with the Vare-Mel- lon type of lure. Farmers’ Best Bet. The “safe and sane” instrument for improving the condition of farmers lies in co-operation both in selling products and buying supplies, accord- ing to a bulletin issued by the Penn- sylvania Department of Agriculture, the other day. During 1926, this official statement declares, the farm- ers of the State, through their co- operative associations, transacted a business of $35,177.010, an increase over the volume of 1925 of 13.8 per cent. Of this total $28,876,419 worth of products were disposed of through | seven large interstate organizations and $6,300,591 by local co-operatives, there being ninety-five such organi- zations in the State. This indicates genuine activity. It is surprising that the co-opera- tive marketing of milk showed the largest increase. The reason for this is that those concerned in this product of the farm have been employing the system longer and have adhered more closely to the method. In marketing as well as in other activities of life fidelity to alertness count for much and the producers of milk have been alike energetic and faithful for a con- siderable period of time. During 1926 the total sales of milk in Pennsylva- nia amounted to $28,542,342, an in- crease of 14 per cent. as compared with the previous year. The sales of fruit, vegetables, wool and eggs show a decrease of from six to eight per cent. The mistaken notion that agricul- tural prosperity may be obtained by price-fixing legislation still obtains to a considerable extent but is rapidly vanishing. “The Lord helps those who help themselves,” is as true on the farm as anywhere else, taxation dis- criminates against the farmer and levies a burden on his shoulders that might be relieved by legislation. Tar- iff taxation affords no protection on what he has to sell but increases the price of everything he has to buy. Co- ' operation is the best remedy for that as well as the surest method of mar- keting. It has been proved on various fields that our soldiers are always ready to face death in battle but it now appears they are not willing to | die of starvation or indigestion. —= Subscribe for the “Watchman.” That President Coolidge is an ac- | tive candidate for re-election is now admitted by his intimate friends. For a long time he was afraid of the third term issue and hesitated. But he has | been persuaded that he has nothing : to fear from that source. One of the most dependable Washington corres- | pondents writes that “the big Repub- licans who raised it against Roose- | What he means is that “big | business” didn’t altogether trust Roosevelt but is entirely confident that Coolidge will serve it faithfully. Mr. Roosevelt was more or less erratic. He was generally obedient to the call of Wall Street but occasional- ly balked. Coolidge never utters a protest. The big Republicans who raised the third term issue against Roosevelt were not influenced by fear of a dy- nasty or respect for the tradition set by Washington. Ninety per cent. of them would be perfectly willing to see the government perverted into an em- pire or a dictatorship if the corpora- tions were in control. They were afraid of Roosevelt because at inter- vals he revealed sympathy for the people and was liable at any time, if his power were secure as it would have been with a third term confer- red on him, to scourge the despoilers of the public. But they have no such apprehensions with respect to Mr. Coolidge. They know he will do what they want done and appear to enjoy the operation. Thus having convinced Mr. Coolidge that opposition to the third term will not develop into a menace to his elec- tion he has cast off the pretense that he is not a candidate and entered into a strenuous canvass for votes. But he is not willing to have Vice Presi- dent Dawes associated with him on the ticket. He is as suspicious of | Dawes as the big Republicans were | of Roosevelt, and he wants a tail to his kite that will help to keep it afloat. He would like to have for- mer Governor Hadley, of Missouri, be- cause of his popularity in Missouri and Kentucky, but Missourians are proverbially. ineredulous. -- His -see ond choice is said to be Senator Mec- Nary, of Oregon, author of the farm- er’s bill he vetoed. on ” —Business is slowing up every- where and it is not all due to the hot weather. The bait fisherman of the Dakotas is believed to be responsible for part of it. Careless Voters Rebuked. i Only a few weeks ago an entire , School Board in one of the townships {in Luzerne county was thrown out of | office for malfeasance. Since that {time a similar result followed the | prosecution of the School Board of | Coal township, Northumberland coun- ty, on the same charge. In this case i it was proved that within recent years two Secretaries who could neither | read nor write served terms and an- other of the Secretary of the Board re- : fused or neglected to make records of (ae proceedings of the meetings. Each of these Secretaries was paid $2,000 a | year for his services, a figure which | might have enticed competent men to { aspire to the service. Probably the { political machine preferred the other | kind. | The Coal township School Direc- ‘tors unwisely appealed from the de- | cision of the Northumberland county court to the Supreme court of the | State which has just handed down an | opinion, not only sustaining but cor- 'dially approving the decision of the ‘lower court. It declared that “some of the Directors were utterly incom- ' petent and others had acted in utter disregard of their plain and lawful duties.” The evidence,” the Supreme | court declarad, “revealed extravagance and wastefulness of the funds of the district and general lack of business methods.” Tt must be admitted that the penalty imposed was anything but ‘severe. A prison term would have much better “fit the crime.” The significant feature of the Su- preme court’s deliverance, however, was not in affirming the lower court. It was in laying the blame for the malfeasance on the citizens of the district. “The evidence in the case,” says the opinion, “should be deeply humiliating to the taxpayers by whose votes these delinquent officials were placed in office.” Coal township is a mining settlement but there ought to be and no doubt is ample intelligence in the electorate to discriminate be- tween. fit and unfit men for service in a capacity which has control of the educational ‘machinery of the com-' munity. The fact that the delinquents ' have been prosecuted and convicted is a hopeful sign. | ——The State highway between Centre Hall and Bellefonte is being oiled this week. Death of W. Harry Baker. i W. Harry Baker who died in Har- risburg on the 5th instant had been | a conspicuous figure in the public life of Pennsylvania for many years. He ! began his political career as a page in the State Senate in 1895 and ad- vanced by gradual steps and as a just ; reward of efficiency until he had attain- | ed to potential leadership of his party. | From page in the Senate he was pro- | velt in 1912 are now on the band wag- | moted to a minor clerkship and finally | not abundant, and even in the best to the important office of Secretary, | which office was created in order to! retain him in the service of the State. | In the beginning he had neither so- | cial prestige nor powerful pull. He ! won his way by intelligent and indus- | trious effort and made himeslf indis- ! pensable to party leaders. ! Harry Baker became Secretary of | tke Republican State Committee in | 1905 and continued in that office until | the death of Senator William E. | Crow, then Chairman, in 1922, wher | he was elected Chairman. During the | period of his service as Secretary of | the Committee he became intimate | with the late Senator Boies Penrose who relied implicitly upon his fidelity and efficiency. Upon the death of Sen- | ator Penrose, Mr. Baker, by common : consent, became executor of his poli- | tical estate and administered it with | consummate skill and ability. When | Gifford Pinchot was nominated for Governor in 1922, he tried to despose | Mr. Baker from the Chairmanship but | failed. The masterful management | of the campaign made Governor Pin- chot his admiring friend. i The deep-seated affection in whic] Harry Baker was held by the people of Pennsylvania is shown in the com- ments upon his life and death in the press, without respect to party affili- ation. He was a candid and obliging public official and a truthful and courageous party leader. His fidelity to friendship cost him the only de- feat he ever met. He supported his life-time friend, E. E. Beidleman for Governor, in the primary contest against the Mellon entrant at the ex- pense of his most fondly cherished ambition and accepted the consequence with characteristic composure. He | #might have made himself secure by sacrificing his friend but preferred to maintain his honor and public confi- dence. ——Twenty-one cars were lined up at the curb market last Saturday morning and a good quantity of everything in season was offered for sale. The first home grown potatoes made their appearance and sold for 55 cents a peck, but green grocery stores in Bellefonte were selling them for 49 and 50 cents. Mr. Mellon an Uneasy Boss. State Chairman Mellon is beginning to realize that the path of a political boss is not always strewn with roses. . The boss is held responsible, by the rank and file of the party, for the success or failure of the campaign. If the party wins at the polls, even by the usual majority, the boss may hold a place in the confidence of the organ- ization. If the majority is consider- ably reduced the boss is blamed and no excuses will be accepted by the disappointed followers of the machine. To avert this sometimes unjust pen- alty the boss lives through the period between active campaign work in a wretched state of uncertainty and mental anguish. He is the victim of | all sorts of danger. Chairman Mellon was chosen boss of the Pennsylvania Republican ma- chine, not because of his experience in party management or his efficiency in influencing the minds of men. His fitness for the office of party boss was measured upon an altogether differ- ent standard of values. It was ex-, pected that the vast wealth of his family would serve as a certain guar- antee of a full slush fund and have | tendency to promote harmony through the deference which the minds of men invariably yield to very rich men. In the beginning this ex- pectation was partially fulfilled. The | Mellons were very generous in the last campaign. But when it came to the matter of dividing the spoils Mr. Mellon fell down completely. Whether it was because he was over zealous in rewarding his own friends | or too arrogant in disposing of the | claims of men not within the circle | of his acquaintance is left to conjec- | ture. But the fact that within three months of the date of the primary elec- ! tions for local nominations throughout | the State the Republican organization ! is in a state of utter demoralization. | Even in Mr. Mellon’s home town he is | unable to draw the factions together and a state of war exists in nearly every county in the State, and natur- ally enough this untoward condition {is generally ascribed to his misman- | agement of the “patronage mill.” He may beable to “bring order out of | chaos,” but it will be an expensive | process. : ’ i last fall, and the New York Central | New York banks and trust companies. ‘payments were $250,000,000 in seven - business, and the country as a whole “edly there have been serious difficul- | ties, but much of the indebtedness of four years ago has been cleared off, aration and compiling of the records ! is ‘time goes on it will be more and more of the United States. narrative form the splendid service i the colors and also of those who back- ‘home stations. . set apart for the use of the Governor imminent danger thereof” and “in the : President or furnishing a quota of | every effort to set down for all time Corporate Profits. From the Philadelphia Record. There are differences of opinion about the state of trade. There is a good deal of complaint that business is not active, that trade is dull, that an impetus to business is necessary. The textile trade has not yet recovered from the slump of about three years ago, although there has been much improvement. Railway net earnings, taken as a whole for the country, are part of the country they have not reached 6 per cent. Yet their earnings are better than for several years, and the quotations are correspondingly high. The Penn- sylvania Railroad raised its dividend now announces an increase. The news article in The New York Journ- al of Commerce says that “conditions now prevailing in the business world are ‘spotty,’ and competition in var- ious lines of endeavor is more mark- ed, foreshadowing smaller corporate earnings in a number of instances, as compared with last year, than for quite a while. For this reason Wall street does not think that favorable dividend announcements will be as numerous as during recent years.” But that is guessing about the fu- ture. What is known about the pres- ent is that corporate interest and div- idend disbursements payable next month will make a new high record. They will reach a total of $553,550,- 000 over a year ago. The compilation by The Journal of Commerce shows that dividends will be more than $8,- 000,000 better than a year ago. The industrial and miscellaneous corpor- ations will pay nearly $3,000,000 more, the railways more than a mil- lion and a half more, the street rail- ways about the same gain, and there is an estimated gain of more than two millions in the payments by Greater The interest payments will be more than $50,000,000 in excess of a year ago, the increase by the railways be- ing about $21,000,000, reflecting large borrowings last year; the industrial and miscellaneous companies will dis- burse $23,500,000 more than in 1926, the street railways about $6,00,000 more, the Federal Government about $4,000,000 less, and Greater New York about two millions more. In round millions the industrial div- idends in the first seven months of the. fiseal year were $850,000,000 in 1925, $367,000,000 in 1926 and $384,000,000 in 1927. The railway and traction months of 1925, $263,000,000 in 1926 and $279,000,000 in 1927. It is hard to believe that much busi- ness is bad or poor when corporate dividends and interest payments are increasing this way. The country as a whole must be doing a very good includes the agricultural regions. There has been a good deal of exag- geration, for political purposes, of the difficulties of the farmers. Undoubt- and the farmers must be buying pret- ty liberally, or these corporation div- Hones would hardly have been pos- sible. World War History. Irom the Harrisburg Telegraph. An important item in the general appropriation bill approved by Gover- nor Fisher was $32,500 for the prep- of the soldiers of Pennsylvania who participated in the World war. This . Important from several stand- points, especially the fact that as difficult to obtain first-hand informa- tion of those who served in the armies Pennsylvania responded as no other State, perhaps, in the great struggle for human liberty and as soon as pos- sible the official record of its partici- pation in the World war should be made available for the people. Not only must it be a statistical and of- ficial record; it should also reflect in rendered by the men and women with ed them with patriotic effort at the Another interesting item in the gen- eral appropriation bill was $200,000 in- “repelling invasion, subduing in- surrection, riot, tumult or disorder, or event of all or any portion of the Na- tional Guard being called into active service of the United States by the volunteers from Pennsylvania under a call of the President.” Thus Penn- syivania officially, through an act of the Legislature, recognizes the im- portance of preparedness in time of peace. It was Pennsylvania that supplied so many volunteers in the World war that the first two drafts did not af- fect the State. Such a record of pa- triotic service is unusual and justifies in permanent form a history of what transpired when the call came in 1917. ——An esteemed contemporary asks “why people drown.” Without | SPAWLS FROM THE KEYTSONE. —Ralph Sterling Clearfield, superin- tendent of the General Refractories Com- pany plant at Mill Hall, sustained serious injuries to his spine when he fell from a ladder at the plant Thursday afternoon, striking a concrete floor. —Iive of the six cows owned by Chas. Burrell, of Salona, in Nittany valley, were killed last Thursday morning when a tree under which they were standing during a thunder storm was struck by lightning. The sixth cow, a short distance away was not injured. —Mrs. Cathrine Fair, 35, and her six children ranging in age from one to fifteen were burned to death early on Saturday morning, when flames following a terrific explosion destroyed their farm home at Bernville, fifteen miles north of Reading. County police blamed a still. —H. Dale Thomas, of Reading, has pur- chased the property of the former Robe- senia Iron Company, at Robesonia, com- prising 1700 