Re — Sewer. INK SLINGS. —If more people stayed at home on Sunday the undertakers would not be so busy on Monday. —Brother MecSparran has called on Gov. Smith to resign and Al will probably do it—like the old woman kept tavern out west. —Thank the Lorl, the farmers are having a season of propitious weath- er in which to salvage their short grass and scant wheat crops. The selection of Mr. Raskob as chairman of the Democratic National committee knocks the bread-line and soup-house scares out of the Republi- can campaign map. —The assassination of President- elect Obregon, of Mexico, is not likely to have a very quieting effect on the domestic turmoil of our temperamen- tal sister Republic south of the Rio Grande. Mexico just can’t do without tragedy. —As tragedy after tragedy piles up in the wake of the disastrous No- bile polar expedition it seems to be about time for the world to notify those who persist in flying into the jaws of death that if they can’t fly out again they can stay there. —“Hoover Goes West” was the head-lines in metropolitan papers on ‘Saturday. The Americo - English, Demo-Republican gentleman who re- signed from the cabinet of President Coolidge to aspire to be President of the United States will “go west” right in November. —The Tunney-Heeney fight, which is. less than a week off, hasn’t aroused as much interest as usually precedes a fistic contest in which the heavy- weight championship of the world is involved. We figure that Tunney will retain his title if he doesn’t find it necessary to recline on the canvas fourteen seconds again. — According to the records compil- ed in 1927 one person is killed with every nine-hundred and eighty-four automobiles that are turned out. Bear this in mind when you are reading stories of the daily out-put of the Ford and General Motors factories and it might scare you into being a little more careful at road intersec- tions and keep you far enough from the white lines on curves to save your neck from the fool driver who thinks he can straddle them in safety. —Word comes from Evanston, Ill, to the effect that Vice President Dawes is a bit peeved because the Kansas City convention didn’t re- nominate him. Explaining the selec- tion of Curtis instead it is intimated that Charley was rather too forceful and self assertive to suit Coolidge. Suit Coolidge and why ? He’s through and what did he do as President, any- how? His has been the most color- less administration we have recollec- tion of. —Scientists must have it in for the aluminum manufacturers. They are responsible for the spreading notion that cooking utensils made of the light metal are contributory cause for the increase in cancer in this country. Some chemical reaction when food stuffs are cooked in alum- inum vessels is said to impregnate the food with an element that starts the cancer germ in the human system. We don’t know whether there is anything to it or not, but the purchasing public is taking no chances, for the dealers in aluminum-ware will tell you that sales are falling off at an appalling rate. —The prominent business man who recently left his office and went out to play a strenuous game of tennis in broiling mid-afternoon sunshine is dead as a result of his indiscretion. Sunshine is very beneficial to health when it is used properly. The case in question shows, however, that it is quite the reverse when abused. On Monday we gave a homeward bound lime kiln fireman a lift. That man does a ten hour shift every day be- fore the hottest kind of a fire, yet he told us that he would like to take a week off to go out and help some farmer make hay, but was afraid he couldn’ stand the heat of the sun. —State Treasurer Sam Lewis is right in his contention that the State has enough funds available to take care of every need of the five depart- ments and institutions for the benefit of which new bond issues are propos- ed. But Sam has been sticking around Harrisburg long enough to know—and he does know—that no matter how many millions are avail- able log rolling and political expe- diency are the motivating impulses in the House and Senate appropriation committees. Four of the five pro- posals are really meritorious. They are welfare work, reforestation, roads and State College. Roads have al- ready more than twenty-three million dollars income from motor licenses this year and it is only half gone =o we think it would be bad business to bond the State for more funds for that department. Welfare, reforestation and the Pennsylvania State College have no such annual income and will not be adequately provided for if the electorate of the State does not de- clare that they must be. For that reason this columr and this paper favors three of the bond proposals namely: That for the Pennsylvania State College; that for reforestation of our denuded mountain lands and that for providing sufficient retreats for our physical derelicts. pr ed a STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION, VOL. 73. The Campaign Auspiciously Opened. The reorganization of the Demo- cratic National committee affords a comforting assurance of a vigorous chairman, John J. Raskob, is not wide- ternationally famous as an organizer and business executive. His appoint- ment to the important office will serve two significant purposes. It is a guarantee of energy and efficiency in the management of the campaign and a warrant that business, big or little if honest, has nothing to fear in the event the Democratic candidate for President is elected. Mr. Raskob is the head of one of the largest and easily the most successful enterprises in the country. In accepting the call of his party to service Mr. Raskob is as candid as he is confident. There will be no pussyfooting in the campaign on his side, on the prohibition or any other question in issue. He favors the rig- id enforcement of the prohibition amendment to the constitution, rather than the false pretense which has been practiced since the adoption of the provision. He favors the enforce- ment of the Volstead law with equal energy and fidelity but maintains the legal right to improve it by any pro- cess which will “absolutely prevent the return of the saloon, eliminate boot-legging with its accompanying evils—graft, corruption and murder —and restore temperate life in our country.” This is precisely the attitude ex- pressed by Governor Smith in his telegram to the Houston convention and is the best promise that has ever been made to enforce the Eighteenth amendment. He is in full accord with our candidate on the subjects of tar- riff taxation and farm relief and the records and reputation of both for in- tegrity and sincerity afford substan- tial reasons why the chairman should be cordially supported and the candi- date triumphantly elected. It can be safely said that the campaign has been started on right lines and it may be surely predicted that it will end in a complete victory for the people. It is a contest between the masses and the Class. aon miimpss Vipers During his brief stop-over in Chicago Herbert Hoover was the guest of Vice President Dawes. If President Coolidge should visit that city he would probably pay a lunch | courtesy debt to Big Bill Thompson. Vare Machine Intimidates Witnesses. The arrest of one of the witnesses in the Wilson-Vare contest on a pal- pably framed charge, reveals the pan- icky condition of the Vare machine. On Wednesday of last week Freder- : ick Schadt, who had served as deputy | zation. i fy the crimes. Frauds Shown in Philadelphia. For a period of more than a week Senator Waterman, of Colorado, sit- {ting as a sub-committee of the Sen- and successful campaign. The new’ ate committee on Privileges and Elec- ‘tions, listened to witnesses reciting ly known as a politician but he is in- the details of frauds committed in Philadelphia at the Senatorial elec- tion of 1926. Each day brought out fresh evidence of crime perpetrated, not by the illiterate and dependent . victims of a vicious machine, but the crafty managers of the Vare organi- Every effort that minds schooled in political chicanery could invent was made to explain or justi- But they stood out in plain view and the inquisitor, though a Republican, was appalled at their enormity. In one election division, as they are called in Philadelphia, it was shown that ninety per cent. of the votes cast and counted for Vare were fraudu- lent. In every division covered by the inquiry a large proportion of the votes cast and counted for Vare were fraudulent. And all these crimes were committed with guilty knowl- edge of ward and district leaders, and in some instances at- the request of BELLEFONTE. PA.. JULY 20. 1928. ‘ Fine Arrangement for the Trust. The “strangle hold” which the Electric trust has acquired on the government of the United States is further revealed in the fact that prop- aganda in the interest of electrical | devices is now being distributed “in i official government statements en- i closed in postage-free envelopes of the | ! Department of State” with the entire sanction of the department. The de- liberate stifling of the Boulder Dam project and the pocket veto of the Muscle Shoals legislation were strong symptoms. But the flagrant misuse ‘of the franking privileges positive proof. It is levying upon the public, through the Postoffice Department, the cost of advertising by mail the commodities of the Electric trust. This organization has been invest- ing vast sums of money in purchas- ing seats in both branches of Con- "gress, in the State Legislatures and in the several courts, State and Fed- eral. It has been paying large sums 'of money in an effort to introduce its propaganda into the text books | of the public schools. But these ad- { ventures, reprehensible as they are, have been undertaken at their own magistrates and other county and | expense. Of course they expect re- municipal officials. Though only one | fiburs ethent b a y | y raising prices after form of fraud was developed enough | on 0001v has been established. But was shown to wipe out the Vare ma- lth ; De jority in some of the divisions. When ' § New scheme of Saddling the ex the other forms of fraud are expos- ed there will be little left of the Vare majority even in “the .neck.” There can be but one conclusion drawn from the evidence thus far presented. That is that the Senator- ial election of 1926 in the twenty rive er wards of Philadelphia was so ov- erwhelmingly fraudulent that it is completely void. More than two- thirds of the Vare majority were poll- or Mackey testified that the voters do not know who they are voting for. Eliminating the returns of those wards the fifty thousand majority for William B. Wilson in the State, out- side of Philadelphia, would entitle but of the election. Mr. Vare may manage to delay the decision for some time but the ultimate result is _ j certain. : step personalities and by the same token bigotry and fanaticism ought to be cut out, too. Signs of Agricultural Distress. | The farming industry in Pennsyl- | vania is gradually but certainly pass- {ing out of the hands of land owners | and into the hands of tenants, ac- ‘ cording to a report recently filed by | the Federal-State crop reporting i service. In Lancaster county 41.2 per ! cent. of the farms are operated by ed in the twenty wards in which May- | him to the certificate, not of doubt, | {| ——Of course we all agree to side-' ! in the campaign tax receiver in 1926, testified before tenants, in Cumberland county 36.8 per the subcommittee of the Senate Com- | cent., and in Franklin county 33.9 per mittee on Privileges and Elections, | cent. are so cultivated. In Centre, that he had given some ninety tax re- | Union and Mifflin counties the per- ceipts to persons who had applied for : centage is about 33.3. The only coun- registration for which no payment } tes in which the percentage of ten- was made at the time, at the request of Magistrate Connor, who vabres | quently, as party committeeman, paid counties where the average is five for them. This was a violation of the | per cent. The report indicates a law and nullified the ballot of each |similar condition in other States. of the persons who voted on the | The mortgage debt on farms in strength of that fraudulent qualifica- | Pennsylvania is also increasing, ac- tion. cording to the same statement. Since Early next morning Magistrate Con- | 1900 the total mortgaged debt on nor was passing a place in which Mr, | Pennsylvania farms has increased Schadt was engaged in a conversation | $1,000,000 and the farmers’ equity in or controversy with a man named ; the farms has declined from 66 to 59 Wednick. On some pretext Connor Per cent. The average value of the ordered the arrest of Schadt for mortgaged farms is $5803 and the “breach of the peace.” The prisoner | average mortgaged debt $2385. There was taken to Magistrate Connor’s has been little or no change in the court and Connor committed him to value of farms since 1920, the report jail. Mr. Schadt notified the attorney continues, “but the increase in the antry is low are Cameron, Carboa, . Elk, Jefferson, Sullivan and Wayne | who had subpoenaed him and bail was promptly supplied. When the sub- poena to testify was served on Mr. | Schadt he said to the attorney that “if he told the truth he would be like- ly to get into trouble.” Upon assur- ance of the protection of the Senate committee he consented to testify. The obvious purpose of this fla- grant persecution of a witness was to intimidate other witnesses who have been or are to be subpoenaed. Inci- dentally it was probably intended to punish Mr. Schadt for having told the truth but warning to others was the principal motive. It is an important feature of the system of the Vare ma- chine. While ballot reform legisla- tion was pending in the last Legisla- ture it was shown that men were afraid to complain or expose frauds because of reprisals that were cer- tain to follow. But this great evil has never before been so concretely expressed and unless the courts of Philadelphia are as rotten as the pol- itics of that city, this instance will be the last. . President Coolidge predicts a treasury deficit in 1930. In other words Republican leaders are already preparing to blame things on the in- coming Smith administration. i average mortgage debt was over | $400” during that period. There are ward absentee ownership and the oth- er in the indication of unprofitable : operation. | In any event, however, it is difficult to reconcile such a condition in agri- cultural life of the country with the continued boasts of prosperity. Agri- culture is the basic industry of the country and while the ownership of the farms is slipping away from those who cultivate the fields and the mortgage debts are increasing, there can be no substantial prosperity. The sky rocketing of values of speculative securities and the paid for propagan- da of tariff pampered industries are not signs of prosperity. Substantial prosperity comes from the soil and labor, and while the farmers are los- ing their land and wages decreasing there can be no real prosperity. | i ——Henry Ford’s support of Hoov- jer will be about as effective as his ' peace mission to Europe during the World war. i | ——Telling the truth is an unpar- , donable sin among the political crooks of the Vare school. | pense upon the public treasury, by dispatching their literature in frank- ed envelopes, is a step in advance of | either of the others. The pretense under which this out- rage is perpetrated is an Act of Con- gress creating the American Seville Commission for the purpose of organ- i izing an American exhibit in the In- ternational Exposition at Seville, fo be staged some time in the future. Originally the Department of State handled the matter but since the crea- tion of the commission it has been handed over to a private “press agency” which performs all the work i except paying the bills. In addition to the compensation paid this private , agency the Electric trust pays liber- ally for recommending its wares and the ‘agency located in New York ful- somely praises the product of the triwit at the expense of the tax-pay- - ‘ers of the United States. It is a fine arrangement far the Electric trust. ——Up at Juniata, on Saturday afternoon, a thirty-three year old wo- man, mother of nine children rang- ing in age from fourteen years to four months, shot and killed her forty year old husband when he attacked her with a butcher knife. The parties in the tragedy were Mr. and Mrs. Peter Witt. The man is said to have been possessed of a violent and un- governable temper and had frequeni- ly beaten and otherwise ill-treated his wife. He became enraged on Satur- day because supper was not ready when he reached home shortly after three o’clock. Mrs. Witt was exon- erated of all blame in the killing. With nine children to take care of she will be amply punished for an act which seems wholly justified. | ——The Pennsylvania railroad com- pany is going the limit in curtailing expenses. Quite a number of agen- cies over the entire system have been discontinued. On the Bald Eagle Val- ley road the agencies cut out are at Julian, Snow Shoe Intersection and Eagleville. Instead of the regular authorized agents at these points clerks are now in charge. James Snyder, who has been agent at Snow Shoe Intersection for many years, was laid off and Merrill Lyons, of Bellefonte, installed as clerk. Mr. Snyder, who is not far from the re- tiring age, was placed on the relief and will likely be put on the retired | mtg | No Terror in This Poison Gas. From the Philadelphia Record. i Yesterday The New York Times "editorially administered a well-mer- ited rebuke to the .authors of a con- i temptible “whisp. sing campaign” which is alread’ ander way against the Presidential = lidacy of Gover- : nor Smith. Eo | That such a campaign would be in- raugurated by irresponsible - ynder- i lings, despite the desire of candidate Hoover to play fair, was to have been i expected. / Happily, however, red E. Smith ‘seems to be invulnerable to the cow- ‘ardly stab in the back, the slinking | back-stairs gossip, that the would-be | destroyers of charatcer aim at him. There is evidence of this in New York State election returns. All the discreditable methods that are now being used to influence votes against Governor Smith's Presiden- tial candidacy were employed against him in his five campaigns for th Governorship of New York. : The first time he ran, in 1918, he was elected by 15,108 votes. The electorate at that time had little knowledge of his executive capacity. In 1920 Governor Smith ran for re- election. It was the year of the Harding landslide. He was defeated by 74,000, but ran a million votes ahead of the Presidential candidate of his party. Ve In 1922 he was again a candidate, and received a plurality of 385,945 largest ever given up to that for any candidate for State or local’ office in the country. . : When President Coolidge carried New York in 1924, Governor Smith rolled up a plurality of 108,559, and was the only Democrat on the State ticket to be elected. In 1926 the Smith plurality was 247,676. Here is a man whose standing, per- sonal and official, is proof against poison gas. Not that skulking slan- der may not deprive him of the votes of the comparatively few whose self- respect is at such low ebb as to per- ‘mit them to give ear to it, but that for every drop of malice so distilled there are two drops of antidote in the public knowledge of the Smith i character and record. Let us put on our gas masks, make . sure that the disinfectants are handy, and proceed cheerfully with a contest to secure indorsement of those prin- ciples best suited to ‘fare of the country. | Leaving the Farms. Irom the Harrisburg Telegraph. Inability to “make ends meet” is probably the largest single factor, while old age is the second largest, according to a statement just made public by Dr. C. J. Galpin, senior economist of the Federal Department lof Agriculture. Dr. Galpin’s statement was based on a questionnaire survey of 20,000 men who formerly were farmers. | Of those replying it was found that one-third had left farming because it was a “poor business,” while one- fourth based their departure on oid age and inability to carry on under its attendant liabilities. g { In other words, it is the old, old story of the cartoonist who summed it up in the words: “They all look good when they are far away.” i The man on the farm sees only the large wage scale and the short hours i of the town worker, and both of these are greatly over-advertised. The man who has worked all his life on the farm thinks longingly of a little home in town and no chores to do the remainder of his days, just as the , city man yearns to spend his old age "in the quiet and peace of the farm. It would be intere to know just ‘how many of these 20,000 have since | wished they were back in the country. | But Government statistics cover no | such illuminating points, however im- portant they may be. ; Discovery of the United States. i From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Governor Smith is from New York, two sources of worry in this condition ‘of affairs. One lies in the trend to- roll in due time. ——Oral argument was made be- fore the Insterstate Commerce Com- mission, in Washington, on Monday, in the matter of the several applica- tions of the Bellefonte Central Rail- road company to take oven and ope- rate the Fairbrook branch. A deci- sion is expected within thirty days. —If it is true that Wm. Fisher, a Reading cafe proprietor, suffered a twenty-one inch scalp wound when a soused customer threw a bottle at him he must have a “bean” like a flour barrel. ——The number of stolen cars that are wrecked in the effort to get away ought to admonish those inclined to that form of felony that it is futile as well as foolish. ——The Russian Soviet govern- ment’s activity in the rescue of the Nobile aviators from the drifting Arc- tic ice reflects credit on Moscow. ——We are entirely willing to have “the Democratic party judged by its performances” during the World war under the Wilson administration. | Mr. Hoover from California, Senator | Curtis from Kansas and Senator Rob- inson from Arkansas. i That might be termed the. discov- ery of the United States. Hereto- fore only one other Presidential can- didate has come from the region west of the Mississippi. That was Mr. Byran, three times the Democratic nominee. No Vice President has ever come from that part of the country, .nor has any Vice President come from south of the Mason and Dixon line since the civil war. The election of Mr. Hoover and Senator Curtis would therefore be a double and the “election of Senator Robinson a single innovation. Indeed, politics in the United States ‘tend to a balance which they have never enjoyed. There is no reason why the President of the United States should not come from any part of it, but usually they all come from a very restricted area. The United States west of the Mississippi is | much larger than the United States ‘east of that river, but it has never given the country a President. It would be a much better balanced country politically if the pra: tice fol- lowed at the Kansas City and Hous- ton conventions became a custom. ——Advertisements placed in the Watchman always bring restilts be- | cause they are read every week. — SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE —A 16 weeks old heifer, owned by Lloyd Grugan, Shintown, was bitten on the end of the nose by a copperhead snake in a field near Grugan’s home, and died 20 minutes after being bitten. —C. M. Kift caught a nineteen-inch brook trout in the cellar of his home in Muncy last Friday. The recent storm had filled his cellar half-full of water and up- on going down there he saw a fish flound- ering around. Securing a rod and line he returned and after a few minutes’ effort, landed the trout. —A patient in the Danville hospital for the insane committed suicide by hanging himself with a strip of linen torn from his bed. The man, John Saver, 35, of Montoursville, earlier had had an alterca- tion with another patient and had been put to bed. Later he turned his bed on end, tore a strip from a sheet and hanged himself from the bed. —Public sale of the Bloomsburg and Sullivan railroad is not believed by many residents to mean the passing of railroad service on that line. It is understood that several other firms are interested in the line, despite falling off in passenger and freight service during the last several years. The sale is understood to be scheduled for October. —When the Lehigh and Wilkes-Barre - Coal company paid $650,000 for the form- er Krupp coal lands near Wilkes-Barre, recently, a record for recent years was set. It was the largest purchase of coal