Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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South Carolina Society Banquets Palmetto State Press ill Washington i Members of the South Carolina Tress Association enroute to Canada, were entertained by the South Carolina Society in Washington last Saturday night, when they heard Canadian Minister Leighton McCarthy (1) declare that the two major American .nations "can be pointed out as perfect examples of what should be, and could be, in worl<j politics." 2. Among the prominent guests at the speaker's table were (left to right) S. L. Latimer, Jr., of the Columbia State, president-elect of the press association; Mrs. Brian Bell, wife of the chief of the Associated Press Washington Bureau; Con. gresBman Hampton P. Fulmer, of Orangeburg, and Mrs. Harold Booker, wife of the secretary of the press association. 3. Daniel C. Roper, former minister to Canada and ex-secretary of/ commerce, advocated elimination of existing trade barriers between Canad^ and the United States and a "common dollar for legal tender." He called for coordination of the military, . educational and religious forres of, the nation In the fight against dictatorship. 4. v Ed H. DeCamp, of Gaffney, editor of Grit and Steel, game fowl publication and his daughter, Mrs. Ruth McMillan, of Wilmington, North Carolina, held a reunion during the dinner. Their companion (right) is Mrs. J. W. Gantt, of Columbia. 5. Brian Bell, chief of the Washington A. P. Bureau, told the Canadian representatives that "South Carolina is the most pro-British state in the South." He and Mtb. Bell (center) engaged in a pre-banquet chat with Mrs. Austin Latimer, wife of the president of the South Carolina Society. 6. Colonel Monroe Johnson, member of the Interstate Commerce Commission, has obviously Just told a good story 10 Miss Minnie Crane (left), of 'the Greenville News-Piedmont; A .Li, M. Wiggins (right)f.of the Hart8ville Messenger, and Mrs. Wiggins. 7. Former Congreeswoman Clara G. McMillan (left), of Charleston, now an official of the NYA, renewed ac quaintances with Mrs. Charles McLain (center) formerly with the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce at Charleston, and Mrs. Rudolph Carter, of Ridgeland. 8. Mrs. Roper, representing the South Carolnia Society graciously welcomed the State Press Association, represented by F. W. Sossaman, of the Gaffney Ledger. 9. Misses Patricia (left) and Aurelia Slattery, -daughters of Mr. and Mta. L. P. Slattery, of Greenville and Washington, and members of the welcoming committee," obviously made a hit with Paul Redding, press attache with the Canadian legation, and Congressman L. Mendel Rivers (right), of Charleston. EVERGLADES BECOME NEW AGRICULTURAL FRONTIER Tallahassee, Fla., July 21?Pioneers of a vast agricultural frontier?the Florida Everglades?are bel44 r' r$s-1 cued again, this time from a burden of debts and taxes that has retarded development of the fertile marshlands potentially capable of producing more winter vegetables than the entire nation could consume. Farmers have been beset by floods and hurricanes, then, paradoxically, by fire, In their efforts to cultivate the huge alligator-Infested swamp that is a 4,500,000 acre backyard for the resort cities of Palm Beach and Miami. The dfedging of hundreds of miles of canals, the construction of flood levees around Lake Okeechobee and the cost of fire control methods im posed a $17,500,000 debt, the landowners were unable to pay. Tax collections dwindled to a trickle. Out of this financial chaos the state is now bringing a semblance of order by reducing the debt to approximately $5,600,000 through refunding of bonds. Declamation of the Everglades has caused one headache after another ever since efforts were begun to tap this agricultural gold mine. Enterprising explorers long ago discovered that the soil of this swamp, roughly 150 miles long and 75 miles wide, was remarkably fertile if properly drained. For centuries decaying vegetation and marine matter made created a muck deposit several feet thick in places. It was Into this virtually impenetrable wilderness that remnants of the Seminole Indians, refusing to make peace with the white men, retreated to exist among the mosquitoes, snakes and wild animals. ^Moisture seeping southeastward from the lake to the sea covered most of the land, but a great engineering feqt partially solved the problem. Drainage canals were dug until they criBB-crosBed much of the area. Winter vegetables?beans,? celery, cabbage, tomatoes and others? flourish and found a ready market in the north. Sugar cane was another profitable product. Cattlemen and dairymen moved Into the grassy plains. Packing houses were constructed around the lake. Boom towns sprang up, with railroads and highways as outlets. Then disaster struck again. More than 2,000 persons died in a flood after a tropical hurricane swept the lake water over Its banks. To prevent a recurrence, a levee was built ha\fway arounJ the lake, at a cost of millions. Other blows fell. It was found that the drainage had been done too well. During droughts immense grass fires swept the plains, burning into the * tinderlike peat. The underground water table dropped so low that sea water backed up the canals and rivers. Municipal wells in the coastal resort cities turned salty, their fresh water supply endangered. More money was spent?and still Is being expended?to regulate the drainage, keeping the water level low enough for farming, yet high enough to avoid the fires and ward off the salt Infiltration. Landowners began to have trouble paying their taxes in the late 1920'fl duripg the economic aftermath to the ] Florida boom. As a general depression followed, farmers went broke, taxes went unpaid. The district's bonds finally went into default in 1931. A decade later the only important new enterprise wan u-bfg cane sugar development. Property values declined as the delinquent taxes piled up. Governor Spassard L. Holland began a new attempt to refund the bonds soon after his inauguration last January. Success resulted from conferences and formation of a bond syndicate. Authorizing legislation was pushed through in a few hours. Settlement of the debt on terms j ranging fronj 20 to 57 cents on the dollar affected the tremendous reduction in the amount. The maxi-1 mum tax levy was slashed more than ! two-fhirds. Property owners were offered a chance to settle their delinquent taxes, amounting to more than $20,000,000 by paying two-year assessments at reduced rate. The picture became even brighter when the Reconstruction Finance Corporation offered to buy all tho refunding bonds. Governor Holland said this was extremely important, "since it assures the district of having only one creditor, and that a friendly one." State officials say increased activity and a general rise in property values have resulted. Things are looking up in the Ever.glades, but the farmers are keeping tfieir fingers crossed. They wonder whether some new blight is over the horizon. NOTICE IN RE: DOCKET NO. 1925? The application of C. G. Fuller, Barnwell, S. C., for a modified Class D Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to render a United common carrier motor freight service to, from, and between points and places in the State of South Carolina* over irregular routes, for the transportation of general commodities of unusual weight and else, as exempted by the 1938 truck act (Act No. 845 of the Acts of 1938), and as permission will be granted by the State Highway Department for the transportation of the game (See Article 8, Section 3 (e) and Article 4, Section 2 of Act 845 of the Acts of tiie General Assembly of South Carolina, 1988). The Commission will hold a public hearing In the above entitled matter in its offices in the Wade Hampton State Office Building, Room 815., ?at' 10:00 o'clock In the forenoon, Thurs-L day, July 31, 1941, for the purpose of' determining the requirements of publice convenience and necessity In the premises. , I , W. W. GOODMAN. Director Motor Transport Division. i The f orb ears of former President , .. * h" " v .: r . - - ) The average speed at America's first automobile race November 38, 1895, was 7 1-2 miles an hour. rillnrHindin flEWJ BY 1 COnGRtJ/fflfth - I Tuesday, the President signed the i Ship Warrants Act. giving the Marl- ! line Commission persuasive author- i tv of the most compelling nature o enforce reasonable freight rates iml 10 effect priorities In transpor- 1 at Ion of vital defense cargoes. The powers vested In the Cominlsdon by the new law uro applicable to both domestic and foreign ships. They include authority for the Commission to issue warrants entitling vessels to preferential clain\ for fuel, lighterage, harbor, docking, repair and other terminal facilities, in return for agreement by the ship's operators to engage in the services and follow the routes desired by the Commission. The Commission is expected to take a leaf from the hooks of the British, who have used similar authority with great success not only to insure the carrying of necessary defense ma? teriala and food to ports specified, but also to prevent traffic, to Axissupporting countries. President Roosevelt on Tuesday asked Congress to appropriate $6,500.000 for a new dofunse offico building program in Washington suburbs as the, Houso voted overwhelmingly against naming a committee of its own members with power to draft legislation to transfer Federal agencies. Congress was told the buildings would be erected on Governmentowned land near Beltsville, JSultland and Bethesda, Maryland, and in nearby Virginia. If approved, the program would bring to $17,000,000, the total estimated cost of recent Federal building, either projected or already started, necessary to meet expansion of National Defenso agencies. American fighting, planes In the, next feW months will place Britain In a dominant position for the rest of the war, according to the Aircraft I Year Book for 1941, being published July 17. Already American and British production is superior to Germany's in such highly Important categories as fast pursuit, long-range and medium bombers and patrol flying boats and shortly should end German air supremacy. This year, says the Year Book, American industry will turn out 18,000 planes, and next year, under present programs, 30,000 will be produced. Tlw Your Hook forecasts that air power will play an even more decisive part In the war from now on than it Iiiih during the past 12 months. So far, Germany has had the advantage of numbers, and has been able to defend her own bases while using air power to the fullest extent in attacks on England. A reversal on air power Is how taking place, and the it. A. F. has taken the offensivo with raids deep In Gorman territory. The N'avv asked Congress Wednesday for $12.1.hou to build three 160foot radio towers near St. Elizabeth's Hospital for. the Naval Air Station In Anncostia. More than 200.000 national, state, and loyal civilian organizations, with memberships of 50,000.000 individuals, will bo surveyed and catalogued by the WPA during the next 00 days for the parts they chii play In home defense, Howard O. Hunter. Commissioner of Work Projects, announced July 9. The project w ill provide basic information for programs of the Oftlce of Civilian Defense, under the direction of Director F. H. LaGuardia, nud other agencies. Transfer of 109 merchant ships to the armed forces of the United Statee to expedite their expansion under the National Defense Program, has been made to date by the Maritime Commission, it was announced by the Commission July 9. Every effort is being made by the Quartermaster Corps to ease the demands that Its enormous purchases of equipment for the Army make upon the available supplies of the so-called "critical" materials for which a shortage is either present or may rise soon under the National Defense, program, according the War Department. Orders have been issued that noneof these materials be used unlesB the use of a substitue results in loss of efficiency. QUALIFIES AS MARKSMAN Fort Barrancas. Fla., July 19.? 'adet John 0. Wont, of Camden, 8. \, qualified as marksman In record Ire with the ,30 caliber rlflo as part >f his traiuiug at the annual H. O. r. C. Coast Artillery camp here. For his excellent shooting. Cadot A'est was awarded a medal at n special parade July 11. The rump ended July 17 after lastng six weeks. The last part of the training program featured .antiaircraft tiring with tho 3-inch gun and .30 caliber luachino gun and searchlight practice. Attendance at one of the camps la necessary before a cadot can receive a commission in the Officer's Reserve Corps. A student at The Citadel, Cadet West Is the son of Mrs. Maltio K. West Camden, S. C. I Clean Up Property I I All parties owning vacant I I lots that have become over- I I grown with weeds and I I brush are hereby notified to I I have same cleaned up at I ONCE. :j I Donald Morrison, - I I Healtk Officer I 2 L_. 7. * . F or Defense On Sale at Your Post Office or Banks ? ' - f'' ?