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' ' The Press and Banner W ' ABBEVILLE, S. C. ? The Press and Banner Company PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY . # Monday, Wednesday and Friday. b > Telephone No. 10. Entered as second-class mail matter at post office I. ' . - in Abbeville, S. C. \ Ternis of Subscription: I One year $2.00 &.'/ ' Six months 1 1.00 A ' Ee Tnree months .50 FRIDAY,. FEBRUARY 6, 1920. WONDERS WROUGHT BY 40-CENT COTTON. 1; & ? Under the above caption there appeared in The Times, Now York, Sunday, the article quoted below. ** ?1 T -- - ? Cnnth Carolina. written oy coya L?e, a name w We give the article in full as we believe that Mr. Lee has told of his trip back home and the "testimony thereof" just as it would appear to the average New Yorker, who had seen the South in the days of L. C. L. and 7-cent cotton, and who had made another visit this winter: y "I have just returned from a trip into the South, home of 40-<5ent cotton, and the wonders I saw gr;'. there lie heavy upon me; so heavy, indeed, that, like. I Marco Polo and other travelers into strange lands, E:.I am moved to give testimony thereof. "Not that my Journey was into new country. I was born and reared down, there, like thousands of others now dwelling in the larger cities, but the complacency of metropolitan life had warped my opinion of the "provinces" until I was not prepared for the tremendous strides which a rich agricultural section can make under the impetus of good crops and fair prices. Whereas the rising cost of living is the chief outward and visible sign in the cities of the new era caused by the war, everythng touching ones daily life in the Southeast has been mold' J ed into fresh shape. Tne effect necessarily is startling. '"My eyes were opened when I went up to the ? "square" the first Saturday of my visit to my South Carolina home town, and was nearly run down by fourteen different negro families in fourteen automobiles. The combination was new to me. And those machines were not all "flivvers" by any means. "What, the devil," thought I, remembering the 1 1 - r ji j _ i ? ! muies unu v? ttgyn ui my cmiuiiuuu, ? tuupic <j-i .splint^bottom chairs in each for the women members of the family, perhaps a gayly hued quilt over their laps in cold weather. These shiny automobiles and plush robes were as novel as jinrikshas would have been. I went over to talk to a merchandising | frierid about it. jfoV* " They've got ail the money in the world,' " he said when he paused in his toil of selling silk'shirts, $12 shoes, and other fine raiment to people who were wearing overalls and brogans when I had departed thence eotne yefirs ago. I don't think he was talking in fcrpeifeole. "Yes, Sir, trade is better than ever before," he continued. "We a^e selling fine goods and the end is not yet. That suit of clothes, retailing for $60," he pointed to a window display, "is the game quality as the line we have bought for Spring to retail at $80." "And you expect to sell that stuff?" I exclaimed. The same store had sold me quite a decent suit when I was in college for $13.50. "All we can get," he replied. "Go ask the banks." i- I took his advice. Or rather I went to a bank. 1 I couldn't gelt close enough to my old friend, the rV President, to haVe any converse. The lobby was too crowded with prosperous farmers and equally prosperous negroes, all of them stowing away money. The ebony-hued customer at the grille tossed in two cotton sale checks for a total of $600. I was convinced without any talk. The Mayor later told me that the half dozen banks of the town had more than $11,000,000 deposits. I stopped many persons on the street. "You seem to ? we lots of money down here," I always said, suggestively. "Doin' pretty well," was the usual reply. "Crops have been good and prices are good. Everybody is getting a share, but, of course, the farm people are getting most of the clear money. They raise everything they need, and each $200 bale of cotton is practically velvet." Up and down every street radiating from the square the automobiles were parked in solid rows, ieach representing a family with unprecede purchasing power. On every vacant corner was . springing up the ubiquitous filling station, which with the garage seemed to be putting the old-fashionedi livery barns out of business. Building was , evident wherever laborers could be found to do the work, the scarcity of men sending wages to a minimum of $35 a week. Motion picture theatres? for colored as well as white?were doing well. It was significant that they drew their patronage'during the week from the county as well as the town. The automobiles were ^sponsible for that. Farm dwellers who could afford onlv one or two trim to town each month behind the family horse or plow mule, now "motor over" several times a week to form decisive opinions on the merits of the different stars. The general prosperity of the section i.s reflected ed with existing equipment. Schools for girls esj peciaily have experienced a great influx of nev/ * j ] students. I ' Cotton mills also have emerged from the lean j j years into a period of great fatness, which they are j | sharing with their employes. Mills that never paid i a dividend for a decade have raised wages and are tiistriuting profits to stockholders. Some have been j so prosperous, in fact, that like other corporations j they are cutting down their excess taxes by ex- | pending great sums in concrete roads and sidewalks, j until the mill villages, which formerly were dreary wastes of mud in Winter and dust in Summer, now i look like fine new suburban additions. Fortunes have been made by the foresighted in cotton mill L shocks, bought at 25 cents on the dollar and sold 1 i well above par. Agitation by the negroes for "social equalitv,'' sporadic in scattered communities under the