The Camden chronicle. (Camden, S.C.) 1888-1981, March 19, 1937, Page PAGE FOUR, Image 4
THE CAMDEN CHRONICLE
H. D. N1LKS, ddltor and Prsprlfr
Published fivery Friday at Numbar
IlOt North Broad Htr??t, and entered at
the Camden, Houth Carolina l'oatofflce
aa second claaa mall matter. Price per
Year |U 00 No subscription* taken for
leaa than HI* Month# In all Instance#
the auhacrlptlon price la <!u? and payaahlo
In advance. All auhacrlptlon* are
cancelled when auhacrlber fall* to renew.
~ Friday, March 19, 193/
COUNTY ASKED TO TAKE OVER
FAIR
Ai the cull of VV F. Nettles, who
was county fair chairman last year,
a meeting of Interested men and women
was held at the Camden Hotel
on Monday evening, March 15, to dlscuhh
the Fair altuatlon.
Chairman Nettles called on Murdoch
Johnson, who for the past several
years has been secretary for the
fair, to explain the fair's present status
and the proposal for Its continuation.
Mr. Johnson stated that the fair
grounds, or a large portion thereof,
belong to VV. I,. Blackmon, of Kershaw,
who had found it necessary to
foreclose his mortgage on the property,
given by the old fair association.
He stated that a" option had boon secured
from Mr. Blackmon for the property.
and It could he purchased for
approximately $.'1,500. He proposed
that this property he bought by the
county, und that the county delegation
set up u fair commission of Interested
public-spirited men and women
over the county to manage the
property und put on a county fuir
each year, not as a commercial proposition,
hut wholly for the benefit of
the farm men and women of the county,
to provide for adequate premiums
and reimbursement of the expense,
as far hh possible, to those who
brought their products here for exhibit.
He stated that the extremely
small tax would bo inconsequential- even
to the largest taxpayer?In comparison
to the amount of good thut
would bo accomplished.
The plan was enthulastically received
by those present, all voicing
their hearty approval. Miss Margaret
Fowell, the Home Demonstration
Agent, was present with a number of
the officers and members of the council
of farm women, as was Mr. Mct'arley,
County Farm Agent, and a
number of the agricultural ivuehersi
over the county.
Both Mr. McCarley and Miss l-Vwoll
spoke Interestingly <>? the subject
and pledged tbel*.,_fuU cooperation
The eentltneut prevailed that the farniera
and farmer*' wlvea over the
county would be Intenaely Interested
in a county fair oporuted entirely for
their benefit.
A committee wita appointed to eontact
the ineinbera of the Kerahaw
county delegation In the general asaoinbly
Immediately, with the view of
getting through the noceaaary logla
latlon to provide for tint taking over
of the fair grouiida by the county and
the catabllahment of a fair commiealou.
Thoae present and all others
Iutcreated were requested to alao cOtt^
tact the members of the delegation by
letter or otherwise.
General News Notes
President Itooaevelt hua nominated
John Caakle Collet to be Judge of the
Federal district court for Missouri
The United States navy department
thia week placed orders for 1,700,000
pouiida of copper at. Id cents a pound.
Ovid Curler, 21. Jumped 00 feet from
the top of a burning oil. derrick at
Oklahoma City, Oklu. Ho was not
seriously hurt.
Because or Increasing wages the big
steel companies Jiuve advanced prices
on steel products from $4 to $8 per
ton.
fa'rancolH Arago, 7?>, veteran of the
French diplomatic service, and vice
president of the chamber of deputies,
is dead.
Mrs. Dolly Scutes, 15, recently inur
rled to Roddick Franklin Scutes, 00,
of Umatilla, Fla., has step-grandchildren
who are older that she ls.The
North Carolina legislature has
passed a bill to provide free school
books for all elementary school pupils,
beginning In 1938.
Dr. Buul Kilmer Moore, 72, educator,
editor, critic, formerly of Princeton
university, died Tuesday ut Princeton,
N. J.
Signs for the sale of alcoholic beverages
In California, to got around
the law, now read, "Aloon, Avern,
Peer, Puffet, Heo Garden and Ocktull
Orange."
A Clnclnnattl municipal Judge has j
ruled that the the Ohio state liquor
control act Is unconstitutional, and
that private citizens might operate
liquor stores.
Ninety-five per cent of the population
of Uniontown, Ky., has voted to
remove the town back into the hills
far enough to prevent any further
danger from floods in the Ohio river.
