—A fire a month at the Y
goes
to prove that they do have hot
times up at that popular recreation-
al center.
If Pinchot pursues his present
policies throughout his administra-
tion he will make Mussolini “look
iike a piker.”
Extra session or no extra ses-
sion the Congressional calendar
should be cleared before Congress-
men go home.
— The. founders of the govern-
ment were much more afraid of
executive usurpation than of legis-
lative inefficiency.
__We had been looking for “the
January thaw” to open up the
ground and pour copious quantities
of melting snows into it, but we
can't have that unless we get some-
thing to thaw,
The Auditors are at work on
the County's books. They have'nt
delved far enough into the affairs
yet to give any hint of what may
be expected. However, we venture
the prediction that the cost sheet
will show that there was no depres-
sion in government in 1930,
—Political gossip is to the effect
that former County Treasurer Jim
Heverly is on the preferred list and
will land a nice job under the Pin-
chot regime. Well, Jim certainly
was for Pinchot. We got it in no
uncertain tones from his own lips
one night when we had the temeri-
ty to ask him where he stood in
the primary fight.
On official ballots for 1931 elec-
tions in Pennsylvania there might
be four regular parties this year.
The Prohibitionists had lost their
right to a place on the ticket but
have probably gotten it back and as
the Liberals cast 2 per cent of the
vote given to the candidate having
the largest plurality in last falls’
election they will be entitled to a
place if they want it.
-—~We are not a believer in gov-
ernment ownership, but we hate to
think what would happen to Belle-
fonte if her water supply were not
in the hands of her taxpayers. Oc-
casionally we fritter money away,
as we did on that pitameter project,
but on the whole the Bellefonte Wa-
ter Department has been managed
so that consumers have gotten more
water at less cost than they would
have had had the system been own-
ed by any individual or corporation.
—The crew of an American ves-
sel mutinied in a Russian port on
Monday. It had been given shore
leave and went Communistic. Here's
hoping that our immigration au-
thorities will have deaf ears to the
appeals of that crew when they try
to get back to the good old U. S.
A, When they waken up to discov-
er what they've got to do to make
good in Stalin's “Four Year Plan”
they'll realize that a ‘bread line” in
this country looks like Utopia by
comparison with the lot they drew,
—Listen, if you want to get sent
up for life there is no need of go-
ing out and murdering some one,
Just desert your wife. Then the
Court will order you to pay her a
dollar a day for support. Fall
down on that and be brought into
court for contempt. Then you stand
a chance to be sent toa work-house
where you can earn sixty-five cents
a day with which to pay the wife
the dollar. You'll be sure of a meal
ticket for life on such a job, be-
cause its exactly like taking one
Sep up an icy hill and slipping back
0.
—To the inquisitive person who
dropped us a card on which was
written merely this interrogation:
“Why, haven't you told us how long
it is, yet?” we reply that ninety-
five days must elapse before we can
get back to business. That is,
the opening of the trout fishing sea-
son is what he had in mind. We
might get “balled” up about the
close of the game season a=4 the
date of ground hog day, as we did
last year, but when it comes to the
king of out-door sports we're like
the bears and the snakes, we know
when to crawl out of our hole,
—Isn't the Hon.
besmeared with luck. On Thurs-
day afternoon, September 18th, Mr.
Pinchot, standing on the court house
steps in Bellefonte, said: “I have
Just had a very satisfactory talk
with Senator Scott and Representa-
tive Holmes and I want you to sup-
port them.” Then Senator Scott and
the Hon. Holmes told us the
y were
one hundred per cent fi -
chot’s program. us Bh
chot’s program was to have Willi
am
D, Mansfield made president pro
tempore of the Senate and C. G.
Goodnough speaker of the House.
didn’t care anything about who
Co
‘harm to the industrial
—
VOL. 76.
The Election of Mr. Daix.
Contrary to wide-spread expecta-
tion Governor-elect Pinchot has been
defeated in his attempt to control
the delibrations of the State Senate
through selection of a hand-picked
president pro tempore. The im-
portance of this office lies in its
prerogative to appoint the standing
committees. Mr. Pinchot assumed
that any other than a man of his
own choice would exercise this power
to defeat his legisiative programme
during the present session of the
General Assembly. It was a pre-
posterous proposition but in direct
line with the attitude he maintain-
ed during the campaign to the ef-
fect that the election of Mr, Hemp-
hill would be a sacrifice to monoply.
