University of South Carolina Libraries
ESTABLISHED 1844. The Press and Banner ABBEVILLE, S. C. H. G. CI+ARK, Editor. i -- The Press and Banner Company / Pubished Every Tuesday and Friday. ' **'! Telephone No*10* tT1.. . ;v; ?>!>>? II ?/J 4> Entered as second-class mail matter at post office in Abbeville, S. C. , Term* of Subscription: -: One year $2.00 Si* months ? 1.0(X.;\ Three months __ I'. .60 ' * , Payable invariably in advance. ( >, . \ . 1 : : TUESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1919. W , ?. * ' i : * 1 . . i V.T v.. ' % * ? ; NOT YESTERDAY?BUT TODAY. :: : v have been telling yon so, and it has come ;w true., -The colleges in South Carolina are no longer to havle their usefulness destroyed by any of the - old idtias about "venerated seats," and such like. -f r* t , ' : ? ?' Thev are: out to do good; at least, some of them -r are. In Saturday's State we are told that the trus* tees <xf Chicora College, in meeting at Colombia, had decided to spend five hundred thousand dollars in the next three years for the purpose of "securing a new location and moving the college from its present seat," (which we presume some of the ruoss-backs will also call "venerated.") It is stated in the article referred to: "The board of trustees felt that instead of expending something like $250,000 building to the j present buildings and enlarging the plant, the t j money should be used towards building an entirely new plant which would be a credit to the city of Columbia and which would have an opportunity to i grow as the years pass and develop into a college worthy of the name. The board felt that on four j acres of land, the present site of the college, no j worthwhile college would have a chance. The col- | lege is growing rapidly year by year and already there is not enough room to house those who make application for entrance." , - ? - ~ " ?. > / If that is true of Chicora uonege, peru?i? SvmC of the brethren may be able to tell us why it is not true of Erskine College. If it is necessary that the seat of Chicora be moved from a four acre lot in V/ ' ' ' the city of Columbia, in order that it may grow, why is it not necessary that Erskine College be moved to a site where it too may grow, unless perhaps it is not deemed wise that the latter should grow? We have known men living in a city like Spartanburg to be opposed to everything looking . to progress for the reason that they were . the institutions of the city might out-grow them, and they would no longer be able to be the "King ' Bee" of the whole transaction, but we take it that \ / the peope at Due West are not so minded, notwithstanding the fact that there are in the Seceder church a thousand young men of college age, only rvno hundred of whom are in Erskine College, and /ij* ' i no serious efforts are being made to gather in the ether nine hundred, The article referred to further states: ffu > "The college is not to be taken away from Columbia AND IT IS FOR THE CITY OF COLUMBIA AND CANNOT GROW WITHOUT THE AID of the people of Columbia." All ?f this means that a college of any denomination, wherever located, is largely a local institution and as such must first look to the people of the community where it is located to make of it a really useful in\ stitution. They must put up the money, in other words. 1 . NOW, what is concerning us is this, shall Erskine> College and the authorities which govern it, j( catch the vision of greater things as have the trus- ; tees of Chicora, and determine NOW to make ot tbe old college an institution of growing usefulness, usefur alike to the community where it is located, and to ?he church at large? And if they shall, what support shall they expect from the "venerated seat," and those who roll these terms under' ton- ' ' gues as sweet morsels, shake their heads and look wise? Will the trustees of the college, looking only (f to the future usefulness of the institution, . every community in the Associate Informed Presjj$ byterian Church that the first consideration"of 'tfiiV '* r" , tody is to build and equip a real coH6^e,Jfitted for* ? X the exacting requirements of a college of today and tomorrow?not yesterday, and that they are of open minds and ready to consider any proposition looking to that end? Will they realize that Ers kine College must be rebuilt, and tnat tne wor* | must commence now, and realizing it, will they show a disposition to make the college grow, or will they, like the editor of the Spartanburg Journal agree with the suggestion that progressive measures must be taken to rebuild and endow the college, but offer no solution of the problems to be met? Money talks. Why, may we not ask, should the trustees of \ Erskine College not allow other communities in the ~ ^ fV. W c hurch to oner 10 uie tuuejsc *.%#i ?, ~.. Urskin?, which is to be, and allow them the opportunity of buildnig for the college magnificent and modern buildings fitted and equipped for con ducting a modern institution of learning, rather than that they should sit still as they have been doing these thirty years, and do nothing but look solemn? Who in Due West proposes to give to the college fifty or a hundred acres of land on which to build and conduct a modern college, and who there proposes to erect modem buildings for the college? If the people at Due West are not themselves either willing or able to do these things, why should other communities in the church not do for the college what they, after eighty years, are either unable or unwilling to do? The people of Due West need not deceive themselves. The people of the church will not buy a new site for the college in Due West and rebuild the college there when other communities offer to do these things without expense to the church. Either the people in Due West will do this, or some other community will get the college, or it will remain where it is with no new buildings, with no modern equipment, a mere reminder of the great things done in the past; while the boys and girls of the Seceder church win look elsewhere for their education, go to other colleges, become identified ! with the institutions of other churches and finally give their allegiance to these other institutions. - We talk no idle talk, we say, when we declare in the language of a furniture man that it is a . "crucical moment" for Erskine College and for the : Seceder Church, and for Due West. No other college in the state, nor in the entire Southland, ex| pects to stand still. A modern college cannot be AAn/)n/^A/1 of TVllA Wocf Ar of OTJW A44)OV> T0O/>O wffll , WliUUV l^U */ UV IT VOVy V* UK ?*-** J V?MV* |r?WVV) ?**?* . jt|ie present buildings and equipment of Erskine Colj lege, surrounded and governed as it is. The people will not send their boys to .a school in the future .. ; which does not offer a wider and more thorough curriculum than any of the colleges in this State have been offering in the past. We are arriving at the day when men and women demand thorough education along all lines of endeavor, and the church and the people who are alive will don the wedding garments before the ceremony is over. Others are going forward. They are looking ahead. Where stand we? THE BAPTISTS OF ABBEVILLE. It has been so long since Abbeville has attracted any attention from the busy, bustling, living outside world that we have sought from time to time to . nhake it known that the grand old County still exists, though greatly reduced in bulk and somewhat r +t , disfigured in contour. 'It should be said to their credit, and without un derestimating any other group of people, for we try to please all, that the Baptists are a great factor in preserving the life of the county. There are twentynine Baptist Churches in the Abbeville Association. In the Southern Baptist drive for $75,000,000 they were assessed for $242,625. The returns received up to last Saturday indicated that they had subscribed $375,000. The chances are that the final } figures will run the total to $400,000 in the clear. , This is not all. The quota of the Church at the Court House was $27,500. Up to last Sunday night the subscriptions aggregated $45,721. Only 275 of the 380 members of this Church were in Abbeville wJien the drive was made. The average subscription was about $166. But this is not all. In the last eight years the Baptists at the Court House have built a new church oi a rtAof (I A A AAA Vi?^ta noirl f lio wIiaIa />naf ? VVJW vx ^iv^vvv ctliu u?rv vuw nuvtv wuv with the exception of $2,000 which Captain Stark, who lives just across the road from the new buiiding, can pay whenever he cares and without feeling it The Baptist Church at Abbeville is next to the youngest of the churches in that town, the youngest, and, orthocloxically speaking, of course, the soundest of the five religious establishments in .the place, is the Seceder, or as the Rev. Dr. Ha<)don preiers to call it, the Covenanter Church. Twentyfive or thirty years ago the Baptists were struggling for a place in the religious life of Abbeville and they have made it, and so long as they stay there? why they don't all pull up and trek for Spartanburg ! we can't uridarstand?the town will increase in , wealth and influence even if any of the other churches are indifferent about the condition of its fencing. We have aways had a great liking for the " Baptists; for the wisest, the safest and the best man we have ever known is of that persuasion.? Spartanburg Journal. The Baptists paid the $2,000 Sunday morning and announce themselves ready for the Erskine drive.?Ed. - MR. HADDON'S GIFT. It is gratifynig to know that one of the mer -fchant princes jof Abbeville, Mr. R. M. Haddon, who i Vfe about to vgtitre from active business, we are sorry . co. say, has inade a liberal contribution of money to the Public Libjfary at that centre of culture which has been wisely expended by the Committee pn \ * Books in the purchase of these interesting and instructive volumes: "Sherry," by George Barr MoCutcheon; "The Forbidden Train," by Honore Hillsie; "Leave It to Doris," by Ethel Houston; "The River's End," by I James Oliver Curwood; "The recreation of Brian Kent," by Harold Bell Wright; "The Daughters of the Land," by Gene S. Porter." We are told by The Press and Banner that "these books are the latest of their kind, and ar'e all by popular authors." In view of the additions the Committee has made to the town Library with Mr. Hatidon'o money our Abbeville contemporary may : very well content itself with the observation of old Thomas Carlyle that "the true University of these /1p?o ic firvlWt.inn of Rooks."?Snartanburc Jour nal. jB Xw>.. ' v- . Ka* '7- ;: *< THAT SET' THIS PATHE PHONOGRAPH FOB CHRISTMAS ! And an outfit of Records with it. No needles to change?Plays all Recordi Records guaranteed to play 1000 times. r * i | \ The man who orders any phonogra get# it?will be lucky. There are not The man who orders this Pathe Phoi lucky, for two reasons: It's the best i and he will get it! That is, if he orde tunity?don't miss it! HARRIS & C J \ | A New Color?A I ; Call, we ask you, and see 01 leather?Harvest Tan. It's a time enriches and makes evei v complete assortment of sizes ar r ^ ..i? Iperiecr ni. jl 11c muuci miuwu servicc, yet smart as can be. Se heel and what long, graceful lin top to toe. '! I J. M. 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