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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 ' Telephone No. 10. Entered as second-ciass mail ftiatter at post office in Abbeville, S. C. Terms of Subscription: Ons year $2.00 1.00 /Six months Three months .50 Payable invariably in advance. ? ( FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1919 OUR FIFTY MILES. I The suggestion W the Columbia State that Abbeville County would obtain 50 miles of concrete roads of the system proposed to be built needs investigation. 4 '"i* f Jioir [ These roads win cost i?i construction about $20,000 per mile, according to the estimates that we have seen. Therefore, the number of miles we are to receive will cost one million dollars. It is not suggested that Abbeville will secure more miles than we pay for. If we secure roads costing one v million dollars in the construction, we may safely assume that we will pay our part of the bill. That would be fair. Do the people of Abbeville county desire to assume the payment of one million dollars for the purpose of building fifty miles of road? The assessed valuation of the property of this county is about six millions of dollars. The proposed roads, if bonds 11 1 15^** An -fVia are issued, win put n mat i?cn ?u property of every man in the county for one-sixth of the present assessed value of such property. If your property is now assessed at three thousand dollars for taxation, you will be charged with the payment of five , hundred dollars of these bonds, as well as with the payment of the annual interest on that amount, whether or not you, "Mr. Hester, of Hesterville," live within ten or fifteen miles of the proposed roads, which you will not do. v It is true that it is proposed to raise this money, which is first made a charge against your property, by a# linanoq fovoo a ojaicm vi ?vv??v vmavw^ ?? ? cense taxes we approve of, if the bonds are issued, but the amount of money to be raised each year in Abbeville County for the repayment of these bonds, calculating according to our proportion of taxable property, will be $50,000 of principal, as well as the annual interest at four and one-half per cent on one million of dollars which will be $45,000. It is ' possible that we might collect of the principal only half the stated amount, and that these collections, with accumulated interest, would be sufficiv. ent to pay the principal on these y. bonds, but with this we would still x.' be called upon to raise in this county ? each, year $70,000 in addition to the f: taxes which we are Dow paying. Is there a man in Abbeville County foolish' enough to believe that we can raise any auch com of money out of the automobile owners of the county each year? If we eannot, then Mr. Tax-payer your property will bear the burden. Then let us see again. If we are to obtain fifty miles of roads, costing one million dollars, and if we pay only forty-six per cent of the taxes of the state, does it not follow that there will be forty six times as many miles of road in the state as Abbeville has, costing forty-six times as much, and making a bonded indebtedness of forty-six millions of dollars instead of twenty-five millions. If Abbeville is to obtain fifty miles of roads, and the indebtedness is to be less'than the forty-six millions, aamo ia fa "Ka A*1** VVU4IVJ 10 nv UO 1TCU VI tuc roads for which it pays, which we take it, The State would not consent to. The annual interest at four and one-half per cent of forty-six millions of dollars is something over two millions of dollars, while the proposed license tax, at the figures suggested, would only raise, as we have seen it stated, about one million, four hundred thousand dollars, leaving something like seven hundred thousand dollars of interest, as well as all the Jf .. , . V principal to be paid by somebody else, which somebody would be the taxpayers of the state. The people in the city of Abbeville in addition to every conceivable license tax, are now paying forty-one mills in taxes for all purposes. Wei see that there is a great fuss in Co- < lumbia, where ttie State is printed, over the rate of taxation in that city, j it being stated by some that it will j i take forty mills to pay the city ex- 1 penses alone, while there are sug- j gestions to put off the evil day Ijy j levying only twenty-five mills for this < purpose ,and raising the balance of j the money by a bond issue which j somebody else will be expected to ] J pay. In Atlanta the same question is up. All over the state in a little , | while a wail will go up about the , I iinntm +ovQa nr? to be collect- 1 HCOYJ ed by the Federal Government. The . i legislature now in session is being asked to create new commissions, and new government agencies, while , the demands of existing institutions i are greatly increased. From all of . which we begin to fear that the day , of private ownership of property is . j rapidly passing, and that before many years a man will hold property in trust for the public, and that in . his hands it will be counted a liabili- . ty rather than an asset. In some places the heavy taxes al-l; ready forbid the investment of mon- ; ey in legitimate enterprises and the fimA fast, annroaches. unless some-l body calls a halt, when no more money will be for'investment in the industries which really build up a community, but money will seek investment under cover where it will escape taxation altogether. THE DIRT-DAUBERS VARIETY. . | Some of the men about Abbeville! who are willing to see this county j assume an indebtedness of a million j dollars to connect the town of Abbeville with Greenwood, Anderson! and McCormick, by concrete roads,! have evidently forgotten that some.^ two years ago they were advising us, that the kind of roads to build was; of dirt-dauber variety. Native soil, | they told us, with a thin covering of town chert would do the job. When we argued that the only roads which would serve the purposes sought were roads of permanent construction, and that we were unable at that time to build such roads on account of the enormous expenses, they said we were wrong, that the top-soil roads were the only desirables, and that it would be a waste of money to build any other kind, when these roads could be built at two thousand dollars per. They filled up on city gasoline, drove to Greenville, and swallowed an Ottaray sandwich, drank a little Paris Mountain dew, were put to A# . fVia nrapnvillp aiccp ujr oviut vi. vi*v v. * w.. County Good Roads' orators, rode over "the finest ever" (while asleep) at the rate of forty miles an hour, and came home as the only qualified experts on road building. It seems now, however, that the , tune has taken a turn. If the topsoil argument was sound, why do ' these people now argue that we should build roads costing twenty thousand dollars per mile? If these experts have been shown, within the brief space of two years, to be poor advisers of the people, why should they not now keep silent? IF ABBEVILLE WERE ROADLESS _ ] Were two or three highways built ? 1(11 Ml _ r\ X? - in iUDDevuie ^uunty cuuuc^ting wo town of Abbeville with Greenwood, McCormick, and Ande^on, wherein would the Abbeville man residing ten or 15 miles from one of these roads be benefited? That is the inquiry of the Abbeville Press and Banner. Would the Press and Banner be 1 content if all the steam railroads ran around, instead of through, Abbeville County? Do Abbeville men reading ten miles from a steam railroad derive no advantage from railroad transportation facilities? Are the steam railroads worthless to any man or to the average man of Abbeville County? How much would the price oi adbeville cotton be affected if every bale of it had to be hauled 50 miles to a railroad station? Were a system of concrete highways to be constructed as planned, Abbeville would have not less than one forty-sixth of the total mileage, and that would be nearer 40 or 50 i < \ I miles than 15, which is The Press and Banner's guess. Moreover, it is 1 certain that the Abbeville roads would so link with other county roads that Abbeville would have quick and cheap communication with! Columbia, Greenville, Spartanburg, I and Augusta, Ga. A steam railroad is a highway limited to operation by great companies or the government oil which only their vehicles can travel. A paved1 public road is a highway over which any man's vehicle can travel and upon which operation is as cheap for passengers and for certain kinds of] freight as is that of the steam railroad companies. Mr. Hester, of Hesterville, Abbeville County, living ten miles from a steam railway and from a paved j highway, would gain at least as much: 4 It- - 4-l\A trom uie one its iruui tw Meanwhile, road building in Abbeville would not cease with the construction of a State highway system. That would be the important beginning. The counties would proceed systematically and rapidly, we think, to build other roads leading into it. We suppose that Abbeville County could and would get along somehow with a system of cow-paths, such as the forefathers of the Abbevillians had a century and a half ago. As related to the gasoline propelled vehicle, the roads of Abbeville and of the other counties are no better to-1 day than the cow-paths were to the ox-carts of a former time. However,' the jolting to pieces of an ox-cart over a woodland trail caused the loss1 of $25, not of $500 or $2,500, in' two or three years..?The State. | " I WANTS I i i HIDES?The high prices we pay for hides and the good weight will enable all our old hide customers around Abbeville-to box and ship green cow and horse hides by express direct to us at Athens, Ga., over the Seaboard. Write name on | post card for tags and quotations. Green hides 17c. per lb. Mule and horse hides, $3.50 each. Mr. H. BRUCE FANT, now at Athens with Athens Hide Co., wholesale ~ dealers. 2-21-2mo. Pd. j FOR RENT:?Two furnished up-,' stairs rooms, on Mill Street. Phone) No. 77-3 rings. 2-21-2tC. WANTED.?Some good Live Dealers and Prospects for Alamo Electric j Lighting Plants for country homes for Abbeville County. ALAMO LIGHTING SALES CO. P. 0. Box 507, 2-14-4t. Spartanburg, S. C. WANTED:?A lady bookkeeper, Ab beville lady preferred. Work not hard. Apply in writing. E. F ARNOLD, Abbeville, S. C. 2-18-3t. Pd. AUTOMOBILE DEALER WANTED: The Overland-Piedmont Company is the distributor for the entire Overland and Willys-Knight lin?|| in upper South Carolina. We wish a live, energetic, hustling dealer for Abbeville County. Address' Overland-Piedmont Co., Spartan-j burg, S. C. l-31-4tC 1 FOR SALE, REAL ESTATE:?310! acres in McCormick county, 12, miles from Abbeville. This farm! I can be divided into three tracts! of about 100 acres. Will sell all| or part. $15.00 per acres for thej whole tract or $17.50 if divided. S. H. ROSENBERG." 1-24-tf. FOR SALE:?Vacant lot on Magazine street, opposite Richard Sond- , ley, between Flynn's and McDon/ aid's. This lot is a beauty. 100 by ! osn Price. iiOOO.OO. S. H. ROSENBERG. 1-24-tf FOR SALE:^-Millions hardy frostproof Cabbage Plants, now till May any variety, $2.00 per 1,000; 10,000 and over $1.50. Prompt delivery. Enterprise Truck Farm. Georgetown. S. C. 1-21-till April 1. FOR SALE:?House and lot near the square. Apply to T. G. or W. H. WHITE. 12-31-tf ^ I Mules | Hon Wp Have at J. I | Stables 65 Hem | Rules, Mares an* | This Stoc I Young, So I Well Bi | If You Are in , | Stock Don't Fail | Stock, Because 1 What You Wai I Prices and Te Em x I SPRIN( fivv coa fir U NO W : [0 ill I M We now I ha' f l hand a numl / NewSpring D: and Suits-=an ers arriving d we are offeri J' i l -'a# ! '.* <: early buyers.., 1 Also You Will Find 1 Many New Designs anc Modes in New Spring Millinery COME IN TO SEE THEM I ??nn t n r MKd. Jas. o. v. Ready-to-Wear Mil. B wmmmmwammasg , Mares >es I Ulen Smith's | 1 of Indiana I d Horses 1 :k is All | I und and j roken Need of Any I to see This i we Have rit nnrl Mnhp I L Vil ?%?> ? r? rms to Suit ? i DRESSES I * a A KB Scflfi ' T OI TITC II 1 out i J..... || N : DISPLA Y II nruD AN I