INK SLINGS. —Iowa has gone for Al Smith and many other States in which the New York Governor was believed to have no chance are leaning encouragingly in his direction. Can it be possible ‘that they are acting on the advice we ‘gave the country several months ago. —After all there is a lot of senti- ment in the human race. Madam ‘Schumann-Heink has just deeded her “two hundred and thirty thousand dol- lar villa in southern California to the disabled World war veterans of Min- meapolis because they honored her dead son, who was a German soldier. —As we sit here, confined to the house and, after seventy-two hours, ‘only partially recuperated from the effects of a week-end vacation, we are in such a discouraged state of mind “that we have no zest for argument. Therefor we are going to string along “with Dr. Appel and agree with his current weekly health advice to the effect that everyone should strive to “take @ real vacation instead of permitting the vacation to take you.” —It leaked out in the Senate, on Tuesday, that Ford collects twenty- five million a year more in freight bills than he actually pays. . A few more little by-products of this sort “would detract somewhat from the ef- fect of Mr. Ford’s supposed superior "business methods. In other words, could he pay the wages he does and sell cars at his present prices if he did not have such questionable mar- .gins of safety as are revealed in this fictitious freight charge. —Statistics compiled by the State Department of Welfare for 1927 re- veal that there was an unusual in- crease in the population of the county prisons and penitentiaries of the ‘State. Of course the answer to that ‘would seem to be that liquor was the cause. Such was not the case, how- ever. As a matter of fact there was ‘a decrease of incarcerations for drunkenness, liquor violations and as- sociated crimes. The increase was in- fractions such as robbery, larceny, ~carrying concealed deadly weapons, : assault and battery, etc. —Reading the startling revelations ‘coming out of the trial of leaders of the K. K. K. at Pittsburgh we are wondering if the many eminently hon- ~est and respectable persons in Centre ~county who joined the hooded order ‘when it was in the heights of its frenzy, several years ago, are not ‘now a bit chagrined at the manner ia which they have been exploited. Al! the testimony being brought out at the trial indicates that the leaders of the order found the credulity of the mass- es a veritable gold mine and stopped at nothing to keep it producing. —“Dapper Don” Collins, the notor- ‘ious confidence man, narrowly missed ‘going to prison for life in New York. Had it not been that a couple of wit- nesses who were probably handsomely remunerated for doing so changed their minds about certain facts they were expected to testify to Den would have gone up the river to locate per- manently. A fourth conviction in New York State means imprisonment for life. In many ways it’s a good law. Law is supposed to be correc- tive in its effect and if it can’t stop the criminal in four trials it ought to give up further attempt, meanwhile ‘being careful to place the object of its fruitless administration some - where where he will no longer need be worried with. —Mayor Mackey, of Philadelphia, is just a politician. Nine times out of ten a clever politician knows more about government, good or bad, and how to have either, than a whole round-table of men and women in- comparably their superiors intellectu- ally. At an address before the Wom- .en’s club of Philadelphia, on Monday, Mayor Mackey told the ladies that respect for law could not be expected «of the younger folks when their eld- ers discussed the superiority of their respective bootleggers on all occa- sions. Of course, the mayor was only hinting, but he was really plumbing ‘the depths of prohibition enforce- ment. The failure of prohibtion is certain unless each and every individ- ual who has voted for it resolves to be honest enough to expect it to reg- ulate his or her habits as rigidly .and fearlessly as they urge it to regulate the habits of others. —We note that on and after July one, next, Columbia University is go- “ing to pay its teaching and executive staff rather adequate compensation for services rendered. We express it poorly but we mean that because col- lege professors are supposed to be so inadequately paid Columbia’s new sal- ary roll will be viewed by the less fortunate as a mark to be striven for by all institutions of higher learning. While we're for everybody's getting all they can when and where the get- ting’s softest our imagination fails us utterly when we attempt picturing what the average college professor would do with any more than he gets. He might improve himself a bit sar- torially, he might take an occasional trip, if he were to locate enough spots on the map which nobody else would get any kick out of visiting, but the chances are great that he would do neither. He’s been inured to genteel poverty so long that if someone were to present him with