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ESTABLISHED 1844. v. The Press and Banner ABBEVILLE, S. C. The Press and Banner Company "PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY . 1 Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Telephone No. 10. Entered as second-class mail matter at post office ij, ! in Abbeville, S. C. f. # Terras of Subscription: One vear $2.00 ft. Six months 1.00 k Three months .50 t FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1920. THE GOOD ROADS' BILL. In our last Monday's issue we carried a synopsis i of the bill introduced in the Senate by Senator Moore, which, if passed, would authorize the issue &|'t of six hundred thousand dollars of bonds in this I 1 county for the building of roads. Six hundred thousand dollars is no small amount of money, even in these days of forty cents cotton and three dollar-a-day labor, "and the amount of money involved should be sufficient to engage the K;v attention of every taxpayer in Abbeville County. When the movement was on foot to issue three hundred thousand dollars in bonds for the building of roads in this county we opposed it on the ground that the roads proposed to be built were not in - fact good roads. We have not changed our opinion k on that subject. Should the bill now before the ' A 'L1? Lw*v oliol] iin/lorfflVpi Iuenerai Assembly uecuuic iow r?c wou ?? ? to show the taxpayers that we were right then, and j that we are right now. Of course some good will come out of the expenditure of the money to be raised by this bond issue. The roads will be graded, the small streams bridged by permanent bridges, and the topsoil will make the roads better for a year or two. But there will never be permanent roads in this section built of dirt. The people had as well make up their minds to this fact. > And we cannot help buk-believe that Capt. Shaw is right when he says that the present roads could be greatly improved if we would raise the road tax to two dollars (we say to three or even five dollars) and if we would pay an additional two miHs tax for grading and widening the roads. This additional money ^ell spent, under the su m pervision 01 a rouu commission, WOUIU iiiarve mc roads about as good as they will be five years after the money from this bond issue is spent, that is, if the law is ever passed. We become more firmly convinced each day & that if we are to build roads at all, we should commence by building permanent roads, such as IV- / are built in the cities and towns. There is no way to begin this wc^k except through a state system of highways. There are many who object to such a system, we have our own objections to it, but it is the only way to build lasting roads, or to commence the building of these roads. Thie present legislature should raise the automobile license tax in this state to a minimum of fifty dollars per year, with a graduated license tax upwards. We' in this wav raise four millions of dollars the I present year. A two mill tax will add to this and the amount of money to be had from the Federal j Government will add further to the fund. With this fund we may build two hundred to two hundred and fifty miles of highways of a permanent > nature in the state. In five years, with the addi- j f|:' tional automobiles to be bought by the people we will be able to build at least fifteen hundred miles of permanent highways in the state. This would give practically every county in the state a highway lendinc across the countv from East to West m and from North to South. The counties might i (supplement these highways by building others. If they did, in ten years we might hope to make of all the main roads in every county permanent roads jjver which any kind of a vehicle of reasonable H' weight and caipacity might run every day in the year. Until this kind of highway is built, or something new is discovered for this country, as at present advised, we shall advise the people of the county to vote against all roads' bills. pr * 3 HOLLAND'S ANSWER. *\ ! ? ? ? .1- A iL. XT _il 1 ? ? I rue law aavisers 01 tne v^ueen 01 me i^aiiciiauus have wasted no words and observed all the proprie- i ties in furnishing her with an answer to the re- j quest of the Supreme Council for the extradition of William of Hohenzollern, the answer that the law- j yers advising the Supreme Council probably expected. They are met at every point in the closely reasoned document of 700 words, the temper of which is admirable. The opponents of Germany believe that William II. was responsible not only for an iniquitous war, but by assent, and even approval, for violation of the neutrality of Belgium, and. as war lord for foul wrongs committed upon her soil and