acres, with 40 dwellings, a superintendent's mansion, blast furnace and large slag bank, from the Bethlehem Steel Realty Corporation, for $100,000, it was announced today. —Blood poisoning, a fracture of the jaw aand throat injuries, suffered when he was said to have leaped from the roef of his home after ramming a soldering iron down his throat resulted in the death of Tony Polek, aged 32, of Pittsburgh, in St. Francis Hospital on Tuosday, accord- ing to a report to the coroner. —While working in a potato field, last Thursday, Jenelle Louise Smith, aged 11, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Michael D. Smith, farmer of East Hanover township, Dauphin county, was killed by a bolt of lightning as her father and mother and two younger sisters were running for shelter from an approaching thunder- storm. —By the will of Mrs. Julia T. Shepherd, of Hanover, probated on Monday, the fol- lowing institutions are benefited by be- quests in trust: Tressler Orphans’ Home, Loysville, $2,000; Hanover public Library, $5,000; St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Hanover, $1,000; Hanover Y. M. C. A, $1,000 and building fund of St. Mark's church, $1,000. : -——Accused by the mother of a four-year- old girl with pulling several locks of hair from the tot’s scalp in an electric wash wringer, Walter Baker, of Lancaster, is being held for hearing on charges of aggravated assault and battery. Mrs. Elizabeth Shaub, a neighbor to Baker, is the prosecutrix. She alleged that last Fri- day he torc the hair from her daughter's scalp im a wringer. g —Stricken while operating his engine on the Hunter's Run branch of the Reading railroad, near Toland shortly after noon last Wednesday, Charles J. Stocker, died before the train reached Hunter's Run. Oliver Marks, fireman on the train, a com- bination freight and passenger service, took the throttle after Stocker was strick- en. A heart attack is blamed for the seiz- ure. Stocker had been in the service of the Reading Company since 1888, begin- ning as a brakeman on coal trains and winning promotion until he earned an engineman’s post. —A distressing aceident occurred at Caledonia last Thursday morning shortly after 9 o'clock, resulting in the death of Mr. Cole was shooting ground hogs and was near the barn at the time. He was using a punkin ball and let loose at a stray ground hog. The bullet glanced off a rock, ricocheted and struck Mrs. Cole in the head. The woman was a considerable distance from her husband, but the bullet. struck her with such force as to kill her instantly. The horrified husband ran to the side of his wife, but when he reached there she was dead. —J. Vincent Hendrickson, 33, a teller in the Commercial Bank and Trust com- pany, Titusville, for 12 years, was sen- tenced last week by Judge Thomas J.- Prather, of the Crawford county courts to serve a term of three to six years in the western penitentiary, after pleading guilty to embezzlement of approximately $9,200 from the bank. Hendrickson was arrested several weeks ago following an audit of his books by the state bank examiner. It was found that sincce January 1924 he had made 475 individual abstractions of $10 and $20 at a time making the deduc- tions from interest accounts of the bank. —Maggie Scott, Negro. of Farrell, holds the unique distinction of having been re- fused admission for six io 12 years to the western penitentiary after conviction upon. a second degree murder charge. Maggie, in custody of Shriff W. A. Bowe, of Mercer, tried to crash the gate at the Woods Run institute on Saturday and was notified by warden Stanley P. Ashe that there was no room for her. Maggie was returned to Mercer pending disposition of her case. Warden Ashe said that women had been refused at the penitentiary for several vears because there are no accommodations for them. Female prisoners, he said, are usually confined to a local workhouse or Muncy, a woman's institution. —Irvin D. Beard, five years old son of Mr. and Mrs. Simon R. Beard, of Granite, Adams county, was bitten by an enraged hog when he entered the pen with another brother, Robert, about three years old, to examine a litter of pigs born the night be- fore. Playfully the children fondled the little pigs in the pen with the mother hog, when the latter made a savage lunge at the older boy and sank its teeth through his arm. His screams attracted a large collie dog, boon companion to the children, which was just outside the pen. The canine leaped into the pen and attacked the hog, driving it away from the boy, who, with the younger child, quickly got out of the sty, while the dog kept the infuriated hog covered. A local physician was summoned and treated the wounds in the child’s arm inflicted by the hog. —A mother, rushing to.a hospital with her four-year-old son, injured in an auto- mobile accident, died on Tuesday after her skull was fractured in another motor accident. She was Mrs. Earl Wiley of Lower Marion township, near Philadel- phia, and wife of a policeman. The father was off duty when the boy was hurt and placing him and the mother in his own automobile together with the driver of the car that struck the child, Wiley was rush- ing to the Bryn Mawr hospital when an- other policeman, also off duty, approach- ed in his automobile from the opposite di- recton. He noticed Wiley’s car driving wildly, turned and pursued it. He sought to bring it to a stop by forcing Wiley’'s car to the side of the road and in doing any profound study on the subject it would be safe to say because they can’t help it. : ] alin} so Wiley’s car was upset. The boy, with additional injuries, was not seriously { hurt. Mrss. Felix Cole. a bride of a few weeks. . .
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers