§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 l<aw .Judge—the dis
trict cannot be decreased in size as
may be done with a district conij>osed
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<rr A CANDIDATE. —A few
mouths ago the most fulsome adula
tion wa* lavished upon General Grant.
He could not move from the door
step of his hotel, unless surrounded
by crowds of flaterers. They made
an idol of bini though he was merely
a spawn of Republican expediency—a
captured political nondescript whom
they endowed with the semblance of
statesmanship. But how is it now?
He was defeated for the third term
nomination, and at once the enthusi
a-rn and ardor of the rabble that sur
rounded him began to ftxd. He now
returns from a junketting trip to Mex
ico. and his return is scarcely noticed.
The mob of cringing sycophants have
dispersed, and thus admonished of
the hollowncas of flattery, the Gener
al resumes some of the common sense
he was supposed to possess in other
days, aud now announces that he will
not he a candidate for President in
1884.
THE indiscreet, if not cowardly,
back-down of Secretary Windom,
leaves the contingent fund of the
Treasury Depart meDt open to the pry
ing curiosity of a committee of Con
gross. The investigation ordered by
the .Secretary, uncovered too much, to
atop suddenly when interesting de
velopments were about coming into
view. The appalling appcaraucc of
the majestic Queen of the Treasury
which so stunned Mr. Windom, will
not be likely to affect a Congressional
committee.
TIIK (Collector of Internal Revenue
at San Francisco, who has recently
been superceded, is unable to settle hia
account, owing to large defalcations of
his subordinates. Theft in the Inter
nal Revenue, theft in the Treasury,
theft in the Postoffioe, theft in the De
partment of Justice, theft everywhere
seems to have been the ruling order in
the late Administration. And bow
could it be otherwise, when the Presi
dential office itself was a theft—whim
the whole Administration for four
years was a larceny ?
Tiik Secretary of the TREASURY wnw
to have suddenly abandoned the search
after frauds in his department, about
which so much fuss was made by the
admiuistralion newspapers. Why is
this? Is it because it was discovered
that too many prominent Republican
Htatcemrm were involved to warraut an
exposure? Mr. Wiudom should au
swer.
NO. 20.