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_ The Press and Banner /VBBEYIL^E, 8.O. Published Every Wednesday by THE PEES3 AND BANNER CO "M M. P. 6REEXE. EillOr WEDNESDAY, DEC. 22, 1915. BONDS FOR GOOD ROADS. When it comes to the Supreme Court, we try to be orthodox, and a decision of that court is, so far as we are concerned, the law until, as they say in railroad circles, the ordc-i is superseded, modified or annulled. And so it is with the decision of the court with reerard to issuing bonds for road construction. So far as the law only is concerned, and the letter of the la\tf, we have no doubt the decision is on reasonable grounds. But because a man has a legal right to do a certain act, it by no means follows that it is good policy to do such an act. And the same is true of a legislative delegation. They may have a legal right to put a debt of a million dollars on the county from which they come, but we are of the decided opinion that such debt should not be created without the vote of two-thirds or threefourths of the people. And while we doubt in no measure the good faith and the true patriotism of the men who are behind these bond issues, we believe that they will find within five years that, a great mistake has been made. And we fear that a bad precedent has been set. Taxes are hard to pay, and taxes which do not bring about the results for which they are assessed are almost robbery. Now we yield to no one in the desire to see good roads in our county, but the question of desiring the roads, and being willing to work for them, and even of building them, is quite a different thing from voting a million dollars worth of bohds for a single experiment in road building. We say experiment advisedly, because no system of road building has yet been devised which guarantees a permanent road, one that does not require constant attention, and one that will not wear away with constant use. This is emphasized by an article in this paper published a week or so ago, in which it was stated that the United States Government had built near Washington, and was maintaining at its expense, a stretch of roadway leading to Chevy Chase, which had been constructed at different points from road building materials of different kinds, in order to test the effectiveness of the different plans and materials for road building. Therefore, while road building is in an experimental stage, we believe that it will hp wnrco +-Vior? l?Q7ai*/lAno -fA* a county to bond itself to the limit for the purpose of building a few miles of roadway, which may or may not be successful; which may or may not endure for the use of the people for one-third of the period for which they will be taxed on the bonds. It would seem a great deal more sensible, at least a great deal more prudent and cautious, to build a few mile? of the road determined on, and then test it by five years use, rather than to rush into an enterprise which is surrounded with so much uncertainty. We would emphasize, too, the great opportunity this kind of legislation offers to a few designing men. In the legislature, this kind of legislation is regarded as local, and a majority of a delegation may rush it through the legislature, since representatives and senators from other counties do not like to interfere in local fights. A majority of the delegation from any county may then impose on the people of the county any debt within constitutional limits, tax the people to pay it, and place the selling of the bonds, the collection and expenditure of the money in the hands of men of their own choosing and practically bankrupt a county. Any such legislation is hazardous in the extreme, contrary to the spirit of American institutions and a fertile field for all kinds of graft and corruption. And while generally speaking we are opposed to referendums and such legislation, we should study a long while before we would place a mortgage on the home and farm ii ? ?* oi every man in tne county ior tne purpose of trying out an experiment, even though in a commendable effort to serve the public. And lest we be misunderstood, we desire to say that these remarks are made without reference to the persons who shall handle the money in the cases before the Supreme Court. We know some of the Greenville commission and we have no other idea than that the money in that case, and in the case of Richland county will be spent ac cording to the best judgment of th men in charge of the work, bu that does not cure the plan of cr< ating this indebtedness, and c spending the money raised thereb* of the defects and dangers whic lurk about it. THE INTEREST RATE. Some years ago in conversatio with an officer of one of the larg insurance corporations of the cour try, he asked us as to the interes rate in South Carolina. Whe told that it was eight per cent, h stated that the rate was too hig and that no country could pay thi rate of interest for borrowed mone and prosper. Wo believe that he is right. j great deal of our business is don on borrowed money. When a ma must pay eight per cent, for th money he borrows with which t conduct his business, and must the employ his time in investing thi money and making it make mone for him, he is lucky if at the en of the year he does not find himse] a loser. i There is no species of property i the state which a man may buy an make eight per cent interest out o it, in the way of rentals, or othe inome, unless it be speculative, an there is no reason why a ma whose property is money, shoul make more than others. We are warned that by reducin the rate of interest, we will driv viawuit Alif A-f fVlD cfflfo i Wa H not believe it. No state in th South has prospered as much in ri cent years as North Carolina, an yet that state has in that time r? duced the interest rate to siix p?i cent. Money must be more plent: ful there than here, because the ev: dences of prosperity in every lin could not exist without money. W have not seen that the high rate o interest in this state has brougli money here, and in our judgmen there is little here to drive out, an the people who have it are too afrai of losing it to invest it elsewhere. But if they desired to do s< where would they send it and far better? Certainly not to Nort Carolina, becaue of its lower rat* rl^U A" tirill *?Af cnn ^ 1+ f A rioArm' q -fn incj nai iiuv ovxiu iv uv uwxg??? av the reason that a half dozen la'w yers just across the river are ac vertising money to loan on Georgi lands at seven per cent. Therefor the money will be invested her whether the rate be eight or six pe cent. We believe that with a reductio of the rate of interest from eigh to six per cent people who hav money would be more disposed to ir vest in industrial and other entei prises to which they would giv their own time and labor rathe than in loaning money on lcng timt on real and personal securities, an then sitting down and waiting fo pay day and that the money woul thus be emnloved where the indi rect benefits to the people at larg and to the State would be greatei At any rate we should not discoun our people, and their willingnes and ability to pay, nor the securit; furnished by our lands, by offerini to pay more wages for money thai any other commonwealth in ou neighborhood is willing to pay. The rate of interest should b lowered to six per cent, with strin gent provisions to prevent usuriou contracts. EDITORIAL BREVITIES. It is almost time for Cousin Perc; to arrive. Just to give the wedding a Geor gia touch the President kissed th< bride. To all inquiring friends: W< wear a number seven and a quarte hat and number nine shoes. It is wonderful the number o j friends Dote has made since he be gan to write for the papers. We hope that delightful refresh : ments will be served at the clos of the games at the next party. I would be something so new. Some men who think they mus drink the whole gallon each montl go about it as if they thought th month about out. The press reports fail to state o: which side Andrew Jackson wa during the late unpleasantnes aboard the Oscar Two, or whethe he spoke on both sides. We are of the opinion that an man has the right to dispute his ac count when one of the items is Christmas present his wife bough for him, and charged, and which sh expects him to wear. The average man is miserable b< cause he spends a lot of his time i making himself think he is. CHICAGO TRADUCES THE SOUTH e it (The St. Louis Republic.) The Chicago Tribune, a journal jj which calls itself "The World's Great- ? ' est Newspaper," apropos of a lynch- ing in Georgia, launches this diatribe at the entire South: "The South is backward. It I shames the United States by illiter- 11 n acy and incompetence. Its hill men | e and poor whites, its masses of !_ feared and bullied blacks, its ignor- ? ant and violent politicians, its rot- 1 n ten industrial conditions and its rot-1 5 e ten social ideas exist in circumstances J h which disgrace the United States in I is the thought oi: Americans and in the | y opinion of foreigners. [ The South is half educated. It is ? ^ a region of illiteracy, blatant self e righteousness, cruelty, and violence. I n Until it is improved by the invasion | 0 of better blood and better ideas it I e - , , ? 0 will remain a reproacn una a danger n to the American Republic." [s The Tribune is backward. As an y American newspaper it. shames the ^ United States by its ignorance and ? incompetence. Its blatant selfrighteousness passes belief. Until n it is improved by the invasion of a ^ better spirit and better ideas it will ? remain a reproach and a danger to a true nationalism. But its sentiments with regard to the South must n be typical of community opinion, since otherwise they would have met with public and concerted rebuke g from Chicago's citizenship. ' e When the Civil War broke out the # North was rich; the South, thanks to e an industrial system which was as mistaken economically as it was ^ wrong morally, was poor. The war stimulated the North ar d prepared it ' for the conquest of the New West; it prostrated and bankrupted th.South. A /i. 1.1 i.A. XT i-T_ ?j. P _ /liter tne war ise iNorcn was . as it e had been before; the South was si land in ruins. Not only its capital ? was gone; its institutions were to t rebuild, on new and hotter founda. tions. And while the South stood it ^ so bitterly in need tho laws of the ^ United States were shaped to benefit the protected manufacturers of the North at the expense cf the agricultural South. We recall that the 6 k esteemed Tribune, in the Medill days, used to argue powerfully for a low tariff between campaigns; then, when the time for action came, ~ it always became "regular" and fought with and for the tariff barons. * There is no more shameful story than that of the "reconstruction" at 6 the South, for which the North was if responsible. There is no more inspiring story than that of the reconstruction of the South by itself. Which is typical of the South: the | shameful deed of a mob or the steady, * persistent advance of industrial re- j form, of popular education, of city E e [2 making, of literature and the arts, g 1 of charity and philanthropy? ^ Is Chicago in a position to throw | stones? Has the Windy City noth- g ing to learn from the despised South? | Look at the way in which Chicago has | l~ muddled her terminal situation and H 0 # compare it with the splendid munici- n * pal terminals of New Orleans. For ff Chicago to prate of "ignorant and I S violent politicians" is, as a certain | ^ Venetian gentleman once remarked, | ^ "hypocrisy against the devil." Can E the South match Bath-House John n r and Hinky Dink? Has the South [| ever equaled the JLonmer scandal: ^ Yet Lorimer came from the great and ? good City of Chicago. Chicago has, through Lorimer, j| brought disgrace upon the politics of ? a nation; its municipal government e has been sordid and corrupt; what [| did Chicago ever do in a constructive j| y way to advance the political thinking E of America or help forward-looking [| men to better things? Nothing at i _ all; in the realm of political con- j| e struction Chicago has been as barren ? as a stretch of alkali desert under a || blazing sun. But look at little Gal- [f e veston, a few years since stricken j| r by one of the worst disasters in his- ? tory; yet setting out, with a courage ?; that tempest and ocean combined ; [| f coul i not daunt, not only to build i s I - a city impregnable in face of the i (a wrath of Nature but also to fashion j{| a city government on new principles, j j| - where honesty and efficiency might J ri] e come into their own. The one great i ?j t contribution to the practical art of |j city government made by the United J States since the birth of the nation g t came out of the Far South. h What has Chicago done for Cook |j e County, except to dcbauch its poli- e tics? The Illinois metropolis might ji well take a leaf out of the book of j| n Fort Worth, Tex., which has so stimu- E s Tated the good roads enthusiasm of g s Tarrant County that that jurisdiction | r has within two years invested $2,- j| 000,000 in improved highways, ex- g pendcd, not according to the methods [| ^ of pork-barrel politics, so well com- | prehended in Cook County, but under e * the personal supervision, with full | lu responsibility," of one of the most emi- | e nent highway engineers in America. t? Chicago prides herself on her j (2 . achievements in literature. Atlanta, ? * (Continued on page 5.) l5^ | GIFTS THAT HE I \i ,#, elz I jji I mist i JL 1 11 Chr I jj Tj i L Han( tl 1\ \lu I SdilossBrosWit ,-t ^ C \\ I jj I Balteore Hew&k! OtllC g 1 jl I Wa^ fi II 1/ I illflll the i S I IIFMBI give I C, I PARKER i aSgpc ijgj n/[J3L GJGL aEIitj D iaJSS; tEJSS cJSJtj eJ5, ejjSIS. cJ2.i MID-WINTEI 1 At 20 Per C |inS?lSHaHI jjf I n face of the fact tfi ?i@ _ ji_. i ;^ ^ Sfi| rapiaiy auvanuiig, igl to convert a large ,'jjp stock into Cash. T kg gains will be found If COUNTER, ALL M If FIGURES. 1 ====== Hf jjjl DON'T FORGET w jr| these Silk Bargair jjjl through one of the 1 m Stocks of Merchant jjji We Call Special Ati of Dress Goods, Tabl Ml ble Napkins, Curt jffij Quilts, Blankets, Ba jjjj| Sweaters, Cloaks, ' ? iv t _ _ a l~ fflg Uioves, ixecKwear, c IHADDON-WII M Abbeville, j j. WILL APPRECIATE jj ifts selected here will be sure to Cj se any MAN ! [ 3 re sell the things MEN like?the j j , I I gs MbJN use ! I boose here and you will make no j I ake! 11 BIT, OVERCOAT OR RAINCOAT || Id make any man an ideal > ! \ r * n Tr*m ' -I !' lanvma vjriri. -jj tien in smaller wares we show ,.J| l Robes, Pajamas, Shirts, Neck .{J , Ties and Socks in holiday [ | is, Hats, Shoes, Grips, Suit Cases, I { Ikerchiefs, Mufflers and many - [I r things that belong to a man's | j lrobe that would speak well of [J *ood taste and judgment of the :;! 3 3me here for his Xmas present. | J & REESE I i aaa?TOiiei!i^^ * ? lmW\ ent Discount M I lat all Silk Goods are |3| I we have determined |a| I part of our present |g| I t /> a. r> tt- n i!ni nese ureal ^iik oar= gup m on BACK CENTER B3 I ARKED IN PLAIN EH 11 hen you come to see fjjj| g is, to take a look jsjg I Largest and Cleanest || j| 1 S++ ^ t-i *vi n nl/'nf Ii?>c fill iiii9 inai rvv^t. fjrtSjj' |^B tention to our Stock |s| H le Linen, Towels, Ta= lgj? I ain Materials, Bed |jjj| Hj ith Robes, Kimonas, H B Shoes, Hosiery, Kid |jj| [gjgjgjgjgjgjgjgjaiJSjgMgfgMgiBJBJgJBJBISjgMgjgjgMgMgMgMBJ JSOK COMFY II South Carolina kjjjf I USJ5JBI5JSMSJBI5J5J5J3JSJ3?5J5I5IS?EMBJBJ5J5J5I5J5JSI5JBJSJ5IBI5j'^yE^ I