the soil of France; further, for the atrocity of submarine warfare upon non-combatants. He could be impeached, as Edmund Burke impeached Warren Hastings, if his person were brought before a high tribunal. In the case of the adventurer and statesman who - , I won India for the British Crown the evidence failed | to sustain the rhetorical impeachment. What would I be the result" of a trial of the former German Emperor can be only a matter of opinion, but he could be indicted on many counts and a prima facie case could be made out against him. The difficulty has been to arraign him. He sought sanctuary in Holland. Could the Government of the Nether-" lands be induced to surrender him? There was no T+ mot nofpssarv to base the request preteUCJIl,. xv rytAo ..vv??.? w __ for his "extradition" upon high international policy, which had to be shaped for the occasion. The only ' hope of obtaining the person of the august criminal lay in reasoning Holland into compliance. Would she take the moral view of the issue and disregard the legal to stand with the Allies in the making of a historic example of the sovereign who claimed protection within her borders? Could Holland be made to see that she would condone his offenses against civilization if she failed to give him up? There was no impediment in the argument that Germany would have been obliged to surrender the Emperor under the terms of Article 228 of the treaty of peace if he had not crossed the boundary into Holland, but had faced the consequences by remaining with his people. Holland merely answered that she was not a party to the Treaty of Paris. Moreover, Holland had maintained her duty of neutrality, "not without difficulty," to the end of the war, tile implication being that in the matter of the surrender of William of Hohenzollern she must not abandon her detached position by assenting to the "act of high international policy" which the Supreme Council proposed. Therefore, to quote from the note of reply, the Government of the Queen could not "admit in the present case any "other duty than that imposed upon it by the laws "of the kingdom and national tradition." The salient and unassailable reasoning / of the reply is contained in the following decisive paragraph: \ "If in the future there should be instituted by the society of nations an international jurisdiction, competent to judge in case of war deeds qualified as crimes and submitted to its jurisdiction by statute antedating the acts committed, ,it would be fit for Holland to associate itself with the new regime." In short, the Supreme Council could present no law for the surrender of the fugitive in sanctuary, and Holland must decline to join the Allies in their "act of high international policy" devised for the ' emergency, because her laws and traditions forbade it. With dignity Holland pleads that her territory has always been "a ground of refuge for the vanquished in , international conflicts." It is urged that the honor of the people of the Netherlands is involved. One can imagine Lord Reading using the very same language employed by the Government of the Netherlands if, the conditions being reversed, a victorious league of allies re' quested the surrender of a fallen monarch who had set his foot on British soil, relying upon British justice and traditions for fiis safety. Though they abhor the character and denounce the deeds of the man who was German Emperor, Englishmen will find it hard to take exception to the spirit of the Dutch note and to challenge its conclusions. As times goes on there fs likely to be ' ' * ? iU. a ieenng -ox renei amung me ycupic ui one amvu countries because Holland has declined to be a v party to the setting of the stage for the trial of William of Hohenzollern and the prolongation of the agony of the great war. There will still remain to the Allies the opportunity and duty of making up the case against the former Emperor as a lesson | to autocratic rulers and for the information of posterity. More effective than the judgment of an international tribunal is the verdict of mankind from generation to generation.?New York Times. \ v THRIFT AT THE TOP. It is useless for the government to urge thrift s on the people unless it first sets the example. The government is the agent of the people. It represents them in their collective activities. It is the hugest single spender in the country. Why, then, shouldn't it retrench before it gives lectures on retrenchment?before it tries to get the cost of living reduced through individual action? Senator McCumber brought this point home forcibly the other day when he said that the people as a whole cannot go back to a normal economic basis so long as the government