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ESTABLISHED 1844. The Press and Banner ABBEVILLE, S. C. The Press and Banner Company PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY Monday, Wednesday and Friday. ( Telephone No. 10. Entered as second-class mail matter at post office in Abbeville, S. C. Terms of Subscription: One year $2.00 Six months 1.00 Three months .50 FRIDAY, JANUARY 9, 1920. I I CLEOPATRA'S NOSE. I 'v P If Cleopatra's nose had been a .jhade longer cr shorter the world's history would not; be the same it now is since her nose was perfect. Anthony would not have spent the time writing his faithful Octavia postcards with comments on the beautiful scenery of Egypt, and honeymooning his life away with the Daughter of the Nile. Since we know that the fractional part of an inch j ' * added to old Cleo's nose would have changed Anthony's shameful career of crime and ruin into a life of honor and usefulness, Octavia's unhappy j grass-widowhood into a life blessed with conjugal I'elicitv. and the whole history of the Eastern em ^pires into a vastly different story, therefore, a much greater change in the systems of governments, i '* modern business affairs, corporations, schools and the like may bring forth \wonderfully improved ! changes in the results obtained for our labors. Just now a vitally interesting question is before the citizens of Abbeville and especially those who have children in schools. We wont say patrons of the schools, for there is no such thing as patron of a public school. The question is/whether the committee appointed by the Parent-Teacher association ai its last meeting to canvass for subscriptions to ; the playground equipment fund of $800 shall really i.??? Mnvast nr shall thev only have to call for \ your checks. The order for the equipment has been placed with cne of the best houses of its kind in the country and the prices obtained are very moderate considering the high cost of everything made )f steel. Bailey Military Institute, Greenwood, purchased their apparatus from this same house and Recommend the firm very highly. So much for the actual facts. We believe that our people nfeed only to be enlightened as to the purposes, plans, and needs of such scientific equipment as has been bought, to i see where it is worth the money invested, and no canvass will be necessary. The committee will only huve to call for your jscription instead of spend- j ing an hour explaini". ; why they are pulling on your purse strings? :. thr.t the committee will mind explaining the merits of the expenditure at j ail, but really, we should be modern enough to have realized the n:stf of such equipment seme | years ago. *Calhou.. ~..IV? has purchased equipment for its school.' So has the Abbeville Cotton Mill, Easiey, Belton, Union, Greei*, Williamston, and dozV . ens of other places in the state. True it is that just because some other cities j have purchased playground equipm?ht for their schools is no reason why we should do likewise, unless it is a good investment. Let's see. First, we would like for every septic to visit ! cither school ground at recess time. If you are ' skeptical, visit the graded school first. See the dan" ' ' ! ' ^?: ' gerous congestion 01 4uu cnuaren trying tv iuoa , and exercise their little bodies on a 2x4 playground. I Second, the little citizens of the kingdom of j tomorrow are just wax records and their impres- I sions are cut deep. Those impressions abide. And our own children are going to grow up as neighbors j ' of^ose other children. What is better for them? ( To spend their recess periods in supervised health- j ful exercise and play or receiving the evil impres- j sions and weaving into their fabric from moment i to moment the evil ever-present on all school j grounds. The playtime should have some definite j object back of it. Third, in our city there are worn-out, weary, j slaving mothers who are offering up their lives on j the altar of Bread and Butter. These mothers say j to their children, "Run along and play." You know { where they run along to play?downtown. If we give them slide boards, giant strides, see-saws, acting poles, swings and such on the school grounds, which will be open to them all the year 'round, you will have to get a messenger boy to find those boys of yours at supper time, and you mothers wont be finding so many tobacco crumbs in Willie's pants pockets, and you fathers wont be finding so many ice creams and cold drinks on his bills that he : doesn't remember buying. The ladies are coming soon to see you. Some? * ~ ? ?olvon/lv >?ncr>nnrl ntl 1 iViPV.nll v a lew U1 yuu nave ancuu^v iwj|/v?iuvw y most of you have not. The latter the committee know about and you had better prepare to give a lot more to the children's future and less to the income tax man. COUNTIES AND COUNTIES. Says the Spartanburg Journal: ''Next time anybody tries to make another new county out of Abbeville the opposition would be able to get much valuable assistance from the men and institutions of Spartanburg, who managed the * i mmmkk .. ^ * ... very recent campaign in this county." One of the reasons why so many other counties have been made from the former territory of Abbeville County is that a large majority of the Spartanburg delegation in the Constitutional Convention of 1895 voted to make it easy for the people of a few square miles of territory to leave the "venerated seat" in one county and go into another county, ?r form a new county accordingly as the people in that area desired. If Spartanburg has heen about to reap the whirlwind, perhaps it is be cause her delegation in the Constitutional Convention sowed the wind. There are some things, however, which we do not understand, while there are some we do fairly well. We can understand why the Greer area wanted to leave Spartanburg, but why should the people in that section want to become a part of Greenville County with its heavy bond issue and bad roads? Why did the people in the "area" not join Polk County, North Carolina? , THE EASLEY PROGRESS?MR. HIOTT. Mr. D. W. Hiott, Jr., who was with The Press and Banner for a season, and who has recently been doing newspaper work in North Carolina, has returned to his home near the mountains, and in the future will be the editor and business manager of The Easley Progress, one of the good newspapers of the mountain country. Mr. Hiott has good newspaper training, and his ability, coupied with his experience, will be a valuable asset in making The Progress a better paper even than it now is, as Mr. Hiott promises, though he is modest in his promises. Mr. Hiott will add to the equipment of the paper, and in a little while we expect to see him publishing an a!l home-print paper, and it semi-weekly. Nothing succeeds like success. Five years ago the Abbeville Press and Banner was bought by the Hon. William P. Greene. It was then published once a week and with a patent outside. The type Unw,/i_wio,in cirlo of flip rciner was set bv o:i inu iiviug-iuuv*t v.*. x?A hand, and it was a very good paper of its kind. When he bought it, Judge Greene had an idea that he could make it more representative of the community if he should make an all-home-grown paper and publish it twice a week; that he could produce a better paper by fitting up his office with improved modern machinery, a power press driven by electricitv and M ergon thaler linotypes, and he has done it, an\l done it so well and with such gratifying financial results that he has increased his mechanical outfit, employed the services of an editor from Virginia, and this week announces that hereafter The Press and Ban/ier will be published three times a week. After awhile, perhaps, he will find the village of Abbeville grown so prosperous and progressive that nothing will do but a daily paper; that is to say, every day in the week but the Sabbath. That would never do if he be still infatuated with the idea of moving the College from the Corner to the Court House. But he is a very resourceful and progressive young man, and there is no telling what he will do next. Whatever it may be, he will do it well.?Spartanburg Journal. "WILL SERVE SUPPER TO THE MEN." There will be "a social gathering" at the Baptist Church in Abbeville tonight to celebrate the payment of the last cent of debt on the $40,000 Baptist pfant?everything is called a plant nowadays? 4.1?t. Tv, +ViQ nr^ranr>p notice of the inter ' 111 WittC LV W 11. All biiw ***-. ? -. esting occasion, The Press and Banner says: " The women of the Church will serve a supper to the men, and several brief talks will be made by the members of the Church. The Rev. C. E. Burts, of Columbia, General Secretary for South Carolina Baptists, will be the principal speaker. Doctor Burts is a native of this County and is a brother of our Sheriff, and quite as big a man." It should have been added that the Sheriff sings tenor in the choir 1 * 11 5 4-r\ kn ont? rtf nliv anu sings wen j anu, n u nuppcucu m uc vj. business, we might suggest that if the Sheriff did his whole duty he would sing tenor to one of the principal members of nis flock who has contracted the habit of playing setback with other representatives of forward generations. But the real meat of this announcement is contained in the sentence: "The women of the Church will serve a supper to the men." Why is it that the men of all the churches must always have something to eat before they can be expected to do anything at all worth doing? It is always "the women of the Church will serve supper to the men;" the same thing with the Baptist women in Abbeville as it is with the First Presbyterian women in Spartanburg. and probably in Columbia, though we must say that some of the men church-goers in Columbia, judging by recent observation of those at the Presbyterian Church down there, who were present the day after "George's Party," have a lean and hungry look;" but, invariably, it is the men who must cat and the women who must feed them. Has anybody ever heard of the men in the Bap tist Church at Abbeville, or the J/resoyterian Church in Spartanburg, or the Pfesbyterian Church in Columbia, serving supper to the women? Not much. Neither Baptist nor Presbyterian men are built that way. They never think about it. They never think of anybody but themselves when there is anything good to eat in prospect. We venture to say that there will be more Baptist men at the "so cial gathering" in Abbeville tonight than were ever found in the Baptist Church there at any one service since the church was built. We know that when the recent dinner was given by the Presbyterian women in Spartanburg there were more Presbyterian men present than have ever been around since, and that some of their near relatives would V? hardly have recognized them in such company had U1 they not been told who they were. Has anybody rc ever heard anything about the Presbyterians here serving supper to the Presbyterian women? We should like to have a word or two from "Mrs. ci Carrie Chapman Catt," who is still "in our midst," a we are pleased to say, upon the general subject of ' man's inhumanity to woman when it comes down to the serious business of entertaining them with s. food wherewith they would be content.?Spartan- e. burg Journal. a. AMERICA OR THE COVENANT? NO MAN CAN t) SERVE TWO MASTERS. n - b (Mr nufacturers Record, Baltimore, Md.) p Senator Borah, who is a responsible officer of b the Government, definitely charges that money is ti being freely spent in Washington to get the Peace c Treaty through the Senate by any kind of bargain v or trade. "Defeated in the open field of debate," he says, "the real forces which have been the finan- cl cial support of the fight to surrender American in- h dependence have now retired into seclusion to fix p up a scheme by which they can: (a) Through some > compromise or trade secure changes in the reserva- a tions so as to get enough votes to put it through, a regardless of whether American interests are pro- v tected or not; (b) Having put it through in this t way, the same forces hope, through their great in- S fluence with the leaders of both political parties 1 and their control over campaign subscriptions, to v keep it entirely out of the campaign of 1920, so v that the people will never have a chance to pass upon the question." We doubt if the Senator intended to charge that t money was being illicitly employed to influence the I final rlorMcinn nf fViP Senate. That would be an ex- t ceedingly violent suspision, wholly unjustified by i any evidences at hand. What he does mean to say t is that the propaganda behind the League is amply financed, as it has been from the beginning, and that the capital is swarming with agents whose y chief business is to bring the Senate to terms. Nor , are these agents professional lobbyists. They are c for the most part men who stand high in the esti- t mation of the country, men who themselves believe ^ in the cause they seek to further, albeit their re- ] quirements are such that the wherewithal for bed t and board is accepted from other sources than their j own banks. We do not quarrel with them, but it is well that the country should kno,w what they are about and how they are about it. ^ The interests involved in the Peace Treaty are of ? preponderant importance. They embrace, directly z or indirectly, t?e industry and trade of the whole j { world. For v^iile the lines the treaty draws are t geographical or ethnical, hidden between the sentences of necessity is economic advantage or disadvantage not only for nations, but also for business everywhere. Particularly is this true of busi* ness in European countries, where the bankruptcy of credit has tainted the currency issues until the medium of barter has become in many cases a mere record of printing-press activity. It is to our advantage, materially and morally, that the terrific strain under which Europe labors should be lightened. It is our solemn duty to see that the things for which our young men died in France are achieved beyond the risk of forfeit: that Germany should not escape the penalty of her criminality. Into the archives of accomplished fact, therefore, the treaty, as it imposes terms on the Hun, can be tossed, without risk. On that there is universal agreement. Not tyice, in fact, during the long debate in the Senate was there a serious at- c tack on any feature of the treaty so far as it af- i r fected Germany. The President and the men associated with him in Paris achieved a triumph of the first magnitude, according to public belief,* in the drafting of the peace terms themselves. What, then, was the colossal blunder which holds ^ the country technically at war more than twelve ] months after the lamentable decision to grant the j. common enemy of mankind an armistice? Why is j it that the Premiers of our chief Allies have been j forced to meet in London and consider doing all r over again what was supposedly done months ago? t Whv is it that the barometer of trade previsions a -f storm, with credit tumbling and the whole structure ^ of international business threatened with collapse? r Because the President insisted on embroidering t the treaty with an arbitrary design. He insisted I that the world eould be made safe for democracy s only by the creation of a super-government to which would be confided the destinies of America. He 1 held no mandate to do anything more than con- i elude peace. No authority had directed bim to con- c struct a new edifice of government for this people. r He bore no commission to create a creature to which he ana ail Americans wouia transier me anegiance which he by oath and others by virtue of their nationality owed to the Washington Govern- t ment. No man, unless thrilled to his finger tips t with sincere belief in such a cause, could have ^iven 1: to it the devotion which Mr. Wilson has evinced, j V We do not question his sincerity. But when we j c balance his judgment against that of the great men, J F timid and livimr. who have seen in his covenant the letters of fire which a previous Daniel interpreted, j c the scales dip down so far against him that there is | c not even the semblance of an equation. j t The President himself is responsible, first, last { c and all the time, for the chaos of decision. He ! s stands, indeed, almost alone in the world in his ad- j g vocacy of the covenant unchanged. Mr. Taft has j f accepted reservations; two-thirds of his own party I t in the Senate privately favor reservations; the j 1 League to Enforce Peace has declared that the | t treaty with the reservations should be accepted; I '< the press of the world has declared that the reset:- j < \ < itions are feasible; the Allied Governments, it is iderstood, have stated that they would accept the sservations in general; the Secretary of State has een opposed to the covenant as written; only Mr. rilson stands as the uncompromising, immovable lampion of his own hobby. One with God may be majority, but tremendous is the responsibility of tat- human who assumes that he is the "one." Other ien may be wilful, and all the world out of step ive thq^President alone, but it is beyond human xperience to believe that all the rest are wrong r.d he only right. A semi-official statement has been put out from ie White House to the effect that Mr. Wilson "has o compromise or concession of any kind in mind, ut intends so far as he is concerned that the Reublican leaders of the Senate shall continue to ear the undivided responsibility for the fate of the reaty and the present condition of the world in onsequence of that fate." It is said to have been written by the President himself. The Senate is not afraid of responsibility. It oes not fear to decide. But the sword of Damocles angs always over it. In foreign relations the veto ower of the President is magnincenuy complex. Io nation on earth is so bound to the decisions of single man as is the United States in internation1 negotiations. Whatever the Senate does is met /ith the threat of such a veto. In effect, therefore, he responsibility is tossed to the shoulders of the lenate when it is deprived of freedom of decision. 7ake it or leave it, swallow it as it is or leave the yorld in turmoil; that is the ultimatum, and it is vritten so clearly that a blind man can read it. The Senate, fortunately, is not ready to be coirced. It is ready to ratify the treaty in its relaion to Germany. Senator Knox has so proposed, t ought to go ahead and do so. Let the President hen decide if the "present condition of the world" s such that he will continue it indefinitely unless lis way is accepted. There is plenty of propaganda behind the "pres>nt condition of the world," anyhow. Nobody has leard of the French or British Governments doing inything to hold up exchange. Washington has lone nothing helpful. Indeed, the signs multiply hat the "present condition 01 ine worm ?s uui.5, Tery much exaggerated for ratification purposes. Republican Senators, at any rate, are suspicious hat a stage is being set with the object of blackacking them into submission. We believe that the treaty will be ratified, in me form or another, early in January. The sigfis joint to it. More and more Democrats are beaming restive under harness. They want to go ihead, and they know they can go ahead by presentng anything like a reasonable attitude, an attiude which they themselves know is reasonable. , The treaty with reservations would have been atified a month ago had not the President given trders to havp tne resolution kihku. lci mc ors* go ahead and consummate the agreement already virtually made, ratify in that form, and put he treaty, tlius ratified, back in the President's lands. If he then wants to pigeon-hole it, that is lis privilege. The Constitution crives him the right. 3ut in such a situation there would be no question >f where responsibility lay. The subversion of this Government is a price vhich is not going to be paid by the Senate or by he people for ci change in the "present condition ?f the world." Nor is there anything but propaganla to establish the fact that the "present condition >f the world" is due to the patriotic position of the I senate. And if the "present condition of the vorld" is bad, perhaps it is worth while to take ? i-1% :alm thought that the future conauion ol me nay not be worse. AS TO SCHOOL BOOKS. "Every time we run across a three or four sylla)le word in an approved text book for use in the ower grades of the public schools we conclude that lie author had about sense enough to do manual abor, and no more, and that the State Board of Education failed in its duty when it neglected to eject the book. The education of the children of he State is a serious matter and every book offered or use in the public schools should be examined vith the greatest care. If this has been done in the >ast, then the selection of some ofy the approved ext books bespeaks a degree of intelligence on the >art of the State Board of Education akin to the tupidity of the authors." The above paragraph comes from the Fort Mill rimes which is now edited by Hon. W R. Bradord, chairman of the ways and means committee e i.u. rnMi;?n and former State >1 lilt OUIILI1 VdlVilliK tews editor of The State. Evidently Brother Bradon! has been helping his youngsters with their lesons recently. As oh! Sir Roger de Goverly says, Theie is iv?u:h car. be said on both sides," but here is no doubt but that at the next meeting of he State Board of Education to consider the text100k question of the state schools the board should five several of the book? in u*e at present serious onsideration before retaining them for another icriod of five year?. Ore incompatibility that has recently come to iur attention is that the spelling book for the sec>nd grade contains much more difficult words on he whole than does the fourth grade speller. An>ther is that the whole history course in the high chools is reversed from the general ideas of pedafogy in other studies. Instead of teaching the dificult ancient and mediaeval history first, it seems n uc Hint in thp oichth or ninth crrades, American listory should be taught, it being the most familiar ;o the young student, and that the more difficult ^ indent histories should be left for the tenth and ' jleventh grades. * j J