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ESTABLISHED 1844. \ o Press and Banner ABBEVILLE, S. C. The Press and Banner Company r * Pubisfced Every Tuesday and Friday. Telephone No. 10. Entered as second-class mail matter at post offico ' in Abbeville. S. C. Terms of Subscription: One year $2.00 iSix months 1.00 i . '* Three months -50 ? Payable invariably in advance. MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1920. ^???....????_?______ j : OUR TRI-^EEKLY. - ** v .** v> . ? We ar'e commencing this week the publication of the tri-we&ffly,. We have been delayed for several ;:i weeks in making the start, mainly for the reason ^ that the office force was not large enough to do the necessary work, and we were, like a great many ; other people, unable to secure other competent V. j. help. We have now so increased our force as to be able to commence the publication of the paper three times each week, and hereafter our readers i' .may expect the paper on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday mornings. We trust that the paper will continue to com* mand the support of its readers and customers ae u koo nMt. We are endeavoring to give the aw u?kl ?m wmv { _ people as go5d paper as they will support. We . commenced riot quite five years ago, taking over the Press and Banner, then a weekly publication with patent outside. Some two years ago we started the all home print, semi-weekly, and the people approved of the better paper we gave them, and we , are trusting that the people will continue to appreciate our efforts to give them all the news which a county paper should carry. THE CITY SCHOOLS. In our article last week, we were in error in one particular with regard to the action of the Board of Trustees of the city schools. We stated that the -L Board would ask that the two mills now levied for i ; the retirement of bonds be henceforth used for the purpose of making needed improvements and repairs on the school buildings, and that an additional ? < ' levy of two mills would be asked for the running expenses of the schools, when we should have said that the additional levy to be asked for the support ot the schools would be four mills. ?;? -- it Jaac urifVi mir increased levies for voming w 10 uvco T??v?? v?? other purposes we must not overlook the fact that this makes more iponey for the taxpayer to raise at the end of each year. The members of the Board of Trustees were not unmindful of this fact in de^ x ciding to ask for the levy, but other considerations induced them to pass a resolution that the increased levy be asked for. The other considerations t 'mainly, were these: "l In the first place property cannot be reassessed for two years. We are paying taxes on an assessment of forty per cent of the values of two years i? ??-.41^ in vol 11 a ago, Willie property nus gic?.vi> cimouvsu ... in that time. With this enhancement has come higher living expenses, and consequently higher sal' aries for all employees in the schools, whether teachers or other persons. Hence there is no way _ to raise the additional money required except by increasing the number of mills levied. Again, it must be remembered that more and more work is being done in the schools each year, ? \ with more and more pupils each year, making a demand for more teachers as the pupils com? In. This year the teaching force has been increased by * three tcachcis, and another year we must have at least twt> more teachers than we have this year. Lv; ? The salaries next year will be higher generally, while the Trustees feel thfct TffS must Pay as salaries as any ether school in the Btfttg order to secure the best talent in the teaching profession. The board will likely make $90 per month the basis " " for next year, which will be an increase of $20 per month over the present year. This means practically $200 mor? for each teacher in the public schools, amounting to about $3400 increase in the yeariy pay-roll. Then, we must not forget that if we are to have a-Superintendent of Major Fulp's attainments, we cannot get and keep him for the salary now paid. K v hisj there will be a substantial increase " in the salary lo be paid the Superintendent, as there will be also in the salary paid Mr. Daniel if he may be pursuaded to come to Abbeville for the next school year. These increases, with the salarie. . - - .d..ionai teachers, waich we must have, w *^sary to raise something like $6,000 to $7,000 more next year for the schools than u\ v.' pittfciit year. The taxable property of the school district is not more than $1,.>00,000, and four mills additional will raiie only $6,000, so that it will be seen thai it, ^ a i ujthe four mills to give Abbeville tlu . which the times demand. Some will think this an exceedingly large amount lo ?o good a cause as education, but nonp will doubt, we take it, that education is the mos: important of all the purposes for which taxes ar vv2 will be plying fou:teen mills for the jp-";c:'p of our schools, the running expenses, anil salaries of teachers. This entitles every eh! thj di-trict to an education without further cos- d vv:th the schools which we now have, and the improvements to be made from year io year, we J ^ do not believe the thoughtful citixen will question I | the fact thr.t all the money is needed, and that ic is being spent for a proper purpose. It will not seem so large an amount either if you stop to consider that the fifty Abbeville boys and girls now in the colleges of the state are spending at least $30,000, while we are educating more than six hundred at home for half that amount. And when it is remembered that not twenty per cent, of those who commence the first grade ever finish even the high school at home, and that a much smaller per cent, even goes to college, and even a much smaller per cent ever graduates, it will be seen at once how important the local school is to the average child in our midst. It will be seen at the same time how#important it