Well, Governor Pinchot is in the
saddle again and we shall see what
we see.
—Nature certainly was co-ordi-
nating anatomy when she made our
nostrils so adaptable to either the
thumb’ or fore finger.
—The wise lady pedestrian keeps
far enough away from the passing
automobile when the streets are
running with slop and slush.
—The Wickersham Commission has
reported at last, Its report is fully
covered by the statement that it
spent half a million dollars to get
nowhere.
——If bank presidents and so-
called “Captains of Industry” would
stop predicting near-prosperity the
public might adopt a more hopeful
view of the future.
—Down in Columbia thieves are
stealing the jars that are placed on
the streets to collect contributions
for the relief of the needy. That's
like taking pennies from a blind
beggar's hat.
—Linn street is saved! Cadillac
15 is gone, but what's license num-
bers among gossipers. There'll be
a State car up on east Linn to take
the place of the one that bade fare-
well to west Linn on Monday.
—The Philadeiphia Ledger says
in the old days when a vehicle
zipped by you it meant some horse
was feeling his oats—whereas, to-
day, when the same thing happens
it means that some ass is feeling
his rye. Answer: Is the Ledger wet
or dry?
—Jt is rumored that the Belle-
fonte Republican will cease publica-
tion soon. We are sorry that its
publication is to be discontinued. It
is Bellefonte's oldest Republican
newspaper enterprise and is there-
fore a journalistic landmark that we
would regret to see effaced.
—If anybody should ask you, tell
them that this edition of the
Watchman is an exceptionally inter-
esting one. Because that is exactly
what it is—a darn good publication,
and let us hope it will get like the
boy who came home from school
the other day with an “A” in Eng-
lish and said he was getting “Good-
er an’ gooder.”
—Senator Scott fared well in the
organization of the State Senate on
Tuesday. In addition to being chair-
man of the Appropriations commit-
tee heis a member of the committee
on Executive Nominations. The lat-
ter is a very powerful weapon be-
cause all of Governor Finchot's
nominations must go to it before
they reach the floor of the Senate.
—Arthur has landed, And, as
usual, landed not only on his feet
but sittin’ also. We'd say it's sittin’
darn pretty when one can see nine
thousand dollars a year staring him
in the face in these times when we
couldn't see nine thousand cents if
we hooked three pair of glasses on
our proboscis. More power to him
and congratulations. He didn't know
much about how Linn street was
going to vote, but he got what them
that did didn't.
~The inaugural ceremonies at
Harrisburg went off without a hitch
on Tuesday. Governor Pinchot re-
pewed his campaign pledges to fight
for twenty-thousand miles of im-
proved township roads, to keep the
administration, if not the State, dry
and to wage war on utilities. Since
Governor Fisher has left a surplus
of nearly fifty-two million dollars
in the treasury Gifford will have
plenty of money with which to buy
oats for his hobbies.
The Watchman announces that
John M. Fleming has joined its re-
portorial staff—temporarily at least.
Johr is going in for journalism and
his college work requires that he
pratice on someone and in his case
that someone is going to be you.
His first news story under a “By”
line, which we think you will agree
with us that it deserves, appears in
this issue under the caption “Youth-
ful Hokoes, a Refrigerator Car and
Kindly People.” If we were to say
what we think of it a promising
prospect might get puffed up in the
making and spoil what looks like a
coming good writing man.
—Recently a friend who had
evidently forgotten that years ago
he told us he intended retiring from
business when he reached the age of
sixty, handed us a story of a suc-
cessful newspaper man who had re-
tired. Members of the ‘“profesh”
are more than ordinarily interested
in any one of their brethren who
has jocked himself intosucha posi-
tion that he can let go of the bear's
tail without fear of landing in the
county home. So we were intrigued
by the story of how this country
newspaper man could retire with
$100,000 in cash. He did it, after
thirty years of close application to
duty by pursuing a policy of strict
honesty, taking good times with the
bad, always practicing rigorous rules
of economy and inheriting $99,999.95
from an uncle the day before he
retired. We're clinging onto the
bear's tail for probably the same
reason that the friend who told
he was going to retire at sixty, and
hasn't. Neither one of us hasa rich
uncle left.
VOL. 76.
Contre : Might rand " New Con-
gressional District.
In all probability Pennsylvania will
have to remake her Congressional
Districts, Tne census of 1930 cuts
our representation in Congress from
thirty-six to thirty-four members so
that the State will have to be re-
districted to provide for the loss.
There is a Federal law that would
require such action before Congress-
men are again elected in 1932.
Already experts have been at work
on the difficult task of mapping
the State so that contiguous coun-
ties can be grouped in such a way
as give such groups population
enough to entitle them to a Mem-
ber. Since it is desirable that
counties be not divided it will be
apparent that securing a population
of or near 283,273, which is the aver-
age in the State for each Member of
Congress, will take considerable fig-
uring.
One plan that has been worked
out will completely change the com-
plexion of the 23rd District, which
is the one to which Centre county
has been attached for years. In it
are placed Bedford, Blair, Centre,
Huntingdon and Mifflin. In other
words we would be separated from
Clearfield, Cameron and McKean and
put in with a group of counties
with which we have never had
political district contacts except in
the case of Huntingdon when that
county and Centre formed a Judicial
District.
While the average voter in Cen-
tre and Clearfield counties will see
little in such a divorce politicians
will view it with considerable re-
gret. The two counties, Centre and
Clearfield, have been together in both
senatorial and congressional Dis-
tricts so long that they know one
another. Many groups have formed
in them for mutual political ad-
vantage and it has been possible to
jockey the offices of Congressman
and Senator between them.
If the senatorial District remains
unchanged Senator Scott would not
have anything to offer Congress-
man Chase by way of support from
| Centre. In. consequence the Con-
would not be so much
interested in seeing to it that Clear-
field keeps hands off Centre's am-
bition to have a Senator, And since
the mew plan would put Clearfield
and Cambria together to make a
congressional District Mr. Chase
would not be sitting so pretty,
either, for Cambria has a much
larger population than Clearfield and
has never shown an inclination to
pass up a chance to get a Con-
gressman.
Of course the proposed plan for
redistricting might not be adopted.
In any event both Congressman
Chase and Senator Scott are prob-
ably much concerned about it and
well they might be.
~The world's unused wheat, or
what is called carry-over, at the end
of 1930 was 1,115,000,000 bushels.
That was sixty-two million more
bushels than were carried over in
1929 and nearly two hundred million
more than were carried over in any
year between 1822 and 1928. In-
creasing production and decreasing
consumption are the indisputable
causes of this surplus of the cereal.
In the face of these facts what fol-
‘ly it is to talk of tariffs or govern-
ment buying as means to stabilize
the price of wheat. They are noth-
ing but impotent, wasteful make-
shifts. There are only two agencies
by which the price of wheat might
be pushed up and maintained on a
level that would be profitable
crop failures, is purely providential.
The other is reducing acreage sown
to wheat and keeping it there until
increased world population justifies
more planting. Years ago we sat on
the porch of the “Mountain” House
‘at Snow Shoe in conversation with
‘the late Senator S.R. Peale, of Lock |
Haven. He was a brilliant
‘man, handsome in appearance and
fond of young men. He un-
‘der took to set us to work on
‘a problem that intrigued us a lot at
the time. He suggested that it
‘would be interesting if we were to
| figure out, by the ratio of the world's
increase in population to its increase
in wheat production, how long it
would be before getting enough bread
‘to eat would be an acute problem.
We know the Senator felt that such
a time was not far distant. So did
we after listening to his plausible
| calculations. But thirty or more
| years have elapsed since then and
the condition is exactly reversed.
——-Jf President Hoover were half
as wise in current affairs as he is
emergencies |
us | there would be little cause of com-
| in calling for help in
paint. Al Smith and John W. Davis
| will soon boom the Red Cross col-
| lections.
to
growers and one of them, general
STATE RIGHTS AN
BELLEFONTE, PA., JANUARY 23,
Pinchot’'s Administration Organized.
Governor Pinchot has entered up-
on the duties of his office and the
machinery of the administration is
practically assembled. Richard J.
Beamish, Secretary of the Common-
wealth; Clyde L. King, Secretary of
Revenue, William A. Schnader,
torney General; Samuel S. Lewis,
Secretary of Highways; James F.
Malone, Secretary of Property and
Supplies; John L, Hanna, Secretary
of Welfare; Charles F. Armstrong,
Insurance Commissioner; Peter G.
Cameron,
Lewis E. Staley, Commissioner of
Forests and Waters; Oliver M.
Deibler, Commisssioner of Fisheries;
David J. Davis, Adjutant General,
and John A. McSparran, Secretary
of Agriculture, will compose his
official
board.
There are three vacancies at this
time though before this issue of the
Watchman reaches its destination
two of them will be filled. It may
be said that those are experienced
politicians and capable of efficient
service. The head of the council
table, Dick Beamish, comes from
good old: Democratic stock and his
long service in journalism has given
him a liberal education in the arts
and intricacies of official life. He
is a sincere advocate of honest elec-
tions and just government and un-
less he is hampered in his work by
ulterior purposes of his higher ups,
‘he will give a good account of him-
self. All the others in the favored
list are well known, though not al-
ways as reform crusaders.
But the cabinet is essentially a
Pinchot aggregation and each mem-
ber of it understands that his ten-
ure of office depends on absolute,
not to say servile, obedience to Pin-
chot.
measurement used in selecting them.
Happily there are good reasons to
hope that they will fulfill the high-
est expectations of those who elected
Mr. Pinchot to the office he cccupies.
But “politics make strange bedfel-
lows” and ambition leads into
strange and sometimes devious paths.
It would be entirely too utopian to
imagine that the interests of the
people will be the only purpose
the Governor during the next
years. though it may be expected
that he will do a ed,
~The Soviet government of
Russia will make little progress in|
the direction of world approval so
long as the conscription of labor is
practiced under government sanction.
Reason for Tardy Generosity.
a
It is not altogether surprising that
the Red Cross fund lags though it
is certainly unusual. For a great
many years rich psopie have cheer-
fully and generously contributed and
those less fortunate have esteemed
it a privilege to gre as much as
thy could afford in support of this
splendid benevolence, But only a
few days ago Mr.
Payne, head of the organization, for
the apparent purpose of supporting
the President in a controversy with
the Senate, testified before a Senate
committee that the Red Cross had
ample resourcess to take care of the
drought sufferers, Then he asked
the public to make good his pledge.
The President, depending on hear-
say statements, recommended an
appropriation of $30,000,000 for the
purpose. The Senators representing
the sections afflicted demanded an
appropriation of $60,000,000, declar-
ing that any less amount would be
inadequate. While the controversy
compromised by an appropriation of
$45,000,000, with a proviso that none
‘of the money be used for providing
food for the suffering people. In
order to avert widespread starvation
Senator Robinson procured an
amendment to the Interior Depart-
sufferers.
It is certain that the appropri-
ation will be approved by the Sen-
ate but itis predicted that under in-
fluence of the President it will be
atives. In that event the suffer-
ing will continue, for even if the
$10,000,000 contribution to the Red
Cross is subscribed it will fall far
short of the amount required to
serve the purpose. The Red Cross
will do its best but that will not
suffice. It is too big a job for that
or any other philanthropic agency
and the Congress which voted $100,-
| 000,000 to provide rood for starving
| Russians ought to be willing to give
one quarter of the sum to save
starving Americans.
——So long asenvy and suspicion
| continues in the capitals of Europe
| there is little hope for Mr. Briand's
| “United States of Europe.”
At-
Banking Commissioner; ing
family and political war
That was the standard of
John Barton
was pending Mr. Payne volunteered
his statement and the dispute was
defeated in the House of Represent-
D FEDERAL UNION.
The Trout Are All Right,
Should Worry.
Concern as to what nature might
be doing to the big trout in Spring
Creek seems to be spreading. Last
week the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
went so far as to undertake to give
them absent treatment by editorial
as follows:
© “Information that the big troutin
Spring creek at Bellefonte have
scarcely sufficient water in which
they may swim about comfortably
is disquieting, although not alarm-
. As one of the attractions of
the State, these fish must remain
undisturbed in their serenity. Not
only have they received the ad-
miration of the late William Jen-
nings Bryanand been fed by Gifford
Pinchot, but they have been watch-
ed by persons from many States as
they lazily enjoyed a security never
‘to be disturbed by an angler.
It is not that the famous spring
from which the town received its
name and waters of which were
made over to the people by a quit
deed in 1800 is failing. Not at all,
it is pouring out its 11,000,000 gal-
lons daily in the drought as regular-
ly as under normal weather con-
ditions. But the town is diverting
some of the capacity of the creek
for power purposes, taking it from
‘the stream above the dam just be-
low which the trout have their
gn So much water is used for
need that the pools of the fish
are depleted. Normal rainfall at
the headwaters would solve the
situation, but in the meantime the
fal cannot be neglected ' X
way to e pools mus
I be found if the dry weather con-
tinues. Bellefonte owns the trout,
perhaps, but it has a wide respon-
sibility, especially to those individ-
uals who have watched the big fel-
lows and remember them so well
' that they fancy almost that they
might call some by name.”
A Pittsburgh attorney, Harold
Obernaur Esq., evidently read what
the Post Gazette had to say and
| promptly conceived the idea that
| poetry should be added to the prose
‘pleas for the salvation of the fish.
| His plea for the supposedly drouth
kn urine trout is in the
! LET THERE BE NO DELAY
We
. Sram ¥ -
of In Bellefonte’'s Mighty stream
The Trout shall never play,
The Power (?) Trust has sealed their
doom
And damned (dammed) their hopes
away.
Perhaps, it is the work of fate,
And foolish is our cry,
For Bryan admired them years ago
And now they, too, are dry.
But whatever be the mystery,
The citizens should not delay
The Trout and Spring Creek must go on
And children have their day.
As a matter of fact the trout are
in no danger whatever. It is true
that the operation of the borough's
netv hydro-electric plant is taking
‘so much water down a tail race to
it’s wheel that little is left to flow
| through the regular channel in which
the trout do their stuff for curious
visitors, but that is only because
the rainfall since last June has
diminished the flow of both Logan's
Branch and Spring Creek to the
point where the Big Spring alone
cannot make up for the depletion in
the two other streams thatcombine
above the falls to make up the main
stream.
Just as soon as normal rainfall
comes conditions will be changed.
Meanwhile there is more water, even
now, for the trout than those in
many other streams of the State
have. And plenty of food, as well.
If the trout are dying from any
cause we opine it is from high blood
pressure brought on by eating too
much red meat. If there should be
any danger of their becoming blind-
ed by dust in the stream bed we
will send out an S. O. 8. for the
| whole country to shed tears of la-
| ment large enough to make their
play ground more liquid,
ment supply bill allocating $25,000,-
000 to buy food for the starving
| ——A bill will probably be intro-
duced at this session of the Legis-
lature designed to change the motor
code so as to make every holder of
ination as to physical fitness at
| least once every five years.
|
|
| ——The wisdom of selecting Gen- |
| eral Pershing as chief of the Amer-
|ican contingent in the world war
was vindicated by every step he
took arranging the preliminaries for
| combat.
——For the ’steenth time within
a year the fall of the MacDonald
| government in London in predicted.
Some of these days Mac may quit
| and leave the country inasad lurch,
——While President Hoover is
holding up relief measures in Con-
gress suffering is multiplying in the
drought sections of the country.
1931.
| a driver's license undergo an exam-
NO. 4.
Prohibition Report Many Sided
Document.
President Hoover's much talked
of Law Enforcement Commission re-
ported on Wednesday. The Commis-
sion was headed by Geo. W. Wick-
ersham and included Newton D.
Baker, Ada L. Comstock, William 1
Grubb, William S. Kenyon, Monte
M. Lemann, Frank J. Loesch, Ken-
neth McIntosh, Paul J. McCor-
mick, and Roscoe Pound. All are
notable persons in the social, ed-
ucational, legal and business life
of the country. They gave months
to their investigations and spent
$500,000 in making them, so that
their report, covering one hundred
document pages, is a very illuminating
and comprehensive offering.
It is significant, however, that no
two of them are in perfect accord
as to what should be done with the
Eighteenth Amendment, The report
is too long for the space the Watch-
man has to give it, so we publish
the following summary of its con-
clusions as made by the Philadel-
phia Public Ledger of Wednesday.
Washington, Jan. 20.—In their
individual conclusions, two members
of the Law Enforcement Commis-
sion ask outright repeal of prohi-
bition four others favor modification,
two are for a further trial of Pro-
hibition with some fom of referen-
dum meanwhile, and the remaining
three advocate continued trial with
intensified enforcement.
The Commission, as a whole, op-
poses:
Repeal of the Eighteenth Amend-
ment.
Return of the saloon.
Federal or State Governments, as
‘such, going into the liquor business.
Manufacture and sale of light wines
and beer.
Greater latitude in liquor searches
and seizures.
The Commission, as a whole, wants:
Substantial increase in funds for
Federal enforcement, to be used in
part for more dry agents.
Improvements in statutes and in
the organization, personnel and
equipment of enforcement, including:
a. Lifting of the statutory limit
on doctors’ prescriptions.
b. Uniform provision for a fixed
| alcoholic content in ciders and fruit
¢. Statute permitting tracing of
denatured alcohol to the ultimate
consumer,
d. More effective padlock statute.
The Commission, as a whole, agrees:
State co-operation is essential to
enforcement.
Support of public opinion is nec-
essary.
Enforcement effort has improved
continuously since 1927.
Enforcement and observance are
inadequate.
Enforcement organization Amend-
ment should be revised as follows,
if it is revised:
“Section 1. The Congress shall
have power to regulate or to pro-
hibit the manufacture, traffic in or
transporation of intoxicating liquors
within, the importation thereof into
and the exportation thereof from
the United States and all territory
subject to the jurisdiction thereof
for beverage purposes.”
The Commission Disagrees on:
Whether prohibition under the
Eighteenth Amendment is enforce-
able.
Whether the amendment has been
tested sufficiently.
The liquor regulation plan rec-
ommended for consideration by a
| majority of the commission follows:
| Creation of a national bipartisan
| commission having full control of
the liquor trade,
Establishment of private profit
{imited national corporation to
vested with the exclusive right of
manufacture, importation, exporta-
tion and transportation in inter-
state commerce and sale of alcohol-
i liquors, to the extent stated be-
ow.
Restriction of the national cor-
poration’s sales in any State to the
corporate agency created by such
State.
Retention by each State of the
right to be dry, and Federal ban
on liquor shipments into dry States.
Freedom for the States to adopt
| local option.
| Ban on saloons.
Limitation of individual sales to
| holders of buying licenses. The
licenses would be subject to revo-
cation for drunkenness or other law
violations.
Fixing of prices to discourage
| drinking of stronger liquors and
still avoid creating an opportunity
| for bootleggers.
Miama Beach will have a hard road
to travel as long as the business
element of the population insists on
an “open town.”
~The Prince of Wales is off on
his trade mission to Latin America
|and the whole world will watch his
‘work as a salesman with interest.
|
——Governor Pinchot has begun
the job of Lir'n and firn with aven-
| geance. He is starting off on the as-
| sumption that everybody who was
{not with him will be against him.
——The movement to evangelize |
—The one hundredth anniversary of
the founding of Juniata county will be
observed in an elaborate celebration at
Mifflintown next summer, eccording to
plans now being formulated by a coun-
ty-wide organization representing every
township and borough in the county.
—Wresting himself from the grasp of
his nurses, Angelo Benecci, 46, leaped
from a second story window of St Vin-
cent’'s hospital at Erie, on Sunday, and
was killed. He had been taken to the
hospital only a short time before he
leaped for observation because of actions
believed induced by worry over illness.
—Williamsport's new market house will
open its doors to the marketing public
on February 7, according to an announce-
ment of an official of the company.
When the doors are thrown open to the
public it will mean the end of the old
curbstone market that has been in vogue
there for more than sixty-nine years.
—Carl L. Hart, 19, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Hart of Bast Fairfleld township, Craw-
ford county, suffered a broken neck
from which he died when struck by a
falling limb on Saturday. The youth
was engaged in cutting timber on a
neighboring farm at the time. Nine
brothers and sisters in addition to his
parents survive.
—Fourteen years after the Japanese
beetle was discovered in the United
States near Riverton, N. J., the most
remote point at which the pest has
been found is at New Castle, Pa., 285
miles away. The beetle thus has trav-
eled at the rate of 20 miles a year.
Beetle scouts have searched through 16
States for traces of the destructive in-
sect.
—Bdward Seleskie, of Trevorton, was
awarded $5000 and his mother $8000 by
a jury who brought in a verdict against
the Harrisburg Auto company for the
loss of the boy's left leg, due to his
having been run over by one of the
defendant's cars. Application for a new
trial has been made by the defendant
on the grounds that the verdict for the
woman was excessive.
—An army combat plane landed on
Monday on the ice of the Susquehanna
river near Clearfield. The pilot was en
route from the West to Bellefonte. Not
being familiar with this air route, he
lost his way, and, seeing the ice as a
perfect landing place, he took a chance.
After getting his bearings he took oft
for Bellefonte, his landing and take-off
being perfectly executed.
—Butcher Hyman Roth, of Pittsburgh,
had fust cut off a big slice of steak
when a man walked into his shop and
demanded: “‘Stick ‘em up, I want your
money.” Hyman grabbed the steak and
|let it fly. It hit the intruder on the
chin and he hit the fcor—out cold.
| Then Hyman telephoned the police, and
was sitting on the would-be robber
| when the officers arrived. Police sald
| the man was unarmed.
—A $600,000 deficiency bill will
|to be introduced in the Legislature to
| cover the $500,000 expenses incurred in
fighting forest fires during the drought
| period and $100,000 for the imminent
spring fire season, it was announced by
Charles E. Dorworth, retiring Secretary
of Forests and Waters. Dorworth said
| that since the early part of December
$280,740 had been paid, with bills total-
ing $224,485 remaining to be paid.
—When the midnight Greyhound bus
arrived at Gettysburg, it was discovered
that one of the passengers was dead,
the stricken man being Samuel O. Mc-
Laughlin, 59, of Fort Loudon, Franklin
county. Soon after the bus left Phila-
delphia McLaughlin fell asleep. When
the bus stopped at Lancaster he did not
awaken. Passengers noticed an unusual
pallor on the man's face, but said noth-
ing about it. Death was due to a heart
attack. The remains were sent to his
home.
have
—Four of the men's service organiza-
tions of Lock Haven, representing sev-
eral hundred business men, have en-
dorsed the proposition presented by
William Caprio, president of the Cham-
ber of Commerce, to construct a dam
in the river there, as a flood preven-
tion measure. Mr. Caprio is urging in-
dividuals to write to Congressman Rob-
ert F. Rich urging that the federal
government aid in the construction of
the dam for that purpose, as Congress-
man Rich promised to suppor: the mea-
sure should the public sentiment be for
the dam.
—The big steam shovel being used in
the excavation for the new high school
at Legonier stood idle almost an hour on
Friday, while workmen tried to chase a
| shepherd dog who refused to budge.
They coaxed him. He bared his teeth.
They ‘‘shooed’” him; he growled. They
made gestures at him and he barked.
But he wouldn't move. Then Mrs. Fran-
cis Bererson came along looking for her
little daughter Jane, aged one and a half
years. And the dog wagged his tail
‘and barked gleefully. His vigil was
done. And there underneath the shovel
they found Jane, sound asleep, her head
lon a rock.
—A four-year-old boy was tossed from
| a second story window curing a fire in
the Twin Rocks business district, on
| Monday, and was caught by a young
| woman whose arms were fractured fia
making the catch. The interiors of six
| buildings were damaged by the fire
which did damage estimated by fire of-
ficials at between $50,000 and $75,000.
The boy, son of Mr. and Mrs. Julius
| Levinson, was uninjured as he was
! dropped from the second floor of
Levinson's clothing store to Miss Mar-
| garet Epoch, 17. Miss Epoch and Mr.
land Mrs. Levinson, who suffered fractur-
ed legs in leaping to safety, were taken
| to hospitals.
—Sally Lou, 2-year-old daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. Ben B. Bower, of Blain,
| Dauphin county, fell into a small dam
| near the family home. There were eight
inches of ice on the dam, but a hole
| had been cut in it for the purpose of
| dipping water for household use. The
| mother missed the child and rushing to
| the dam, she could see nothing except
| that the water was muddy. She plung-
led her arm into the hole, which was
| about fourteen inches square, and pull-
| ed the little one out. The child was
| unconscious. Help had arrived by this
| time and they immediately ran to the
house and used first aid and by the time
a doctor arrived respiration had resum-
ed. The child seems none the worse for
her misfortune.