and—143 acres—since the World war. The property was taken over by the alien property custodian when the United States entered the war against Germany. —When constable John Feeny appeared at the home of Clarence Gillian, 55 years old, of Uniontown, to arrest him on a charge preferred by Mrs. Gillian, the hus- band went to the bedroom occupied by his two children and Mrs. J. A. Redman, his step-mother, and killed himself with a re- volver. Mrs. Gillian said her husband had followed her around with a gun, threaten- ing to kill her. —John Gerald Parks, 17-year-old son of James and Mary Parks, of Lloydell, was instantly killed Thursday, July 12th, by an explosion of a stick of dynamite while working with his father in the Ir- vona Coal company mine at Coalpert, Clearfield county. The victim was badly mangled, both legs being terribly shatter- ed, left hand blown off and badly cut and bruised about the face. —The Berwick plant of the American Car & Foundry company has received an order for 800 box-cars for two Brazilian railroads, it was announced on Monday. The cars will be crated for shipment and then rebuilt in Brazil. The Central Brazil Railroad has ordered 550 cars and the Paulista Railroad 250. The company also will build a large order for an Argentine railroad, but assignment of the order to a plant has not been made. —Grant Arnold, dairy farmer of Mifflin county, lost a valuable dairy cow, and four heifers, recently through some mys- terious poisoning. Their deaths were due to lead-poisoning, according to an analysis made by the authorities at State College to whom the stomach of one of the dead animals was shipped. A search of the pasture lands showed part of a wagon load of old paint tins and other rubbish Jikely to have been dumped by a firm of painters and paperhangers. — Information is being sought regard- ing the whereabouts of Floyd L. Fowler, of South Williamsport, who disappeared from his home over a week ago and cop- cerning whom no word has been received. Members of his family believe he may be a victim of amnesia, as he had been com- plaining of severe headaches. Mr. Fowler is described as being five feet, six inches tall, with light hair and eyes. When last seen he was wearing a light suit and cap. He carried a large sum of money. —When Mrs. C. H. Rogers opened the cash drawer of a gasoline station conduct- ed on the Lycoming creek road, Lycoming county, to make change for a small bill given by several gypsy women, one of the latter snatched a handful of bills from the drawer and fled. The amount was $83. Of this Mrs. Rogers was abde to re- cover $52 after chasing the woman. Po- lice of Jersey Shore later stopped the car- avan with which the women were travel- ing and forced its members to give up the remainder of the money before allowing them to proceed. —Orders to record ultimate rights-of way on nine highways situated in Blair, Lancaster, Clearfield, Philadelphia, Bucks, McKean, Sommerset and Montgomery counties were issued on Monday by Secre- tary of Highways Stuart after approval by Governor Fisher. Seven of the plans provide for ultimate widths from eighty to 100 feet, while the other two, because they are situated in built-up or congested districts, provide for ultimate widths of sixty to seventy feet. Four of the new rights-of-way are in Montgomery county, and one on Legislative Route No. 57 for 5.44 miles in Rlair county from the Ty- rone borough-Snyder township line to the Blair-Centre county line. —Lewis Hoffman was shot and killed and his brother Herman was seriously wounded on their farm near Salix, Cam- bria county, Saturday night by three men, believed to be highjackers in search of liquor. The suspected highjackers were met at the farm by the brothers. In the fight that followed Lewis Hoffman was struck by two bullets. After shooting Herman the men fired at Homer Hoffman, 12, another brother, but the bullets went wild. The assailants escaped. County authorities found a still and a large quan- tity of liquor and mash on a farm said to have been leased by George Hoffman, father of the boys, to a South Fork man. The father was not at home when the shooting occurred. —The entire group conducting tent evangelistic meetings of the Pentecostal church at Shady Grove, Dauphin county, was quarantined for eighteen days against smallpox by State and county health au- thorities last Thursday. Although no cases of the disease were discoveed among the colony, Dr. J. H. Kinter, county medical officer, said he was satisfied the present smallpox epidemic, discovered Tuesday along the southern border of the county, had its origin in the evangelistic meet- ings of the group. The leaders and their assistants conveyed their tents to Shady Grove from Maryland, Dr. Kinter said. They refused vaccination and the health officials established the quarantine, con- fining all the evangelists and closing the { canvas “tabernacles.”
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers