Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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The Press and Bannei ABBEVILLE, S. C. Published Every Wednesday by TEE PRESS AND BANNER CO WM. P. (.RKEVK, Editor WEDNESDAY SEPT. 29, 1915. PRIMARIES AND THE EXPENSES According to the affidavit of candi dr.te B. A. Morgan, who was in th second race for Congress in th fcurth district this summer, he spen between three and four thousand do] lars during the campaign. We pre sume that the other candidate spen something like the same amount. An the other less successful candidate spent other considerable amounts i making the race. Altogether th f.mount of money spent by all th candidates was several times th ?mount of salary which will be r< ccived by the successful candidat during the one year he is to serve And it was an off year for politic too. All of which causes us to remar that the present way of nominatin officers in this state has lost its effici ency, if it ever had any such qualitj Considering the vast sums of mone; spent in some of the counties an districts by candidates for congres and for the senate, and the sum spent by candidates for state ^officers we are of the opinion that the stake do not justify the expense; and th result of it all is most disappointing Surely no plan which has bean trie* in the past has been conducive to th election of so many ill-qualified mei to" office. The primary is a failure, as is j democratic government. The foun ders of this republic tried to insun us against a democracy. This wa designed for, and should be, a repre sentative government. Wc had bet ter men in office with a representa tive government than we have dream ed of since the primary came into ex iitence, and better mert than we wil have again until the primary is ; thing of the past. The agitators o this country who have tried to refe: everything to a primary election fron the number of children a man shoul< have to whether one man or anothe: should be appointed postmaster a Yemasee, in Charleston county should know by this time that a fe\ representatives, with backbom enough to assume the duties and re sponsibilities of office, are worth mori +1?011 Oil fv*A J ? ? .u?u ?n wc piiuiaiica ana reieren dums that this country has ever had. But we are told that we will hav< ring rule. We may have and so fai at we are concerned we prefer it t< the disturbances that the politician! have been kicking up in this country for the past twenty years. No rin| that we have ever heard of weni around the country exciting the peo pie of a community to fever heat ii a fight between factions of that com ir.unity over whether Bill Smith o] i?aul Jones should hold a po.?r office The people meet in a representative government, send delegates to a con vention, and these delegates nominal men for office. The last two demo cratic conventions which met in Col \imbia, and every other conventior which we know anything about, was composed of representative men frorr sll the counties; men with no axes of their own grind, except in a feu cases, and we dare say that if eithei cf the two last named conventions had been allowed to name a man foi governor, or senator from this state that a man thoroughly representa^ tive of the people of the state woulc have been named, the equal in everj way of any man who has ever beer elected in a primary, and one whonr. the people would have respected anci iiunorea. Ana then the turmoil ol politics would have been saved; the factional differences of our people would have been unheard of; and all this strife and political discussior would have been saved our people, The people have too little interest, real interest, in who is governor ol this state, and who is congressman, j.nd who is senator, for them to take a summer off every two years to fighl ar.d hollow, cuss and discuss, whc shall hold any of these offices. Foi cur part we are willing that any hontot man, with ability, and enough energy to look after hid duties, hold any of the offices. And we are perfectly willing for representative; from the several counties r.ome all the officers of the state and congressional districts, if only the lawyer can be kept at the law, the cotton-buyer i,t keeping up the price of the staple, end the farmer and business man in the enjoyment of prosperity, unbitten by the political mad dog. It seems to us that our experiences have been such that we are entitled t.