Next Tuesday will be groundhog day, but every day is some road | hog’s day and they don’t all drive a ' bus or a freight truck either, —Mr. Grundy’s coming out party in Philadelphia, Saturday night, was a grand affair, but lots of promis- ing debutantes became complete “wash-ou Tid NET : . —Princes and paupers = shared the; loot in Scranton - slot-machine racket. The then mayor and the dive-keepers were equal in the divi- son, ‘so the news stories insinuate. —All the news from- the London maval disarmament parley indicates that even if they don’t intend to scrap a lot of war vessels the dele- gates are determined not to start a scrap among themselves. —The uptown folks who are so in- convenienced becaiise the post-office has been moved ought to be reconcil- ed to the change if for no other rea- son than that they are meeting their downtown neighbors half way. —Spring is just around the cor- ner. While we are likely to encoun- ter some pretty rough going over the seven weeks that intervene news from the ball training camps in the south will keep our minds from con- centrating too hard on it. —Soviet Russia has stricken Sun- day off’ its calendar, That sounds like Soviet Russia, but the acqui- escence of a Boston Methodist preach. er in a proposal by the clergy of that city to have the law against blasphemy stricken from the statutes of the Bay State doesn’t sound like the Methodist church. —This Mr. Primo Carnera, who has just arrived from Italy to fatten his bank account at the expense of American fight fans, is somewhat of a mountain of flesh, “Big Boy” Pe- terson tried to climb it last Friday night and fell unconscious after sink- ing only two hooks into the moun- tain. —If Governor Fisher could have persuaded Senator Grundy to accept Taylor or if Senator Grundy could have persuaded Governor Fisher to accept Samuel Lewis when they met in Philadelphia, last Saturday night, the millions of Republican voters would have had no more say as to who their nominee for Governor will be than the Watchman will have. Why waste money on a primary? —In another column of this issue we publish a lengthy communication bearing on the proposed closing of a portion of Lamb street in order to provide more playground for the school children, We hope that all of our Bellefonte subscribers will read it carefully, for it concerns a matter that is much in controversy and should .be - settled ..one way or the other, soon. It is a public question. One that should be considered whol- ly impersonally. It is the duty of every citizen to approach the solu- tion of such problems guided only by the fundamental principle that good government is the greatest good to the greatest number. —In 1929 it cost New York State $876,537.00 to keep 25,028 miles of roads clean of smow. During the same period it cost Pennsylvania $914,809.00 to keep only 7967 miles of roads passable. Out in Ohio they swept 6,138 miles clear for $93,802. [f a heckler should ask any of the Republican spell-binders, who will be on the stump next fall blatherin’ about the beneficence and economy >f his party’s government, just why such an amazing disparity in cost should be, he will probably reply: Hell, don’t you know that they didn’t have as much snow up in New York, or out in Ohio, as we had here in Pennsylvania, And the crowd will selieve it. We just can’t understand Pennsylvania's abject submission to solitical bossism, unless its elector- ite is properly described by the lit- le boy who declined the verb “dim” 18 “dim, dam, dum.” —Candidly we think Congress is wasting entirely too much time >andying words about prohibition, [t’s the law of the land and every >ody who has the urge and isn’t ufraid of being caught violating it loes violate it. In fact the reaction »f human nature to all law is exactly ‘he same. There are mighty few »eople on the face of the globe who, vhen the law crimps them a bit, wouldn't take a chance were it not ‘or the consequences. The agrieul- . ural regions of the country can al- vays be depended on to vote for any 1ypocrite who bears a dry label yet it their farm products show in Har- ‘isburg last week there was more iquor in evidence. and the evidence f more liquor about a certain hotel vhere the big guns of the show jongregated than there was there luring the inaugural ceremonies of yovernor Fisher, three years ago. Jur idea of the prohibition question s that it is really one of temper- ince and not of law. And so far as )ersonal experience is concerned we relieve that Francis Murphy, Fred Jota, who was once secretary of the ocal Y, M. C. A, and several other eople we might mention converted nore people from the wet to the dry lan of living than the Volstead or ny other law could or will do in this ommunity. Please don’t misunder- tand us, We're not against the Vol- tead law. We are only expressing . deep conviction that law can't hange human nature. It might re. train certain of its impulses. The fact that an alliance existed between the American Tariff League and. the . Repubican National com- mittee during the Hoover cam- paign has been . proved again by evidence brought out by the Senate Lobby committee the other day. The American Tariff League, of which Senator Grundy was vice- president until his recent appoint- ment professes to be a non-parti- san and non-political organization and by that false pretense has en- ticed some Democrats to its mem- bership. W. W, Barbour, formerly president and now treasurer of the League, testified that during the 1928- campaign it arranged to hook-up with the Republican National com- mittee through its chairman, Hubert Work. ' Later the partnership was dissolved for the reason that it was in violation of law, : But notwithstanding the dissolu- tion the “hook-up” continued to func- tion. The League agreed to ‘do the tariff research and educational pub- licity work” for the campaign com- mittee and continued to do so clan- destinely after the dissolution. In pursuance of this undertaking the League collected and disbursed a fund variously estimated at from $30,000 to $50,000. No report was made of these collections and dis- bursements to the Congressional committee or anybody else, as re- quired by the Corrupt Practices law. Two employees of the government, Clayton F. Moore, clerk of the House Ways and Means committee, and Edward N. Dingley, tariff expert of the. Senate Finance committee, were employed in the work, which was a direct violation of another act of Congress, : Mr. Barbour undertook to treat the question put to him facetiously but didn’t succeed as well as some of his predecessors in the witness chair. When a member of the committee characterized the tariff League as a lobbying organization he asked “just what is a lobbyist?” Senator Car- away replied, “just look at your own organization, You've got as fine a lobby as any I know,” and Caraway has learned a lot along that line since the investigation began. The significance in this instance, however, lies in the fact that it shows every feature of the Hoover campaign was saturated with fraud and false pre- tense, Whether the candidate ap- proved the devious methods is a mat- ter of conjecture but he seems to fully enjoy the results accomplished. ——Grundy and Hoover are not in agreement as to the date of the beginning of prosperity in this coun- try. Grundy fixes it at the time high protective tariff set in and Hoover at the time he entered the public service, Mr. Grundy’s Platform, Senator Grundy’s speech, delivered at the Manufacturers’ Club in Phil- adelphia, on Saturday evening, may be construed as a public procla- mation that Big Business is in the saddle and intends to shape the des- tinies of the country in its own self- ish way. He attributes all the pros- perity of the past to tariff taxation and measures the progress of de- velopment of the country in wealth, culture and population by the rate of the tax levy on imports. He is especially enthusiastic in praise of that phase of the policy which has eliminated small enterprises and massed operation in mergers, com- binations and monopolies of colos- sal proportions. Mr. Grundy divides the progress of the country into three periods, and very properly describes the third or present period as revolu- tionary, “It was approximately with the enactment of the Dingley tariff of 1897,” he states, “that we came into what I would describe as the second period of this internal economic life—the period of the passing of many of the small and individual industrial units, with their intimate contacts between the owner and his employees; the peri- od of larger enterprise in corporate form and consolidations of many en- terprises of like character into single big businesses.” This is the policy which Grundy worships and which ‘tariff taxation fosters. But by what process of reasoning does Mr. Grundy persuade himself that the vast increase of wealth of the country since the transition of which he speaks may be attributed to tariff taxation? Did tariff taxa- tion produce electricity, the tele- phone, the automobile, the radio? Each of these elements, in the recent life of the country, has added hun- dreds of millions and jointly have produced billions, without any help from tariff legislation. And upon what feature of his activities doeshe base a claim upon the friendship of labor? = All his life he has fought the interests of wage-earners as those who have endeavored to help- ful legislation know, STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION. Good Service of Dubious Origin By voting to continue hides, leath- er and boots and shoes on the free list the coalition of Democrats and insurgent Republicans in the Senate performed a valuable public service to the people of the United States. The bill, as reported by the Senate Finance committee, provided for a tax of ten per cent ad valorem on hides, fifteen per cent. on leather and twenty per cent on boots and shoes. The insurgent . Republicans protested that “the rate on hides was not comparable to the duty al- lowed on leather and boots and shoes,” and asked for a Specific rate of five cents a pound on raw and ten cents a pound on cured hides. This demand having been refused Senator Borah proposed that all the articles be continued on the free list, which was adopted by a vote of 46 to 28, . While it is difficult to reconcile the reasons for Senator Borah’s ac- tion with the requirements of an active conscience it is impolite to “look a gft horse in the mouth,” and hardly worth while to venture an analysis. Mr. Borah seems to have been willing to go along with the proposition to burden the con- sumers to the extent of $100,000,000 a year or more, with twenty per cent tariff tax on boots and shoes if an additional burden of several millions were placed by a higher tax on hides. In other words, he had no objection to the robbery if the loot were divided so as to give the West an equal share. But the allocation of the plunder was not to his liking ard for that reason he determined to prevent the robbery. Some reformers are that way. , The pretense of the -demand for a high tax on hides is that the farmers who breed cattle need pro- tection. As a matter of fact the farmers who produce cattle would derive very little benefit from a tax on hides. They sell the cattle “on the hoof” and the proceeds of a tax on hides woud go almost en- tirely to the packing house monopo- lies. But if a tax is levied on hides there is reason in the demand for compensatory tax on leather and boots and shoes even though it does place burdens on the consum- ers. Placing all of these items on the free lst is, therefore, a happy solution of an ugly problem and it may be just as well to accept the favor without going into an analy- sis of the reasons which brought it about. The people get little enough anyway. ——Old fashioned winters may be delightful for making conversation but they are not pleasant to live in. Public Service Commission Denounced The Pennsylvania: ‘Threshermen and Farmers’ Protective association was addressed at a banquet in Har- risburg, last week, by the former Governor Pinchot who renewed his just and righteous war against the Public Service Commission of Penn- sylvania. During the closing period of his administration as Governor Mr. Pinchot tried to correct the faults and improve the methods of the Commission and, as he told. his audience in Harrisburg, it was the hardest fight he had made in the four years of his Governorship and resulted in the worst licking he ever got in his life, But he survived that defeat and is back on the firing line with a new supply of appropriate epithets and a strengthened purpose to win. “I believe there is hardly a town- ship, borough, town or city in this Commonwealth,” Mr. Pinchot declar- ed, “whose citizens have not been given gfraw deal by the Public Ser- vice mmission, I believe there is no other body under the government of Pennsylvania that has been so competely, so continuously and so notoriously controlled by the corpor- ations as the Pubic Service Commis- sion,” This is literally and shame- fully true, The body has been per- verted into a political machine which, like the tariffmongers in Con- gress, serves the purpose of collect- ing slush funds to control elections. Favors to corporate monopolies are exchanged for campaign contribu- tions, As a matter of fact the actions of the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission have been a scandal for years, Originally it was intended to be a non-partisan, or at least a bi- partisan body, but since the expira- tion of the term of the late John S. Rilling no Democrat has been ap- pointed and it has become a bitter partisan organization maintained for the benefit of monopoly. Instead of protecting the interests of the public against the encroachments of cor- porate rapacity it has become the instrument through which corporate crimes are legalized. In and denouncing the Public Service Commission Mr, Pinchot has per- ‘formed a distinct public service and earned the thanks of the people. = BELLEFONTE, PA.. JANUARY 31. 1930. The Five Power Naval Conference The London naval conference opened auspiciously in the Gallery of <he House of Lords, London, and is proceeding hopefully to the achieve- ment ‘of its mission. The King’s speech, significant mainly as a sym- bol of the unity of purpose of the British people, was in the nature of a welcome to the members of the conference but without promise oth- er than that of generous hospitality. The other speeches, including that of Secretary of State Stimson, con- sisted of expressions of appreciation of the King's courtesy and assur- ances of “distinguished considera- ‘tion” of each toward all the others. These exchanges of compliments are agreeable and interesting but don't mean much. The second session of the confer- ence was less amicable but more practical. It was to give opportun- ity for each of the groups to state the needs or expectations of his gov- ernment with respect to naval equip- ment. Mr, Stimson was the first speaker but he modestly declined to set up a standard other than com- plete parity with Great Britain. De- crease or increase of naval strength | is a matter of indifference to Amer- ica according to his representation, On the other hand France, Italy and Japan. stated their desires clearly and with some emphasis and Japan made the only direct plea for de- crease of present equipment. But ‘the spirit of compromise and accom- ‘modation was expressed by all. That the conference will come to an agreement is practically certain, but the value of the agreement is doubtful. Those who hope fora con- siderable cut in naval equipment are likely to ‘be disappointed. That un- certain quantity, national security, and the suspicions which pervade the minds of politicians in and out- side the conference, is the stumbling block, But these influences will not prevent a temporary or. tentative pledge - to cover a ‘brief period of time and save the face of, the enter- prise. It may serve the additional purpose of justifying our refusal to enter the League of Nations that ‘much. longer, which may have been the principal reason for the confer- ence. 2“ Last fall John Tonner Harris, of Harrisburg, vice president and general manager of the Bell Tele- phone company of Pennsylvania, of- fered to give a dinner to all com- pany employees who would secure ten new subscribers during the months of November and December. In Bellefonte seven employees secur- ed ten or more new subscribers and one employee in State College, They are J. H, Caum, manager; Misses Sarah Love, Hilda Haupt, Catherine Clevenstine, Helen Cruse and Earl Miller and George - Hoffmier, all of Bellefonte, and Harry Wagner, of State College. The dinner will be given in Altoona some night next week, —Bishop Cannon demands that the government supply more money and more men for the enforcement of the prohibition laws, While we don’t believe more money and more men would noticeably improve the situation we would like to see the Bishop put in charge of the matter and given every cudgel the law can supply. We believe he would make a more monumental failure of enforcement than those whom he is inveighing against are doing. —Several weeks ago Judge M, Ward Fleming appointed Charles F. Cook an auditor to audit the ac- counts of the prothonotary, record- er and register so far as their ac- counts with the State are concerned, but on Saturday advice was received from the Auditor General that the audits will be made by men from the department in Harrisburg, so that Mr. Cook’s appointment natur- ally becomes void. ——If the Philadelphia papers would keep Mayor Mackey off the front pages for a few consecutive days they might abate a provoking nuisance, ——An investigation of the activ- ities of “holding companies” may only show the urgent need of dras- tic legislation, but that will be worth while. ———1It is certain that there will be a Democratic candidate and an earn- est campaign in every Congressional district in Pennsylvania this year. ——Meantime the negotiations be- tween the Vare machine, of Philadel- phia, and the Mellon machine are making slow progress. ——Walter H. Newton, secretary to President Hoover, seems to be. associated with every scandal expos- ed in Washington. NO. 5. "BED TIME Good gracious “me! I most forgot To empty the kettle, and the clock, aly ; And put out the cat and bank the stove, For it don’t seem to meito be so cold. To feel if all the doors are locked And stir down the batter in the big stone crock. And I must giraighten the chairs and rugs, just : os ; For geryining comes in the middle of the nig! And with things all st i th th rewn at sixes nl Darn me suds, who knows what'll appen. : And_there’s the ashes and apple skin— Who left the cider in Ep a tin? And we pp-lang sakes—I forgot ho well Tl do that after I take ron arm Last night that — the sheets all red And oh, good gracious! that? : - to my pill. brick . made the Now what's Sounds like a mou i Hk. se in the pantry How in the name did the thing get in? I'm sure I stopped that AE ath tin. Where is the cheese?—let me think, Yes, I'll bah the trap right here by e sin And_ if that mouse comes racking I can leave things standi fear. E fe mi here out a Good lands, I wound the alarm too tight Jt can’t be 10. That clocks not right Wait now. I'll fix the hands ahead. And tomorrow I'll start early to bed. WINIFRED MEEK MORRIS-1930 America at The Hague. If the statesmen rise above : na- tionalistic bickering and the mak- ing of grandstand plays for the home audiences, the reparations con- ference now in session ai The Hague should pretty well dispose of the problem which has retarded Eu- ropean reconstruction for eleven years, : With the reparations payments fixed at $10,000,000,000 over a period of fifty-nine years, and organization of the Bank of International Settle. ments agreed to by earlier confer- ences the chief remaining issue is political rather than economic. = It has to do with sanctions. Germany in return for the Young plan which is to replace the old Dawes plan, insists that France relinquish her privilege to occupy Germany. This France refuses to grant. But France is not so hard-boiled on this question of sanctions as she used to be. She has discovered to Be rl, that a quick and final settlement of reparations is as sential to her lg well. being as it is to Germany. ' There- fore France must compromise the present disagreement, Foreign Minister Briand, although lacking complete support in Paris is expected to proposeas a compro- mise that in case of a dispute over German reparation payments, a spe- cial arbitration board or the World Court be empowered to determine blame and possible sanctions. Germany cannot afford to reject such a compromise for by so doing she would not only sacrifice world confidence but also jeopardize the youre plan and the International accepting Meanwhile the presence at The Hague conference of a so-called un- official Washington government - ob- server is another reminder of the selfish and contradictory American position. Just as we forced the or- ganization of a League of Nations for. others and refused to join our- selves, so now we have in effect dictated the terms of the repara- tions settlement and International Bank without having any official connection with either. Indeed, we have just negotiated a separate treatv with Germany, covering our collections for army of occupation costs. Bv such slight of hand perform- ances our government solemnly tries to maintain the fiction that there is no connection between Ger- man revarations and American war dehts and that we are not entangled in Furonean and world affairs, This pettv subterfuge fools no one. Power without responsibility is imnossible. So long as the United States is the stromeest world power and js ever reaching out for more eomtrnl over international destinies, we shall be in responsibilities up to our necks, All that is Needed. From the American Mutual Magazine. A real estate salesman of West Texas had just finished describing the glorious opportunities of that part of the country. “All that west Texas needs to become the garden spot of the world is good people and water,” he said. “Huh!” replied the prospect. “That’sall hell needs.” ——Borah refused to comment on the Crimes Commission report. But he will have something to say on the subject when the proposed leg- islation appears on the Senate cal- endar. pofesses of his ——Governor Fisher great pride in the wisdom choice of Grundy for Senator. ———There were plenty of million. aires at the Grundy dinner but no representatives og labor. ——The drys and the wets in Con- gress are making it hot for Presi. dent Hoover, SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE invita tind d ES Ed A cen fo Le RE i —A sausage, -ferty-six feet, nine inches long, was made on the farm of James H. Marker, near -Ligonier.. Mathematicians are ‘figuring “how many hot cakes should accompany it. 3 i —Because an accurate count of small game killed in the State depends almost entirely upon the co-operation of sports- men, the Board of Game Commissioners has asked for the return of report slips attached to hunting licenses. { —J. A. Sager, well-known farmer of Mackeyville, in Nittany valley, sustained a $15,000 fire ioss when his barn and four out buildings were destroyed by fire of unknown origin, on Monday, with all the crops excepting the livestock. —Clyde Miller, 38, married and the father of four children, was killed last Wednesday at his home in Montgomery, while fitting a loud speaker arrangement into his radio outfit. He touched a part fully charged with electricity. He had forgotten to switch off the current. —A reduction of one cent a quart for milk to consumers in Pittsburgh was an- nounced on Monday by H. B. Steele, sec- retary of the Dairymen’s Co-operative Sales Company. The new price of 18 cents will be effective February 1. Cream will be reduced one cent a half-pint. —A coroner's jury has recommended that Michael Sliss, of Primrose, Schuyl- kill county, be held on a charge of mur- der for the death of his neighbor, Peter Yurchak. Sliss, it was alleged, shot Yurchak because he would not turn off his talking machine when requested. —One man was killed and two women were injured, on Monday in an explosion of 50 quarts of nitro-glycerine being hauled from Titusville to 10 Mile Bottom, near Oil City. W. J. Sullivan, 40, Titus- ville, driver of the truck containing the nitro-glycerine, was killed. His body was blown into pieces. The two women were ‘in a nearby house which was badly dam- aged by the biast. —Miss Isabelle McKean, 17, of Polk, on Tuesday was discharged from the hospital where she was treated for a gunshot wound in the hand but Howard Reisinger, Franklin, 19, her companion ‘during an automobile ride Monday night, remained in the hospital with a wound in the chest. Both termed the incident was ‘‘accidental’’ and declined to divulge details of the shooting. —Firemen rescued nearly 200 women and girls late last Friday night, when the Masonic building in Turtle Creek, a suburb of Pittsburgh, was damaged by fire. Loss was estimated by firemen at $35,000... The women were attending a card party. Spontaneous combustion was said to have caused the fire. Ten tele- phone operators were guided ' to safety from an exchange on the second floor o ‘the building. - : : —An . automobile driven by C. L. Drumm, Bloomsburg, struck Allen Fetter, 70, while he was crossing the Berwick highway Sunday night. Witnesses sum- moned = another automobile to take Fet- ter to a hospital, and a hearse answered the call. The sight of the hearse so shocked Drumm that he fainted and it was half an hour before he was revived. Fetter suffered a fracture of the leg and was said to be in no serious condition. —Webster Saylor was elected mayor of Johnstown, last Friday, by unanimous vote of the four councilmen to fill the va- cancy created by the sentencing of Jo- seph Cauffiel to serve a term in the Cam- bria county jail after conviction of mis- conduct in office. . Saylor was defeated in the last Republican primaries for the nomination of his party as sheriff. The Johnstown school board, of which he was a member, met on Saturday afternoon in special session to act upon his resig- nation. : —Closing of the largest forest land purchase for public use in the history of the State, was announced last week. In the deal 182,000 acres of land were bought for $3 an acre, the total price amounting to almost $400,000, from the - Central Pennsylvania Lumber company. The land situated in 11 counties = in the northern section of Pennsylvania, is to be divid- ed between the Department of Forests and Waters and the State Game Commis- sion, the forestry department to get the largest portion, 79,226 acres. —Persons injured in accidents of mo- torbusses which = carry school children back and forth cannot look to the school directors of that district for damages, ac- cording to a decision handed down by Judge S. John Morrow, of Fayette coun- ty, in dismissing the $25,000 damage suit of Eleanor Edna Thompson. The court ruled that ‘furnishing free transporta- tion in a school bus is a public govern- mental function.” Miss Thompson sued for injuries sustained when the Redstone High school bus crashed into a telephone pole, severely injuring her. : —John McLaughlin, 36, and an un- identified man were found dead on Tuesday in McLaughlin’s home in Pittsburgh and were believed to have been victims of fumes from gas fires. The bodies were found by McLaughlin's widow who returned home from Johns- town, where she had been visiting since last Friday. McLaughlin’s body was lying on the kitchen floor and that of the other man was on a bed. Mrs: Mc- Laughlin could not identify her hus- band’s companion. Several fires were burning in the house and all the win- dows and doors were closed tightly. —Mrs. Alta Olds, aged 80 years, for many years a resident of Jersey Shore, and an aunt of Mrs. Lee Larimer, form- erly of Bellefonte, was found dead seat- ed in the living room of her home. Neighbors noticed that = the milk bottle left by dairymen had not been removed from her porch and on looking in the window, saw the figure of a woman slumped in a rocking chair in the room within. Chief of police George Slifer was called and broke open the door of the house, and coroner Charles L. Youngman, of Williamsport, conducted an investigation, and decided death to have been the result of natural causes. —An automobile mechanic who went to a moonshine plant in York county, to re- pair a broken truck and was arrested and convicted of conspiracy to violate the prohibition law, was given a sus- pended sentence and placed on proba- tion for a year by Judge Henry C. Niles, on Tuesday. The mechanic, An- gelo Promutico, Havre De Grace, Md. was declared to be a hard working me- chanic with a good record by John T. Allen, chief of police of Havre De Grace, who appeared in his behalf. The raid with which Promutico’s repair job coincided resulted in four arrests and convictions, and. confiscation of a huge illicit Hquor plant in Hopewell town : ship. ;
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers