§b* Centre flrmocrat. SIIKJKKT k FOHSTKH, Editors. VOL. X £|i? (Cento grmomd. Term* $1.50 per Annum, in Advance. s T SHUGERT and R. H. FORSTER, Editor*. Thursday Morning, June 30, 1881. THE wheat crop in some counties of the State are reported as very promis ing, a ud farmers arc contracting with dealers at a dollar per bushel. In this county the crop will probably he considerably below the usual average. HAMILTON DISSTON, of Philadel phia, it is said, has closed a contract for a four million tract of laud in Florida. This undoubtedly makes him tho largest land owner in the world, and is perhaps the largest body of land ever purchased by a private individual. POST MASTER GENERAL .1 AMBB and Attorney General MAOYKAOH'S grip upon the Star-route thieves is still firmly held, aud, unlike Windom of the Treasury Department, they show no signs of weakening. The thunder aud threats of Brady's Star route organs do not acem to terrify them. THE dead-lock of the New ork Legislature in the election of Senators still continues without any sigu of reaching a satisfactory result to any of the aspirants. It is altogether probable it will adjourn without mak ing a choice, leaving the election to the next legislature. THE tobacco producing States are classed by the census report, as Ken tucky first, Virginia second,and Penn sylvania third. This is comparatively a new industry in Pennsylvania, in creasing annually, and if the increase coutinaes, as in the last two years, will soon be the leading tobacco pro ducing State. Whether this is an evidence of advancing prosperity or a ritrogadc, will be disputed by many. JOHN WELCH, late Envoy Extra ordinary and Minister Plenipoten tiary to the court of Bt. James, has been elevated to the distinguished po rtion of President of a Republican Division association in Philadelphia, composed principally of negroes. This distinction to Mr. Welch was doubt h- to show appreciation of the val uable service he rendered by furnish ing funds to buy the State of Imliaua in the interest of the Republican party last fall. A LARUE committee of Mahonc are at Washington await ing the return of the President from I/mg Rranch, for a general talk over Virginia politics. They hope to con vince him that it would lie sound po litical policy to sink the Republican organization in Virginia and make it a mere out-rider to Ross Mahoue and his repudiation nondescripts. Per haps they may succeed. No telling what may happen as a sequel to Re publican stupidity in this Mahone business. IT would be interesting reading if •State Treasurer Rutler, or one familiar with the facts, would state how many *]>urioiu names the rooster Senators and Representatives of Phil adelphia placed upon the pay roll as employes of the State, and what amount was thus fraudulently paid. It is generally credited that such names were placed upon the rolls and pay drawn while there was no such persons on duty to represent the ser vice for which payments were made. That this kind of fraud upon the Commonwealth has been perpetrated for years, admit of little, if any doubt. We have seen it over and over again charged, and recently repeated iu the Philadelphia Timet, but why the guilty scoundrels are not exposed and prosecuted is the mystery that needs explanation. Have these thefts es caped the notice of the State officials, or are they conveniently oblivious "to ways that are dark" when manipulat ed by partisan associates? "KJUAI. A Nil KXACT JI.HTHK TO ALI, MKN, OK WiIATKVKR STATU OH FKKSUAHION, KKI.ICJIOUS OH POLITICAL."—Ji-ffrrwm. THE School Journal makes a re markable statement when it declares that the election of school superin- | tendents in various parts of the State | was distinguished hy hrihery, and j that the average price of the vote of a director was SSO. If this he true, it is ahout time to abolish the office of su. periiiteudeuts, or at least to curtail the salaries which have been gradually growing up and attracting the cupid ity of the venal, who are ever ou the alert to occupy paving offices. If our schools, like our politics, are to be come subjects of barter and intrigue, the outlook is indeed discouraging. Better leave the education of our children in the hands of the directors without pay, except in the conscious ness of a faithful discharge of duty, than in the hands of a corrupt supcr iutendency who can pay 850 a vote for the office. In this county, we are happy to say, no such disgusting ap pliances are introduced in the choice of superintendents. The directors are composed of our best citizens who act conscientiously in the choice of superintendents of a high standard of excellence both for efficiency in the work assigned them, and for their su perior character and moral standing in the community. Such were our late superintendents, and such is the present. THE Phialadelphia Press is having a lively tilt with Congressman Beltz boover, of Carlisle. The /Vcss charg ed Mr. Beltzhoover with lobbying on the floor of the House on the night of the adjournment of the Legislature against the speculative Life Insurance bill. Mr. Beltzhoover denied it. But the Press returns and reiterate* the charge. Mr. Beltzhoover after giving the letters of a number of members iu refutation, close* a communication to the Press thus: When you charged me in your paper with lobbying againat the insurance bill, and re-iterated the charge atter my de nial, you lied willfully, maliciously and deliberately. You lied like every com mon mountebank lies in plying bis trade to make a personal, petty, -elfish point. To verily this I challenge you to sue me for libel, and 1 hereby ex pressly waive all technicalities as to whether calling you a liar in this un ambiguous language would be libelous. If you convict me of libel in calling you a willful, malicious aod vulgar liar I will resign my seat in Congres*. If you do not sue, or, sueing, fail to con vict, you should step down and out of one of the most honorable and respon sible callings among men. Very truly, etc., F. E. IIKCTZIIOOVtR. DAVID MOUAT, A fugitive from justice, one of Philadelphia's useful Republican ring roosters, prominent as an ex-member of the legislature, ex-councilman, delegate to the Chica go convention and one of John Welch's committee to fix Indiana last fall, returned the other day after many months absence, and reuewed his bail. He was indicted for ballot-box stuffing and absconded to avoid trial anl party exposure. It appears he had a rough experience as a fugitive, his pals failing to furnish the means he had a right to expect of them, and so returned to face the consequences of his wrong-doing. He has learned the lesson "that the way of the trans gressor is hard." DAVKsroRTon the stand at Albany acknowledges that he offered a Dis trict Marshalship to a Senator for a vote in favor of the Administration candidate for Senator. Rut he claims that be was playing a confidence game and had no authority from the Presi- dent to trade the office for a vote. Perhaps not, but then who would be lieve Davenport. JOHNNY DAVENPORT, too! It seems this unmitigated hypocrite, who for many years has defrauded scores of citizens in New York out of the right of suffrage by affecting the role of guardian over the polls of that Htate, under Federal appointment, has got into the Albany bribery case, to rep resent the Administration in the pur chase of Senators. RELLKKONTK, I'A., TIIUKSDAY, .11 NK :t(), 1881. That Foolish Veto Again The second objection the Governor makes to the judicial apportionment hill is that it provide* that the Ad ditional Law Judge of the 12th dis trict shall become the President Judge of the county of Lebanon, which is made a separate district. He says "grave legal difficulties surround thut proposition." What these "grave legal difficulties" are he lias not seen fit to state. Does he mean to deny to the legislature the power of assigning any Judge to which ever of two or more districts may be made out of the old district in which he was elected? By the apportionment of 1x74 there were four double districts —that is, districts j composed of more than one couuty and having each two law judges, viz : j the 4th, 12th, 17th and 25th. The I twelfth district consisted of Dauphin and Lebanon. If in dividing this dis trict one of the Judges cannot be as signed to Lebauon tht?same difficulty would arise in making single districts out of the other three double districts. But there are peculiar facts existing in reference to the twelfth district that make* such an objection come with less reason or grace than the same ob jection would in reference to the other ! districts. The act providing an Ad- 5 ditional Law Judge for the 12th dis- j trict provided that he should reside iu Irfbanon county. With this provision in the act Judge Henderson accepted j the appointment from Governor Hart ranft and afterwards took the nomina tion from the Republican party of Dauphin and Lebauon counties and was elected. It is true we believe that he has only nominally made his place of residence iu I>ehauon ; hi* real residence being in liarrisburg. He naturally would prefer to remain at the Capital of the State and become the President Judge of Dauphin couu ty upon the retirement of Judge Pear son, which in nil human probability, owing to his advanced age will take place next January. As Judge Hen derson is a good Judge, the bar of Dauphin county no doubt prefer to retain him than to run the risk of a new man. Possibly it would have been wise for the legislature to have allowed hint to remain, for the present, a the Additional I-aw Judge of Dauphin county, and provided for the election of a President Judge of Leb anon. But surely their failure to do this was not a valid constitutional ob jection to the bill. Judge Henderson himself had no right to complain, when he accepted the office under a law which required him to reside in that county. The individual prefer ence of a judge as to the district, which in a judicial apportionment, shall be made for him, is surely not absolutely binding upon the legisla ture, and if that august body should not always acquiesce in these judicial preferences, it is not a sufficient reason for the executive interposing a veto and thus thwarting a plain requirtucnt of the constitution as to the time when the judicial apportionment shall be made. The Governor's third objection to the bill is that it is unnecessarily in creased the number of Judges, and especially in allowing nu Additional IJW Judge to each of the counties of Eric and Crawford. Of the iucrcasc in these two district* he says : "as in* dependant propositions it is believed they would neither he demanded by the people in the district* nor receive legislative l sanction." In a former part of his message the Governor says: "The present hill designates each county of the State over 40,000 in population, as a separate county dis trict, and so far, lieyond all question, conform* to the contitution, and its ad dition of law judges, in some of these districts, U al*o an exerci*e of valid potrer." The only law judges added by this hill in these separate district* were those in Erio and Crawford. Although the Governor admits that i this was a valid exercise of power, and though tin- legislature is made the j Sole judge as to whether these separate i districts rcijuire more thau one law judge, he gives this act as one of his I reasons for preventing the hill he corning a law. The insincerity of Governor Iloyt in this part of his message is manifest when wo remem ber a few facts. Crawford county has a population of 0H,004 ; Erie, 74,681, while Northampton has 70,.'110, less than two thousand more than Craw ford and more thau Jour thousand less than Eric, and yet the legislature at its last session passed a sjiecial act giving Northampton county uu Ad ditional laiw -Judge, which act Gover nor Iloyt approved and promptly ap pointed General Itceder one of the pets of the Republican party to the new judgeship thus created. Now if it was so clear that Northampton county with a population of hut 70,- 310 needed an Additional Law .ludge that it was necessary to rush through , a special act for that purpose, it can not he so clear that Craw fold and ! Erie with their population do not need more judicial help that the Gov ernor should make the increase a rea sou for vetoing a general apportiou rnent hill required by the constitution. • Whenever a county constituting a sep arate district increases in population and business to that extent that one law judge cannot do all the business as rapidly as it should be done there i is no remedy but to give such a county |an Additional losed of several small counties. In every j instance w here such increase is ueces | sary, the wrork for two Judges will be light at first. No county from having softly work sufticieut for one Judge, ever increased at once to having full Hxirk for two Judges. liy the consti ; tution the legislature is made the sole judge of the necessity for such in ; crease. Hut the Governor objects generally to the increase of judges provided for by the bill. As an argument against it lie states that the number of judges in Pennsylvania exceeds the whole number of judges in all the Federal Courts of the United States, and that the salaries paid judges in Pennsylva nia exceed the salaries paid all the judges in the Federal Government by more than $lOO,OOO per annum. It would have been equally true, equally sensible and pertinent, if he had said that the number of judges in the little county of Philadelphia exceeded the number of judges in the great territo ry of Ethiopia, and that the salaries paid in Philadelphia far exceeded the amount of judicial salaries paid in Ethiopia. The Federal courts have jurisdiction over but a few questions, aud a few kind of cast* ; while the State courts have to deal with all questions, both criminal and civil. The number of causes tried annually in the court* of Pennsylvania no doubt far exceed the whole number of cases tried in nil the federal court*. The Governor says that when this legislature met there were seventy seven law judges in Pennsylvania and thai this bill makes eighty-six, an in crease of nine. This ia not honest or candid. There was an increase of two — the additional law judge in Northampton and a second Orphans' (Jourt judge in Allegheny, made by special acts which the Governor ap proved before the passage of this bill, so the actual increase made by this bill was only seven instead of nine. The new constitution having made a population of 40,000 inhabitant* the basis of a judicial district, if the ap portionment does not give more judges thnn one to every 40,000 it cannot be said to violate even the rpirit of the constitution. By the census of 1880 the population of Pennsylvania is 4,- 282,786, would give one hundred ami seven judges allowing one for every ■lO,OOO or twenty-one more than was provided for by the bill vetoed. By this bill a judge was given for every F',7!i!t, while under the census of I*7o when our population was only 3,520,- 001, the seventy-seven judges gave one for every 45,720. So that in.-lead ol their being an unreasonable increase in the number of judges there was no increase in proportion to the increase ol population. ( nder the provisions of this hill each judge on au average would have done the business for more than four thousand more people than a judge did under the census ol I*7o. By an express provision ol the constitution of 1x73, Philadelphia was given twelv < otumon Pleas judges besides her separate Orphans' Court judges, and Allegheny county sir Common Pleas judges and a separate Orphans' Court judge. The legisla ture fixed the number of Orphans' Court judge* in Philadelphia at three, thus making fifteen law judges in a county, which by the census of I><7o contained only 074,022 population or one judge for every 44,348 inhabit- ' ants. This was not the work of any rooster in the legislature, but the work of the Constitutional convention, the ablest body of men ever convened iu the State; ami this work was ratifies] liv the largest majority ever given at an election iu Pennsylvania. The same authority fixed the lowest num | licr of judges the legislature could provide for Allegheny county at screw, | when she had a population of only 262,204, or one judge for every 37,457 inhabitant-. Now Allegheny has right law judges with a jtopulatiou of 355,760, or one judge for every 44,- 471 inhabitants, ami Philadelphia has a judge for every 56,263 inhabitants. No complaints have been made by the Governor or the newspapers that ci ther Philadelphia or Allegheny have more judges than are necessary to do the work : while, on the other hand, their judges have been for seven years all drawing from one to two thousand ' dollars per year from the State Treas ury more than the country judges, and the excuse given is that they have | such heavy work to perform. If we consider the conveniences for attend ing to the business of courts existiug in large cities, or thickly settled com > munitics, the saving of time in the parties, witnesses and jurors, having no great distance* to travel, we will see that both of these counties of Philadelphia and Allegheny have a much greater judicial force iu propor tion to the population than the bill j vetoed gave to the State at large. In ; most of the counties in the State Monday forenoon and Saturday after noon of each week is totally lost, by it : being necessary for parties, witnesses, jurors, and sometimes the judges, to occupy them in traveling to and from the court. None of this loss of time need to occur in the large cities. The legal business of nearly every county in the State is now so far be hind as to be a bar to the speedy ad ministration of justice. The whole number of Judges provided for in the hill would not have been sufficient to do all the judicial work there is for them to do in the next ten years, and to do it promptly as it ought to be done. In many instances no doubt, the Judges do not work as they should work, but it is not because there is no work to do, but because they are in disposed to doit. If necessary let the legislature enact coercive measures to compel this work to be doue speedily and promptly. The Philadelphia Times, in the is sue containing the Governor'* veto, makes two significant admissions, vis : that its own persistent statements of the provisions of the bill were false, and that the reasons for the veto were not those given by the Governor. Why that and the other newspaper* in aud out of Philadelphia have ao persistently misrepresented the pro visions of the bill, especial to the increase of Judges, it is difficult to tell. The real objection of the Gov ernor undoubtedly was that it came too near carrying out the provisions of the new constitution to which all the TERMS: fc1.50 JHT Annum, in Advance. machine |>o]iliciau* of the Republican party are opposed, ami the further fart, that the hill made four new I I'm ormiir districts, viz: < ainhria, Clar i>i, Clearliehl and (ireeu. It in al leged by many that the Republican manager* intended from the beginning to disregard the provision* of the con stitution requiring a judicial appor tionment to be made tins year —that a* a part of this programme the bill was kept back until the end of the M'nxiou, and then vetoed after the log i-lature adjourned. If Hoyt is sin cere in his pretended respect for the constitution, let him at oiu< call the legislature together to make the ap portionment which the constitution command* to l>c made now. TUB LEGISLATURE, at its last ses sion, provided for funding ten millions of the State debt, and authorized the Governor and Commissioners of the Sinking Fund to borrow money at a rate of interest not exceeding four per cent. But bids are to be received at three, three and a-half and four per cent. The act alsy directs that "the bids which are for the best interests of the Commonwealth *tuiU be received." The bonds are to run thirty-one years. With the present rivalry for invest ments, no difficulty should be exper ienced in funding at the lowest rate of interest named. It will certainly be to the "best interest of the Common wealth" to do so, and if the liberal discretion given to the Governor and Commissioners of the Sinking Fund is wisely exercised the burdens of the Commonwealth may be materially re lieved. Three per cent, investments are laying around loose. Ix-t our State have the full advantage of the glutted market, by the prompt and ju dicious action of her public authori ties. HE I" N