> another try. THE PRICE OF COTTON. The price which cotton is now bringing has made hard times a recollection of tjie past. The South ? looks forward hopefully to the fu- 2 ture. But the people of the South should not deceive themselves. The real conditions in the South - have not changed. The war is still going on, and may go on for another year or two. Vast amounts of mu' nitions of war have been purchased in this country, which accounts for : Ihe plentiful supply of money in the money markets. The panic caused by the outbreak of the wa^, which was everywhere prevalent last fall, is not with us now, and this, to some e extent, helps. But the real good feeling in the ^ South cannot be accounted for on , these grounds. We have sold no munitions of war, and the purchase , price of these things has brought no . crosDeritv to the South. Our prosperity is brought about by 1 the high price of cotton and must be t accounted for on other grounds. And s 6 (he real ground is the diversification 6 of crops. The people of the South 1 in the early part of the year aban- 1 tinned the one crop idea to a very 1 6 considerable extent, and planted food stuffs, and comenced to raise meat s and bread at home. The result is k that the cotton crop is short, and the price is good. If we had n crop as F large as that of last year, we would l" bo receiving little more for it than we did last year. The great appar^ cnt surplus would so weigh down the market that prospective purchasers * could afford to wai' and take their ' S i chances for a lower market. As it 1 >. . . . . .. . i ' is, people wno must nave cotton, real- * S ize that if they get it at all, it must e be gotten at once. And the result is that all cotton offered is in demand, arid the nrices offered in all markets e , are good. 1 So let no farmer deceive himself or be deceived. There are no nosa trums for a surplus crop, nothing that will cure the situation. It is true e that a surplus crop need not be sacris ficed, if the people are able to warehouse the cotton and wait. But the " greater part of those people who actually raise the cotton cannot hold on to it indefinitely. The larger farmer and the wealthier merchant may * do so, but when a small farmer and a a one-horse merchant tries to borrow ^ money in the spring of the year to r run a crOD. still owinc* thp hnnlf fnr 1 last year's advances, he will find a ? * little difficulty in his way. r The only real and efficient remedy * is the ounce of prevention. The '? small farmer should raise his meat, 7 bis flour, his corn and all food stuffs, B both for himself and his stock on the ' farm. The balance of his land he e can plant in cotton, and look forward ' v/ith some degree of confidence to a good price foi^hat commodity in s the fall; but when everybody goes r back to nothing but cotton, there is * no hope for the small farmer of the 5 South. An object lesson has been ' ? shown to our people. Let us hope ? that they will be benefitted and t taught by it. Therefore, we advise the farmers 1 of the county to sow oafc and wheat c " during the fall, and to prepare to c r plant corn in the spring. 1 1 J GALLON-A-MONTH LAW LEGAL. r t ; (Spartanburg Journal.) a Judge Frank B. Gary at the recent { term of court in Abeville is said to ? i have declared the gallon-a-month law ] > in this state to be unconstitutional. n i This decision has caused some con- ^ > cern in some quarters but there ap- ^ ' pears to be no need of general alarm \ * for according to the opinion of some t s very able lawyers the judge is going fc, " to be reversed by the state supreme t ? court when the case reaches that body ,, a? it certainly will. Some of the lead- ^ I ing lawyers of the state have express- v r ed the opinion that thejudge erred in n t this decision. a i William P. Greene, editor of The v I .Abbeville Press and Banner and a a ' very able lawyer, one of the leading t ! attorneys at the Abbeville bar, dis- ti cussed the decision of Judge Gary at c 1 some length in his paper this week, 'j i Mr. Greene takes the position that q the Judge erred in his ruling. r . Friends of temeprance in South a Carolina will trust that the decision t , cf Judge Gary will not be permitted n to stand. The gallon-a-month law t. ; has been the greatest temperance act i > yet put on the law books in this state. a It has removed the social club evil a and has done more to exterminate c i Mind tigers than any thing ever done c > in South Carolin. c ( We sincerely hope that the meas ' ure will be found to be constitutional. c ii WHERE EDUCATION FAILS. All over the country, at ever-ini creasing cost, we are constructing splendid buildings for the scrvice of g primary and higher instruction of all i the children and young men and wo- " I men. We are training teachers from ' '.he scholastic standpoint, and are try- tl ing to make the schools serve in a p better way the individual prepara- & tion for industry, commerce and agri- . culture. But we are almost wholly 11 failing to utilize the educational sys- 11 tem for the specific training of citi- - :ens in their various duties as such, ["he consequence is that the staridirds and methods of our political and ?rganized life are lower than those <f our private life. There is perfect insistency between the ideals of hose who glorify peace, and the aims >f those who would train every Am?rican boy to be ready to help mainain peace in any time of emergency >r danger. We are not getting any;hing like the social and public valles that we ought to be reaping from >ur investment in schools and eda:ation. Scholarship is not popular n our universities and collejyos. Atretic life furnishes no proper outlet, because it is vicarious and auasi-profcssional. A few young gladiators nonopolize the athletic activity of :ur institutions, and the vast majority are taught to look on and yell for he maintenance of college or school spirit. Thus our great institutions, though i-ore and more costly in their appointments and maintenance, are . . , ,?W' r.ainiuiiy aware tnat they are not proiucing the results that ought to be manifest. Many of their students?a possible majority?cannot write a .veil phrased or correctly spelled let:er. They do not know Bible, or Shakespeare, or Charles Dickens, rhey are not capable of reading the ditorial page of a good newspaper. Lhis criticism does not; apply to all, )ut to what in at leas; a good many arge institutions musl; include fully lalf of the undergraduates. It would >e unjust to locate blame in any specific quarter. The faults lie deep in >ur current life, and are widespread, ["here are great resources of worth tnd of power latent in those very youths who do not find themselves ibsorbed in the study of textbooks, or veld to discipline by the sternness of he football coach. But there is a jospel of social and public duty, ac:ompanied by certain practical appli:ations, that might be used to bring jut th(> pnrnpcfnpsc otlH noi-onnal vorth of thousands of these young r.en. They should be strongly impressed with the gravity of the is:ues of this momentous time in which ve live. Without much if any addiional burden to the taxpayers, every >ne of these students of high schools, lormal schools, colleges, and universities could be so taught and trained is to be well prepared to exercise nany of the usual, and some of the inusual, duties of citizenship. Such raining would benefit students in heir health and morals, would give hem a finer sense of private as well ts public duty, and would furnish hem with various kinds of practical " ixperience and knowledge that would N edound to the welfare of our Doliti- I al and governmental life.?Review if Reviews for September. ^ MOVEMENT WHICH OUGHT TO PROSPER. News and Courier. Fifteen years ago the newspapers if South Carolina were filled with omment upon what the coming of he cotton mills to the cott'.n meant o the State. With the *act accom-lished, the subject, as is frequently he case, ceased to attract t!*e same .ttention. It is gratifying to note he amount of thought which the lewspapers of the Piedmi.nl are givr.g to the matter of bringing the lill people of the cotton miU section lure cuuseiy into xuenuncanon witn he other elements of the population. Ve do not think the important quesions which are involved have ever efore been given quite as: much inelligent consideration as new apears to be the case. The Spartanurg Herald has been experimenting nth baseball. The Greenville Piedlont, the Abbeville Press and Banner nd the Newberry Herald 'ind News t'ant to see the mill school a? a sepxate institution done av/av with and he children of the mill village sent o the public schools along with the ther children of the community, 'here is general agreement with the Ireenville News that "this thing of egarding the mill village is a thing part, of looking upon a mill opera ive as neither rural man nor urban lan, but as a peculiar element in our ommunity, makes for no good." But hat is not all. There is growing up genuine determination to find ways r;u means of breaking down such an Ititude. This is what is especially ncouraging; and there is every reaon why the movement now getting r.der way ought to prosper. The otton mill operatives of South Caro- j na ccme of first-class stock. ? WELL QUALIFIED j I The Abbeville Press and Banner, rguing in favor of the constitution- j ;ity of the gallon-a-month law, says i . n i. - i~i.:? i nat sucn a. rcguiauuiji r: 'ft.iu iui j be reason that it prevents any one ' erson, at least to some extent, from ecuring enough liquor to render him itemperate." We particularly ad-, lire that "at least to some extent." |l -News and Courier. ' mm I 1 fifif ffrt- *fff CopynAht At*. ' t ^ 3 $$ ? SchlosaBros&Ca 11 J#' Bdhjmarc Ncw^irk. | ' mp ' Se^ Schloss Bros. & C the finest, most stylish world?at the most re New Fashions. $1 We have bought from the bes: great style-leaders such as S< New York and other leading 1 ful to see ;?all strictly hand-t shrunk, tested and matched ; guaranteed down to the smallei Priced from ! PflrkAi* 11 i, : WE ARE SOMETH By Express A It will be to yoi store often or you very article you are RECEIVE ^hinr i yj a.. COATS i Also a lot of A Something- New Millinery w Mrs. Jas. ABBEVILLE, S r NEW FALL| Styles .... for .... mi l irATTiin umi W and YUUNb iYltJN I ready here now.in big variety, ny new styles and models, fresh m the designers hands, portraying very best ideas of the leading stylekers. We invite you to come and them while the showing is new, >h and complete. \To obligation to buy. lo. "Clothes Beautiful" ready-to-wear clothes in the asonable prices. In all the 0.00 to $25.00 t Clothes-Makers in the land, from , { :hloss Bros. Co., of Baltimore and - < louses. The new goods are beauti;ailored; all materials carefully pre; all wool throughout, of course, and st detail. See these^new styles, now. BIO.OO to $25.00 & Reese. I ==% 1 i RECEIVING ING NEW , / Imost Evary Day V V ? ?, ir interest to visit our * * may miss seeing the waiting for. 3D TO-DAY nent of md SUITS irt Needle Work Every Day in our V. Department fv flnnlirjin Ml VUUill UJll OUTH CAROLINA