Two Vermont boys, aged 5 and 9
years, are to be placed In the care of
psychiatrists for constant study, they
being held responsible for the drowning
of another child, aged 4 years,
near Windsor
Kinil Hurjia, gentle-voiced political
prophet, who was an aid to Chairman
Farley in the last campaign, has announced
that he will quit the political
field in the next sixty days and take
work with a New York insurance company.
Chancellor Hitler has commuted to
live years in prison, the sentence of
death for Fran Erna Schroeter, con\
ieted of poisoning her husband,
whom she declared was an Incorrigible
drunkard and afflicted with an
Incurable disease.
COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS
(By Spectator)
The Stale of South Carolina is a
machine which is running In reverse.
To understand conditions one must
have known this State before 1920.
Nearly seventeen years have passed
since the boll-weevil first came among
us. The boy of thirteen then Is the
man of thirty today. The man of fifty
Jhen, the vigorous farmer, business
man or profesional man, is today sixty-seven
and out of the burly burly of
competition. So if we would study
h normal year we must go back beyond
tiie World war and compare our
condition with that of our people of
1910-1914.
Cotton was the principal crop,
though tobacco and truck were pro
duced. Ordinarily our farmer? produced
about a million four hundred
houuaud balea of cotton aud received
for It mid the aeed?above a hun i
dred million dollar#. Came the boll j
weevil and year after year cotton
dropped, one year bringing only twonty-nlito
million dollar#
You will hoo what an enormous dltfereuce
that make# u falling off of
'evenly million dollar# In a year. Now
let u# multiply our lo## by the number
of yearn wince the coming of the
weevil. If the total were a half l?U- j
lion dollar#, and that 1# connervatlve,
that would be a tremendous capital
lo## to our little state. Juat think
what we could do with five hundred'
million dollar#! Or one hundred mU?
Hon. or fifty million! How happy Wt
are to' Welcome an eight million d<>?*
lar paper plant to Georgetown and a
five million dollar plant to Charleston!
How we have petltloued and
begged for ten million? to dredge the
Cooper and Hanteo river# and to open
a waterway from Charleston to Co
lumbia.
Yet Old F,a#t Hay Htreet, Charleston,
lookB down on us today like a
face from the sepulchre. I
During the year# when our father#
ami mother# rebuilt thla state upon
the uhIic# of the Civil war our taxoB
were comparatively low. Even in 1919
when tho farmers received three hundred
million dollar# for their cotton
and when everybody felt rich, the
Htate government co#t four million
dollar# a year. Today, with cotton
bringing u# poBHlbly #oventy million#,
the co#t of the state government alone
is about twenty seven million dollars.
The standard of living is higher;
that 1# we want more and we buy
more, if that 1# tho standard of living.
Not character ba#od on work,
thrift and self-discipline 1# the dominant
Idea of the day, but self indulgence
and dependence at any price
are the moat notable characteristic#.
Since the day# of u more or less
pervasive prosperity wo have put upon
ourselves special taxes, of every
imaginable kind and a# the poverty
of the people became reflected in lower
returns from all the taxes it did
not occur to tho#e in power that tho
taxpayers needed relief, they added
new taxes, while retuinlng the old taxoh.
With what result? From 1933
to 1936, tneluHlve, lea# than eighteen
million dollar# came to this state for
new enterprises and rebuilding what
>we had, although the staggering sum
of #lx hundred and fourteen million#
was wpent In the south
How does some of this work out In
detutl? A manufacturer owns two cotton
mills of equal capacity, one in j
North Carolina and one in South Carolina.
The mill In North Carolina paid
seven thousand dollars in property j
taxes in 1936. while the mill In this
state paid twenty one thousand. The I
lax per spindle In Virginia is twentyseven
cents, in North Carolina It Is
twentv-ono cents and in South Carolina
it is fifty-three cents.
At a hearing before the Ways and
Means committee last year it was
shown that one of the power com- ,
panic# pays 23 1-2 percent of its gross
receipts in taxes. Mark you, 23 1-2
per cent of gross receipts, not profits '
What does the whole condition
prove? Either that we must dr^s- \
ti<-ally reduce our public service or,
we-, must develop our resources ho
that tho burden may be more widely j
distributed, and become less burden-,
some per capita. That is obvious. t
The house of representatives passed
a resolution providing for a commission
outstanding business men to suggest
by what means capital might be (
attracted to our state, and the same
week the house passed a bill setting
a standard of forty hours a week for
textile labor, although the basis is
fifty-five hours in North Carolina and
Georgia and no limit in Alabama.
American textiles must compete
with English. German and French textiles;
all of them must compete with
the Japanese; the southern mills must
compete with the north, and South
Carolina must compote with the
neighboring southern states, as well
as with New England, England,
France and Japan.
A little history is worse than abysmal
ignorance sometimes. One of the
most capable men In the house, a
solid and sound man usually, proclaimed
to the world that, as our fathers
led in secession without waiting on
our states so should South Carolina
lead in arbitrarily ignoring all the
conditions of competition in business.
Need 1 point out that the vote of Secession
at Charleston was thrown out
at Appomatox? And our fathers who
went to war in All the panoply of
glory came back in rags and tatters to
ashes and ruin? The glory survived
for it was born of consecration but a
greater glory was that which conquered
the hardships and poverty of
three decades without whimpering.
Do our men of the house mean to
baptize our state anew in the tribulations
of our fathers? Well, to Bpeak
the truth, we are not made of the <
sturdy stuff of our fathers; so lets
not throw away, our business by fanciful
and fantastic imaginings.
South Carolina is a poor state, bnt
proud We want everything that the
others have and we are in the hands
of those who own little and pay little.
It is the philosophy of the day that
what one man has accumulated
through hard work and thrift shall
bo given to tho man who spends his
nil and throws himself confidently on
the community for support. This state
is potential!/ capawe or fargo development
We ought to attract a hundred
million dollars within the next
four years. All the conditions are
here, save one. What we lack is a
spirit of development. Most of our
men in public life are spenders. Every
sort of program gets a willing ear
if it calls for money and can be made
a political asset. We have surrender-'
od principle for policy; nothing matters
unless it can be capitalized at '(
the polls. .
I am in full sympathy with every-!
thing which makes for a larger, full- j
er. more abundant life and 1 know
no sound ethical reason why any one
class should be restricted, restrained, I
cramped and denied in the race of !
life, nor why the reward# for service
should be so inequitably distributed,
but I know that no sound readjustment
cbn be made overnight and I
know that tho immediate enjoyment I
of the good things of life can be pur- (
chased too dearly if it brings about
such serious dislocation in economic
structure as may discourage investment
in homes and farms and indu#
tries Our progressive people have
their eyes on what other states have
and have waned campaigns to have
Just the name things here regardless
of our ability to provide those things.
My earnest plea Is for those who are
called on to pay. rather than for those
who will he the recipients of public
bounty.
The depression should have taught
us that even though Mrs. X and Mrs.
Y are members of the same bridge
club they can hardly Justify the same
scale of expenditure If Mr. X has five
hundred dollars a mouth and Mr. Y
a thousand Ho It Is with states, or
should be.
Ilore we are, a little state, sparsely
settled and largely undeveloped,
yet in our comparative poverty spending
about twenty seven million dollars.
The general ussemhly now in
session begun its work by bringing
in a bill a million one hundred thousand
dollars above the current budget;
it is wrestling with an old-age pension
hill on a basis of two millions more
and the governor has just urged an
additignul three hundred thousand dolj
lars?and the end is not yet. Thir'
teen million dollars of unpuid tuxes
I tell a story in South Carolina, hut
thirteen millions more were paid by
agonizing strain, but you hear of no
great effort in the legislature to consider
the tuxpayer. The unpaid town
taxes uro not Included. We are all
Intoxicated with the new philosophy
of free spending. We are dtscouraglug
home ownership und we are keeping
out Investment. If that Is progi'omh
It Is a house resting on aan,d.
Conditions are paving the way for
a hold, aggressive economist to be
governor of fctouth Carolina. No <mere
Up sorvlcd will delude the people next
year. Men there are in the legislature
today wlio wore elected as 81mon-pure
economists who will vote
for anything to match Federal arapts
or to curry favor with, the NpJioBal
Administration A great pity It would
lie to have a campaign on the platform
of such retrenchment as would
loosen the prehensile grasp of our
tax-consumers, but the time Is ripe
for a rough and rugged man who can
see the road to rocovery with clear
perspective and will not be befogged
by every one who would bleed the
state lji the name of progress.
f Since everything now is done with
political motive and f?r political effect
the taxpayers will be blind to
their own interest and business leaders
will be recreant to their trust If
they don't ally themselves in defense
I of their rights against the demagpguery
that Is rampant.
Life has u bread und meat hush*.
Some one must provido the capital
which builds and operates the enterprises
which give employment. The
more investment the more work; and
the more work the better p*y. ^
If we discourage investment or
pose harsh burdens on It we daWfe
stream of prosperity at it* source.
The New England states have Um
our pioneers in general social jZ,
ress, especially Massachusetts.
stage social reformers introduced ^
many measures for the general ko2
that industry bogged down tryisKa
pull the load. Then industry betu
to come south. Now we In
Carolina are losing out In the r?2
and Massachusetts reports that K
Is regaining her industrial prlm?7
How? The New York Times offW
day tells that in 1936 "421 uew k
dustrles or major plant expansion*
have come to that state and the has
ons given are "elimination of the mu.
ufacturing machinery tax" Whlck
saved industry seven million dollm
in 1936 and 1936; and "suspension o(
the six o'clock law." But little Soutk
Carolina ignorantly would set up M
hour sca"le that will cripple our milk
and proudly points to Hecessiou. k
good analogy, indeed!
During the first nine months of l>n
twenty-six knitting mills were established
in the south. Klfteen located
In North Carolina, but not one u
South Carolina. We are pollttcally
minded, but In a small way. 'ih?
energy of our minds is being pouret
into shallow channels and we are co?.
fusing piffle with principle.
I
DINE AT !
Holland's Grill i
; TRY OUR .... !j
Sugar Cured
HAM i;
J; WITH EGGS?IT'S FINE ||
i ' i
WE SPECIALIZE IN
STEAKS ::'
s Next to Postoffice
i 1
See
"Bob"
First
Be Surs of Your j
FERTILIZER
Don't trust to luck for good crops?be certain that
the fertilizer with which you plant is rich and nourishing,
for good results. Equal grade at all times?our
fertilizer materials are dependable?and save you
dollars!
R. A. McCASKILL
COLUMBIA EFIRD'S "W"
Because Easter Comes Early This Year j
i"
Our Stocks Are Mo^l Complete Now! j
New Printed
Silks
59c yd.
I Beautiful new patterns in large
and small figures and the colorings
on the newest for Easter
Frocks.
I
' Sport Linens
48c yd.
The ideal fabric for Spring in
all the new Spring Shades. 39
inches wide.
1 i
Novelty Silks ]
98c yd.
A large collection to choose
from In the newest weaves for
Spring and the colors are beautiful.
EASTER DRESSES
We are showing an extra large assortment
of new Dresses for Easter. These are all
brand new Styles that have just been re- j
ceived in Prints and Solid Colors.
$6.95
SPRING COATS I
See our collection of neyy Spring Coats at j
this price. There are many to choose from
in the newest Styles and Colors. *
$9.95
! Blouses
$1.00
New Spring Styles in assorted
cotton materials for Sport or
Dressy Wear.
Silk Slips
$1.00
New arrivals in Crepes and
Satins. White and Tea Rose.
Suits 1
$9.95
In the Man Tailored 8tyles that
are so good this 8pring, well
tailored in hard and soft finish
materials.
- A
Children's Shoes
Smart new styles in children's
1 shoes for Easter in White,
Browns and Black leathers.
98c pair
Men's Shirts
Men's fine quality Dress Shirts
In White and Plain Colors. Also
Fancy Patterns.
$1.00
Curtains
Fix up the home new. We havi
just received a large assortment
of new Curtains for 8prtng?98c
pair
| SILK HOSE
Ladies fine quality Sheer Chiffon Rlngless
Silk Hose in the newest Shades for Spring. mm
A lovely hose at this price.
59c pair
(2 pairs $1.10
Enna Jettick 1
SHOES
I The new Spring Styles are here In these 11
fine quality shoes for women. See them. M
$5.00 and $6.00 j
Wool Goods
$1.00 yd.
Just received a big shipment of
these in light shades for Spring.
Boys' Suits
Jack Tar wash suits for boys
in the new Spring Styles, and
they are fast color.
$1.48
We have installed in
our Bargain Basement
a Shoe Repair Department
and the prices are
reasonable.
Children's Easter
DRESSES
98c
In Rayon Taffeta and Crisp
Organdie. 8otid Colors and
Prints. Sires 7 to 14.
Men's Suits
$14.75
Smart new Spring Patterns
in single and double breast
styles. Plain or sport backs.
These are well tailored.
New Bags
$1.00 1
In Patent and Calf Leather* \
the newest styles In a wide j]
range of colora.
[ Silk Dresses
Lovely new Easter 8tylea In j
girls silk dresses. Plain colors j
and prints.
$1.95 j
When in Columbia visit
our new and up-to-date
Beauty Parlor located
on second floor.
EFIRD'S
Department Store 1
1601-1603 Main St. Columbia, S. C. J