It would have caused no such ca-
lamity.
The office was created by the con-
stitution of 1874 and from that time
it has been an unbroken custom to
select the president pro tem at the
close of each session and re-elect
him at the opening of the succeeding
session, At the close of the last
session the favor was bestowed by
unanimous vote on Senator Augus-
tus F. Daix Jr. of Philadelphia. No
complaint was made in the interval
against his capability or character.
The only objection to his re-election
was that he had shown independence
enough to vote against the nominee
of his party for reasons which seem-
ed to his conscience satisfactory.
This is not a crime inthe estimation
of the average citizen. President
Hoover appraises it as a virtue.
Taking one consideration with
another the disappointment of Mr.
Pinchot is a victory for the consti-
tution which guarantees the coni-
plete independence of each of the
three departments of the govern-
ment, a vindication of a fair tradi-
tion of the General Assembly and a
just reward for faithful and long
continued service in the Senate.
The margin was narrow, twenty-
four to twenty-two, but a ‘miss is
as good as a mile” in such things
and we positively refuse to believe
that the interests of the public have
been betrayed because a rather self-
ish official, a glutton for power, nas
been frustrated in a somewhat sinis-
ter aspiration, The government at
Harrisburg will still live. “We may
be happy yet, you bet.”
——It is said that President Hoov-
er will adopt the ‘mailed-fist”
method of administering the govern-
ment in future. Even that might
be an improvement on his equivocal
practices of the past,
An Inexplicable Problem.
It is not easy to figure out why
the administration at Washington is
so set in its opposition to an extra
session of Congress soon after the
expiration or the present session,
After the election of 1918 returned
a majority adverse to the Woodrow
Wilson administration the Republic-
an leaders, with singular unanimity
went about to force an extra session of
the then incoming Congress in order
to embarrass the President during
the last half of the term. There
was no uncompleted legislation of
vital importance on the calendar but
there were abundant opportunities
for investigations and other devices
for making campaign capital.
This time “the shoe is on the
other foot,” and there is a vast dif-
ference in other respects. There are
on the calendar a great many meas-
ures of legislation which are cer-
tain to fail of passage during the
| present session. Among these are
' bills that have been under consider-
ation, in one branch or the other,
for a long time and in which the
people of the country are vitally
Holmes just
concerned. It is practically certain
that the new Congress will enact
some, if not all, of them at the ear-
'liest opportunity. But unless there
is an extra session the opportunity
will be delayed for nearly a year
and within that time much harm
may be done.
present Congress has done all the
life of the
country that can be done. The
| Grundy tariff legislation of the last
The Martin-Mellon-Vare faction | session 8
has cut
i
There is, or at least there ought
to be, no foundation for the impres- |
‘sion that Congress in session is a
Part of Mr. Pin-
STATE RIGHTS AN
BELLEFONTE, PA.
Norris Will Not be Expelled.
The Republican leaders of the
Senate have wisely determind to re-
fuse to support the movement of
Mr. Lucas, general director of the
National committee, to expel Sena-
tor Norris from the party. It would
be a hazardous undertaking, they
reason, and might do much more
harm than good. It is agreed among
them that Norris is a disturbing
element in the organization but he
has just been re-elected Senator as
the nominee of the Republican par-
ty of Nebraska and has six years
to serve. Besides his expulsion at
this time would leave the party in
the minority at the organization of
the next Congress and demote alot
of Senators who now hold important
committee chairmanships.
Mr. Lucas was appointed to his
present office at the personal solici-
tation of President Hoover, and itis
generally understood that his views
on the subject of punishing Norris
are the views of the President and
that failure to endorse them implies
a rebuke to the ostensible head of the
party. But they reason that Mr.
Hoover has made so many blunders
in directing the policies of the party
that it is wiser to rebuke than to re-
prove him. First, he selected Dr.
Work for chairman and he proved a
failure. Then he selected Claudius
Huston, whose financial operations
made him impossible. Finally he
selected Senator Fess and Lucas
who were both inefficient and
treacherous.
Expelling Norris from the party
‘would be approving the methods by
which Lucas treacherously fought a
nominee of the party whom he was
under moral obligations to support.
