a"
-—Again Governor Pinchot has
met his enemies in the Senate and
against he is their's.
from Florida are sell-
ing in Bellefonte cneaper than ap-
ples from Centre county. Solve that
one, if you can.
—We'd have no quarrel with radio
program arrangers if they should
forget for awhile that there are such
things as Hawaiian music and negro
spirituals.
—The Curtin street property own-
er who recently became so discour-
teous as to look a gift horse in the
mouth might do well to see that his
insurance amply covers any future
loss he might have. Volunteer fire-
men are not obligated to fight their
way in to fight a fire and burnt
children dread it.
—And where are the boys who
used to come around to lecture our
business men’s associations on high
pressure salesmanship, intensive
selling, etc? They're probably back
home with “the old folks” waiting
for the country to get obsessed
again with the lcea that money
grows on thistle bushes.
~ —We're against Governor Pinchot's |
election code because it proposes to
load the State with more high
salaried officials and put manage-
ment of elections in Centre county
in the hands of someone in Harris-
burg who knows about as much
about conditions here as we do of
conditions up in Wayne county.
The Democtats of the Nation
are to have a great pow-wow soon.
We're for that. Now's the time to
iron out the difficulties and deter-
mine the strategy to be used in the
battle of 1932. Let's settie all the
fights we have among ourselves, dig
in, consolidate our position and be
ready to go over the top when the
zero hour comes.
—And this twenty-thousand miles
of country roads doesn't look so good
either, when we come to realize that
their control will be taken out of
the hands of local authorities. They
will be built and supervised by Har-
risburg. The only say those who
live along them will have is to figure
where they are going to get the in-
creased taxes that will have to be
paid to maintain them.
Mothers, don't worry, When
that bellicose son of yours wants to
join the army so he can get a
chance to fight tell him that the
army is not taking on recruits,
has hit it too. Be-
sides, unless Mr. Mussolini should
decide to gum the game that
queiched the court martial of
of a fight in the army for
years to come. Getting a thrill out
of army life these daysis just about
as futile as pawin’ a woman with a |
pair of mittens on. If your son
wants to fight tell him to join the
Bellefonte Fire Department.
~The Smedley Bulter affair has
the smell of over-ripe fish. The
General talks too much, of course,
but we are of the opinion that his
court martial was called off not so
much because of what he had said
as because of what he might have
said had he been called to the stand
in his own defense. And anyone
who thinks the General's letter of
regret to the Secretary of the Navy
was so penitent as to inspire that
gentleman to call the trial off is a
moron. Mussolini got his apology,
but it wouldn't have been so easy
for President Hoover and Mr, Secre-
tary Adams to have gotten it back
had the trial revealed that an apol-
ogy was uncalled for.
-—Well, the first month of 1931 is
gone, but not the bread lines and
soup kitchens. In this connection
we're not one of those who hopes
for so called prosperity.
would like to see isa speedy restora-
tion of normal, sound business.
Even that won't come until a lot
of people come to learn that their
actual earning capacity is economic-
ally measured only by what they
produce for their employers, And
that goes for the fellow who is get-
ting five and earning three dollars
a day, as well as the one who sits
in a swivel chair and takes down
ten thousand a year when there
are thousands who could and would
do his job for less than half that
sum.
—The proposed election code, if
adopted, would prove unconstitu-
tional because it would come under
class legislation.
there are more Republicans than
Democrats in the Stateis no reason
for making it legal to spend more
money to elect a Republican Gover-
nor than to attempt to elect a Dem-
ocrat. If the amounts the -
tive parties may spend in a cam-
paign is to be limited to 214 cents for
each vote said party polled at the
previous general election there would
be manifest inequity. It would
be subversive of the fundamental
principle of equal opportunity to all
if a meritorious candidate of the
Democratic, Prohibition or Labor
parties were not permitted to spend
as much in his cause as a Republi-
can candidate would be, To be
elected such a candidate would have
to sell himself to a majority of the
voters of the State and how could
he do that if he were restricted to
an expediture very much less than
that permitted an opponent?
All we
Merely because
i
&
s—
STATE RIGHTS AND FEDERAL UNION.
Distress
There are 80,000 families in
Oklahoma starving, according to a sented simultaneously in both braach-
capable correspondent and experi-
enced investigator recently sent by
the Philadelphia Record to make a
survey of the drought stricken sec-
tions of the country. This estimate
is based on conversations with the
Governor of the State and other
prominent citizens, some of whom
are more optimistic on the subject
than “Alfalfa Biil Murray” but ai-
most despondent, nevertheless. There
are 200,000 families in distress in
the State that average five to a
family and “all want for the neces-
saries of life.” And there is no hope
for relief from within before the
1st of June, sixteen long weeks
ahead.
The same writer from the same Pp
sources of information estimates
that it will cost ten dollars a week
to keep each of these families from
starvetion. That means a total of
$12,800,000 for one State and there
are ten or twelve States similarly
afflicted, one at least, Arkansas,
equally destitute. In view of these
facts it becomes obvious that even
if the pending Red Cross drive were
entirely successful, that heretofore
justly esteemed benevolent organiza-
tion would be far short of the
amount necessary to relieve the dis-
tress, Even the proposed Senate
appropriation of $25,000,000 would be
inadequate. As Governor Murray
says, “it is life or death with these
people.”
Nearly a year has elapsed since
the drought calamity came upon the
country. But until after the elec-
tion nothing was done to palliate
the evil or relieve the distress, and
what has been done by the execu-
tive department since was not to
mitigate suffering but to save the
face of the President and benefit
the Republican party. Six months
ago the suffering became acute but
the sphinx in the White House was
unmoved. Even now he is wilfully
‘delaying the process of relief by the
pretext that feeding the starving
people by Congressional appropria-
(tion is a dole and sets a bad prece-
dent. But to our mind
y+ Laere's no chanee : thousands of people to starve a
‘an infinitely worse precedent.
| ———That the worid loves clean
‘humor is proved by the fact that in
one week Will Rogers raised $172,-
000 for drought relief by giving en-
tertainments.
——— Mp— nn
Consequences of an Extra Session.
The big business organizations of
the country are unanimous in the
opintfon that an extra session of
Congress, soon after the adjourn-
ment of the present session, would
have a disastrous effect on prosperi-
ty. The United States Chamber
of Commerce, the banker's associa-
tions and the corporations’ executives
are convulsea with fear of industrial
and commercial collapse if Congre#s
should assemble under auspices oth-
‘er than abolute control of Speaker
Longworth and President Hoover.
No reasons are given for this state
‘of mind on the part of the cap-
‘tains of industry and wizards of
| finance. But a review of existing
| conditions may reveal the facts.
| They are as plain as a pikestaff.
President Hoover was elected un-
der an implied promise that the
| purposes of the power trust would
‘not be antagonized during the
| period of his administration, and the
| assembling of the new Congress
‘with a majority in both chambers
| adverse to monopoly control, would
‘end that agreement. Mr. Longworth,
with the assistance of forty or fifty
| “lame ducks” who have been re-
| pudiated by their constituents, will
|no longer have power to regu-
late the legislation of the country
‘in the interest of corporate greed
land to the detriment of the people.
And the ambition of President
| Hoover for another term would be
sriously impaired.
Nine months will elapse between
| the adjournment of the present Con-
‘gress and the assembling of the
(next, During that time, in the ab-
| sence of restraint, the power trust
| will have ample opportunity to per-
‘fect its plans to merge, consolidate,
| absorb and by other dubious devices
| monopolize the water and electric
resources of the country. A special
session of Congress beginning In
| April or May would work a disas-
trous result on this sinister enter-
prise. It might make a few changes
in the Grundy tariff law that would
be harmful to some other trusts.
But such changes would widen the
markets for products of our fac-
| tories and soil, thus benefitting rath-
‘er than injuring the public.
| ~The administration at Wash-
| ington has decided to sacrifice the
| navy building programme in order
| to avert an extra session.
BELLEF
ONTE, PA., FEBRUARY 13, 1931.
The Proposed Election Code. Dignity of the Senate Maintained.
The new election ¢ code was pre-
es
Monday evening.
by the Pennsylvania Elections As-
of the General Assembly on
sociation after a year's investigation
and labor and contains may meri-
torious provisions. For example, it
limits the expenditures of candidates
both in primary and general elec-
tions, restricts assistance to voters,
makes the opening of ballot boxes
easier and makes jail sentences for
fraudulent voting and false returns
mandatory, No citizen who favors
honest elections will object to these
conditions. Prohibiting appointed
officials in State, county, city, bor-
ough and township governments
from political activity is worthy of
raise,
But the measure has faults that
are equally conspicuous. That is,
it takes from the people of the sev-
eral communities the traditional and
eminently just right to control their
local affairs and lodges that power
in the hands of the Governor at
Harrisburg. This result is effected,
according to the language of the
bill, “by removing from the County
Commissioners in first, second, third
and fourth class counties and from
registration commissioners where
they now function, their powers
over the conduct of elections and
registration, and centralizes them in
the county boards of election op-
erating throughout the State under
‘the Secretary of the Commeon-
wealth.”
This provision reveals the ‘fine
Roman hand” as well as the inordi-
nate lust for power of Governor
Pinchot, who not only controls the
activities of the Secretary of the
Commonwealth but arrogates the
right to veto the nominees of the
Secretary. Precisely the same sinis-
ter purpose is expressed in his
scheme to take control of the town-
ship roads into the hands of the
administration at Harrisburg. It
will not lift the burden of expense
from the farmer. They will have to in the present controversy with the
pay the cost anyway and they will Senate will have no other result than hailing as a Hoover victory the
forfeit all voice in construction and tp prevent an investigation of the
ection code more than counter- |
balances the good features and un-
less it is eliminated the measure
should be defeated.
—-Hven the scientists admit that
brachyuropushkdermatogamnarous is
a difficult word that ought to be
eliminated from scientific literature.
——————— A —————————
Mr. Pinchot’s Idea of Jury Packing.
There is no valid or even plausi-
ble reason for the bitter quarrel
which seems to have arisen between
the two houses of the General As-
sembly upon the question of investi-
gating the Public Service Commis-
sion. As a matter of fact thereis
no substantial opposition to such an
inquisition within or without the
Legislature. The activities of that
commission has been a subject of
criticism for many years. The
Democratic platform promulgated
early last Spring declared that it
“must be subservient to no interest
except the law impartially and
equitably enforced for the benefit of
‘all the people.” That meant the
‘elimination of the evils which were
' justly complained of,
In a radio address, the other eve-
ning, Governor Pinchot declared that
an investigation by the Senate, as
contemplated by Senator Earnest, of
Harrisburg, “would be equivalent to
‘a trial by a packed jury.” The res-
‘olution introduced by Senator Earn-
‘est proposed a committee of four
members from the committee on
| judiciary general of each chamber.
The Senate is said to be unfriendly
to the Governor by a narrow mar-
gin,
“packed jury.” If it divided on
lines of enmity or fidelity to the
‘Governor, it would split even.
On the other hand the House
| proposition is a committee of three
of the Senate, three of the House
‘and three to be named by the Gov-
ernor. Divided on the same lines
the Governor's side would have a
certain margin of three votes on
every controversial question. This
would be literally “packing the
| jury” to guarantee the adoption of
every proposition, sensible or absurd.
which the Governor might suggest.
|To his mind this may seem fair
‘and just. The Governor imagines
| that he is tke only honest man In
| public life and that those who
|servilely follow him are annointed.
| But that is simply an exaggerated
egoism, There are others quite as
honest, intelligent and altruistic who
may disagree with him.
|
—It’s all here and it's all true,
It was prepared
In affirming the Earnest resolution
for the investigation of the Public
‘| Service Commission and “pickling”
the House resolution for the same
purpose, the State Senate, on Mon-
day evening, asserted a fundamen-
tal right and maintained
dignity. The Earnest resolution pro-
vides for a traditional parliamentary
inquiry. The House resolution con-
tains an unparalleled innovation in
the form of giving the Governor!
power to name one-third of the in-
vestigators. In other words, it
proposed to “pack the jury” in or-
der to make a report desired by the
Governor. Or possibly it might
have been intended to create con-
fusion and prevent an inquisition: It
may easily accomplish that lament-
able result.
If Governor Pinchot were sincere
in his profession of opposition to the
systems and methods of the utility
corporations it might be possible to
excuse some of the absurdities he
has employed to fool the public con-
cerning them, But he is not sincere.
In the Presidential election of 1928
the Power trust might easily have
been throttled. Mr. Hoover was
openly for the trust and Governor
Smith against it. It was palpably
the paramount issue of the cam-
paign. Senator Norris, as good a
Republican and as sincere a Prohi-
bitionist as Pinchot, recognized both
the fact and the opportunity and
supported Smith. Governor Pin-
chot supported Hoover. Pinchot,
Hoover and the Power trust won a
“famous victory.”
The excessive charges, the crimi-
nal manipulation of capital stock
‘and the manifest purpose of utility
corporations, under the sanction of
the Republican party and many
' Public Service Commissions, to rob
the public, have provoked public
(criticism for many years. Mr. Pin-
chot joined, an eleventh hour con-
chot joined an eleventh hour con-
| terest of the public but to promote
his selfish ambition. His attitude
~ iniquities are crying to
heaven for redress, But if it will
| afford Mr. Pinchot an opportunity to
| traduce men, it will serve his pur-
pose.
Dexter S. Kimball, dean of Cor-
nell's College of Engineering, addres-
sed the Engineer's Club, of Philadel-
phia on Tuesday. He said he had
attended that conference of industrial
big-wigs in San Francisco lately, at
which unemployment was discussed
as the one big problem, and that no
one there could explain “how we got
this way.” There were a
great captains of industry there and
it seems strange that not one of
them knew “how we got this way.”
We do. We did it because every-
body who could was spending some-
body else's money.
~—While in Bellefonte on Monday
the Hon. P. E. Womelsdorf, of
Philipsburg, dropped a remark that
led us to believe that he is consider-
ing being a candidate for County
Treasurer. “Little Phil,” as
called him in the days when he really
its own!
A though | 8 20 million dollar
lot of
we Plan for relief and
NO. 7.
‘he Jobs are Coming.
From the Altoona Tribune.
When the
automobile industry and the rail-
roads are going under a reasonable
headway, we have prosperity. Those
are the key industries of this nation,
Long before cities like New York,
Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago
| realize it; long before the farmer
is out of the doldrums; long before
the bread lines have ceased taxing
to capacity the sources that support
them, these three industries are on
the way up.
Industrial experts who have seen
‘this thing happen in its regular
centers where the steel is made, where
great railroad centers are located.
Creeping through the news of late |
have been items of tremendous im-
port. The steel workers are going
back.
Each week from the automobile
manufacturing centers come little
items about the thousands who are
being put on at this, that or the
other plant.
This necessitated the adding of
hundreds of employees to the street
car lines that carry the men to the
factories.
The railroads around Chicago are
also hiring thousands.
It doesn't mean that prosperity
will be back with their first pay
But it does mean that here
and there throughout the country
day.
steel industry, the
cycles over the years have always’
learned to observe these phenomena.
Prosperity returns to the industrial
lately the automobiles have come to
be manufactured and where the!
—
SPAWLS FROM THE KEYSTONE
—The Westinghouse Electric and Man-
! ufacturing company, of Pittsburgh, has
| received an order for more than $100,-
| 000 worth of equipment from the South-
‘ern Sierras Power Co. Some of the
| equipment will be used at Las Vegas,
| Nevada, to supply power for construc-
tion work on the new Hoover dam.
~The Harbison-Walker Refractories
company at Monument is promised better
times by the securing of a large order
for brick from the U. G. I. company, of
| Philadelphia, it is reported. This is ex-
‘pected to put the plant on pracfically
‘full time for a considerable period,
' something not known at Monument for
| many months.
A $100,000 damage suit was filed
‘agains the Easton Dollar Savings &
Trust company, of Easton, Pa., in fed-
‘eral court, Philadelphia, on Monday, by
William A. Evans, of Orangeburg coun-
ty, 8. C., as a result of his acquittal in
December, 1929, on a charge of having
| given the bank a false statement of his
| financial condition to procure a loan of
| $6000.
| ~—Five horses were burned to death
(and thousands of dollars worth of grain
‘and farm machinery destroyed when fire
‘razed a barn on a farm near Roaring
Spring Sunday morning. The farm is
{owned by P. 8. Duncan, Sr., Hollidays-
| burg, and tenanted by H. E. Cunning-
ham. The amount of the loss could not
be estimated, although the barn and
farm implements were partially covered
by insurance.
~The Cambria plant of the Bethlehem
Steel corporation, at Johnstown, has plac-
ed in service a newly rebuilt open
hearth furnace. It is the only one of
its kind in the country, increases its
capacity, speeds up its output and more
men will be "quired to man it. If the
present successful operation of the new
furnace continues the other open hearth
furnaces of the Cambria plant will be
rebuilt along similar lines,
—After he had clubbed his wife, Ag-
nes, aged 42, to death with a pick
handle, Frank Brhobsck, coal miner, of
Coy, Indiana county, went into the cel-
lar, lay down on half a dozen sticks of
dynamite, lighted the fuse, and was
blown almost to bits by the resultant
explosion. The murder and suicide took
place in the home of the couple, at Coy
Mines, about one and one-half miles
from Homer City, at about 6:10 Sunday
evening.
just that many more workers will
have to be put on the job to supply
the things they need, and these
workers will thus receive money to
spend,
In that fashion does prosperity
Soda back and an era of depression
end.
It may be months before the
country as a whole will feel the ef-
fects. But it is coming. For
first time in a long while the signs
are really most hopeful. Even cheer-
The Bickering is Ended.
| From the Danville Morning News.
Administration spokesmen
are
compromise plan which will provide
, ¥ ropriation
from Which drought-stric farm-
ers may draw funds for surcease
from hunger,
Anti-Administration leaders are
equally vociferous in claiming credit
for routing the President and Red
Cross forces which attempted to
prevent Federal relief.
As a matter of fact, the victory
is one of common sense over stupid-
ity, The President, high officials
of the Red Cross, Senators and oth-
ers merely acted like stubborn boys
determined not to give in, regard-
less of the consequences of their
pigheadedness, and created an im-
passe from which they all had to re-
treat.
The President stood out against
15 million dollar Federal appropria-
tion for food. He is finally giving
in to a 20 million dollar appropria-
‘tion after laboriously removing the
word “dole” and the Red Cross from
its dispensation.
The country has been treated to
another spectacle of chaos and con-
| fusion in the place of intelligent
leadership. Had the Senate and
the President shown a disposition to
get together for a sensible discus-
‘sion of a national calamity and a
upon a
{program much time would have been
| saved and neither side would be un- |
The House is believed to be in
full sympathy with the Governor by
a large majority. It is not easy to
'see how a committee thus constitut- |
‘ed could be anathematized as a
made himself felt in Centre county gor compulsion now to prove that it
politics, looked vigorous enough for wag right all the time and that the
‘another fight and we want to tell other side had to give in.
the younger generation of politicians |
that fights were fights when he was |
Pg | Political Juggling.
From the Harrisburg Telegraph.
| ——If Secretary of State Stimson There Is much political juggling
is able to steer the foreign |
‘of the administration back to the
{lines laid by Jefferson Is obvIOUS "12 "tow are being fooled.
‘purpose to cast a slur upon the yo... are being tossed about
memory of Woodrow Wilson will be g.ansied fashion.
' overlooked, being
the old game has been played so
made in the interests of the
| that individual or faction in a par-
| ticularly favorable light. Meantime
| the legislation that should be receiv-
the real cause for the order to court
martial General Butler. His recent
speech condemning the marine
was “the head and front of his of- unreasonably. Nothing istobe gain-
fending.” ‘ed by such tactics, The public has
|no stomach for mere political by-
i
——While men are hunting jobs Play
every where else the Soviet govern- | the heartiest of co-operation.
‘ment of Russia is preparing to draft ge jn
‘women into industries because of and befuddle continue.
The public
| the scarcity of labor. |is impatient of results.
ft cares
but it is very much interested in
The snow storm of Sunday .,,q government and prompt atten-
was a double blessing. It gave tion to all the real needs of the
| needed moisture to the soil and em- moment. It is in no mood for a
| ployment to thousands of shovelers. continuation of picayune politics by
peanut politicians and it may
depended upon to register its senti-
ments at the elections of the next
~The first thought that came
to President Hoover's mind when
the compromise was announced was
and
“it is a victory over the Senate
sideration of popular interests
less to political promotion.
—Now that the Butler court
martial has been called off Corney
Vanderbilt will not have a chance
to “startle the world.”
~The Secretary of the Navy
owes an apology to somebody. Either
General Butler or the public or both
have cause for complaint.
policy |on Capitol Hill these days. ‘The in-
tent is to deceive the public, but
in
Loud demands are
| poor old voter when in reality all
~The Mussolini incident wasn’t that is intended is to place this or
the earnest attention of all con-
tivities in the Nicaragua election a flounders along or is delayed
| While thousands are idle and many |
ungry, the efforts to deceive
| very little about political ambitions |
|two years if there is not more con- |
—Charles William, 15 months old son
of Mr, and Mrs. Harvey Hendricks, of
Danville, escaped with minor injuries
| when he fell through a register hole
from a second story bedroom to the hot
| stove below. The child with it's broth-
‘ers and sisters was playing in the bed
{room when he fell through the circular
| opening in the ceiling. Fortunately in
falling, he struck the side of the stove
and fell to the parlor floor. His in-
| juries consisted of a contusion of the
i k.
|
—Several hundred dollars worth of
| merchandise stolen from camps and
| stores of Renovo, Coudersport pike and
| Lock Haven, as well as from several
| stores in Harrisburg, have been recover-
ed in a cabin on the Coudersport pike and
owned by the Brown Run Hunting Com-
pany, and consisted principally of canned
1 800ds. . The goods wege tuned aver to
the police by Jesse Dayton, who with
his pal Carl Bair, wag found in the
Reeder-Widmann hunting camp Thurs-
day by Caretaker Fount L. Linn.
—The damage suit against the New
York Central Reilroad company, by
Estey Butterbaugh, Mahaffey resident, as
the result of injuries received in an ac-
cident over a year ago, was settled out
of Clearfleld county court for $12,000,
according to an announcement made by
attorney Carl Belin, of Clearfield, coun-
sel for the plaintiff. The suit was
instituted in the Federal court at Pitts
burgh. Butterbaugh was injured while
working as a section hand for the rail-
road company near McGees Mills. A
train backed into the section gang in-
flicting serious injuries on the plaintiff,
A fellow employee was killed almost in-
stantly.
—The only thing that seemed to bother
a bandit who robbed Frank Loeth, in
Pittsburgh, was a feeling that the latter
might get the idea that he was being
held up. Loeth, salesman for an auto
agency, was sitting at his desk early
last Friday when a well-dressed young
man walked in and, smiling, pointed a
pistol at him and demanded money.
Loeth gave him $25. “Now please don't
get the idea that this is a holdup,” re-
marked the bandit as he removed his
own watch and chain, stick pin and a
fountain pen and laid them on Loeth's
desk. “I'll. be back in an hour, pay
you your money and you can return
these to me.” Then he left. But he
| didn’t come back.
—With 250 cords of wood cut and saw-
ed into stove lengths since Janua'y 1
for the use of families heing cared for
by the Mifflin County Welfare Society
and the demand now increased 0 120
[cords weekly it is estimated that a total
of 1000 cords will be .ae2led hefore
spring by the society to provide fuel for
the needy families under its care. The
‘wood already cut and delivered has been
secured on State forest lands but due
to the difficulty of transporting men to
and from the section of the Seven Moun-
tains where the cutting was being done
the offer of 8. B. Russell to allow cut-
ting timber on a tract owned by bim at
| Macedonia, near the Willlam Penn High-
way, west of Mifflintown, has been ac-
cepted and work started at the new lo-
cation this week.
Enrollment at the Pennsylvania State
College to date indicates that this will
be the largest second semester in the
history of the college, according to Wil-
‘liam 8. Hoffman, college registrar.
During the regular mid-year registration
| period last week 4086 students entered
| Penn State for the second semester,
| Hoffman said, against 8808 in the same
| period last year. Late entrants are still
| enrolling. Under a new
| registering which Hoffman put into ef-
| fect this semester, the time required was
| reduced from three to two days. The
| system eliminated long lines of waiting
students to get through in less time
than formerly. Registration proceeded
!at the rate of 89 to 45 students per min-
ute for eight hours on each of the
two days this year. Each student re-
quired about an hour to complete his ar-
rangements, fill in his record cards, pay
his fees, and be ready to attend
at a time when there should