INK SLINGS.
—We’re not scared by the large
Republican registration in the cities
of the State, for in one of them we
know the tip has gone out to “regis-
ter as Republicans, but vote as Demo-
crats.”
—1Isn’t it nice in Mr. Hoover to ex-
tend the farmers “the sympathy and
solicitude of the Republican party.”
“Sympathy and solicitude” go such
a long way toward paying taxes and
paying the tariff barons more for corn
huskers than any other agriculturists
"on the globe have to pay for the same
machines.
—Of course President Coolidge and
Mr. Hoover are not to be blamed for
the failure of the wheat crop in Cen-
tre county, but you can bet your old
Palm Beach suit that had John W.
Davis been the President the Hon.
Holmes would be flying through
Penns Valley telling the farmers
Davis did it.
—Next week we shall publish a let-
ter from a correspondent in Florida.
It is interesting because the lady
blows us up about as hard as old
Dame Nature blew Florida up during
the fore part of the week. She
charges us with abusing Hoover and
after reading it we came to the con-
clusion that Herb doesn’t need sym-
pathy half as much as we do.
—Mr. Hoover's Newark speech and |
Gov. Smith’s Omaha deliverance were |
characteristic. The former’s pon-
derous platitudes and the latter’s in-
cisive candor were in striking con-
trast. Mr. Hoover merely muddies
the water through which the Ship of
State is sailing so that the passeng-
ers can’t see the hidden rocks, while
Al throws out the life line to them.
—In New Jersey, afew nights ago,
Mr. Hoover stated that there are less
than two million unemployed in the
country today. In Harrisburg, on
Monday, the legislative board of the
Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen de-
clared for a six hour working day”
in order to relieve an industrial sit-
uation in which four million men are
unemployed.” Which is to be believed ?
The men who work for the people
or the candidate who wants to work
the people.
—If Mrs. Mabel Willebrandt’s
statement to the effect that “New
York City is the worst spot in the
United States” is to be believed may
we not also believe the statement of
her fellow federal enforcement officer
that “Philadelphia has been and is
the source of supply of bootleg alco-
hol for the nation.” As a matter of
fact we don’t believe either statement.
Mrs. Wilebrandt is a partison poli-
tician, holding a job that she knows
she will lose if the political complex-
ion of the country changes in Novem-
ber and she is making extravagant
statements in her desperation to hang
on to the public teat.
—One of the older women of the |
town, but for whom we have great
esteem, has sent us the following
quotation from Deuteronomy 22 and
5: “A woman shall not wear that
which pertaineth unto a man * * * *
for all that do so are an abomination
unto the Lord, thy God.” Enclosed,
also, was an editoral clipping from
the Philadelphia Inquirer -eulogistic
of Franklin W. Fort’s declaration
that Mr. Hoover is “the best quali-
fied man in the country.“ The latter
she sent so that we “won’t abuse the
Republicans too severely.” My, how
labor’s love is lost. The modern girl
doesn’t give a hang who she is an
abomination unto and, as for us, the
dear, good woman is starting too late
to teach an old dog new tricks.
—Away back in 1885 when Grover
Cleveland took charge of a job that
Chester A. Arthur had made rather
a fist of idle cars were standing on
railroad sidings all over the country.
Our Republican friends dubbed them
“Democrats” and kept rubbing them
in to us until they jimmied them-
selves back into power four years
later. If cars idle because there was
nothing to transport in them were
“Democrats” in 1885 what are they
today? Certainly they must be “Re-
publicans.” And we want to tip Hoov-
er off to the fact that he can get the
biggest audience of “Republicans” he
ever did have or ever will get if he
just has his private car shifted off at
Tyrone and hauled out along the L.
and T. There are miles and miles of
“Republicans” there.
—While it has been generally be-
lieved that the State administration
is not favorable to any of the bond
issues to be voted on in November the
Highway Department is apparently
not in sympathy with such apathy.
In fact it is sending out publicity that
by indirection, at least, would en-
courage a “Yes” vote on the proposal
to issue more bonds for publc roads.
When the first bond isue of fifty mil-
lions for roads was authorized it was
believed that that would take care
of all needs and it probably would
have had the public, immediately af-
ter the first taste of good highways,
not set up a clamor for more and
more roads. The Highway Depart-
ment has set up a great organization.
Thousands of men are in its employ
and much of the nearly fifty million
dollars that now flow into the treas-
ury annually from license fees and gas
tax is neded to maintain the army.
It would be interesting to know, be-
fore we vote on Proposal No. 9, how
much of each one of these dollars ac-
tually gets into old or new roads.
E=
Demo
®
7)
NX
afin
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
VOL. 73.
BELLEFONTE, PA.. SEPTEMBER 21. 1928.
Liquor Traffic a Vexed Question.
The use and abuse of intoxicants
has long been a vexed question among
people. For many years the teeto-
talers were content with an effort to
limit the use of intoxicants to mod-
erate indulgence. Later a more rad-
ical element came into control of their
organizations and nothing less than
prohibition would satisfy them.
There were reasons for this change
of sentiment and purpose. The sa-
loons had become a menace to the
morals of communities in which they
existed and to combat their influence
for evil the Anti-Saloon League was
organized and the fight for absolute
prohibition was on. The adoption of
the Eighteenth amendment intensi-
fied the feeling and the Volstead law
made courageous men afraid.
This country is not alone in its
troubles with the liquor traffic, though
we are the first among major pow-
ers to attempt its complete subjuga-
tion. England has been trying for
centuries to solve the problem and
| France, Germany, Italy, Austria,
! Spain and Imperial as well as Sov-
| iet Russia have taken turns in the ad-
i venture. But none of them has made
as much progress as the Scandinav-
jians. It is proverbial that hard
| drinking is more prevalent in cold
| than in warm climates, and a century
| ago there was, comparatively speak-
. ing, more drunkenness on the Scandi-
navian peninsula than in any other
i section of the civilized world. The
{effort to control it has cost much
i time and labor.
!{ The manufacture and sale of intoxi-
,cants was a crown monopoly in Nor-
{way and Sweden in those times and
the revenue derived from it an in-
i centive to expand the business. But
that provoked public discontent.
About seventy-five years ago what be-
came known as the Gottenburg sys-
tem was introduced in Sweden. The
feature of that system was the elim-
ination of the element of profit from
the business. Limited companies
{ were licensed and allowed five per
' cent. of the profits, the balance to go
to public purposes. It worked im-
provement but not satisfaction. Af-
ter several alterations meantime, 10
1914 the B system was adopted.
Under it all liquors of over 3.6 per
cent. alcohol were sold through the
, “Wine and Spirits Control,” a licens-
. ed corporation.
This corporation dispenses liquors
to local companies and they dispose
iof it to hotels, restaurants and indi-
{ viduals at limited profit. The buyer
;must provide himself with a pad of
| detachable slips which he must sign
and detach at every purchase. The
i quantity that may be bought monthly
|
| bitual drunkards are not allowed to
| purchase at all. It is claimed that un-
| der this system the consumption of
hard liquors has greatly decreased.
i Norway has always retained control
of liquor sales but has followed the
Swedish system as a rule. But in
1919 a law was enacted by plebiscite,
| prohibiting the sale of hard liquor ai-
together, but permitting the sale of
light wine and beer under restric-
tions.
This law proved so unsatisfactory
that in October, 1926, another plebis-
cite was held. It went wet by 531,
1 425 to 421,292. The vote in 1919 was
|dry by 483,918 to 311,556. In seven
years this great change in public sen-
timent took place and Norway was
ready again to try restrictions. The
new law follows the British example
iin limiting the hours within which
liquor may be sold and prohibiting
sales on holidays or the day before
and the day after holidays. Impor-
| tation of spirits is a government mon-
| opoly and sales are made through of-
! ficial stores as in Canada. Profits
are divided between the dealers and
the government as in Sweden and the
experiment seems to show a diminu-
tion of drunkenness.
—The Rev. J. E. Skillington, pastor
of an Altoona Methodist church, made
a very intolerant speech before a
conference of Methodist ministers at
Peoria, Ill., recently. Rev. Skilling-
ton gave “Tammany” as his reason
for urging all Methodists’ to vote
against Smith. We don’t believe the
preacher was honest in that. We be-
lieve he is against Smith because of
religious bigotry and so believing we
have no respect for Rev. Skillington
as a professed messenger of God's
word. As a man he has a right to
think and vote as he pleases, but
when he uses his Holy office to sing
the “Hyms of Hate” he brands himself
as hypocritical when he sings “Blest
be the tie that binds our hearts in
Christian love.” We dre a Methodist.
God knows we might be a better one
than we are, but if that much to be
desired purer state of mind and heart
have been the Skillingtons
church who have reflected the light
that has shown us the way.
iby each individual is limited and ha-
eventually does come to us it won't!
in our’
Hoover’s Suspicious Contacts.
There is an adage “as old as the
hills,” that “a man may be judged by
the company he keeps.” The late
President Harding wasn’t inherently
bad. On the contrary those who knew
him intimately and long are persuad-
ed that he was a man of good im-
pulses. But he was what is common-
ly called “easy going” and somewhat
careless in his contacts. In his cam-
paign for nomination and election to
the Presidency he, probably inadver-
tently but none the less certainly,
placed himself under obligations to
Harry Daugherty and other members
of the “Ohio crowd,” and they usad
him to promote their sinister pur-
poses to the day of his death. That
was the logical result of an unfortun-
ate misalliance.
Mr. Hoover’s Southern campaign
manager is “Colonel” Horace A.
Mann, of Tennessee, who during the
Harding administration was closely
related to the “Ohio crowd.” With
Daugherty, Smith, Forbes and the
other conspirators who composed
“the gang,” he frequented the Little
Green House on “K” Street, in Wash- |
ington, where the late President was |
entertained at intervals and the loot- |
ing enterprises concocted. Colonel |
Falsehood of a Rich Demagogue.
At a Republican meeting held in
Camden, New Jersey, the other day,
Hamilton F. Kean, the candidate of
that party for the office of United
States Senator, said “soup lines and
lack of employment will prevail f
Governor Smith is elected. There
will be no more luxuries for factory
workers and there will be conditions
like those prevailing in Europe.” 1f
this statement had come from some
irresponsible pettyfogger or soap box
agitator, it would not have surprised
any one. But Mr. Kean is a very
wealthy and conspicuous party lead-
er, who recently squandered a large
sum of money to purchase the nomi-
nation for Senator, and escaped prose-
cution for violating the ballot law by
some mysterious compromise.
The inference which this “malefac-
tor of great wealth” aimed to convey
was the greatly overworked fallacy
that Democratic administrations of
the government bring hard times and
business distress. Overlooking the
obvious ignorance or viciousness of
' the author, the statement is an insult
to the intelligence of his audience.
The panic of 1873 and that of 1883
were not caused by Democratic ad-
ministrative blunders, and that of
Mann has already drawn heavily on : 1907 could not be charged to Demo-
the campaign treasury, has elaborate cratic incompetence. In 1873 Grant
offices some distance from the party ; Was President; in 1873 Arthur occu-
headquarters, and though he never ; pied the office and in 1907 Roosevelt
calls on chairman Work he clandes- | was head of the government. The
tinely visits Mr. Hoover frequently. | legislation that has averted panics
According to Washington gossip he is | Since was enacted during the Wilson
an expensive and mysterious individ- | administration as a Democratic meas-
ure.
ual.
Charles Michelson, Washington |
correspondent of the New York |
World, has been trying to solve the
mystery of Colonel Mann but the re-
sult of his efforts is only conjecture.
It is certain that the Colonel is the
source of the absurd hope of breaking’
the solid South and as they all under- |
stand that is necessary to give Hoov-
er a chance of election he is given |
free rein and abundance of money for
the not too “worthy experiment.”
Meantime his surreptitious visits to
Mr. Hoover's office create a doubt as
to the methods he is pursuing. It re-
calls the practices of
crowd” during the Harding campaign
and after his election. “Evil com- ’
munications corrupt good manners.”
—All the while the details of the
most shocking political and moral |
turpiture are being dragged to light |
in Republican Philadelphia Republi-
can spell-binders are throwing up
smoke screens and shouting “Tam-
many.”
Hoover Campaign Hokum Spreads.
Herbert Hoover is becoming the
champion purveyor of hokum. In his |
acceptance speech, a month ago, he
made a good start in the race for this |
distinction. But in his speech at
Newark, New Jersey, on Monday ev-
ening, he simply threw the “distance
flag” in the face of all competitors.
He must have imagined that all who
heard his vcice were feeble-minded in-
fants or rank idiots. Under no other
circumstances could it have been pos-
sible for him to utter such preposter-
ous statements as those which com-
posed the burden of his speech.
For example, he said that in 1921,
when the Republican party assumed
control of the government, “there
were five to six million unemployed
upon our streets. Wages and salaries
were falling and hours of labor in-
creasing. Anxiety for daily bread
haunted nearly one-quarter of the
23,000,000 families. * * * * Within a
The election of Grover Cleveland,
in 1884, was the logical result of an
industrial and commercial revolt
against the administrative incompet-
ence of the Arthur administration
which culminated in the panic of 1883.
On assuming the office in March, 1885,
Mr. Cleveland inherited the govern-
mental confusion, the industrial par-
alysis and commercial distress caus-
ed by the panic of 1883 and made
such progress in the work of recup-
eration that after one term of Repub-
lican administration he was recallad
by an overwhelming majority. It
the “Ohio isn’t soup lines that Mr. Kean is
paid of. It is that a Democratic
nate next year will put him in the
class of Vare, of Pennsylvania, and
Smith, of Illinois, and for the same
reason.
——1It is strange that while Chair-
man Work, of the Republican Nation-
al committee, deprecates “whispering
campaigns” he maintains an expen-
' sive Ku Klux contingent that does the
{ whispering.
Forestalling a Habit.
After the Philadelphia grand jury
had exposed considerable frauds and
much favoritism in the letting of
municipal contracts Mayor Mackey
promptly hand-picked a bunch of per-
sonal friends, some of them favored
contractors, to investigate the scan-
dal. After the same grand jury had
uncovered a vast system of graft and
corruption in the enforcement of the
prohibition law Mayor Mackey began
an investigation of his own and or-
dered an immediate “clean up” of the
police force. There was no need for
such action on the part of the Mayor.
The district attorney and the grand
jury were performing the service ad-
mirably.
The obvious purpose of Mayor
Mackey was to “forestall” the work of
the grand jury. He reasoned that an
apologetic, or at least modified, report
of a group of indifferent rich men
year we restored these 5,000,000
workers to employment.” In 1921 | freely to a slush fund to create the
when the Harding administration as- | evil conditions complained of might
sumed control of the government be- | mollify public opinion against the
tween four and five million men and | real facts as found by the grand jury.
women had just been released from It is an expedient that has frequently
who had been for years contributing
service of the government as soldiers
and employees incident to war, and
outside of that force there was 10
idleness perceptible. The administra-
tion had nothing to do with placing
those willing to work in employment.
For several years previous to that
time there had been no decreases in
wages or salaries and no increase in
the hours of labor. As a matter of
fact one of the achievements of the
Wilson administration was the fixing
of the eight-hour law in government
industries and railroads, and the |
constant effort of the Wilson admin-
istration was to maintain a high
standard of wages and a decreasing
time schedule of the hours of labor.
And there are five million unemploy-
ed now instead of 1,800,000 as Mr.
Hoover states, while a decrease of
wages has been in progress.
It is hardly worth while to continue:
an analysis of Mr. Hoover's hokum.
He has forced Senator Moses and
Senator Jim Watson off the map as
dispensers of buncombe.
——The Byrd Antarctic expedition
starts out auspiciously. It ran ahead
of the disastrous Porto Rico storm.
been worked and sometimes over-
worked. If the Mayor had desired to
give the people of Philadelphia just
and clean government he would have
acted in advance and left nothing for
the grand jury to expose. He knew
all about the vices in advance.
It may be worth while to notice that
President Coolidge has adopted the
same ‘“eleventh-hour” reform. It
having been reported to him on his
return from his vacation that there
is likely to be a treasury deficit of
ninety to a hundred million dollars at
the end of the present fiscal year, he
promptly assembled the cabinet and
ordered economies to the amount
of the estimated deficit. If the busi-
ness of the government can be admin-
istered for that much less than the
budget the cuts in expenditures ought
to have been made sooner. If the
cuts now ordered cause impairment
of service Mr. Coolidge stands con-
victed of sacrificing the interests of
the public selfishly to “save his face.”
The lady who said she would
rather be Tammanyized than Sinclair-
ized revealed a rar: and highly com
mendable sense of proportion.
| Shades
.ernor Smith is.
of Cameron, Quay and
Penrose.
From the New York Times.
For months a tearful accumula-
tion of charges has been piling up
against a certain political organiza-
tion. The climax came last Friday,
when members of it were indicted
for a long list of crimes, including
murder. One of the indicted men is
a Judge now on the bench. Previ-
ously proof has been amply given
of the extraordinary corruption and
ruthlessness of this political
chine. It lived off protected vice. It
debauched the public service. It laid
its filthy hands even upon the public
schools. In a single transaction, re-
cently brought to a test in the crim-
inal courts, it was found guilty of
having robbed the tax-payers of more
than $2,000,000 of which it is now
called upon to make restitution. Sure-
ly the total is a disgrace to American |
politics, causing a feeling of outrage
in every one who has patriotic civie
sense.
Yet we have not noticed Republi-
can newspapers crying out upon this
shocking display of effrontery and
crime. The organization referred to
is not Tammany. It is the Thomp-
son machine in Chicago. But that, as
it happens, is a good and useful Re-
publican machine. Its head and di-
rector, Mayor Thompson, has just is-
sued an appeal to all of his subordin-
ates who are not under indictment or
in jail to stand loyally by the candi-
dacy of Herbert Hoover. This, of
course, makes all the difference, and
enables pure minded Republican edi-
tors like William Allen ite to con-
centrate on Tammany, and to warn
the innocent and God-fearing citi-
zens of Chicago that a frightful men-
ace hangs over their heads in the
shape of the possible election of Gov-
ernor Smith.
This whole contrast drips with sa-
tire. No words are required to poirt
it. But silence about the Thompson
machine, combined with vociferous- .
ness about Tammany, would lead even
a calm sage like Socrates to exclaim
again, “Verily, “Glaucon, glorious is
the power of “the art of contradic-
tion!”
Religion No Bar.
From The Courier-Journal, Louisville, Ky.
“There remains the fact that Gov-
a Romar Catholic.
This is a fact which weighs heavily
on the minds of many Americans. It
1s not enough to dismiss this ract
upon the ground that it is a mere
prejudice and that to proscribe any
man upon the score of his church af-
filiation is a fundamental violation of
the Constitution of the United States,
as it unquestionably is. The Courier-
Journal does not share this prejudice,
but stands squarely upon the coun-
try’s Constitution in this and all other
matters; but it respects the opinions
and even the prejudices of others.
What is the cause of the church con-
nections of nearly all who have any
church connections? The mere acci-
dent of birth. Jew, Catholic, Prot-
estant—why? Because one’s parents
were Jews, Catholics or Protestants.
Why should we despise or reject any
man on account of his professed re-
ligion? Is it not rather the duty of
us all to endeavor to live faithfully
NO. 37.
ma-
Ere ERE EE a
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE.
—Police are investigating the death of
Jacob Chichon, 56, whose body was found
on Sunday hanging from a tree in the
woods near Shamokin. His five sons be-
lieve their father was the victim of an en-
emy with whom he was seen Saturday
: night.
{ —J. Halan Landes has been retired as
‘railway postal clerk on the Sunbury-
! Lewistown route at 62. Mr. Landes was
i appointed in the railway mail service om
i the New York-Pittsburgh route July 23,
"1901. He served as clerk to the assistant
examiner and on the Bellefonte-Sunbury
and Altoona-Cumberland routes.
i —George, 11-year-old son of Mr. and
. Mrs. Steven Yurick, of Mahanoy Plane, un-
"derwent an operation at the Fountain
Springs hospital, on Monday, for the re-
moval of a 50-cent piece from his intest-
inal tract. He was on the way toa con-
fectionery store and was carrying the
coin in his mouth when he swallowed it.
—Alfred G. Oyler, 28, and Louise Brum-
baugh, 21, both of Gettysburg, went auto-
mobiling together, fell in love and decided
to get married at once. They obtained
their license in Lancaster and while stop-
ping at a gasoline station at the edge of
that city to have their car filled they were
married by another motorist, an Illinois
minister.
—Jay Groff, 29 years old, of Quarryville,
Lancaster county, reecived severe body in-
juries and several fractured bones, when
an air compressor in a garage exploded
; while he was inflating an automobile tire.
Heavy iron bands, which encircled the
compressor, were ripped loose, knocking
Groff several feet. Physicians at the Gen-
eral hospital fear one of Groff’s legs must
be amputated.
—Thomas W. Walizer and his wife, Eva
R. Walizer, each charged with being a
common nuisance, have been held in the
i sum of $500 each for court trial in Clin-
; ton county by a Lock Haven alderman.
{ Walizer has been arrested twenty-two
times since January 1 on similar charges.
This is the first time in the history of the
‘ county that such a charge has been pre-
‘ferred against a couple.
—Charging that three youths tossed his
son to his death in the Monongahela River
| at Masontown, Fayette county, Nicholas
| Brackavitch has asked the county officials
to arrest the three on a charge of murder.
{| The father claimed that his son, William,
| aged twelve, was playing with three other
‘lads when he was picked up and thrown
into the river, notwithstanding his pro-
tests that he could not swim. He was
drowned.
—Contracts totaling $113,340 for con-
struction of a new State tuberculosis cot-
tage and a heme for outside female help,
at the Danville State hospital have been
awarded by the board of trustees. The
Berwick Lumber and Supply company
will build the tuberculosis cottage for $6i,-
800, and Thomas H. Evans, of Danville,
the home for outside female help for $34,-
383. F. P. Edwards, of Bloomsburg, will
wire both for $7895, and Joseph Lechner,
i Danville, will do the plumbing on both for
$11,262.
: —The “king” of beavers, “Pat Gherrity,”
| so named because it was raised on the
| mountain stream near the Gherrity place
Lin the Seven Mountains, was captured by
! Jesse Hassinger, State trapper, on Wolf
' Creek. The animal weighed 125 pounds
and is the thirty-ninth beaver trapped by
Mr. Hassinger since he entered the. State
service as a trapper one year ago. The
“king” has been in the trap seven times;
but always got away. He will be taken to
Jefferson county to be liberated for propa-
gation purposes.
—S8chool teachers in the borough of Dun-
bar, Fayette county, must wear ample
clothing when they appear before their
classes. Members of the Board of Educa-
tion have indicated they think the garb
of some of the feminine instructors is in-
sufficient and that steps will be taken to
remedy the situation. One director, at-
tending a teachers’ meeting, told the ped-
agogues that lack of clothing had a harm-
ful effect on the students. The board may
determine just how far from the floor a
teacher’s dress may be cut.
| —Miss Myrtle Stone, 40, whose clothing
i caught caught fire while depositing a pan
| of hot ashes in her yard, was drowned
| When she jumped into a water-filled mine
! ¢ave near her home near Hazleton, last
Friday, Witnesses saw her race to the
to the tenets of the religion we pro-! creek with her clothing ablaze and then
fess, and if we set ourselves up as | pead for the mine cave when she saw the
judges of other men, to judge them | creek bed empty. All her clothing except
by what they are rather than bY | shoes and stockings was burned from her
what they profess? In four terms as |pody. Her sister, Mrs. Guy McCay, hear-
Governor of New York, always under {ing that a woman had been drowned,
the closest scrutiny, no one has ever
charged that Governor Smith’s re-
ligion has interfered with the conduct
of his office. In a State overwhelm-
ingly Republican, in a State largely
non-Catholic, he has been elected four
times as Governor as the nominee of
the Democratic party, a convincing
proof that no form of influence has
swayed him from his duty to his
State and to his country.”
Spirits in Politics.
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Conan Doyle wants the British
spiritualists to get into politics. If
they did, he says, there would not
be so many laws against them. Be
that as it may, a campaign seldom
passes in the United States without
rival claims of messages received
from the fathers of the republic on
how the election should ‘go. Then
there are others who take it on
themselves to say just how Washing-
ton, Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln
would vote “if they were alive today.”
For many years it was more direct
in Philadelphia. The registration
commission there has a constant drive
on against the voting of “phantoms.”
Some of the latter, indeed, may nev-
er have existed, but in hundreds of
other cases it has been found that the
dead were impersonated at the polls.
This reached such a state that the con-
mission had to assign clerks and in-
spectors to copy the daily files of the
bureau of vital statistics to check up
the registration lists and remove the
names of the dead therefrom. From
the voting it appeared that in certain
districts no one ever died." At any
rate, in an investigation last year it
was found that 578 dead persons were
duly registered to vote.
So the problem of a number of com-
munities in this country is not how to
get spirits into politics, but how to
keep them out of it.
went to the scene to find her sister the vie-
tim.
—Boynton McPherson, aged 56, one of
the best known bankers in Clearfield
county, commited suicide on Wednesday
afternoon of last week, when he armed
himself with a revolver, went into a neigh-
bor’s garage and shot himself. Despond-
| ency caused by failing health is given as
i the cause of his rash deed. The deceased
| was born at Woodland and had been an
i employee of the County National Bank at
! Clearfield since 1892. During the 36 years
he served that institution he had advanc-
od to the place where he was in charge of
the foreign department of the bank.
—Major John P. McCaskey, Jr., coast
artillery corps, has been assigned to the
offices of the organized reserve in Harris-
burg according to War Department orders
and will report for duty October 1. The
major, with his wife and children, is
spending a month’s leave in Lancaster
following service in the Philippine Is-
lands. Major McCackey’s father, Colonel
Edward McCaskey, retired, now lives in
Lancaster while an uncle, Colonel Walter
D. McCaskey, is professor of military
science and tactics at State College and a
younger brother, Lieutenant Douglas Mec-
Caskey, tank corps, is in Texas.
—The post office at Strodes Mills, Mifflin
county, was closed yesterday, after a serv-
ice of eighty-eight years. The greater
part of that time Joseph Strode was post-
master, and at his death his son, Amer
Strode, took charge. Mr. Strode has been
notified that rural mail service from
Lewistown will cover the territory. The
post office was opened in 1839, three years
before the United States Postoffice Depart-
ment issued stamps. The record books
in possession of the present postmaster
show that the first postage stamps were
issued in 1842. Joseph Strode, third, was
postmaster from 1839 until 1898 when it
was taken over by his son Amer, who was
in charge until the office was checked out
yesterday. At the time of his retirement
Joseph Strode was the oldest postmaster
in the United States.