a thousand shares of Radio he’d probably put them in a leather trunk in the attic and forget - all about the trunk when the house caught afire. ci [man STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. VOL. 73. Recreant Democratic Leaders. A southern editor writing to the Nation, New York, rather sharply though apparently justly, criticizes the Democratic leaders in Congress for their failure to force tariff reform into their legislative programme. “Leaders in Congress,” he writes, “have much to say about making the tariff the issue in the next Presiden- tial campaign, but they carefully re- frain from any definition of the par- ty programme in precise terms. Sen- ator Walsh insists with the utmost em- phasis that he would write a plank into the next Democratic platform de- manding tariff reduction in the inter- est of the farmer. Senator Reed urg- es tariff revision downward as the best means of relieving agricultural distress. Other Democratic Congress- men call for an old-fashioned tariff campaign in 1928. But none of the would-be tariff reformers has ven- tured to sponsor a specific proposal for translating tariff principles into law. Tariff for revenue only has been a fundamental principle of the Demo- cratic party for a hundred years. Sec- tion 8 of the Constitution authorizes Congress “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises to pay the debts and provide for the common de- fense and general welfare of the Unit- ed States.” In times of war such a levy might be justified “for common defense,” and in the early period of our history a nominal tariff tax might have found sanction for “general wel- fare” in nurturing infant industries. But there is no license, either in the organic law or in reason, for levying a tax “for protection” that exacts from one element of the people in or- der to pay unearned bounties to an- other. The industrial life of the United States is amply able to take care of itself in competition with that of any other country in the world. The records of exports completely prove this. The present tariff law yields to the public treasury approximately five hundred million dollars a year. But it costs the people of the United States approximately five billion dol- lars a: year. The difference ‘between these sums of money, amounting to four and a half billion dollars, is paid into the treasuries of industrial cor- porations and individuals engaged in the manfacture of products essential to life. Every man who buys a suit of clothes pays at least a third of the price because of the tariff tax, and every woman pays a tariff tax in the same ratio for her garments and oul- er things. If the money thus unjust- ly taken from the people were collect- ed at the custom houses and transmit- ted to the treasury it might be tol- erated. But the fact that it goes to feed the avarice of favorites gives it the form of legalized larceny. And Democratic leaders are faithless be- cause of failure to check it. —John H. Leete, who resigned his position on the faculty of the Penn- sylvania State College, some years ago, to go to Carnegie Institute, in Pittsburgh, has just been succeeded as librarian of Carnegie library by Ralph Munn, of Flint, Mich. We are uot informed as to whether Dr. Leete re- signed the $6,000 job or whether he was the victim of local political fights in which mayor Kline, the councilmen and members of the board of trustees of the library are involved. —“Big Bill” Thompson, mayor of Chicago, might ascribe his defeat at the recent primaries in Illinois to the minions of the King of England, but the real cause was probably Bill’s failure to maintain order in his own bailiwick. —The German who succeeded in beating a sea lion swimming is an- other one of them things. A lot of satisfaction he’ll get out of gloating over a sea lion. —Governor Fuller, of Massachu- setts, declines to run for Vice Presi- dent. Obviously he has no faith in the maxim that “history repeats + self.” —There are so many “favorite sons” this year that the term has be- come “an abomination in the sight” of political managers. —Nobody hereabouts knows much about the new Ohio Senator, but it’s a safe bet that he is entirely fit and a good Deniocrat. —Senator Borah has about given up the idea of “lifting an obligation of shame” by donating money to Har- ry Sinclair. . A ———— A ————————. —The Easter temperature indicated that winter still indulges in that dis- agreeable lingering habit. BELLEFONT E. PA.. APRIL 13 Real Obligation of Shame. | The shady transaction between Harry F. Sinclair, lessee of the Tea- pot Dome oil reserve, and Will Hays, formerly chairman of the Republican National committee and member of the Harding cabinet, is not the great- est “obligation of shame” resting on ‘the Republican party. One Republi- can Governor of Indiana has just com- pleted a sentence in the penitentiary: and another escaped a similar punish- ment by pleading the statute of limi- tations. A Republican mayor of In- dianapolis is now “in durance vile” for crimes committed while in office, and the Supreme court only a few days ago refused an appeal of Thom- as W. Miller, Harding’s custodian of alien property so that he will have to go to prison. Len Small, Republican Governor of Illinois, was recently compelled to dis- gorge more than $600,000 which he had stolen while serving as State Treasurer and the Republican Gov- ernor of Pennsylvania as well as the Republican organization of the State have exhausted every available resource to help William S. Vare to retain the seat in the Senate which he stole in 1926. Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon and the present chairman of the Republican National committee have made them- selves accessories after the fact to the conspiracy of Fall and Sinclair to rob the government of its oil reserve. Yet all these malefactors are contin- ued as leaders of the Republican par- ty and directors of its policies. One of the Republican Senators in a speech, the other day, aspersing certain prominent Democrats of the country, said, “birds of a feather flock together.” This grouping of crooks in the Republican organiza- | tion and recognition of them as lead- ers of the party is an infinitely great- er “obligation of shame” than accept- ing tainted money to discharge un- lawful debts, bad as that is admitted to be. If Senator Borah wants to re- lieve the Republican party from “an obligation of shame” let him denounce the present leadership and serve no- tice that if the Kansas City convention : Big Tom Heading for Jail. For many years Big Tom Cunning- | ham, of Philadelphia, like other gang- sters, has led a life of leisure “tread- ing the primrose path of dalliance,” undisturbed by care or conscience. During the latter period of the life of the late Senator Penrose, and since the death of that “easy boss,” he has reveled in the luxuries of lucrative office, unrestrained by law and indif- ferent to public opinion. Having by long immunity come to the belief that he is above the law and amenable to no power other than his own caprices, be has grown defiant. He refused te answer relevant questions put to him by the Senate Slush Fund committee relative to the source of his generous contribution to the Vare campaign for Senator. In the United States District court, in Philadelphia the other day, Mr. Cunningham proposed to enter into an agreement with the Senate. is, he expressed a willingness, or rath- er made an offer, to answer the ques- tions asked if the Senate would agree to admit Mr. Vare to membership of that body. To Mr. Cunningham this didn’t seem like an unusual proposi- tion. It appeared to his mind as a genuine reciprocity, an ordinary quid pro quo. By precisely such bargains the political affairs of the Republican party are conducted and the power of the political machine maintained. It is the method which has kept him in office continuously for nearly a quar- ter of a century, and others like him for an equal period of time. But Big Tom will find things dif- ferent in the present instance. He will not have a perverted public sen- timent and debauched magistracy to shield him from punishment. The Senate will not stultify itself and the government by trafficking with him on his own preposterous terms or any other. It may not be possible to ob- tain from him the information de- sired. If he should “tell the truth” it might result in both himseif and his candidate going to jail. But the District of Columbia court can, and probably will, fitly and fully punish - him for his contumacy, and there will is controlled by them he will organ--%&.me corrupt political machine capa- ize and lead a crusade, the purpose of which will be the defeat of the candi- dates they nominate. —The public has been informed as to who persuaded Mr. Fall to lie about Doheney’s $100,000 donation, but is obliged to guess as to who induced him to swear that the Sinclair dona- tion was a business transaction. Secretary Mellon Changes His Mind. Secretary of the Treasury Mellon has revised his estimate of the amount of the tax cut which may be made with safety, and as usual he has the cordial support of the President. Soon after the assembling of Con- gress Mr. Mellon conveyed an opinion that a tax cut in excess of $225,000,- 000 would be destructive and Mr. Coolidge agreed with him. Last week Mr. Mellon notified Congress that a cut of more than $200,000,000 would be disastrous and the President again concurs. But neither Mr. Mellon nor Mr. Coolidge advances any substantial reason for their change of mind. The treasury receipts have not diminished and there are no signs of an unexpected increase in expendi- tures. | At the time that Secretary Mellon . proposed a tax cut of $225,000,000 the President, presumably with Mr. Mel- lon’s approval, was urging Congress to adopt a navy construction program involving an expenditure of $75,000,- 000 at the start and a billion or more in the end. Congress properly ignored ! this recommendation and made pro- visions for navy construction of less than $400,000,000. This ought to have made available a tax cut of the dif- ference. wanted to saddle about $200,000,000 lof the flood relief cost upon the seec- tion of the country which suffered, but even if that policy had been adopted there would have remained $200,000,000 to add to the surplus. Nobody has ever been able to find {out what Mr. Mellon means by his constant and continued resistance to tax reduction. Six years ago he pro- tested that any cut above $300,000,- 1 000 would be dangerous and Congress {made a cut of nearly $500,000,000. ' But the surplus increased rather than diminished. Each Congress since, at the insistence of the Democratic mem- bers, has made a cut in excess of the | recommendation of Mr. Mellon and the surplus remains at a perilously high level. The present Congress con- templates a cut of between three and four hundred million dollars, and as ‘usual the recommendations of the ‘President and the Secretary will be ignored and the tax payers benefit- ted. | —Hoover has enlisted “Jim” Good, It is true that the President “ble of rescuing him. Big Tom is head- ing for a term in jail and “the pun ishment will fit the crime.” —At this distance from the Kansas City convention it doesn’t seem to matter much which candidate gets the delegates. The candidate who gets the support of Mellon and Butler “will knock the persimmon.” | Three Plans to Prevent Fraud. The Pennsylvania elections associa- tions, composed of a body of patriotic men and women who favor honest, . elections, has made a tentative report which contains three recommenda- | tions upon the evil of excessive ex- penditures by or in behalf of candi- . The first, and pre- | dates for office. sumably the one most favored, would limit expenditures in primary cam- paigns “equal to ten cents for each vote polled by the largest vote-getter of the party in the preceding elec- tion.” This plan holds out small hope for candidates of much merit but little wealth. Taking the vote of Governor Fisher as a basis it would allow State- wide candidates for nomination in Bas party to spend upward of $100,- 00. The second proposition is to “place no limit on the amount of money used but very clearly defining the purposes for which campaign funds may used, wko may contribute and who may disburse the money.” To invest this plan with value it would be neces- sary to audit the account and bestow upon the auditing court “power to bar any candidate who has used mon- ey illegally.” The third suggestion is the adoption of “the Oregon system,” which provides for the “publication by civil divisions of official pam- phlets in which candidates or commit- tees, upon payment of moderate fees, shall have the privilege of presenting statements and arguments for and against candidates.” It is an involved problem the elec- tions association has undertaken to solve, and whatever method is adopted will leave loop-holes for evasion and fraud. For example, the experiences with Tom Cunningham, after the Sen- atorial election of 1926, casts a doubt upon the effectiveness of plan number two. He has refused to reveal the source of the money contributed by him and openly and impudently de- fies the Senate in the matter. Plan number one practically eliminates all except rich men from aspiration for office in the Republican party, and plan number three is an experiment which is yet to be tested in commun- ities in which ballot corruption has been reduced to a science. —It is suspected that former Presi- dent Poincare, of France, is trying to —Secretary Falls’ confession does of Iowa, but the chances are that make the United States pay all the not seem to have convinced anybody. Lowden will annex the delegates. debts of the late war. RS . 1928. That NO. 15. GOOD MORNING! Now that winter's over, If we could have our wish, We'd dig a can of angleworms And catch a mess of fish, i British Traits in American Business Men. { From the Philadelphia Record. { Some of the traits we get from the | British are precious and valuable. | They have been kept alive by the un- doubted Anglo-Saxon impress upon , our civilization, for which we have ev- ery reason to devoutly thank God. The greatest of these traits is a sense of honor. It would be idle to pretend that sharp practices are lacking in . American business, and that v.e are wholly free from trickery, and even partially free from ruthlessness. But _ all the same there is a code—and most ‘men are honest men, and stick to it instinctively. They would lose their self-respect if they didn’t, and they prize their self-respect too highly. It is our code to “play cricket” in every dealing with our fellow-men. The proper sort of stolidity also is an as- set we get from our English forbears. We do not easily fly off the handle or become panic-stricken; and we do not allow either love or hate to ob- scure our business judgment. On the other hand, other British | traits which persist in cropping forth in American business men are deplor- able. Can we not be stolid without being unimaginative and stupid? Can we not be honest without being indif- ferent or lacking in enterprise? A recent news dispatch from Brus- sels should give us furiously to think. | The Belgians suffered at the hands of the Germans a decade ago, and the Americans fed them. But now it seems that business is increasing with the Germans more rapidly than with the Americans. Americans, we are. told, are regard- ed by Belgian experts as showing an amazing indifference to increasing their business by adapting themselves to the market. John Bull-like, they write letters in English instead of French, stick to f. o. b. New York quotations in dellars, offer goods by our antiquated system of weights and measures which Euroveans do not un- derstand, and refuse to extend credits. But the Germans! They give long- term credits, as they did before the war; they igure out freight rates and customs, and guete prices tofthe Bel- gian buyers in their home town in Belgian francs; thev carrv on all their businsss in excellent French; and whatever merchandise they offer is adapted to the market as a result of careful study of its needs. : When will we come to this? When will we come to compete on equal terms in world markets when we have competitive lines of goods to offer? We shall not do it by keeping on our present system. The first steps are the adoption of the metric system in ithe export trade and a knowledge of i foreign languages. After that we can study the local conditions of the mar- kets all over the world. And we can quote prices that are intelligible to the prospective customer. = Let us keep the good we get from ‘the British and abandon the bad tha: has come with it. i Senate Changes." i From the Philadelphia Public Ledger. The appointment of Cyrus Locher, - Democrat, of Ohio, to succeed the late Senator Willis marks the third change in Senate alignments during this ses- sion. cans had a nominal majority of one; but the deadlock over Frank L. Smith, of Illinois, and William S. Vare, of { Pennsylvania, transferred that mar- | gin, in actual voting strength, to the | Democrats. This was somewhat off- set by the gradual conversion of Mr. Shipstead, Farmer-Laborite, who is expected to seek re-election this fall ,as a Republican. {The session was only a few days lold, however, when the margin was { shifted back by the death of Sen- ator Jones, Democrat, of New Mex- {ico, who was succeeded by Mr. Cut- iting, Republican. The Republicans | gained another vote when Senator { Ferris, Democrat, of Michigan, died and Mr. Vandenberg, Republican, was appointed as his successor, only to have the margin of one restored by the Ohio change. The lack of any appreciable differ- ence in strength of the two parties explains much of the ungovernable tendencies of the Senate. So does the fact that thirty-two Senators are fac- ing re-election. Of these, twenty are Democrats and eleven Republicans, not counting Mr. Shipstead. Lewis and the State Cash. From the Harrisburg Telegraph. There isn’t much wonder that envi- ous muck-rakers point the finger of scorn at Pennsylvania State Treasur- er Lewis as of April 1—no Fool's Day so far as the Siate’s finances are concerned—reports the high record of $68,613,435.84 as the monthly bal- ance and no outstanding obligations. For March the total receipts were $14,669,097.04, and total payments, $11,880,687.20. Some going ° concern we submit and why not tell it in Cap- itol guide books, tourist booklets and ali manner of publicity. Governor Fisher's speech before the Pensylva- nia Society of New York last Decem- ber is the kind of joyful tidings that should have wide and constant distri- bution. When it opened the Republi- |SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. .—Somerset county sugar maple grove owners are counting on a splendid season for maple molasses and sugar. The first day of tapping showed an unusually heavy flow of sap, as seventy-five barrels of sug- ar water were collected from one grove of 1000 trees. —Michael Dendas, 21, charged with an attempt to extort $15,000 from Mrs. Sarah Kulp, wealthy widow of the late Monroe Kulp, Congressman, of Shamokin, is oc- cupying a cell in the Northumberland county jail, while his counsel, attorney Daniel W. Kearney is seeking his release on $500 bail. —Frank Hoak, a Glen Rock blacksmith, Fas been declared the champion apple dumpling eater of York county. Mrs. O. H. Cramer recently baked fifty-nine dump- lings so that seven men could stage an eating contest. Hoak easily won first place by eating thirteen. Henry Rohr- baugh made a poor second, eating only six. —Traced to Lycoming county through a stolen automobile, two convicts, Hdgar Danner and Wilfred Krell, who escaped from the Northampton county jail Maren 27, were captured in a hunting lodge near Cammal. Danner attempted to flee from the officer and was shot in the arm. He iis in a serious condition at the Williams- port hospital. —Thieves knocked the combination off two safes in the jewelry store of Robert J. Snyder, at Norristown, on Monday night, and escaped with uncut