keeps up "its obvmftviai ovtrowoffonco " Wo nnt fVip p?sf? somewhat exaggeratedly, for the sake of emphasis, when he told the Senate: "Government extravagances are solely responsible for the high cost of living today, which, when analyzed, means nothing more or less than that we are indulging in a wild orgy of spending borrowed money." If the estimates of the departments for the next fiscal year are not cut the government will continue to live on its debts. Mr. McCumber advises cutting them by $2,250,000,000. Such a pruning may seem painful to government agencies still operating with vastly expended pay rolls. Few department or bureau heads want to see their working force cut down. Some worthy projects must suffer from sudden retrenchment. But the incidental injury thus done is infinitesimal compared with the heal ing effect on the general economic situation of a return to the sound policy of keeping the government's expenditure within its income. Taxes are high. Congress knows that it would not be justified in increasing them. The high taxes in force impose multiplied burdens. They inflate the cost of everything to the consumer, for everybody who can tries to pass his share along to his neighbor. A reduction of Federal taxation would i cause universal relief. It would be a far surer way j ivv.cost of living than any campaign i I ~ against individual profiteers. Yet taxes can't come down until government outlay comes down. Congress holds the key to the situation. But too many Congressmen are afraid to use it. The problem has a moral as well as an economic side. Everybody in these days who makes an unavoidable expenditure is doing the public an injury. It is a doubly immoral thing for Congress to spend money except for absolutely necessary purposes, for the money is taken from those against whose interest it is spent, and at the same time its expenditure maintains inflation and decreases the public's ability to save and support the government.?The New York Tribune. VVS.V SiVVVVWVVVV VV V V V V THE OPINION OF OTHERS. V V V vuvv^ vvv AS A WARNING TO THE LIVING. A man died owing a Missouri editor six years unpaid subscription to the paper. The editor did Soldiers, Sailc OF ABBEVI Monday Ni You are requested to meet in tl ty, Abbeville, S. C., at 8 o'clocl TUU AMUDf 1 A 1JU niTlUIYl Every Soldier, Sailor and M service from April 6th, 1917, t< membership of this organizatio Each and every one of you i so we may have as large attends much to our Homes, Counpr an< CARROLL Acting < II if if II i ! 11 i! II 11 i VY i A dA YI / fi I ? 1919 was the banner; * I ness, for which we are customers and friend* forward to as being si confidence which we 1 beville County causes over the future. We are pleased to i tions that real estate ^ / they have, and that th fit by their investment I! ' down. We have seve ii business houses, hom< li 1 we will be pleased to t || i II Dixie Lan 1 !! H L. M. 1 Abbe^ I i || \ j[ ti li > " <. jj not send any flowers. He attended the funeral and placed a palm-leaf, fan and a block of ice on th? ; casket.?Cincinnati Enquirer. ' Our State Department has written another note to the Carranza government demanding "energetic measures," &c. If Old Whiskers doesn't heed this j admonition, we'll give him another dose of watch| ful waiting.?Cincinnati Enquirer. V Governor Morrow, of Kentucky, doesn't seem t? i understand that "Marse Henry" has been a colonel all along.?Montgomery Advertiser. ( Some .of those who oppose the trial of Wilhelaa ; i Hohenzollern say he will be made a saint if brought ,t _ to the bar. It might seem poetic justice to "canon( i::c" ;; mr.n who wanted to reduce everybody else fn ^annnnt'nHrlpr r'nliim.hia fS O.O. ^ \ ? "It costs less nowadays to keep an automobile than to keep a servant." It may be added that the servant has a greater tendency to skid just when you think everything is lovely.?Louisville CourierJournal. _______________ irs and Marines LLE COUNTY I ght Feb. 2nd J ie Court House of Abbeville Coun c to organize the Abbeville Post of CAN ARMY [arine, who served in any branch of 3 Nov. 11th, 1918, is entitled to 7 i \ n. are asked to advertise this meeting mce as possible, this means too I State to neglect it any longer. SWETENBURG, l Chairman. 1 ^ ===a=aaaaa5 A ' v / 11 55 year in our real estate busideeply appreciative to our i. The year 1920 we look kill better than 1919. The lave in Abbeville and Ab us to feel very optimistic \ N 1 efer to our former predicvalues would increase as ose who buy now will prot. Real Estate never goes ral good propositions in 3S and farm property that alk with you about. d Company PALBERT, fille, S. C. ?1 ???iwnwgw?tmmrniwmmtmmmmmmmimminuuumunumf r ??irrr?*?11 " - -