University of South Carolina Libraries
Established 1844. THE PRESS AND BANNER ABBEVILLE, S. C. The Press and Banner Company Published Tri-Weekly Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Entered as second-i^ass matter ar post office in Aoheville, S. C. Ten of Subscription: One Year $2.00 Six months $1.00 Three months .50 MONDAY, JANUARY 31, 1921 CATCHING OFFENDERS The law officers of the county have been making it hot for the whiskey makers the last week or two. Sheriff McLane has made a good start in the enforcement of the law, and there will be less illicit liquor sold in this county if he keeps up the good work. He is doing his part in bringing the guilty parties before the bar of jus tice. The next work to be done is by the judicial officers of the court. Whis key-making and whiskey-selling will not be stopped so long as bonds in insignikant amounts are demanded and so long as fines of small amounts are made by the courts. The judicial officers of the county and state must learn that the liquor-maker and the!. liquor-seller are menaces to the good I order of the community and their j products are breeders of other crimes, I and they must be treated accordingly, j If this i6 done, there will be less for ' the sheriff to do, and still less liquor for sale. SELLING COTTON The Press and Banner has been a - t mong those who believed that the far mers should hold their cotton for bet ter prices. We adhere to that advice so far as the man is concerned who is not in debt. But it is apparent to us now that some of the present crop of cotton must be sold before there will be a revival of business in this section. The banks are owing more money than they commonly owe in the mid-! X I die of the summer, or at the end of j the crop season. The fertilizer bills have no? been paid, the bank notes have not been paid, and the mer chants have not been paid. If we are to make any part of a crop next year it will be necessary for us to arrange for credit some where. The banks cannot further credit until their debts to other banks have been paid. The merchants cannot extend credit until the farmers have paid them, and they in turn have paid the banks.. We are in a state of stagna te n, and there is nothing in our judgment which will start the wheels.. " to turning except the seliin.* of a", at least a portion of the cvton crop re* on hands. 1 t+ ...:n -,1 ? *: +u? + it win nui uu ci mai tiiio ?hij put the cotton down. We do not be lieve that it will have this effect. If only twenty-five per cent, of the cot ton in the hands of farmers who are in debt is now sold, it cannot have the effect of putting cotton down. The people who buy cotton know that this cotton must be sold as well as the people who have it. Besides by selling it and beginning to pay debts, we enable the merchants to begin to pay up and buy more goods; we enable the banks to pay some of their indebtedness and place them in a situation where they can help again, and we contribute to a revival of business to that extent. And just now, we believe the coun-J try needs to get things started as much as it needs anything else. Of course cotton will be sold, or some of it, at present prices, below the cost of production. But the mer chant is selling his goods below cost, and a great many other people are I taking losses. The deflation which has j come about so suddenly makes it nec- j essary that all of us take our share of the losses. We do not want to take i anymore than we are forced to, but| we had as well make up our minds j that something must be done before : business will show any life. The sale of one bale of cotton and' xne payment ot aeots to mat amount enables us to hold the next bale just that much longer. The throwing of, the entire crop on the market at this time, we are sure, would not be a wise thing, but the time has come when we must begin to sell gradually. The wise man, if he is in debt will begin to liquidate his indebtedness in this way. ASSOCIATE JUSTICE COTHRAN, OF ABBEVILLE Thomas Perrin Cothran, of Abbe ille, but for a number of years tem porally sojourning in the town of Greenille, has been elected Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, and the best that can be said for him is what his brethren of the Bar generally say: "He is fit for the high office to which he has been elected." Fit, we would add, be cause of his knowledge of the law, his familiartity with its practice, his ju /-lipinl fpmner. his studious habit, his lawmaking experience, his inherited fitness for the highest service on the Bench and his moral character. We have known him for a good many years and have never known anything to his discredit. He comes by his fitness for the highest public place honestly. The son of James S. Cothran?a soldier of conscipuous bravery in the Army of Northern Vir ginia, the leader of the Redshirted hosts of Abbeville County in 1876, a Judge on the Circuit Bench of South Carolina, when honest men had been restored to power, a member of Con gress from the Third District who served his people faithfully?he is the worthy son of a worthy sire. On the other side of his house, the son of a daughter of Thomas Chiles Perrin, a lawyer of high distinction at the Abbeville Bar, in his day next to the Bar of Charleston the ablest and most distinguished in the State, and a man of loftiest virtues and highest courage, the new Associate Justice comes into his high estate fit for what ever service may be required of him. Associate Justice Cothran is in the sixty-fourth year of his age, in the full possession of all his faculties, accustomed to hard work and close application to whatever^the task in which he is engaged, and we congrat ulate the State that a worthy ?uc cessor has been found in him for As sociate Justice Hydrick, who served South Carolina faithfully to the end of his useful life. The people of *1.1 mi - n j... uo .fLDueviue v^uunty aie especially uu uc congratulated upon the selection of one of the most distinguished men of that famous county for a place on the highest Court in South Carolina.? Spartanburg Journal. HOME-COMING OF COTHRAN Abbeville County has enjoyed the distinction of being the nursery foi many generations of lawyers and jurists of character and fame throughout the land. For example, there was John C. Calhoun, of mar vellous g,:fts in legal lore; and James L. Pettigru, one of the greatest law yers that ever practiced at the Bar in South Carolina; and Armistead Burt, a brother-in-law of Mr. Calhoun, and the Perrins and Cothrans and Nobles ana juees ana scores 01 otners. a mong the Judges of the State there were the Wardlaws of the ante-bel lum Bench (of whom Associate Jus tice Cothran is kinsman) and Samuel McGowan, of the State Supreme Court in the time of Wade Hampton, James S. Cothran, as already noted, father of the new Associate Justice, was a Circuit Judge of the State. As sociate Justice McGowan, who mar ried a Wardlaw, was also related to Justice Cothran. Then there is the present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, Eugene B. Gary, and fa's brother, the late Er nest Gary, who was a distinguished Judge of the Circuit Court in South Carolina, and another brother, Frank B. Gary, now a Judge of the Circuit Court in-this State, and these three brothers were all born and reared anu icdiiicu Lite law 111 Auuevne county. We should think that the Bar of -Abbeville would give a great feast in honor of the Abbeville man who has been called to the highest possi ble service, and kill the fatted calf and welcome their wandering son back home again.?Spartanburg Jour nal. WILSON AGAIN USES PEN Washington, Jan. 30.?Congress received from President Wilson to day the first message signed with pen and ink since the President was taken ill a year and a half ago. The message had to do with changes in customs districts. ' Since his illness and up to this time the President has used an in delible pencil in signing communica tions to Congress. ANTREVILLE BUSINESS MAN WRITES ABOUT ACREAGE; I I S. J. Wakefield, One of the Leading : Farmers and Business Men of the County, Discusses Situation Confronting People of The County i The editor of the Press and Ban-! , | ner has received the following letter J j from Mr. S. J. Wakefield, of Antre-1 , jville. Mr. Wakefield, in addition to i being one of the best farmers in the j county and one of the leading busi ! ness men of his section, is a man who I gives considerable thought to mat 'iters pertaining to the farming inter jests. His conclusions in the matter ' i of acreage reduction, the use of fer ! tilizers, and on the general situation I are worth considering. Here is what I. j he says: j Mr. Editor:? | Your last editorial was timely and j to the point. That the cotton crop j will be materially reduced there is no doubt. In the first place there will be a large per cent of the farmers who cannot buy much fertilizers, even if they wished to do so, and no i one will use as much as he used last j year. But to be on the safe side, why ' | not get together and cut it out en j tirely as to cotton for the present jyear? We have 4)een fertiliing heavi ly for several crops and I am of the opinion that we can make from six ty per cent to seventy per cent of a normal crop without using fertilizers at all. We should use si little acid and a little soda under our corn and plant fifty per cent more corn than we did last year, the result will be that next fall we would find ourselves with cribs bursting with corn, a crop of twenty thousand bales of cotton, no fertilier accounts and ^"should the whole South adopt such a policy we would get hundred per cent more money for the crop to be raised the present year than we could expect to get if we farmed as heretofore. Yes. Mr. Editor, you are right, it has tak en $35.00 worth of fertilizers to raise each bale of last year's crop. Counting the fertilizers used for corn there has been bought in Abbeville County at least $1,000,000 worth of fertiliers to make the crops of last year, and the whole crop at present prices would not bring over two mil lion dollars. Fifty per cent going for fertilizers?now is not this a bad piece of economy? Now I am a great believer in op timism, but you please me too well, and I am going to call you down on : I a remark you made. You said there ' were still ten thousand bales of cot i ton and this cotton had to be sold before times would get any better, i This I agree to. But you also said if this cotton were sold, it would pay the banks all the debts the farmers owed. I am sure vou SDoke without giving the matter.touch thought. As a matter of fact this ten thousand bal es of cotton would not pay the bal ance due on fertilizers, leaving the balance of the debts unpaid, and they are legend. Besides there will be a large percentage of this cotton which will never be put on debts. People must live, and there is no way to get anything except by selling a bale of cotton. And we all would be surpris ed could we know the amount of cot ton that has beea sold for this pur pose s'nce September 1st. Now there is no doubt we are in a devil of a fix. February is here. Banks and merchants are in no condition to extend credit to the farmers. Cap tain Shaw's article was timelv and to the point. If there is not something done, and that speedily, I do not know what may happen. No one has as yet gone hungry but that time is J near at hand for many, if not actual ly here. I am of the opinion that fifty per cent of the farmers do not know at this time whether they can farm this year or not. We all have been hoping, if not expecting, that things would I brighten up and get better. But not sc, tne> are grauuauy growing worse ! and we had as well make up our j minds to accept them as they are. i No dcubt those who see this will think I am wrapped in gloom. Not so, for I see in the future better times, but not until another crop has been made as outlined above. S. J. Wakefield. , j Antreville, S. C. D. A. R. MEETING ,| Andrew Hamilton chapter D. A. R ' will meet Wednesday afternoon at 4 j o clock in the chapter room. Mrs. J. Allen Long, Sec'ty. WAGE CUT OPPOSED BY RAILROAD UNIONS Cleveland, 0., Jan. SO.?Heads oi three big railroad brotherhoods in formal statements here tonight said the railroad men of the coun try "will not peacefully submit" tc the wage reductions, which Chicago dispatches say the railways will seel< from the United States Railway La bor Board in a petition to be pre sented Monday. W. G. Lee, president of the Bro therhood of Railroad Trainmen; W S. Carter, president of the Brother hood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineermen and L. E. Sheppard president of the Order of Railwaj Conductors, made this declaratior in formal statements. A similar dec larauon was tnaae inuisuay uj Warren S. Stone, grand chief of tta Brotherhood of Locomotive En gineers. All th? brotherhood executive de clare that reports of decrease in tht cost of living are not borne out bj actual conditions, but are the resull of propoganda; that the wages oi railway employes did not increast as rapidly as did the cost of liivng or as much; and that railway mer are not receiving as high a standard of wages as are paid in many othei industries. Prejudicing Public Mr T,pp nosterri that, in his onin ion, "some, if not the greater por tion of the business depression ha: been brought about solely for th< 'purpose of prejudicing the public ir the interest of a reduction in wagei generally." Mr. Carter declared that "not withstanding all the wage increase: made either by the railroad adminis tra/tion or the I^abor Board, it car be shown that because the great in crease in the efficiency of railroac employes there has been no practi cal increase in wage costs comparec with product." Mr. Sheppard asserted that "to ad mit that in this country of our it h necessary to make an onslaught or labor at his time, after all the coun try has done for the railroads, is ab solutely un-American." Messrs. Lee, Carter and Shepparc ONE Fine worsteds, se Brothers & Co., S mer. Models foi shrunk and silk s( you again this we .1 1 : miss rnese uaigai Odd Trousers an at hcilf price Park C also pointed out that the railroad I employs a piece worker, laid off and not paid when the railroad traffic is : light. They also took the position i that before the railroads could pre ; sent a request for wage reductions o the board, they would first have > to present them to the men and ne i gotiations failing there then appeal ; to the board. Two Hai * r fn Ramp tv/ iiviiiv Lisenbee an< When you want enbee", think little honey-mc N, When you want 9* tometnst , jusi "opposite to ir When your eyes be sure to thin 5 I HD I \/ JLS1\. Lu* v McMurray's Victrola S MORE AT Hi / Our Half-P and Una Thro We MUST our big stoi The values ought to dc :rges and cassimeres tyleplus and The Hoi : all builds?rare all iwn?exquisitely tailoi jek at just half pricc lib. L?uya uuno anu id all Winter Weigh er & R CIRCLE NO. 4 TO MEET. Circle No. 4 of the Ladies' Auxili ary of the Presbyterian church will meet Tuesday evening at 7:45 with Miss Charlotte Brown. All members are urged to be present as officer for the year will be elected. READ THE ADVERTISEMENTS *d Words mber i Optometrist to remember "Lis of listening to the iker. to remember "Op t say to yourself, *? te are giving trouble tk of both words. I ISF.NRFF hop Abbeville, S. C. WEEK IE PRffF LLil I lllvLi ' ? rice Sale of Clothing lerwear will Last iiighout This Week! ' unload more of ck of clothing. we are offering ? made by Schloss ase of Kuppenhei wool fabrics?pre red?are offered to You must not Mens and Boys' t Underwear also eese