is that'In every erade of the schools there should be the best teach ers.so that every year in the schools shall be profitably spent; that the child who is so soon to leave the schools shall have in the short stay in them the best the country has to offer in the way of teachers. When these matters are considered the public, we are sure, will agree with the purposes of the school board in asking- the people to vote as much taxes as the schools demand in order to do efficient work. ' The levy to be asked will, of course, be a flexible levy. The members of the Board of Trustees are themselves taxpayers. Some of them pay considerable taxes into the public treasury, and when property is reassessed, if it is not necessary that the full twelve mills be levied in any year, the public may expect that only such levy will be made as is necessary. At the same time the public will keep in mind that other towns like Abbeville are already levying as much taxes as we are now asking, and that if we are to keep step with other communities - - * ' ? *? J? -OTA we must not look bacKwara. a xew uo>o looked over a list of the rural school districts in Anderson County showing the amount of special taxes being levied in these districts, and in many of them we found the levy to be as much as twelve mills. This is the case in many other counties. The people are awake to the cause of education, both the people in the towns and cities, and the people in I the rural districts, and that community will not j amount to much which does not offer to the boys ->nd girls in it as good opportunities as do other communities. "The Abbeville Public Schools?The Best in the State. Let them grow." What say the voters? MARSE HENRY TALKS POLITICS. I | He says he doesn't, but he does. He likewise talks sense. It is more or Jess a habit with him to do that if he talks at allt and he generally talks. He is too courteously amiable to refuse to do that when folks want him to, and that what they al ways wank So, when the New York Herald cornered him down in Jacksonville the other day, Marse Henry was his own kindly, cordial self, and answered questions that were put to him in his own direct way. Among other things, he said the Republicans would carry "several" Southern States next year. But how many are "several?" Would Kentucky and Maryland make several?" He was not pressed on this point, which is rather a pity. Thei% are strange things reported as going on even in Texas, and as for North Carolina and Tennessee, almost anything might happen down there and nobody would be much surprised. - But Marse Henry lets in a possible side-light on ^ Solid South disintegration. He ciphers out that there is no Democratic Party any more. In its place there is only a Wilson Party. Mr. Wilson's J health will not permit him to exercise his proprietary rights pver this new Party, so he is going to give it to his son-in-law, Mr, McAdoo. Thus the "Wilson Party will go in the movies, anyway. Now, I how much is this Wilson Partv believed in in the | South? Senators Smith and Shields do n6i seem to j be- held ir. any less esteem in Georgia and Tennes- j see, respectively, for having gone over to the ! fold of the Blasphemers of the undotted i and uncrossed t Covenant. On the contrary, their home . . | stock appears to have gone up several points com- ; j cidently with their backsliding. c j But Marse henry was rather cryptic when asked | if he thought that the League of Nations was re- j sponsible for the growing Republican strength in j the South. "The Republicans have gained strength in the South," he said, "from general conditions and not from any special cause." A answer and true if important. And on another point Marse Henry relieved the strain of his interrogator's curiosity with an equally sage observation: fViic rin-nm riorVif. " hp said in reDlv to a J.1 U ? , V1HJ W ?? ?? * ?? ? - * V question as to Democratic Presidential possibilities in 1921?"get this down right, for it is important; Presidential possibilities are always in the air." True, true, how very true! And Marse Henry might hive added that seme of them are always u > in the air. What a pity it is that Marse Henry in the same breath said: "Don't you know I am re.tired and don't know anything about politics?" I' is a pity he said this, because it somewhat detracts "rom th2 interest of another remark he h:.d made '.'efore, which was this: "Mr. Wilson will not be able to lead this (the Wilson-That's-All-rarty) because of ill health. But his son-in-law, McAdoo, in line succceding, will lead it to overwhelming defeat next year. Nothing sc-cms surer than that the Republicans will sweep the country in 1020." And this from Marse Ilenry, who, if ever thcr? was a Democrat, a staunch, loyal, fiery and fie.c; Democrat, was precisely that Democrat! But that was back in the days before Mr. Wilson had supnlanted the Democratic Party.?Harvey's Weakly. I I Now Is thi TO Bl Land in Abbeville County. There are r | this county that are for sale at unusually r;i| have farms listed for sale that are near t< I them, plenty of outbuildings, community I churches and schools, and near roads. We would be glad to get in touch with we have. We know of no better investment at pi land in this section. In a very sho *t while the county will command a price of aroi If you want to sell list your farm with Dixie Lad C I L. M. TOLBERT, Abbevi] jpaianinmuiii^^ MULES | HORS is I havi^ n cfaKlp 31 A niA y v \a. etuik/iv S | Tennessee Mules Fc S r . I, a few good horses a j? I i Come In and Look a? ffi ,It s ~1 JL 9 Hi ? - issm^sasasmsiESBsmBwaimssBsssm i ^ .'as ^ e lme mmm mi^bmb gj jy I nany excellent farms in moderate prices. We | own, have good homes on | advantages, such a s 1 you and show you what esent than the buying of | ! all the desirable land in | ind $200 per acre. | us. We get results. omprny |j lie Manager. | 4 - I J \> : IT^fV I . c 11 r 1 i? rull ot good | >r Sale. Also ji ind mares. ji ?7 jjH Them Over I 1 1