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Established 1844. The Press and Banner ABBEVILLE, S. C. Wm. P. GREENE, Editor. - ?? | The Press and Banner Co. Published Every Tuesday and Friday I Telephone No. 10. " " ! Entered as second-class mail mat- | tex at post office in Abbeville, S. C. I - j Terms of Subscription: One year $1.50 j Six months .75 Three months .50 Pavable invariably in advance. __ . V * Tuesday, Feb. 5, 1918. EMPLOYEES PAY UP. l.r 1 The city oouncil should keep noj man in its employ who _ habitually ; . fails to pay his debts. Corporations everywhere have shown a disposition to protect the public by requiring their employees to pay their honest debts, unless they were able to show; an entire inability to do so. 3 The city council of Abbeville js should adopt this wholesome rule,' * and put every employee on notice to ^ meet his obligations, or seek other, employment. It does a business no ^ * good to have men employed in it who, 1 do not pay their debts. It tends to'? a niHr crtvernment ud to con-l tempt to have men, who should set an example in debt paying, disregard their obligations. The members of the city council a as the representatives of the people* t; ' '* of this city, should not by electing g men to office and by keeping them v in its employ give a man a recom- p mendation to the public when he c fails to meet his honest obligations v at maturity, and who fails to give a a reasonable excuse for so doing. c, Those who cannot make ends meet r, in city employment should raise p thirty cents cotton, where the plowing is good, and profits promising. The money of taxpayers should not fal-an +/ > na\r mon'c salaries when CI i, uc vau^ii w j^/wj m?vm w these employees fail to pay the taxpayers their just obligations. ' i' tl -as?==??!=? : h, Clean upj clean up! d b The Press and Banner has no official nor employee as a target when it criticises the manner in which the S city hall is kept. Neither does the b editor complain on behalf' of him- S self. It may be true that as a ten- a ant he should make his complaint rj to his landlord, but as a newspaper complaining on behalf of the public, (and the public is complaining) we P have a right in proper terms to as- ^ sail the management of the city ^ hall. We seek no man's enmity but if n it comes to us in calling attention to conditions which should be cor-| ?S I U rected we can only await the time when that man will see his duty ? > clearer. We are not concerned about 3 whose duty it is to clean up the F t ^ity hall. We do say however, that the city council, through its proper C officers and employees, should take * care of a building (and it employs 3 a sufficient number not only to do the work but to see that it is rightly done) for which this city paid < eighty thousand dollars, and not j < have tobacco juice and tobacco it- I self smeared and stuck on the walla * of the lower and upper hallways. It ( should see that the halls are swept 1 out each day, that the cuspidors in 1 the halls do not stand from day to day half-filled with half-smoked cigars and two-fors mixed with a plentiful supply of dirty tobacco juice, that the wainscoting is cleaned and kept cleaned, that the accumulated: dirt for a week is not swept into corners and allowed to stay there from day to day, and that the private toilets for the use of which the tenants pay should not be made the public retiring'places of every miserly individual in the city. We protest that the ladies of the city as they go to the library and the book clubs, to the Red Cross rooms and the surgical dressing rooms should not be compelled to witness men on every step of the stairway hurrying towards these toilets and away from them, as if the city hall were not in fact a< building: erected and kept for its! tenants to be run and kept in anj orderly way, but a municipal back-j house foj the use of any and every, wayfarer who happens in town. We say that the walls in the hall | ways should be kept painted or cal-! somined, and kept in presentable shape, and that the man who spits on the floors, against the walls, or,1 the man who daubs a .wad of chew-; ed tobacco against the walls of the building or on the floor or who[ throws cigarette stubs on the floor, i; should be haled before the mayor and made to assist in making the' police department a paying institu-;; tion. Proper ordinances will protect the ] building from incursions by people ] who have no business using it, and , the enforcement of these ordinances i j will be a public benefit. The city , council itself can then afford to; ] k-een the hall-wavs and other public | offices in proper repair and presenta- j j ble. | j If this be treason, we are willing , j to be the traitor. j t ? _?? t SPAACHLESS! ? ! If the governor of North Carolina ind the governor of South Carolina v should meet now, what would they!* lave to say about it??Anderson v Daily Mail. In the language of Hon. Bill Jx }raydon, formerly of Abbeville, but10 low of Columbia, "They would be (J is dumb as an oysh-ter." I s ! f HOW HE WILL LOOK. a | ii Irvin S. Cobb, the jovial Kentucky |c uthor, has been made a colonel onia he staff of Governor Stanley of that J c Itate. It is said that his uniform j ^ rill look like a cross between a new <r arlor stove and a weighing ma- a hine. Colonel Cobb is now on his ray to the firing line to do his bit g s a war correspondent, an announ- f, ement that should give joy to the j fj saders of The Thursday Evening w ost.?Greenville News. I is Itl I ra We are in favor of seven fosterromer-less days in every week. jj( There have always been men ' in ^ lis country who knew more about ow to run the war than the War epartment. They have generally een discredited. Pi If the good boys on Greenville 01 treet would quit playing with the ad boys from Magazine and Main ^ treets they would be more fortun- |a te perhaps in the matter of shooting 10 abbits. ^ C Sun objects to being called by his 31 et name anymore. And now that e is wearing long pants, and looks n fie part, speaking 'furniturally, why ^ ot call him the Crown Prince? P The editor of The Greenville News 0 as been reading up on Caesar re- n ently and gives us some ancient e' 'dope" on the Germans. At the ame time he might have quoted with a rofit that passage which properly 0 "All fJaul is divid- P ransiaieu icauo, ? id into three departments?the exe- v :utive, the legislative and the n udicial." 1 t t We understand that there is some ? r iissent from our recent remarks e soncerning the police force, though *enerally our position is approved. One person suggests that instead of ^ loing away with the police force, ^ we should have "two Chiefs." That person is a suffragette or suffragist (we cannot now recall which.) 1 A MOST VALUED EXCHANGE. < The following letter was received * J "X ?2*1* n noffo rtf Thp 1 Dy tne eaiwr wnu a yaB%. ? Press and Banner enclosed which explained the "kind of paper" sent. ' Naturally the editor had to "cuss ' somebody" and that was the folder 1 feeder. A perfectly good copy was I immediately addressed, stamped and mailed to Mr. Brown. Dear Colonel: The Abbeville Press and Banner is one of our most valued exchanges, and we think it is up to you to "cuss somebody" for sending us the kind of paper that you did this week. The Anderson Daily Mail, G. P. Brown. MERCHANTS AND FARMERS Commending the order of Dr Garfield, the fuel administrator, closing industrial plants and declaring a holiday once a week for ten weeks, j The Press and Banner of Abbeville suggests that it would be a good plan were the closing extended from January 1, to September 1. Pre-! sumably, it speaks particularly if i not exclusively for its own com-i munity and its reasoning is interest-j ing. We suppose that anyone who. has had business experiences in a^ town for the most part dependent: upon an agricultural community for: its trade has had the'thought that, j were it possible for the expenses of; business to stop for three or four! months, during the summer until the. :otton wagons began to roll to mar-: ket, the problem of making profits j ivould be comparatively easy. Th^j Press and Banner says: "The plan for the stores to close for one day in the week, too, should je made permanent from January 1; ;o September 1, only the stores, night easily close for two or even! ;hree days in the week. In this way' ihe merchants could give better at-: j* i._ i mi j_ u I enuon io ousiness. ine goous couia, >e sold on the three or four days vhen the stores are open, and on j he other days the merchants, all of ( vhom are interested in farming and arms, either directly or indirectly, rith the assistance of the clerks ould visit every farm in which hey are interested, see that thei rops are being properly worked, the I tock on the farms properly cared or, the ditches properly cleaned,! nd that the premises generally were j i proper shape. In this way better j rops would be grown, more corn nd food stuffs would be grown, ac-! ounts would be kept more in line ith the promised results of the' 1 rr?n? nnrl miiph mrrro mnndir marlp 1 , nd much less lose on bad accounts." Whoever lends money or advances oods to another is entitled to know illy the condition of that other's aflirs. That is the principle upon hich all business is conducted. It i well within reason to say that i irift and production might be pro-1 [Oted by an intimate,, cooperation: etween an honest merchant and an onest farmer. It is the exception-^ [ farmer who would not be greatly elped by the frequent advices of a' I ained business men, one under-j landing how to keep accounts cor-j ;ctly and .how to estimate cost of ! roduction "and marketing. More- ^ /er, it is certain that during the , ng summer months merchants and , leir clerks are compelled to pass a J rger proportion of their time in lleness. One suspects that Abbeille is not the only town in South arolina- in which three or four ; )lit-bottom chairs and a checker oard under the spreading oaks are j ecessary institutions in July and j ugust That The Press and Banner's pro-' osal will at an early time be carried lit, one can scarcely believe. Very lany sensible proposals are dismiss- j d for no better cause than that hey are novel. Perhaps some day large supply store in Abbeville will 1 pen .including in its business a deartment of advice to farmers. It rill have one or two practical busiess men to visit its agricultural cusomers in the spring and throughout he season of cultivation to show", hem how to keep books, how to; (lake purchases ?.nd how to buy! inough and not too much. That; 7ould be an extension of the ideaj if our contemporary. If the small j armers, the tenants, could have; lalf a dozen times a year the advice! >f business men, given on the farm! ind not in the back room of the! store, it would in a little time meanj Trillions to them. Under our old habits the merchants' representatives visit the farm | anly in the season of collecting, when the merchant, to save himself i from disaster, often must seize thej little old mule, the wagon and the! yearling. All that is left then to the farmer is an ample fund of anger and bitterness and in the long run they are as hurtful to the merchant a3 to himself.?The State. ABOLISH THE ABBEVILLE POLICE? Abolitionists are at work in the Cradle of^Secession, ancient Abbeville. Shades of the immortal Calhoun and McDuffie! The Press and Banner of that antique Athens ol tipper Carolina proposes to abolish the city police force and put him to tilling the soil, saying: "Does anybody know any reason j why we should have policemen? ! When we were a small boy and came ! to town, Chief Riley, it seemed to us, 'policed' the whole town. There were barrooms, and liquor, and everything in town then. Now that the barrooms have been abolished and the Great Moral Institution has made us moral, and the town is asleep, and everybody is happy and contented, and nobody wants to fight, anyway, and nobody can get drunk, and on account^ of thg high cost of living there is not enough money to gamble with or fall out about, why not allow the pleasant gentlemen of.the police department, as they are alraady accustomed to wearing uniforms, join the war forces of the country, get them a farm a:id assist Mr. Tom W. Wils6n and Mr. Herbert Hoover in feeding the army A word to the wise is sufficient, or should be." UAitr A kkAiTilIrt "r?lin IY1 JIUW AUUCViilC gllUCO 111 iUUUCOl/ innocence away"! No longer is heard in the land the clicking of the chips and* the slamming of the pasteboards. In the bright lexicon of Abbeville there are now no such words as "Here's How!" "Looking at You!" and "Happy Days!" Time wa:3 when the purple graphs glistening on the red hills of Abbeville were transmuted into wine after old French formulas, but where the vine once flourished now runs the soy bean. Abolish the police force! Where will the rude hand^of the iconoclast fall, next? In some cities firemen are now compelled in idle hours to sweep the streets. Mississippi considers the abolition of the legislature. Political vandals would blot out the office of lieutenant-governor, just as others urge that the General Assembly of South Carolina shall desist from paying a flag-raiser two dollars a day for raising the ensigns % aver the capitol wherein even * now the clarion voices of South Carofina's sweetest orators may be challenging the Kaiser to "Come on!" Does The Press and Banner propose :o Rusmanize Abbeville? Evidently ;hat journal's idea of law enforce merit is that of old Dogberry who thus instructed the cops: *'Toti are brought here to be the fit man for the constable of the ivatch; therefore, bear you the lantern. THs is your charge: You shall comprehend all vagrom men; pou are to Eritf any man stand, in the prince's name." Second Watch: "How if he will lot stand?" Dogberry: "Why, then, take na note of him, but let him go; and presently call the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave." The Abbeville police force will endure. He shall not^ pass. He will continue to be the cynosure of all r>b<:ervers. as eorereous and martial a spectacle as Colonel Greene of rhe Press and Banner will be when on duty as a member of the next governor's staff?"far off his coming shone." The Abbeville police force will go on' enforcing the Code of 1912 and the pandects of the city's pashas. Prohibition may comej and prohibition may go, but the Abbeville police force will go on forever^ the depot to see who goes hilfher and yon and who gets too much liquid lightning. Doth Abbeville slumber? Peradventure, yet though the lion and the lizard' keep the courts where Abbeville gloried and drank deep, The Press and Banner shall not break its sleep. A po lice-less Abbeville can not win this war.?The Greenville Daily News. SEEKING LIGHT. February 1, 1918. Mr. Wm. P. Greene, Abbevi'.le, S. C. Dear Sir:? " I am ?ncbsirg herewith a check to your order, signed by Mr. B. J. Pearman, for $2.00 for subscription to The Abbeville Press and J Banner for the length of time thi3 amount will carry him. Mr. B. J. Pearman's address is Starr, S. C., R. F. D. No. 1. Mr. Pearman would like for you to send him the issue of your paper which contained an editorial on the appointment of A. W. Jones by Gov. Manning. I think this was in last Tuesday's paper. THE VINDICATION i (From the Spring! It is a patriotic duty for one to j read the impressive statement of t Secretary Baker before the Senate j committee in reply to the charge of Senator Chamberlain /that the War | Department has "fallen down" in prosecuting the war. It was a dangerous, even wicked, assertion for the Senator to make on the basis of i the evidence which he presented to ! support his position. Even among ; his own sympathizers there were ! those who admitted that he had fail! ed to prove his charge. But, worst i of all, the Senator's performance j from first to last ljas been inevitably1 : if not designedly, directed toward weakening popular confidence in the | government. On that account, par| ticularly, Secretary Baker's presenI tation of the government's case and i his review of the government's acI hievements must command the most attentive consideration. The reply is crushing. Unless one's; I mind is hopelessly biased against the: I Sepretarv or fhp Proai/1on+ /-?? ic /\V>_ ?/ * AVW1UVUV) VI AO \J U- ; i sessed with ulterior purposes whose! : promotion calls for the Secretary's | j downfall, it must be recognized that | the achievement already bulks so large as to make the mistakes and failures of the department seem by comparison of minor iihportance in. the record. Aside from the Secretary's success in throwing new light upon mooted points in the mobilization, equipment and training of the army, which have been widely - exploited, he/ has impressively recalled ' what most people have, forgotten, namely, the necessity from the start of subordinating our own military program to She imperative needs of Britain and especially France. The insMe story the demands of France cannot yet be told in its fullness, bu? Mr. Baker wisely gave us hints of the steadily increasing pressure to expand our' operations abroad beyoiTd all previous forecasts of the most probable contingencies. This knowledge must be considered, also, in connection with the frequent embarrassing changes in the character of the demands of our allies? their insistence in the beginning upon munitions, supplies and tonnage; their sudden cry for soldijers for "moral effect" and then for more and more soldiers? and, still again,! Vvn/tlr frt annnlioo qtm) +ATI?' tUCli OUtiiv i/v au|/2/*?vw ???*?. VVM . nage in* preference^ to man-power. In broad outlines* what a*e the results today? The govo-mnent sent in I91T a much: larger army to France than the maximum of Mr. Roosevelt's own estimate early last summer- of' what was required. [ Roosevelt in June thought 209,000 men ample for foreign: service. We have in France today much more than that number. Mr.. Baker declares that "early this year** we. shall have an army of 500,000 in! France, and that during: the year we could send at least a million more, making a total of 1,500,000 soldiers in France before next winter. In thirty-two. American training camps! there are at this moment about 1,-1 000,000 men ready to sail, and ev-j erv man: of them eould go armed J , ? land equipped. Consider, also, the vast engineering and construction work already done in France, or in process of ac-l complishment? great storehouses i and plants for supplies, new piers in harbors, barracks for soldiers, road: / ' i building for the British and French! armies by our own regiments of en-j gineers, and to top all a railroad J 600 miles long for the use of our own army, for which the entire equipment has had to be shipped from this country. These operations, at such a distance, are stupendous; our people cannot take in their di-j mensions by any exercise of the! i imagination, although it is mostj easy for obstreperous faultfinders; and pestilential politicians to fill ourj ?- ?i ears with outcries agamst uic , fects in a training camp site and the criminal delinquencies of a few medical officers on the home front, where the poison gas of politics is used to blind the country to the outlines of a colossal achievement in the making before its very eyes. Secretary Baker's achievement is not confined to what has been done . in France or in the creation of a new army of a million men now ready to sail for the distant theater of war. He has in ten months radi.v* . ' * . I [ OF MR. BAKER ield Republican.) , cally reorganized the whole machin- 1 x ery of the War Department?an ac- ' hievement summarized in another article on this page. The "drive'' ' against him for the purpose of fore.ing him out of the position he now , ? ' > holds is ^unjustified by any body of '' 3? facts that can be assembled in the ; face of what he has done. It would ; V,'? be injurious to the gigantic under- M taking in which the nation is engaged to expermient at this time witte ;< v& a new Secretary of War, who would necessarily have, very much to: leant .^5? before he could give to the country rfM the best that was in him. Some of -J Mr. Baker's critics are irew adnrit- :'0 ting that he has made great un? >rj provements in our war machine,; bfifc their latest cry is that he is not fundamentally "sympathetic" with war. In Heaven's name! what civili^etf man could be? The signs are many^ that the effort to destroy him is col- ^ lapsing, as it ought; for the good 6f the army and our cause it cannot collapse too soon. THE LEGISLATURE'S B^ST WORK. ' Editor William P. Greene, of TkeV/r$|i Abbeville Press and Banner is a law-yer of renown who has served" as special judge. He says that the General Asseniblj) "showed its sanity" in electing William H. Townsend'cir- ' cuit judge for the Fifth circuit, vice Mendel L. Smith, resigned. Further, , "Mr. Townsend is one of the capa- ' . / ble lawyers of the State. His extensive and accurate legal learning Will make him one of the best judges is the State. He will be wekomed to the bench by the legal profession." The News endorses Judge Greene's ' statement. Judge Townsend read law under Judge James Aldricb, has been a successful practitoner for , r;ci many years, was a partne^ of- Congressman William" Elliott and Attorney-General G. Duncan Bellinger, has served as Code Commissioner, Solicitor, Assistant Attorney GenfeV- -' al, and Supreme Court Reporter. ? . He edited the Code of 1902. He S an accurate and learned lawyer, well _ M qualified for long and efficient judi?' cial service. He is in his -prime,. sound in mind and body, a most agreeable gentleman who will not display irascibility from the ^>ench. He is not and never has been a member of the legislature. The General Assembly evidenced" j much wisdom and discriminating' judgment in tjie election of Judges I Mclver and Townsend who consti- < I tute a notable and valuable addition- I to the judiciary of the State. The^ I legislative body seems to have aban-- 1 doned its unwise, practice .of elect ing its members to the bench. Whil?r . some good judges have been elected' in that way, the principle is undemfr- fl cratic. A member of the GeneraT I Assembly should be inhibited' by the1. I State Constitution from election to- fl the judiciary.?The Greenville New* A LONG TIME WE HOPE: Mr. Wm. P. Greene:- Enclosed I ycu will find check fbr Press ami Banner. I still want it as long- as I I can read it. Respectfully, " ''4 - Statia WTcfemam. fl ' I SERGEANT HAMMOND. ' / Sergeant Willie Hammond is getting on fine is the latest news from him. He is the son of Mr. and Mis f'WB Joe Hammond and will be reme?* n.jw un MAWV bered nere as diu uau uy mai^ ^ ; ,_ his friends. He left this State ft number of years ago and went to ^9 Alabama, where he was doing well and making money but when the first eall came for volunteers he e?listed with the Alabama boys and served on the border. He has many things to tell of chasing Villa and the times they had on the border. When the time came for his Division to go "over there" he was ready and willing but on account of the eondi- I I tions of his lungs he was given a j disability discharge and sent to the- HH government hospital at Denver. He is there now and is getting on fine although he longs for the "Sonny South." H "We are not building for our-' selves nor for today." KM