foster- ; ! ing care of newcomers or ne'er do-wells inspired by | - imported literature, has not pasted long. Equality j of opportunity, as reflected in their dealings with j the banks, has more than offset any false social I doctrines and kept the minds of the colored citij zenry on their legitimate business. The real has vanquished the dream, the pride of achievement has secured artificial unrest. Florence, who cooked my breakfasts when I was in grammar school, has no thought of Bolshevism while her farm is producing ample potatoes, peas, corn, and chickens for her own use, and seven bales of cotton to provide her pin money. Many negroes will clear $3,000. ! "* All of which is one disadvantage of prosperity I from the tovyn dweller's point of view. The wagons no longer come to town laden with chickens, eggs, butter, turnip greens, and pumpkins. Small i change obtained in the past by the sale of such ! minor nroducts now comes from King Cotton; an j impecunious sovereign grown suddenly of vast I wealth. Town people search pleadingly for food and pay unheard of prices without a murmur. I saw the changes, and knew in my heart that the days of old were gone. My regret was buried in my satisfaction at the prosperity of my friends, while I privately debated whether I should undertake to become a farmer or join a labor union, instead of laboring hopelessly and without profit at a i newspaper typewriter in the city. One thing I saw, however, which seemed to say that something remained to remind of the past. It was a covered I wagon, like the old prairie schooner, which had come down from the mountains of the Blue Ridge j with the sweetest apples in the world. I saved my I pennies when a lad to buy chestnuts from such wagons, and once, when, I objected that some of the nuts seemed to have holes, the canny mountaineer soothed my fears?and made a sale?by saying there h?\d been a lot of nails under the trees, and j undoubtedly some- of the nuts had fallen on them. Now in the midst of all the changes I spied at a cross street, the canvas top of a schooner. Surely, here was something with which I <tould establish . contact. "Yes, Sir, we used to get 20 cents a peck for apples, but we get 75 now," the mountaineer was saying, "We are 150 miles from home, and gasoline, you know?" I passed, sadly on. As I crossed the street I saw the snub nose of a popular-priced automobile sticking out in front of the bowed schooner top.." V THE OPINION OF OTHERS. V I- . J THE NOBEL AWARD SCANDAL. The Nobel Prize Commission has given an award to a (German chemist, Herr Haber, who was one j of the developers of poison gas for use in military operations. Paris dispatches say that this action will be protested by the chemical societies of the j j Entente nations. It certainly ought to 'be. Germany was the first belligerent to employ poi- i i son gas. It is safe to say that no Allied government would have thought of adding this new ter j ror to wariare. it was barred by the Hague con- ; I ventions regulating the usages of war. It was a barbarous innovation, representing a return to the savagery which the belligerents of the eighteenth | and nineteenth centuries had put behind them. | It is an offense to the humanitarian spirit to hon- | j or a man who helped to introduce this illicit weapon?tried first, with horrifying effects, at the secI ond battle of Ypres. The Nobel Prize Fund was esI tablished to encourage humane intellectual effort and to promote progress in the civilizing arts and j sciences. It is being misused when it rewards a 1 scientist, whatever his work in other branches of t his profession, who has aided in spreading death f and has contributed to the perfection of a weapon j outlawed by international contracts. If the Nobel* Fund directors can give Herr Haber : j a prize for distinguished scientific achievements, they may next be honoring Herr Rosenberger, the j | German artillery engineer, who had the largest i . share in the construction of the "Big Berthas" j f which bombarded Paris from a distance of fifty I I miles nr mnro onr) m+Vi*? ? ?>w. v M?iw MiMuuwvivU 1/11C V?VlOiII^p?;iO 111 a j : ' Paris church on Good Friday, 1918. Rosenberger's claim is as good as Haber's?perhaps better. For his secret is still a secret, while Haber's has been mastered by a.. world and has set all the armed j \ nations to manufacturing poison gas as one of the | ! requisites of the wars of the future. The decision of the Nobel Board is a scandal of * I I world-wide proportions. The protest against it ought to be universal.?New York Tribune. ' ? i H ? | |'t 1 i^" sszrr : 11 / ' D | I| Four a u | || Stores I Dry ii is II Ii Hi ii !! UBB II II |! I Ready-' II = = II = = l| ii II = = I Another Shipn These are beat I Sizes 16 to 42. We hope all th In order to mal are arriving dailj to wear to prices i r j overlook the opp< offer. I The styles are These garment and Silvertones, A great many < < i and suitable for < The prices are Let us show yo ' | I i r | Ill =i? z = l H H ii P Acari JL \V/UVli == TiHniiiiiimmNiNiiiiiiiminMniiininmimmnnnniiiiiiiiirYiniMninii'timiriwiiviNiiiMHftti 1 SmnhmmmmMc i \ isenberg Mer. epartment Stores beville, S. C. Depar Goods Store # I I $ To-Wear Departnru i lent of Spring Dresses Just . i ities in style, quality and col Prices * $22.50 to $35.00. e ladies will look them over. te room for Spring shipmen r, we have marked down all i to low that you can hardly ? ^rtunity to save what these r late fall; not old. s are high grade Serges, 1 some trimmed with real fur. of these garments are medhi early spring. marked in plain figures. u. i THE berg Mer. ( f\ 1 || B I 10. Ill j 11 jR *i i{ ?p tments j| jj I I j mt II 1 Hi !j I ^ Arrived. I lors. p m ts, which Fall ready || afford to ' I eductions m i rricotines im weight || g = 1 ^ I; .. ;l * if S II ??I Co-' ii! 1 f I SEE 11 ??g II 1 5 f i! m 11 ^ 3:3T: m