gems and watches valued at $20,000 leaving behind them a new set of burglar tools. The rob- bery was discovered by Snyder. He found { two padlocks broken off an iron door in i the rear of the store and the door wide open. —R. C. Gleason, justice of the peace at Smethport, 25 miles east of Kane, was offered a Turkish bath ticket, good for use in Olean, N. Y., as a marriage fee Friday. The Squire married a couple from outside the State and the groom informed him that he had no money, but that the justice was welcome to the ticket if he could use it. Squire Gleason refused the ; ticket and gave the couple his blessing. | —“Don’t holler, Dad, and we will not hurt you,” said one of five bandits who {pressed a revolver against the face of ' Jonas Harr, night watchman at the Rich- land silk throwing plant, at Quakertown, { Pa., early Sunday morning, then made a safe getaway with raw silk valued at from | $8000 to $10,000. Harr had just returned {to the office of the mill from the boiler ‘room as the bandits had entered through a window. i —Leaving a note that they be buried in a rough box without flowers and that | money which otherwise might be spent for their obsequies be used for a better ! purpose, Earl R. Peters, 19, and his wife, Miriam, 23, ended their lives by asphyx- iation in their home, at Lancaster, on Mon- day. Three years ago the couple eloped to Elkton, Md., and were married. Finan- cial difficulties were believed to have led to the suicide pact. [ * —Claude Hersberger, of Reading, in tak- ing a walk along the Schuylkill river, on Monday, found the left leg and hip of a {man probably six feet tall, in the mud near the city sewage disposal plant. The foot was covered by a brown stocking and ‘brown brogan. The leg ‘seemed to have - | been torn instead of cut from the torso, ‘which ¢ould not be found. Police are checking up missing people lists and hos- pital records in other towns. —Mrs. Mary Edith Hutchinson, 59, died at Williamsport, last Thursday, in a fire that destroyed a chicken house at the rear of her home, 310 west Central avenue, South Williamsport. Not until affer the structure was burned down were firemen aware that the woman was inside. When the woman went into the chicken house, jit is believed, she was overcome by the intense heat and collapsed, knocking down and causing an‘ explosion of-a lamp in a brooder... Three streams of water were [Pinel on the blazing structure. —DMiss Susie Krebs, who lives on the Sizerville Road, five miles from Emporium, is the champion rattlesnake killer of Cam- eron county—perhaps of the State of Pennsylvania—perhaps of the United States—perhaps she is even champion of the world. She has killed over {wo hun- , dred rattlesnakes—covering a period of about thirty years. Her highest record in one day was twenty-two. This was two female snakes each with a brood of little rattlers. At another time she killea twelve. This also was a mother reptile. She frequently killed them in pairs. They ranged in length from five inches to over five feet. { —Trapped in a small hut built among the branches of a tree twelve feet from . the ground, 17-year-old Lloyd Scheidler, of Woodside, Dauphin county, was burned to death, on Sunday, while his father looked on helpless to save him. The boy | bad gone up to the hut to sleep the night before. His parent, George Scheidler, re- ‘turned from work Sunday morning, and . saw the tiny building in flames. Using ‘a long pole he poked in the bottom of the i hut and the body of his son, badly burned, - fell at his feet on the ground. A stove ! was found in the hut later and it is sup- | posed the boy started a fire in it to warm : himself while he slept. —Elmira Brown, 16; Verna Burchett, 16, and Amelia Bleecher, 17, escaped from the Shelter Home for Girls, at Lancaster, Sun- day: morning, when left alone in the kitch- ea and have succeeded in eluding authori- ties. They jumped five feet from a window. The girls were washing dishes when Mrs. Maude Nauman, the matron, left the kitch- en for a few moments. When she re- turned, they were missing, an open win- dow revealing their method of escape. The Burchett and Bleecher girls were runaways. The Brown girl was arrested two months ago in Reading on a charge of larceny and was held at the home prior to being sent to an institution at Muncy, Pa. —Improvements costing $350,000, in ad- dition to those already begun, have been authorized by Charles M. Schwab at the Danville Structural Steel company plant, of which he is the owner. He motored there from Bethlehem last Friday and spent the day inspecting the work under way. When he purtfased the plant about three months ago he ordered the rebulid- ing of part of it. This work has been started, and an addition to the tube mil 200 by 660 feet will be begun as soon as the work now under way has been com- pleted. This is expected to be completed by August, and them work will be start- ed on an addition to the brakebeam plant 200 by 250 feet in size.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers