INK SLINGS. In a panic of despair last week we turned to rambling, pointless com- ment on “hexing” in order to get this column filled up. When we read the stuff in the proof it seemed so inept that we were minded to delete it all, but since there was nothing to take its place it had to “ride.” As is often the case paragraphs with the least punch seem to command the most reader interest. From many persons, locally and abroad, we have heard so much about it that we infer that there are more readers with a well developed curios- ity about the subject than we had any idea of. Why is it? Just why should any- one be interested in fortune telling, looking in the Almanac to see the right sign to do gardening, knocking on wood when they want to ward off ill luck, or thousands of the other little hocus pocuses we all indulge in occasionally. They say it’s a sign of superstition and only the illiterate and ignorant are superstitious. Call it what you may there’s a bit of it in the nature of every human being, rich or poor, high or low, in- tellectual or moron. It dates back so far that we shall not attempt to find its genesis. That would be of little interest anyway. However, civilization—which is en- lightenment—has advanced by leaps and bounds since they burned witches at the stake upin New England, yet witchcraft, or belief in it, is still in- herent in the human mind. That fact was proven beyond question at the trial of the “hex” murderers down in York county only last week. And we call them “poor benighted souls” when as a matter of fact they suffer violently from what affects us only mildly. In other words there are few of us who don’t have a sneaking be- lief of some sort that is pretty near- ly a half brother to hexing. If we don’t— Why did the boys of our genera- tion wear a string of red woolen yarn around the neck to prevent nose bleed ? Why did so may men tie a piece of cel skin arund their wrist to keep their muscles from becoming strain- ed? Why couldn’t a hotel keeper, once well known in Bellefonte, sleep if someone accidentally kicked his shoes off a certain spot at the side of his bed where he always placed them be- for retiring? Why did a certain young farmer we know grease a wagon tongue with goose grease and pointed it in the direction of a neighbor’s barn so that the rats that were eating up everything in his grainary would go to board with his more opulent neigh- bor for a while ?—they did do it, too. We could keep on whying clear down to the end of the column but what’s the need. If you are honest with yourself—and we don’t care who you are—you’ll admit that in some form or other you have some pet sup- erstition. If you won't we'd like to be in a room with you at the time some person start to hoist an um- brella. To this point we have treated the subject as the offspring of supersti- tion. In the degree in which it is believed in we are inclined to think it is, yet there are so many collateral sides to it that we own to a certain mystification. We talk about the devil and one of his imps appear. We sit in the rear of a large audience and concen- | trate on some one sitting in front of us. Invariably he or she will turn and ! look back in a very short time. That is mental telepathy, you say. Per- haps it is. If it is, what is “hexing ?” Hypnotisin is accepted by science as a reality. We know its not a fake because once we submitted to the will of a “professor” just far enough to discover that in another moment he might have had us doing all sorts of fool things had we not snapped out of it. And what, if you please, is the difference between the hypnotic sug- gestion and the “hex” suggestion? If we're ready to swallow hypnotism why strain at “hexing?” Hypotism or “hexing” isn’t in it for results with pow-wowing or fire blowing. Hpy- notism only makes you believe that the big wart on your nose isn’t there. An honest to goodness pow wower will give that old wart such a dose of marasmus that it will fade com- pletely in two weeks. Hypnotism on- ly makes you believe that the burn on your skin isn’t painful, but a “fire blower” will make two passes and three puffs at the sore and at once it becomes the most comfortable spot on your epidermis. Knowing all we have said to be true—which you probably do not— what is your idea of it all? Laugh your head off at “hexing” if you want to, but if you won’t move on Friday because “a Friday flit is a short sit” or if you feel just a little eerie when a black cat runs across the road ahead of you we're right here to say that you laugh only to eonceal your own little superstitions. We've all got a bit of it and the fact that it sticks at all in the mind of the highly educated person is what puzzles us. We think there isn’t, but we are not going to say that there is not something back of it that might someday be revealed. Demat 1 % / THO STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. ° 4. Ls mm—— Vare’s Evasion Coming to an End. In a letter, dated January 14, and addressed to William S. Vare, Sena- tor Reed, of Missouri, briefly sum- marizes the results of the investiga- tion of the Senatorial election in Pennsylvania in 1926 and gives Mr. Vare ten days in which to prepare and present his defense. The Slush fund committee found, according to this summary, that in less than half of the election divisions 21,572 tax receipts had been illegally issued; in 167 divisions the names of 2018 voters were forged; that fraudulent registrations had been made in 1111 ly counted in only 181 of the 1500 divisions; that in 141 divisions “in- tentional fraudulent returns” were re- vealed and that in every ward people not registered voted. These facts are sufficient to nulli- fy the returns of all the divisions in which the frauds occurred. But they do not complete the case against Mr. Vare. The evidence shows that “in 136 divisions individuals voted two or more times.” That in 341 divisions “more than 2000 votes were return- ed as’ cast in excess of the number of voters listed and in 527 divisions 4064 more were returned as cast than were checked in the registers.” That in 395 divisions the number of ballots cast exceeded the number of voters listed and in 699 divisions ballots cast exceeded the number of votes checked; in 38 divisions large groups of names were recored as voting in alphabet- ical order and more than 5000 names in the voters’ lists were erased and altered. In more than 100 boxes ballots were and in 36 divisions “groups of five or more ballots were found where it was apparent that the lawful mark of the voter had been erased and an- other mark inserted” and that “in eight divisions the ballot boxes con- tained no valid ballots whatever.” In the face of these and other proofs of fraud the Committee of the Senate has been allowing William S Vare to evade the just consequences of crimes perpetrated in his behalf and under his sanction for more than two years. But such things cannot continue for- ever. A time limit has been set and on Thursday next Mr Vare will have opportunity to plead and after that he will be sent to join Smith of Illinois. ——Coolidge’s breakfasts appear to have lost in appealing power. Sen- ator Bingham enjoyed the meal but refused to change his mind. Extra Session of Congress Certain. There will be an extra session of Congrss next spring, probably in April. President-elect Hoover has reluctantly agreed to this, not as the i farm bloc imagine to enact a relief | measure, but to satisfy the demands of the tariff mongers. was given to Senator McNary, late ' sponsor of the McNary-Haugen bill, because yielding to the farmers looks better than surrendering to the tariff mongers. But the purpose of the President-elect is to serve the inter- ests of those who contributed most liberally to the campaign fund. They are less credulous and more urgent. The farmers may be more vociferous in their demands but they are less dangerous. They only threaten while the others act. The revised McNary-Haugen bill could have been passed easily dur- ing the present session. Mr. Hoover had agreed to approve it with the “fee” provision eliminated. The farm bloc Senators had practically agreed to cut out the objectionable feature and the new bill had already been placed upon the calendar. tariff mongers realized that the pas- only valid reason for calling an extra session and that they would be oblig- ed to wait nearly a year for any Con- gressional action for their benefit. Under the circumstances McNary obligingly agreed to postpone farm relief until the next Congress could of tariff taxation. President-elect Hoover has had lit- tle experience with practical politics but he is learning “the tricks of the trade” rapidly. He already realizes that money is the potent influence in { organizing victories and that those | who supply the sinews of war must | be recognized in dispensing the spoils. | There are various interests to be tak- en care of. The chemical manufac- | turers are first in the field and their demands are not what might be called i modest. The textile fellows are on , the waiting list and they are prepar- led to “go the limit” And so on all the way down the line. Paid law- vers and high-priced specialists have specious arguments ready to present and it may be added that the extra | session is for them. divisions; that the vote was correct-' found which had never been folded | The promise be assembled. It may postone farm relief but it will hasten the increase Logical Successor to Fall and Work. The appointment of Bascom Slemp, of Virginia, to the office of Secretary of the Interior, now under consider- ation, would be logical. Since the restoration of the Republican party to control of the government at Washington, in 1921, that depart- ment has been an unfailing fountain of competition and graft. Albert B. Fall established a trading post for the disposal of oil leases, not exactly to the highest bidders, but to favorite campaign contributors and he was succeeded in office by Hubert Work, who continued to dispense favors along the same lines. Upon his vol- _untary retirement Roy West was in- | stalled in the office. He was expect- ed to take care of the interests of the “power trust and other utility corpor- | ations. Bascom Slemp would be a fit suc- cessor to this trio of emissaries of greed and graft. For more than a | quarter of a century he has been an i office broker in Washington and ex- cept during the period of the Wilson administration, he was the recognized | instrument between the administra- ition and the southern office seekers. : Long continued service in this work | gave him vast influence in the selec- | ton of delegates to the National con- | ventions of his party and correspond- | ing power with the administrations he | thus helped to create. So far as available records show the only elec- tive office he ever held was that of Representative in Congress for his home district, his constituency being largely negroes. . dent he surprised most of the lead- ers of his party by appointing Bas- com Slemp secretary, which office he i held for some time. During the early stages of the investigation of the Fall-Sinclair oil scandal it was re- vealed that Mr. Slemp had acted as “go-between” in the negotiation be- tween Fall and McLean. . Whether this association was repugnant to Coolidge is not known but soon after- ward Slemp resigned the important office of secretary to the President. Kansas City convention Slemp was an enthusiastic supporter of Hoover and the southern delegates were herded as usual. Taking one consideration with another he is a fit successor to Fall, Work and West. ———There may be fifty or a hun- dred people outside of the Philadel- phia Municipal court interested in the Presidency of that body, but no more. Senator Reed Wasted Time. Senator Reed, of Missouri, takes the Kellogg peace pact much too ser- iously. But Missourians are proverb- ially curious. They always want to see everything and in this instance | there is nothing to see. Senator Reed likens the Kellogg treaty to a Trojan ‘horse. That is an impossible inter- pretation. The celebrated Trojan {horse had something inside of it, and | this treaty is empty. Mr. Kellogg ‘and Senator Borah have both admit- ted that fact. That being true it i made little if any difference wheth- er the treaty was ratified with reser- | vations or without. Most of the signa- tories made reservations. But Borah declares they don’t mean a thing. In | fact that may be truly said of the treaty itself. We take it that Senator Reed is | ment that the ratification of the Kellogg pact may ultimately lead us into the League of Nations. The | original purpose of the enterprise was 'tions. It was intended as a nostrum | bitef that it is “something just as ' good” for purposes for which the League was lic ing in the direction of m e m- bership in the League and some of the equally wide of the mark in his state- | BELLEFONTE, PA.. JANUARY 18. 1929. Important Legislation in Danger. There is a current of sweeping over the State that the po- litical machine intends to defeat the legislation necessary to give force to the recently adopted constitutional amendment providing for the optional use of voting machines. That amend- ment was adopted by an overwhelm- ing majority and under adverse con- ditions. That is to say, the central- ization of interest in the presidential conitest diverted the minds of many voters from the importance of ballot reform, and many who favored the amendment neglected to vote for its adeption. Besides some of those op- posd to it, but afraid to declare the fact, reasoned that it could be de- feated by failure to enact the ena- bling legislation. In his message to the General As- sembly Governor Fisher urges the necessary legislation with apparent sincerity. But it may be recalled that at the beginning of the session of 1927 he demanded adequate ballot re- form legislation with equal earnest- ness and had prepared a number of measures which, if enacted into law, would have gone a long way toward securing honest elections. But be- fore his bills had progressed far, un- der pressure of the party bosses, he permitted them to be emasculated to such an extent as to rob them of all potency. The signs indicate that an effort to similarly hamstring the pro- posed legislation with respect to the voting machines will be made. | The first step in this sinister en- i terprise will be directed toward the When Mr. Coolidge became Presi- In the campaign for delegates to the” alienation of the rural Legislators. They will be told that the voting ma- chines will cost immensely and put onerous burdens upon taxpayers in communities where election frauds are never attempted and could not succeed. Such communities need not adopt the machine method of voting and consequently will not be burden- ed with the expense. But in the com- munities which habitually debauch the ballot, the machines give promise of correcting this great evil and the op- portunity to accomplish this result should not be wasted on any account. The expense should not be considered for it is a false pretense. ——The water situation in Centre county is one of extreme seriousness at the present time. Not only are ‘many wells and cisterns throughout But the | to keep us out of the League of Na- sage of the bill would remove the | which might fool the world into the the county absolutely dry but the supply of water for many of the vil- lages in the county is lower than ever before. The Milesburg water supply is frozen dry, and the same condi- tion prevails at Clarence.” Other towns that depend on small moun- tains streams are either dry or have a very limited supply. While it rain- ed and snowed yesterday there is no indication of enough of it to improve the water supply. In addition to being named chairman if the committee on mines and mining State Senator Harry B. Scott drew a place on the following committees: Appropriations, educa- tion, finance: forestry, game and fish- eries, insurance, public grounds and buildings, public health and sanitation, public roads and highways, and railroads. Rep- resentative J. Laird Holmes’ com- mittee appointments includes appro- priations, federal relations, fisheries, judiciary local, law and order and military. ap ibe ——John Pierpont Morgan is in- creasing his sphere of operations. As member of the German reparations Commission he will be able to control the finance of two or three other countries. ———————— fy ———— ——The longest tunnel in the world has been suitably dedicated but the suspicion ! municipal affairs, NO. 3. | Rockefeller, Stewart and the Ethics of Big Business. From the Philadelphia Record. The effort of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., to dislodge Robert W. Stewart as chairman of the Standard Oil Com- pany of Indiana signifies much more than an encounter between two indi- viduals. As such it is not of great moment. If Mr. Rockefeller succeeds he will gain neither in wealth nor power; if Stewart holds his place the company will continue to prosper. Yet the con- test is of far-reaching significance and importance, because the funda- mental issue is the honor of the oil industry, of big business, of the in- vestment system. It is not Stewart, but these institutions, that are on trial. The record makes this plain. It shows that Stewart was one of four corporation executives who secretly divided $3,000,000 of illicit profits on the sale of oil to their own compa- nies. Called as a witness in the Sen- ate investigation of the Fall-Sinclair oil lease scandal he denied, under oath, that he had participated in this shabby deal. He swore that he knew nothing about the division, had re- veived no share, had never made a dollar out of the transaction. Forced to take the witness stand again, after the truth had been es- tablished, he admitted that in fact he had collected $759,500 in bonds out of what Senator Walsh called “the ill- gotten gains of a contemptible private steal, the peculations of trusted offic- ers of great industrial corporations, pilfering from their own stockhold- ers. He exhibited no contrition and lit- tle embarrassment. He insisted that he had not used any of the dirty mon- ey. But he arregantly refused to ex- plain why he had furtively accepted a vast sum to which he admiited he had no honest title; why he had con- cealed the hoard from its rightful owners, his stockholders, for six years; why he had clung to it until his possession of it had been exposed; why he had given false testimony un- . der oath as to his connection with the odious affair. It was upon these facts that Mr. Rockefeller, as a stockholder, de- manded that Stewart resign a posi- tion in which he had gravely impair- ed the repute of the oil industry and of the “whole structure of business.” Stewart contemptuously refused to quit. And last March he was re- elected. It is entirely possible that at the approaching annual meeting he will win again. There are reports, in- deed, that he already holds pledges representing more than 50 per cent. of the stock. Mr. Rockfeller, never- theless, has performed a courageous public service in seeking proxies to be voted against an executive who for six years held three-quarters of a million dollars of the stockholders’ money, pouched in an illegitimate deal. In these days of wide investment, when corporations strive to encour- age customer ownership and employee ownership, it is vital that the public be assured of good faith and probity in corporation management. Yet Stewart’s conduct has been condoned, his continuance in office privately in- dorsed, by business men, by financiers and by many of the stockholders he wronged. Their reason is that his manage- , ment had been shrewd and efficient— that he is too useful to be dismissed merely because of involvement in a scheme of business graft. What Mr. Rockefeller seeks to dis- cover, and what the public will be in- | terested to learn, is this: How many ‘of these investors and industrial leaders support the curious doctrine , that if an executive earns good divi- i dends for his company he may safe- {ly intercept a modest percentage of its earnings? | Not Welcome News. From the Clearfield Republican. During the week word comes from Washington that Mr. Hoover and Sec- retary of the Treasury Mellon were in conference for more than two hours at ' underground means of communication ' the Hoover headquarters in the May- | “bitter-enders” set their minds to the task of checking this trend. The multilateral treaty is the product of their efforts and it has already fail- ed. The League is prospering. In view of the facts opposing the ' ratification of the treaty was a willful and useless waste of time. ervations are made or not prepara- tions for war alike in this and other countries which have adhered to the pact will go forward. The same Sen- ate that ratifie it will direct the construction of fifteen 10,000 ton cruisers so as to be ready to meet any war which any of the other sign- ers of the pact may choose fo start. Senator Reed meant well but he was wasting not only his own time but that of Congress, which is expensive. Let Coolidge and Kellogg get all the glory they can out of it. They may need it. Whether it was ratified or not and whether res- created. Pub- | between Wall street and Washington sentiment was rapidly flow- | beats it by a couple of hundred miles. ——After all the Mellons are not the “whole cheese” in Pittsburgh. Max Leslie put a crimp in their pow- er in the organization of the Legis- i lature. ——The fight against Mellon is as futile as was the fight against the multilateral treaty. Mellon has a “cinch” on the treasury portfolio. ——Joe Grundy having declared opposition to the repeal of the an- | thracite coal tax the advocates of that improvement may as well quit. ——The Senate seems to believe that refund payments of large sums may be all right but insists on a bill of particulars in each case. ——The Mayor of Philadelphia ap- pears to be trying to show how many kinds of a fool he can make of him- | self. flower hotel. The natural inference among Washington scribes is that | Mr. Mellon has been asked to con- i tinue at his present post under the | new administration. This will not be .weleccme news to the Anti-Saloon League. That organization has been “after Mellon for several years. They | have tried their dirtiest to get his i scalp time and again, only to meet ‘with failure every time. Already there are signs that the dominating influences so powerful in Hoover’s be- half during the late campaign wiil { not be as close to the throne as some people were prone to believe after the returns were all in. 3 ee——— ee et—— | | | When Learning Counts. | From E. W. Howe's Monthly. ! What you learn today, or this month, isn’t apt to amount to much. It is what happened last year, ten , years ago, a century ago, that counts, { because it has been tried out. I pre- dicted the result of the last election exactly months in advance, not by what the men were saying this sum- mer, but by what men had done years before in election. | SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE. —A hog which dressed 11091 pounds was butchered by James Loughner, a farmer of near Jeannette, last week. The live weight of the animal was 1225 pounds. —A warrant was served Monday night on Mayor Joseph Cauffiel, of Johnstown, charging him with extortion, failure to file election expense accounts and perjury, Bail was fixed at $8000. —A jury in common pleas court at Pitts- burgh, awarded $150,000 damages to Mi- chael Papson. Homestead, who sued the American Bridge compauy for injuries suffered while working on a consruction job. A steel window sash he averred, fell on him afte having been loosened by bridge company workmen employed on tha same project. —A few minutes after R. T. Dunnard and his family had left their home at Harrisburg Run, near Bradford, on Tues- day night, to visit neighbors, the house was wrecked by an explosion. Gas was believed to have accumulated from a brok- en pipe. The house, a frame structure, and the furniture were blown to pieces. Loss was estimated at between $3000 and $4000. —F. W. Gowland, of Burnham, is the owner of a $4 bill of Continential currency, printed by Holt and Seller's July 22, 1776, authorized by a resolution of Congress and calling for four Spanish milled dol- lars, either gold or silevr. It is of the size of the ordinary “shinplaster” curren- cy, but different as it is printed on paper in which flaked silver has been impressed instead of the usual water lines of silk threads of the present currency. —James Robertson, aged 89, an em- ployee of the New York Central railroad shops at Avis, ended his life at his home in Lock Haven on Friday by means of gas. He attached a crock to the wall of his room, placed a hose attached to a gas jet in the crock, them thrust his head into the crock and turned on the gas. His body was found by his daughter-in- law, who noticed a diminution of the gas pressure and made an investigation. —John Honus Wagner, famous baseball player of two decades ago, has been nam- ed an assistant sergeant at arms in the House of Representatives at Harrisburg. The great Pittsburgh shortstop, now a resident of Canegie, will help keep order on the floor of the house in the 1929 ses- sion at a salary of $7 per day. Wagner for years held the National league batting championship in addition to being rated as the best shortstop in the league. —Announcement has been made at Washington, Pa., of the raising of the sum of $1,000 for the equipping of a mem- orial room in the new women’s dormitory at Pennsylvania State College. The funds were raised by the Pennsylvania Grange, as a testimonial to the late Mrs. Louise Taylor Rodgers of near Monongahela. Mrs. Rodgers was particularly active in the campaign to raise money for the dormitory now being built and was a prominent leader in the Grange. —As restitution for a beating suffered at the hands of two young Kulpmont men, Walter Polack and Alek Demansk, $1001 has been awarded Sofia and John Pitcos- kie, husband and wife, by the Northum- berland county court. On June 17, the wife asserted, the two young men came to the Pitcoskie homestead and engaged in an argumnt with her husband. Finally, they began to, beat him and, when she tred to interfere, even though she was ill the visitors beat her, too. The wife was awarded $700, while the husband was giv- en $301. —The Treverton Times prints a story of a family in Northumberland county subsisting on acorns during last summer and up to the present time. The father has been out of work and had been idle because of the shutting down of the North Franklin mines, the only industry in the town. He worked only eighteen days of last year. The name of the amily was not given. The acorns were cooked and also eaten raw. The children would go to the hills to gather them and bring them home in large baskets. —With the arrival of 125 machines and a corps of experts to install them, Sha- mokin’s new shirt factory, over which Superintendent I. Bernstein will preside, is preparing to begin operations within the next ten days. Over 150 persons have been employed by the company to engage in the process of shirt-making. The pro- duct, after being run through a complete laundry and pressing outfit, will be load- ed onto trucks and delivered at New York city. An enlargement of the plant and an increase in the number of employees are anticipated within six months. —In the home of J. F. Fagan, Juniata county game protector, is drying one of the most valuable furs to be found in Pennsylvania, at least in a wild State, a beaver pelt. The animal was killed by Brooks L. Kennedy, Port Royal, while driving near Woodward, Mifflin county, where there is a large colony of the ani- mals a short distance from the public road. He picked the beaver up as soon as he was able to stop his car and turned it over at once to the local game protector. When put on the scales the much pro- tected beaver weighed 18% pounds. —Robert Michael a former State high- way motor patrolman, was convicted by a jury in court at York, Pa. for posses- sion and sale of liquor. His arrest fol- lowed the expulson of three students by the Hanover High school authorities be- cause they drank moonshine from pocket flasks at a social function. The jury rec- ommended leniency in Michael's case, Judge Niles made the statement from the bench that the court was impressed that there was something suspicious about the whole case, but on Monday he sentenced Michael to pay a fine of $500 and two years in jail. —Every county treasurer in the Com- monwealth now has been furnished with both the resident and non-resident fisher- man’s license for the year 1920. The cost of the resident license will remain the same as in 1928—$1.50, plus 10 cents for for the county treasurer's fee. The non- resident license is reciprocal, but in no instance is the fee to be less than $2.50. The board urges all fishermen to secure their licenses at as early a date as possi- ble, so that the board will have sufficient funds available for continuing its con- struction work at the sites for the two new hatcheries, at Tionesta and Reynolds- dale. The total receipts from the sale of licenses for the year 1927 amounted to $203,397, and for the year 1928, $382,014.