That would be a menace to every am-
bitious man in the party and a di-
rect threat to every Senator and
Representative in service. It would
be enthroning an individual of ques-
tionable methods as supreme master
of the organization. That is too
wide a latitude to bestow on any
man whose chief characteristic is
sycophancy, and the Republican
leaders of the Senate have decided
against it, even though it implies a
rebuke of the President. As a mat-
ter of fact the Senate leaders have
little concern for the welfare of the
President.
~The fund placed in a Wash-
ington bank at the discretion of
Bob Lucas, executive director of
the Republican National committee,
may not have been christened a
slush fund but it served that pur-
pose all right.
The Railroad Grouping Plan,
The plan of grouping the railroads
of the east, recently agreed upon by
the four major transporation corper-
ations concerned, may be all that
could be desired. It is certainlyin
conformity with the provisions of
the act of Congress adopted several
years ago and widely discussed by
railroad executives, the Interstate
Commerce Commission and the pub-
lic press since. But Senator Couzins,
of Michigan, is fully justified in his
protest that the speedy endorsement
of the action by the President in ad-
vance of its consideration by the
Interstate Commerce Commission
was both unethical and may be in-
finitely harmful. The law requires
the approval of the Commission as
essential to the agreement.
The Interstate Commerce Commis-
sion is a creature of the President.
All the members of the Commission
are appointed by him and may be
removed at his discretion. After a
lengthy consideration of the subject
the Commission devised a plan for
the operation of the law. If in a
measure at least, preserved the pol-
icy of competition by creating five
major systems instead of four as
expressed in the new arrangement.
Unrestrained the Commission might
have insisted upon its own plan,
which had been rejected by the
corporations, or a compromise which
would have served the public quite
as well and conveyed to the corpor-
ations notice that they are creatures
| instead of masters of vernment,
menace to business prosperity, The ig 2
While Mr. Coolidge was President
'a precisely similar condition was
presented to the Tariff Commission,
likewise a creature of the executive,
When the Commission made a de-
| commerce 10 cision unsatisfactory to the Presi-
ats Ey is the bone, practically closed the mar- gent one member was induced to re-
spon; ouse and didn't set kets of the world to our products sign by the offer of a more desir-
up any opposition to Goodnough but and vastly increased the cost of gable job, another was removed and |
they were desperately interested in | living. Nothing more can be done a new body created which expressed
} e organization of the Senate and in that direction, and it can hardly | the President's views on the
brogght out Daix in opposition to be claimed that putting proper re- | ject. The premature approval of
nsfield. The result was that when Straints on monopolies will be anir- | plan adopted by the
sub-
the
railroad execu-
the Legislature organized last Mon- reparable evil. That is about all an tives in this case might easily be
day Holmes didn’t have to stand u
and be counted on making good nis
promise of September 18, whereas
our luckless Senator looked right
into the mouth of the cannon when
he forgot his promise of September
18, and voted for Daix.
| extra session would do,
Maybe there is just reason
for the popular impression that
Congress in session is a menace to
public interests. Look who con-
trols Congress!
construed by the members of the
Interstate Commerce Commission as
an admonition to “watch their step.”
Good jobs are scarce at present and
it will be a sad moment for the
country when Presidential bulldoz-
ing becomes the rule,
D FEDERAL UNION.
Sam Lewis Selected for Highway
Commissioner.
The selection of Sam Lewis for
the important office of Highway
Commissioner reveals the mastery of
Joe Grundy in the incoming Pinchot
administration. Republican party
leaders have been variously affiliated
from time to time but in all the
changes Lewis has been the faithful
adherent of Grundy. In the mixup
of the primary campaign, last spring,
Lewis was Grundy’s choice for Gov-
ernor. When the Mellons, of Pitts-
burgh, refused to accept Lewis,
Grundy broke up the conference and
‘he and Lewis turned in for Pinchot,
not because they liked Pinchot, for
they didn't, but in order to oppose
‘he Mellons.
Sam Lewis has been an active ele-
ment in the political life of Pennsyl-
vania for many years and has
never done anything in his life ex-
cept hold office. His first office
was postmaster at York, From that
post he became corporation clerk in
the office of the Auditor General,
under Charlie Snyder. Then he suc-
ceeded Snyder as Auditor General
and at the expiration of his term
was elected State Treasurer. After
that the office of special deputy
Auditor General was created for him
and he is still in that job. He sup-
ported Pinchot for the nomination
for Governor in 1920 and quarreled
with him during his term of office.
In announcing the appointment of
Lewis Mr. Pinchot says ‘we dis-
cussed at length the
Johey to be adopted during the next
four years and found ourselves in
| complete agreement.” It may be as-
‘sumed, therefore, that Mr. Lewis
will pursue whatever policy Mr, Pin-
chot suggests, This he can be
depended upon to do as long as Mr,
Grundy and Mr. Pinchot are
in “complete agreement” on every-
thing. It may also be confi-
‘dently expected that the service will
‘be efficient and that the personnel
will be responsive to any call for
| political work during the term,
go long as the complete agreement
| continues.
bd ——1f Senator Norris in
“Wolving the Muscle Shoals problem
‘and abolishes the lame duck session
of Congress he will have glory
‘enough without tampering with the
form of electing Presidents.
rn
— Luzerne county appears to be
afflicted with all the political sins
in the calendar. With a consider-
able number of officials already in
jail a blanket net has been spread
for others,
—The days are gradually grow-
ing longer. However they will never
get long enough for us to get our
‘work done without resort to artifi-
cial light.
Senator Borah is against a
‘third party movement, Corruption
‘may run rampant in the organiza-
‘tion but Borah's ‘heart is true to
Moll.”
rr rm—
——Al Smith is now “one of us.”
He began service as a columnist last
Sunday and his first contribution
gives promise of an interesting series.
——The Republican row in Har-
interesting but only
risburg is
an incident compared with the
greater ruction in Washington.
— It's all right to avert a special
session of Congress if possible, Special
session by sacrificing necessary leg-
islation is too costly a process.
—If Mr. Hoover's idea of Con-
gress is well founded it might be a
good idea to abolish that branch of
the government entirely.
—Mr. Pinchot has little cause to
worry. When he begins dividing
the spoils all the party leaders will
come at his beckon.
JANUARY 9, 1931.
highway
or
NO. 2.
Assessments Once More.
From the Harrisburg Telegraph.
The assessment evil has turned
up in the newspapers again. This
time in Fayette couaty, where Coun-
ty Commissioner George W. Hibbs,
sitting as a member of the board of
appeals considering the triennial as-
sessment, has severely condemned
the whole system.
“The inequality of the tax burden
is an outrage on the property own-
ers of the country,” he asserted.
“Fayette county proper is assessed
anywhere from 10 to 150 per cent
of its market value, A similar con-
dition exists elsewhere. In West-
moreland county the assessments
range from 10 to 152 per cent. In-
vestigation has proved that this is
true,” the commissioner asserted.
He emphasized “market value" as
the basis of assessment and then
added that there were not ten per-
sons in Fayette county qualified to
do the work. “And when I say ten,
I'm very conservative,” he added.
“We need a new system of as-
sessing property,” Mr. Hibbs con-
tinued. “Just imagine, we are us-
ing laws enacted 150 years ago.
The commissioners are allowed thir-
ty days in which to go over the
county to hear appeals and try to
clear up complaints. In reality it
would take a hoard of competent
men two years to do the work in
the right way.”
If Mr, Hibbs had his way, the
commissioners would be permitted to
select ten men to assess the entire
county and discard the present sys-
tem, under which there are nearly
sixty assesors. Property would then
be assessed at its market value and
an equitable assessment made.
State Treasurer Edward Martin
recently voiced stmuar sentiments,
An organization has been formed
with headquarters in Pittsburgh to
get the matter before the
ture. It is to be hoped nothing
will happen to involve the assess-
ment reform with collections, an un-
fortunate union of two worthy bills
that did much to kill both when
they were before the lawmakers
some years ago. Assessment is one
thing; tax collections are quite an-
other. There is no question that we
are paying too much for our col-
lections, but the loss on that item
is small as com with the tre-
'mendous benefits taken from one
| class of property owners and hand-
ed over to ancther by inequalities of
assessment. :
rr ———— A ———————————
Preserving Private Zeal for Public
Good
From the Philadelphia Record.
Railway chess.
Maneuvers of the four-trunk rail
merger.
The public does not understand
the moves, but senses the import-
ance of this mammoth game.
What is the purpose of the
struggle?
Why this 10-year effort to estab-
lish a balance of power between the
railroad giants?
Why should the Government not
have forced the five-trunk plan in
the first place, or kept out of the
| controversy entirely and let the rail-
roads merge as they saw fit?
Since the Interstate Commerce
Commission regulates rates and
| services what difference to the pub-
‘lic which railroad merges with
which?
The 10-year delay was necessary
to preserve the delicate balance be-
tween private initiative and Govern-
‘ment regulation.
five-trunk consolidation,
I. C. C. proposed 10 years ago,
would have destroyed private initia-
tive,
The driving power in our great
‘railroads is private initiative—the
| personal pride that dominates the
entire personnel of a railroad's or-
from trackwalker
| ganization
| president.
Unregulated zeal for
tc
Legisla-
If the Government had forced the
which the
it |
“our road”
'SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE,
—Bdward J. Hugar, 57, shot and kill-
| ed himself at his home in Lock Haven,
on Tuseday. He had been in ill health
for some time.
—Bertram RK. Shimp, aged 69 years,
the last blacksmith In Lewistown, was
found dead in the office of his shop by
his daughter, Mrs. Anna Simpson, on
Tuesday morning.
—Under a resolution adopted at its
ninety-sixth annual meeting in Me-
chanicsburg, the $8000 in the treasury of
the Allen and East Pennsboro Society
for the recovery of stolen horses and
mules and the detection of thieves will
be distributed among the 500 members.
| The society will disband.
—Harvey Waite and Carl Rupert, of
Beech Creek, were arrested by the Lock
Haven detail of State Police and detec-
tive David L. Probst, of Lock Haven,
last week, charged with the theft of
eighteen chickens from Walter Glock, a
Beech Creek farmer on the night of
December 16. They entered pleas of
guilty before alderman Allen Sterner
and were held for court in the sum of
$500.
—Unemployed and disgusted, George
Disgusted, according to Pittsburgh police,
sought to drown his disgust in liquor.
Digusted's disgusting conduct aroused
the disgust of officials at a welfare agen-
cy and they called police. The disgust -
ed Disgusted was even more disgusted
when they haled him into Court Tuesday
morning. The Magistrate became dis-
gusted with Disgusted and, in his dis-
gust, fined Disgusted $10 or 30 days in
the workhouse. Disgusted went to jail
even more disgusted.
—After four months of blindness, Jane
Hill, a senior in the high school at
Berwick, again has her sight. Moreover,
her perfect attendance is unbroken. She
had been having trouble with her eyes
but thought little of it until she awoke
blind one morning. She continued in
school, led to classes by a friend and a
younger brother, and kept up with the
classwork through hearing recitations.
Examination finally disclosed diseased
wisdom teeth and, when these were re-
moved, her sight was gradually restored.
—Mrs. Fannie Walburn, 75, was burn-
ed to death in the destruction of her
farm house, near Montgomery carly Mon-
day morning. Clay Deitrick, a relative
who resided with the aged woman, was
awakened by her calls from downstairs,
but was unable to go to her aid because
of the dense smoke. He climbed over a
porch roof and jumped to the ground,
spraining his ankle. He limped over a
half a mile for aid, but when neighbors
reached the house it was a mass of
flames. The body was discovered later
in the morning, badly charred.
—In order to curtail running expenses
of the Brookville hospital, members of
the staff of the institution have taken a
voluntary cut of fifteen per cent in their
wages for the coming year. The financial
report submitted at a recent meeting of
the board of directors indicated that the
| expenses of the institution exceeded the
| revenue on an average of ten dollars a
day. When the situation was presented
to members of the staff, it was at once
| decided to take the wage cut to carry
the institution through its present diffi-
culties. The wage reduction will effect
a saving of approximately twenty-six
hundred dollars during the year.
—Four members of the Bucknell Uni-
versity football team and coach Carl G.
Snavely, on Tuesday, volunteered to sub-
mit to a blood transfusion operation in
an effort to save the life of Professor
“James P. Whyte, professor of old Eng-
lish and member of the athletic couneil
at the university. Professor Whyte is
in a serious condition in the Geisinger
Memorial hospital, Danville, and his doc-
tors desire to build him up for a major
operation this week. The four athletes
who volunteered their blood are Clark
Hinkle, fullback; Louis Mutzel, gur~d
and captain of last year's boxing team:
Harry Fry, halfback, and Edward L.
Nied, tackle.
—The identity of the armed bandit
who held up and robbed H. 8. Schenck,
manager of the Shaffer Stores company
in Huntingdon, Wednesday night of last
week, still remains a mystery. A check
of the loss revealed that the thug ob-
tained more than $200 in currency in the
robbery. The robbery occurred about
11:30 p. m. while the manager was en-
gaged in closing his accounts for the
day. He told police officers that a man
entered his store in the guise of a cus-
| tomer and requested a roll of clothes
line. When Schenck stooped over to
get the clothes line from a bin, he felt
the muzzle of a revolver against his
gide. The robber forced him to a ware-
house and after gagging and binding
him, stole the money.
—Contracts have been awarded by the
Safe Harbor Water Power corporation
for six generators for the new hydro-
electric development at Safe Harbor,
Lancaster county. Four of the generators
will be built by the General Electric
company and two by the Westinghouse
‘leads to seizure of power, disregard company. Contracts for the six hy-
| for public convenience, cut-throat draulic turbines have already been award-
| competition. led. The six units which will constitute
Loss of zeal and initiative tends
'inevitably to Government owner-
| ship and operation, such as has re-
|tarded development of European
| utilities.
| American railroads have been
developed into the world's greatest
| system through private ownership.
| When the Transportation act was
| passed in 1920 the country still
| feared the monopoly bogey. Today
i
the initial installation at Safe Harbor
| will have a capacity of 255,000 horse-
| power. Provision is being made in the
power house now wn#¢« construction for
| six additional units, bringing the ul-
| timate capacity to half a million horse-
| power. Over 2000 men are now at work
ion the dam across the Susquehanna at
| Safe Harbor. The initial development
| at Safe Harbor will involve the invest-
| ment of $40,000,000.
—_With the death of Kin Hub- We realize that we fare better with The largest vault in the world, which
‘bard the Abe Martin source of clean
‘humor and wise philosophy is elos- |
ed forever.
| —Penologists recommend ‘“rooms”
instead of “cells” in prisons and
' maybe, after all, there's something
‘in a name.
——Revenue statistics recently
published show that “the rich are
growing richer” whatever happens to
the poor.
|
| -—A good, sharp rebuke of the
new Power Commission by Congress
| would meet with cordial popular ap-
| proval.
| ———Germany still protests that
| the reparation requirements are too
| heavy but she continues to pay.
| regulated monopoly than with un-
| regulated competition.
The difficulty is to retain suffi.
| cient private or individual energy
land initiative, with adequate regula-
| tion by the Government.
| If this balance has been main-
‘tained by the proposed four-trunk
| merger, the 10-year delay and the
|long drawn out moves of the great
railway chess game were justified.
| ——Having failed to secure need-
led funds by borrowing, Soviet Rus-
| sia has determined to coin a billion
| rubles, That is an easy process of
meeting deficiencies if the materials
|are availabl
~The health record for the year
just ended is the best ever, accord-
ing to statistics, but the record on
morality is not mentioned.
is to be installed in the Bank of Japan
| at Tokio and built by the York Safe &
| Lock Company, was shipped in part on
Tuesday. Half of the huge vault, which
weighs 3000 tons, was shipped to Balti-
more on a special train of 38 freight
cars over the Pennsylvania railroad. The
train required two locomotives. The
steamship Tokai Maru, of the Japanese
Steamship Lines, is enroute to Baltimore
and will arrive January 13. She will
sail for Japan January 15, carrying no
other cargo than the vauit. The other
half of the vault will be shipped early
in April. Oscar Sch.nidt, Jr.,, of York,
an erector for the company, will go to
Tokio to supervise the installation opera-
tion. He wil be In Tokio for ap-
proximately one year, according to an
announcement by S. Morry Laucks, pres-
ident of the company. The vault Is
about 10 feet high, inside measurement,
187 feet long and 83 feet wide. Seven-
ten doors and vestibule furnish en-
trance.