INK SLINGS. ~ —>Be sure to vote “Yes” on amend- ment No. 2. No’s 6 and 13 are also ‘meritorious proposals. ——Anything is socialistic that hits monopoly according to the no- tions of Mr. Hoover and his managers. —The Hon. Holmes’ chickens are coming home to roost. Little did he think, when he said that the soldiers ‘had gotten enough that they might decide that he has had enough. He wasn‘t thinking of running for a third ‘term then. —If you think Mr. Holmes de- serves a third term in the Legisla- ture vote for him. If you think it would be better to continue the quest for someone who will give Centre county outstanding character and force in the halls of the House of Representatives why not vote for An- drew Curtin Thompson. He might prove to be a great Representative, something more than a mere cog in the political machinery of his party. —If former Governor Pinchot real- ly wants to do some stumping why doesn’t he go out and tell the public ‘ the good things he knows about Al Smith. The Governor offered to stump for Hoover, but they wouldn't let him do it because he reserved the right to tell the whole truth if he were heckled into it. And in his case the whole truth means that he thinks Smith is right on more of the big is- sues in the campaign than Hoover is. —The purchase of extra boxes to hold the ballots that will be cast on November 6, is not necessary. The law department of the State has rul- ed that while a box that has been fill- ed with ballots may not be opened before the polls have closed and time for tabulating has arrived any kind of a sealed container may be used in which to deposit ballots after the regular box has been filled. It might be well for election hoards to pre- pare for just such an emergency. —Just to prove how uncertain and up-in-the-air everyone seems to be about the outcome of the election we heard two predictions early in the week that, ordinarily, would sound so ridiculous as to be repeated on- ly as a joke. One was that Hoover will carry Centre Hall borough and probably every precinct of Potter township. The other was to the ef- fect that Smith will carry Bellefonte borough. Such political revolutions would certainly be startling, but we should worry. The morning of No- vember ninth we’ll tell you all about them, if they materialize. —We urge all of our readers who vote in Pennsylvania to mark an “X” opposite the word “Yes” on the «13th. proposed amendment. It is the one favoring voting machines. It doesn’t compel a county to buy or use machines. It merely makes their purchase and use legal by such coun- ties as might want to use them. While we question the economy of their use in a county like Centre we do believe that machines would effect a saving in the larger centers of population. Aside from that phase of it the sa:- isfaction of feeling that machines are honest, in these days when so many humans are not, would be worth quite as much as they cost. —As late as January 18, 1919, the late Senator Penrose said on the floor of the United States Senate “I do object to having a non-resident of the United States, who may never return to this country again, made trustee of this fund.” He was speaking of Herbert Hoover who he said “has been living in England all his life and has a palatial establishment there.” At the same time the late Senator Lodge, of Massachusettes, said Hoov- er was “entirely lawless here.” If you think Penrose and Lodge were good Republicans laugh that off. What they said about Hoover in 1919, and they knew him a darned sight better than we or any of our readers do, is true of him today. —Probably Governor Fisher pred- icated his prediction that Hoover will carry Pennsylvania by a million on the hope that that three per cent. as- sessment on all State employees would buy a great many votes. It’s a fine spectacle, isn’t it? Macing even the scrub women in the capital building and other offices of three per eent. of their paltry wages. Don't tell us it isn’t true. We know it is because we have talked to several State employees who sent checks for what they thought they could afford to give to the Republican slush fund. In neither case was the remittance equal to three per cent. of the salaries paid them and in both cases the checks were returned with a notation to that effect. —-Since the revelation that Dr. Hubert Work, chairman of the Re- publican National campaign commit- tee and Secretary of the Interior in President Coolidge’s Cabinet, signed the renewal of the fraudulent lease of the Salt Creek oil reserves to Harry Sinclar, the campaign for President takes on another and more serious phase. Are governmental af- fairs so rotten in Washington that the Democrats must be prevented from getting into control? The desperate means being resorted to to accomplish the defeat of Al Smith seem to indi- cate it. Secretary Fall was made the goat and the public thought the scandals over when he was driven from office, but now it appears that Dr. Work, for some unknown reason, renewed the fraudulent lease Fall had made. Surely, its time for a change. _VOL. 73. STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. BELLEFONTE, PA.. OCTOBER 26. 1928. Coolidge Economy Myth Punctured. | With his caustic speech at Sedalia, Missouri, the other day, Governor Smith “got a rise” from Uncle Andy Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury and financial wizzard of the Republican machine. The Governor had punctur- ed the economy myth of the Coolidge administration rather severely and the Secretary interpreted his remarks as “challenging his good faith” and accusing him of “presenting a false picture to the nation.” What Gover- nor Smith said was that the claim made by Mr. Hoover and Mr. Mellon that by economies practiced Mr. , Coolidge had saved $2,000,000 a year since the close of the war was not on- ly absurd but actually false and he proved the proposition by quoting the records. As a matter of fact it is of record that following the close of the war |- and the disbandment of an army of nearly 4,000,000 men military and other materials no longer needed by the government were sold for $2,600,- 000,000 in cash. Since that more than a billion dollars have been paid into the treasury on loans extended to foreign countries associated with us in the war. It is equally certain that the difference in the cost of gov- ehnment on a war basis with an army of 4,000,000 to feed, clothe and equip, and one ona peace basis with an army of less that 100,000 was sav- ed which amounted to billions of dol- lars. But the actual expenditures of the Government have increased rather than diminished during the period covered by the Coolidge administra- tion. There have been economies under the Coolidge administration and Gov- ernor Smith frankly acknowledged the fact in his Sedalia speech. Pins, pa- per clips and pieces of pencils, have been salvaged in some of the depart- ments of the government and the or- namental strifes on towels and mail bags have been eliminated. A lot of spoiled seal meat was sold recently for use as bait by crab fishermen for twenty dollars and the electric light bill for the government build- ings reduced a trifle. But notwith- standing: these economies the expens- es of e government increased $2,000,000 in 1927 over those of 1926, and all the savings would hardly pay the expense of maintaining a body guard for young Mr. Coolidge. ———Vice President Dawes, in his New York speech the other evening, simply echoed the over-worked state- ment that Republican policies made prosperity. The only thing he ever originated was the “underhung pipe.” Pinchot’s Offer to Speak Declined. It is not altogether surprising that the Republican National committee has declined the offer of Gifford Pin- chot to appear on the “stump” for Hoover. The former Governor of Pennsylvania is not what might be called an impressive orator, though in his homely way he presents im- portant facts on a good many inter- esting subjects. But heis not always obedient to orders and if he takes the notion will blurt out things that are not helpful to the cause. His party prejudices are deep seated, however, and it may be taken for granted that in addressing an audience he would do the best he could. But suppose some fellow in the audience would ask him about Hoover's attitude on water power ? Governor Pinchot is earnest enough at times but not quite sincere. He did some fine things as Governor but signally failed in emergencies. He might easily have procured legisla- tion that would have averted the scandals of the 1926 primary and general elections. But he fooled his opportunities away in a selfish effort to build up a personal machine with Vare as one of the principal cogs, and in the end lost out on that enterprise. If he had taken up ballot reform and electrical and water power control in his first session of the Legislature he would have won out on both prop- ositions. If he had fulfilled his pre- election pledges in the beginning of his administration he would have had the gang “eating out of his hand” at the close. He imagines that he is a reformer but lacks the qualities of a crusader, which is essential to success in a real reform adventure. The Republican managers understood him better than he understands himself They know that he despises Hoover and that he knows that Hoover's pretenses on prohibition and tariff are false and fraudulent. They know what is likely to happen when a bull gets into a china shop and were afraid to let him appear as a campaign speaker for the party. They were taking some risk in declining his services but felt there might be greater harm in “letting him loose” before an audience that might provoke him to “tell the truth and the whole truth.” ; Our Position on the Amendments. On November 6th the voters of Pennsylvania will have opportun- ity of registering their approval of fourteen amendments that have been proposed to be made to the constitution, which is the foundation of all laws so far passed and all that may be passed in the future. Inasmuch as changing the fundamental law of any organization of society is a very serious thing and should never be done except after careful study and mature deliberation the Commonwealth has gone to great expense in advertising the proposed amendments so that all might have time to read them and come to some definite conclusion as to the merit of each. Notwithstanding the fact that they have been published in some of the newspapers in every county of the State dur- ing the last eleven weeks it is a moot question as to whether five per cent. of the people who will go to the polls to vote on them in Novem- ber have read one of them. a Without comment on such possible indifference to the very essence of the laws that shall govern us, or the haphazzard manner in which most of us meet our civic duties we want to call your attention to the fact that a majority of the votes cast at an election for an amendment passes it. In other words, if only one hundred voters in Pennsylvania mark “yes” opposite all the amendments that are proposed they will carry if only ninety-nine vote “No.” Thus it will be seen that it is possible for a mere handful of people to put something into organic law of the State or Nation that the vast majority might waken up after it is too late to discover that it didn’t want at all. There are many who think that the Eighteenth Amendment would never have been written into the Constitution of the United States had the electorate been awake to the effect that it would have. However that may be we refer to the matter because friends and foes of it are of one mind as to the futility of thought that it will ever be repealed. When we make a mistake in the conduct of our personal affairs we suf- fer the consequences alone and revise our procedure without the assent of anyone else. But in governmental affairs millions of people are to be dealt with and it is not so easy to remedy something that indifference has given free rein. As a matter of fact, every amendment on the cumbersome ballot that will be handed voters in Pennsylvania next month is of more vital im- portance to them than the squares in which they will be eager to mark their preferences for county and State officers—aye, even more impor- tant than the square in which they will have their chance to vote for a President. 4 Political parties and their chosen apostles come and go but the organic law goes on forever. Inasmuch as the question of passing or defeating the proposed amendments is not m partisan one we feel that no one can challenge the sincerity of the position we take with regard to them because we happen to be a Democratic newspaper, We are opposed to all but one of the proposed amendments that would authorize the issuance of bonds by the State. We recognize the need of more adequate facilities for the unfortunates in our penal and charitable institutions. We don’t underestimate the value of reforesta- tion. This paper became very unpopular when it took its stand among the very few in Pennsylvania. theta i of and advocate the authorization of ‘the first fifty million dollars that was proposed for good roads in Pennsylvania. We have always been on the side of progress, even though it sometimes imposes a burden so wearisome to carry that we get no joy out of bearing it. For everyone of the amendments for which interest bearing bonds are to follow we believe there is no need. No need, because we believe the annual income of the State is ample to provide for all of the uses to which they are to be put. The State of Pennsylvania has millions, annually, to devote to its welfare work, its armories and parade grounds, its reclamation of waste lands, good roads, its one institution of higher education and every other cause for which these money rais- Ing proposals are made, but an orgy of spending is on us and no one seems to think of the day of reckoning. Don’t be deceived by the idea that because you pay no direct tax to the State that what you get from it costs you nothing. Every time you drive up to a filling station you pay three cents tax on every gal- lon of gas that goes into the tank. Every time you buy a ton of coal or a bushel of lime you pay a few cents to the producing companies to compensate them for the tax that is levied on them as corporations. Every time you pay the premium on your insurance policy you pay something to Pennsylvania for permitting your insurance companies to do business within its confines. All this notion that we pay no State tax is hokum—the very worst kind of deception. Everything costs money and the aggregate value of these bonds at $138,000,000 will cost you $238,000,000 before we get them paid off. Besides, who can assure: us that every one of their beneficiaries won’t be back, two years from now beseeching that we do it again. In principle we have said that we are opposed to every one of the money raising amendment proposals. We stand by that position. But because Amendment No. 2 suggesting that $8,000,000 be raised for the Pennsylvania State College bears a peculiar relation to the rest of them we except it and advocate its passage. We believe, with State Treasurer Lewis, that Pennsylvania has ample funds to take proper care of the College but we think he will agree with us that there is no chance of State College getting what she needs so long as the Universities of Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh are leeching at the funds the State has for distribution among the educational institutions she has pledged her faith to support. If the members of the House and the Senators from Philadelphia and Allegheny counties would stop preying on what properly belongs to The Pennsylvania State College then we would believe with Mr. Lewis that there could be no need for the passing of Amendment No. 2, but since he can’t guarantee that we think he ought to come over to our side and urge all of the Pennsylvania electorate to vote for it. We are unqualifiedly for Amendment No. 18 which authorizes the purchase of voting machines. We are for that because it has an op- tional provision. It is so worded that a county is not-compelled to buy and use machines unless it wants to. It merely makes legal the use of machines in counties that are honest enough and frugal enough to in- stall them. . We are opposed to the proposal to tax Centre county for the main- tenance of a circulating library. Unless we have been misinformed the whole scheme is fathered by an association of book publishers. All over the county today are scattered in the High schools fairly good reference libraries and the inauguration of a supplementary book ped- dling proposition means only more jobs for a lot of people who ought to be producers instead of parasites. This amendment would prove only the beginning of another means of fastening a bunch of political “hacks” ‘on the tax payers of the county. Amendment No. 6 is a meritorious one and should be supported, but that ends the list of those we advocate. Summing it all up we are in favor of Amendments 2, 6 and 13. No’s 7, 8 and 14 only remotely affect the people of Centre county so that they should be left for the determination of the voters of Phila- delphia, Allegheny and other counties that they might directly affect. All the rest we think are inimical to the best interests of the tax pay- ers and for that reason we urge yon to vote “No” on them. Don’t pass them up if you are opposed to them. They will be carried if those who are opposed don’t take the trouble to vote their opposition. We will vote “Yes” on Amendments 2, 6 and 13. We will not vote on Amendments 7, 8 and 14. We will vote “No” on Amendments 1,3,4,5,9,10 and 12, as well as on that to levy an extra mill tax in Centre county to provide for a traveling library. We think you would be very well advised to do the same thing. d the fore sight to see the value" Chairman Work and the Fall-Sinclair ¥ Deal. From the Philadelphia Record. Cancellation of the Fall-Sinclair oil contract, which he had renewed as Secretary of the Interior, jolted from | Chairman, the acrid reply: “I have no | comment to make. Those things are | past. i about these oil leases.” SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. + —Miss Luella Buarcus, 53, former school | teacher of Irwin, was found asphyxiated in her bedroom at Greensburg, on Mo: - day. Two open gas jets were found, but whether accidental or intentional could not be determined. —Twenty trainmen were overcome by chlorine gas at the East Altoona round- house of the Pennsylvania railroad on Saturday. Four were removed to a hos- pital for treatment. The men were pre- paring trains for the day’s run when a drum containing the gas burst. Emerg- ency calls brought doctors and nurses to ! the roundhouse. Gas masks were donned to enter the building. y —*“A little vacation up in the mountains may help her,” commented Judge Mae- Dade, of Media, in passing sentence upon Mrs. Vivian McDowell Page, who was “Miss Mobile” in the 1926 Atlantic City beauty pageant. Judge MacDade sentenced her to the State Industrial Home for Wo- i trial. | Dr. Work, the Republican National | People are tired of bearing | men, at Muncy, Pa., after refusing a new She was convicted ten days ago of stealing a watch and cigar lighter, which : were returned to the owner, William RE. Turner, of Chester. —Mrs. Frank Hoyt, of near Waterton | Whatever may be said for his ideas ! on the road between Jonestown and Hunt- ‘of official rectitude and his abilities . as a politician, the good doctor is not {a sound diagnostician of p blic taste .in this department of literature. We {know of no record in recent political , history that has been studied more at- tentively, or with keener appreciation of its significance, than that oleagin- ous serial which opened with the Tale of Teapot Dome and has just Poss Swrisied with the Sequel of Salt reek. no small degree to those episodes ' contributed by Mr. Hoover’s campaign manager himself. His procedure was vital in the development of the plot— ; using that word in its literary sense. He was called upon last January to renew for an additional five years a contract under which the Government had been selling a vast output of oil from its Salt Creek field below the market price. He did so, upon being ' advised by the solicitor of the Depart- ment that the buyer’s option was in- vulnerable. : Now, under ordinary circumstances that might be excused as 4 mere act of routine, having adequate legal en- dorsement. But the fact is that the conditions were abnormal! and Dr. Work’s decision, far from being a matter of casual routine, was taken in the face of vehement protests that it would continue an illegal diversion of public funds. He knew that the contract was con- ferred by Albert B. Fall upon a com- pany controlled by Harry F. Sinclair and Robert W. Stewart—three of the outstanding figures in the oil lease scandals. { He knew that the renewal option was an advantageous provision not | offered to other bidders. {He was aware that those excluded | bidders were clamoring for a chance | to buy the Governments oil at higher | prices. Jie Yay warmed tha jhe deal Soul ‘not stand a leg: § pass Horny Gen- “scrutiny of an honest A ; eral. { Yet while the persons involved and the facts disclosed and the whole noi- some record of oil lease corruption made this a case that cried aloud for + vigilance, he refused to take counsel with the Department of Justice, over- ‘rode all objections, and turned over reore millions to the exploiters. Now the Attorney General, forced to act after more than seven months . of delay, has ruled that the contract was illegal from its inception, and 1 | that his fellow Cabinet officer promot- ed a deal which was palpably invalid. | Dr. Work deceives himself. Even if the people had found topics more entrancing than the old oil lease cases, he has revived their flagging interest even more effectually than ; he renewed the Fall-Sinclair contract. | Good Business. From the Harrisburg Telegraph. State College is nothing if not prac- tical. For years previous to the gen- erous treatment accorded it by the present administration it struggled along under a heavy handicap, but doing good work nevertheless. For example, it originated and de- veloped what is now known over the world as “Pennsylvania 44 wheat.” | The farmers who used this seed last year received for their crop a sum of $2,000,000 in excess of what they would have received had they planted the ordinary varieties. | This is greater than the annual State appropriation to the college for all its work. i And yet argriculture is only one branch of the college’s activities. | What might it not do to add to ' wealth and improved living conditions in Pennsylvania if it had the vast sums that many another State insti- : tution of the kind receives as a mat- . ter of course? | Abolishing Fee System. | From the Reading Times. { There's a ray—just a mere ray— {of hope for the abolition of the | iniquitous fee systen: showing on the horizon. | The State Salary Board will recom- { mend to the next Legislature that lo- i cal governments be given the power i to fix the salaries of their own offi- i cials and employees. i Unless there are strings tied to this recommendation of which we have not heard, and it is intended i to cover county as well as city, that : means that the commissioners of | Berks could at one fell swoop put all | the aldermen, justices of the peace and constables on a salary and elim- ; inate forever the present practice of ' provoking and prolonging litigation | for the sake of fees. | | | ——The State employees were | “maced” for $360,000 for the Repub- lican campaign fund and the Governor | practically “held the bag.” ———— ep en ms a—— ——Governor Smith may not carry Pennsylvania but it’s costing the Re- publicans a lot of money to prevent that result. Moreover, its importance is due in | ‘ ington Mills, Columbia county, was in the : garden of her home picking some toma- toes when she heard a growl behind her but paid no attention to it. A moment or two later she heard both a growl and a sniff and looked up to see a big black bear in the garden and only a few feet . from her. The bear remained a short time and went across several fields towards Jonestown mountain. —Another industry has been added to Lewistown. It is the sheet metal plant of J. I. Thomas. The main building is 50 by 172 with three storage houses, all concrete and steel construction. The shop is known as an “all daylight shop” and comprises 2500 square feet of wire-glass and 16,000 feet of floor space. The plant will be operated by electric power and will. manufacture all kinds of sheet- iron, brass and copper. The plant will employ thirty-eight to forty men. —Bears in the McKean county section are becoming pestiferous. The latest complaint comes from John Smatt, on guard at the Kinzua forest fire tower near Kane. 'Smatt is’ puzzling out a way to catch the bears which nightly steal up the tower stairs and rob his water bags. The steel tower is more than sixty feet high, but the bears climb almost to its top via a spiral stairway. Carl Benson, of Mt. Jewett, - game protector, is kept busy settling claims of farmers in the county whose sheep and bee hives are raid- ‘ed by bears. —One hundred and two years of age, and still in the best of health, able to enjoy life, joke with visitors and even do some housework—that is the case of Mrs. Hannah Finnefrock, of near Clarion. Mrs. Finnefrock goes up and down stairs with- out assistance. She reads large print with- out glasses. She is troubled a little with her hearing, but aside from that she gets about very much as persons who are only 65 or 70. Mrs. Finnefrock knows by actual first-hand experience about spinning flax and wool, and all those home tasks that are less familiar nowadays. ~—A blow. at. the practice of young men going hatless was aimed by district No. 9 of the United Mine Workers, at Miners- ville, last Friday, but the miners shied away from a commitment on girls’ short skirts. Delegates attending the biennial convention adopted a resolution favoring the wearing of hats by young and old, to build up what was called “a badly bent” hat-making industry. Then a dele- gate asked the convention's stand on the short skirt, alleging that its abbreviated length had put a crimp in the normal out- put of the nation’s mills. No action was taken. —Federal authorities have been asked to assist in rounding up a gang of coun- terfeiters who passed at least a dozen $20 bad bills in Uniontown. One theatre got three another one and bowling alleys, poolrooms and large stores the others. The bills were a poor imitation of Unit- ed States currency. The paper was infer- ior in weight and color and the silk threads were lacking. They were accept- ed in the rush hours of shopping and not discovered until a general warning had been issued. . Several of the victims re- member a large well-dressed man who presented the counterfeits. . —Poising as an officer of the United States States Treasury Department, Joseph Kor h prominent Coal township, Northumberland county, resident, has been securing hun- dreds of dollars from dealers in illicit merchandise during the past twelve months, according to a charge made by the government and an indictment found against him in federal court at Scranton by the grand jury. TU. S. Marshal John H. Glass, Shamokin, served the warrant for Korbicz’'s arrest after receiving com- plaints. He will be taken before the Northumberland county court for trial during the October session. —No clues to the identity of the robber or robbers who cracked the safe in the office of the City flourishing mills, at Muncy, heave been obtained, according to county detective Robert B. Burns, who is working on the case with State police officers. Safe-blowers gained entrance into the building by cutting a window in the boiler room. They made their way into the combination, inserted the explosive and thus forced the door. On the ground were found coupling pins, files, and an ax, taken from the Reading railroad station. The robbers obtained about $60. They left untouched checks and notes to the total of about $1500 and between $12,- 000 and $16,000 in securities. —President Judge Thomas F. Bailey, of the Mifflin county courts, has taken the papers, following argument, for a deci- sion later in the case of Mrs. Helen Me- Cartney, Mrs. Thomas O. Williamson and Albert Thompson, the latler 15 years old, and represented by the Harrisburg Trust company as guardian. The Trust com- pany has refused to enter into partner- ship and operate the hoisery mills of the late Andrew Thompson who died Novem- ber 27, 1927, which have been idle since his death. Thompson willed his real es- tate, machinery and good will of the mills to the three providing they would enter a partnership and operate under the old firm name within a year after his death. It would be necessary that the five heirs under the trust fund lend $30,000 to the mills in order to operate and the boy is the only one interested in both funds. The guardian holds the partnership would not | be for their ward's best interest.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers