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. i I * 1 ®lfp (HambPtt 'A. hi 1119 Norm oroad Street PUBLISHED ON TUESDAY ttd FRIDAY EACH WEEK Harold C. Booker - - DaCosta Brown - - - —— subscription AH Subscription* Payable In Advance One Year ..$3.50 Six Months 8.00 CtaM Matter^ at the Port Office at Camdan, 8. C, nador ' 4 WTt ^u. ■■■■»■ All artlclea rebmittod for FRIDAY, DECEMBER U, 1949 Happy Like ftm* Wat? Ransome J. William*, who filled an nn< expired term a* Governor of South Caro lina and who la*t fall was one of the lead ers of the Truman “Democtatic” party in South Carolina 1* quoted by The State as wanting “an end to glodnd, to breast-beat ing, to wailing and crying out tit despair to predictions of disaster.” “Why everybody is happy,” he is quoted as saying. “Let them be happy. Just look down your Main street here in Columbia; crowded with shoppers and the stores so full of customers they keep the clerks on the jump in getting service. “The people are happy. They’ve got more money than a lot of them ever had before. They are spending on a scale probably never before soon in Columbia. . Then why these cries of despair you hear ever so often?” And that is just about the sort of pro nouncement that one would have expect ed from the former Governor! One cannot but 'wonder if he has ever heard of old Nero who fiddled aw’ay while Rome burned. Nero was happy, too! T<ixpayer8 Should Organize Former President Hoover, in a speech in New York last week, lashed out at four groups which he says are doing everything they can to thwart governmental reorgan izations and economics recommended in the Hoover Commission report. Chief of these, he said, are “groups of citizens between the ages of 21 and 65 who demand to be fed by the taxpayers instead of having the courage to produce a living for themselves.” t “There are cheap politicians,” said the former- President, “who passionately de mand economy and at the same time make cowardly attacks upon public officials and members of Congress who practice it on the orators’ constituents.” The other two anti - reorganization groups, 'he said, are governmental depart ments that think reorganization is good “for everybody except themselves” and citizens who react the same way whenever any change affects them. The Chronicle is convinced that no headway can be made towards reform in government until the taxpayers themselves organize. Many of our ills could have been cured long ago if the same effort and expenditure of money that has been put in other causes had been put into the building up of a great taxpayers organi zation in this country. Here in South Carolina we had a tax payers’ league at one time and it accomp lished much good. It became so powerful that the politicians began to be afraid of it, and it had a marked affect on the Gen eral Assembly. It should never have been allowed to die. Such an organization should be formed on a national scale. Could Handle The Horse The visit to Camden last week of a 1902 model automobile brought to mind a ttory of an incident that is supposed to have happened In 1902 when the auto mobile was a novelty.^ The proud owner of a Stanley Steamer, wheezing noisily along a country road, spied a horse and buggy in the distance. Not wishing to frighten the horse he stop ped his machine. As the horse and buggy drew near, with its aged occupants, the automobilist gal lantly offered to lead the horse past the automobile.- The old man tightened his grip on the reins. “Oh, don’t bother with the horse,” he said, “you lead the old lady past that contraption and I’ll take care of the api- mal ” We are rapidly approaching a year which ought to be the greatest in Cam den’s history from the standpoint of in dustrial achievement and growth. A Christmas without fireworks will be a happier Christmas in Camden. will President Truman do next In Ruttda fcVaesday’s issue of The Chronicle we expr&ped the belief that the reason Rus- stif would not let people from other coun tries come into Russia except on diplo matic mission sufferance was that it did not want them to know how bad condi tions are in that country. The Saturday Evening Post recently published a series of revealing articles by lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith dealing with experiences he had when he was United States ambassador to Russia. While an Ambassador, of course, has little opportunity to get out and see how the masses are living, General Smith did rind out right much and one of his articles concerning “Housekeeping Headaches In A Police State” provides an authoritative and amusing commentary on living con ditions in Russia. When General Smith first arrived in Moscow, the Soviet government was run ning a food store for diplomats only, which offered a fairly adequate supply of ration ed goods at reasonable prices. Subse quently, rationing was abandoned and this store was closed, so the embassy had to buy either from the government-operat ed commercial stores, or in the open market where peasants were allowed to sell, for whatever they could get, any ex cess products they had after meeting their state quota. , The state stores were the cheapest. Even so, the prices charged were shock ing by American standards. Here are a few from the long list cited by Generali Smith, on the basis of the price per kilo, which equals 2.2 pounds: Butter, $8.50 and up; poultry, as much as $6.25; ham, over $8; apples, $2.25; prunes, $4.12; macaroni, $1.87. On top of such prices many items which are commonplace in the American diet were in very short supply. General Smith found that the embassy could save money by operating a commis sary which bought goods from America, even though transportation and insurance charges were very high and there was mu<4i loss through pilferage. However, the Russians soon cracked down on this scheme, and forced the Americans to buy food locally. In the matter of other commodities, General Smith quotes from a guide made up for future appointees to the Moscow post. It reads: “Two general ideas should govern what is brought to the Soviet Union. (1) Nothing is obtainable there, and (2) it is cold, both indoors and out, a good deal of the year.” This same re port lists dozens of articles which are un obtainable in Moscow, including radios and other electrical equipment; fountain pens, lighter fluid, mothballs, shoeshine kits, needles, matches, first-aid kits, dark glasses; ash trays, watch straps, bulbs and seeds, clothes hangers, etc. As the Gen eral puts it, “Americans with their comer drugstores, supermarkets and five-and-teh- cent stores can hardly imagine the life of foreigners in Moscow.” The point Is, of course, that Russian consumer industry is unbelievably small for a country of its size, population and natural resources. The masses of the Rus sian people live on a subsistence level that would be intolerable to us. There is no wonder that the Russian government doesn’t want them to know anything about how we live. Thinkinq Out Loud People are like llsfetalus bos* In some reepect*—they can’t sea where they are solng—they can only iee where they have been. Basinee* should take the same Increasing interest In government that the government is taking in it In order for a man to have dol lars he most have »enee. A birth control advocate says that Mrth control Would be the best preventive of war. That is logical. If there wasn’t anybody here to fight there could be no wars. There’s still enough unmlned coal left to keep this country sup plied in strikes for a hundred years. •—7 Half of the present century is Just about gone.' The fighting half, we hope. Many a man has gone broke dealing in stocks and blondes. In this age of credit you can doll up on a dollar down. What has become of the old fashioned washerwoman who was always putting too much bluing in the wash? Another thing that has always pussled us is where people who live in houses that don’t have mantelpieces pot everything. A writer says that she knows nothing more disgusting than see ing an old man trying to paw over a young girl. And that re minds us of the story of the old man who was trying to make love to a young girl. “You are so sweet, I could eat you," he told her. "The ’ell you could; you don't have any teeth," replied the girl. Wonder if there are any new Jokes in the 1960 almanacs? The wife of an oil man suing her husband for divorce testified that he hasn’t drawn a sober breath in 20 years. He must have heard that oil and water wouldn’t mix. ’'Many headaches are caused by -joee jawbones.’’ says a dentist. -Is the gentleman married? t Doctors at a hospital ty Tusca loosa. Ala., operated on a patient who domplalned of a stomach ache, ewd found in his stomach 14 cot springs, a spoon handle, two dress snaps, a soft drink bottle cap, SI pieces of wire, 41 small stones and a bolt. He had subjected his stomach to a lot of hard ware. Senator Aiken of Vermont, gives us a pain. According to one writer the aver age family doesn’t want a big house now because a big house means lots of company. And that reminds us of the man who owned a farm back in the hills and who took four friends out to look it over. After a time the visitots entered the tenant’s house and were a little embarrassed when they discovered he had only two chairs. They stood around awkw ardly for a few moments and fin ally the owner said: “I don’t be lieve you have v enough chairs here.” The old farmer muttered, “I got plenty of chairs—Just too much company.’* Many a man is poor and unhappy the first 40 years of his life- after that he gets used to it "A dlmunltlva donkey was found today smuggled into President Truman’s carefully guarded naval submarine station under mysteri ous circumstances,” says a press dispatch from Key West. May be some one thought it was either President or should be. "Girl Wenders If Man’s Odd Traits Will Get On Nerves?’’— headline. Depends on whether she marries him. When a politician looks after his fences he sees that they are in condition for him to straddle. , Some one has said that the only love you can buy is a puppy. “In this day and time you almost have to wriggle out of tight corn ers occasionally,’’ says a writer. And that reminds us of the story of the student who was given to doing Just that One day the class was having a general knowledge lesson. The professor turned to Jenkins, noted for the ease with which he wriggled out of tight corners. "What is ratio?” he ask ed. ‘lUtlo is proportion,” answer ed Jenkins. "But what is propor tion?" asked the professor. "Why, sir, proportion is ratio," replied Jenkins. ’Well what are ratio and proportion?” asked the professor. "I can only answer one question at a time, str,’'"replied Jenkins with cold dignity. With The Press Sympathy ' " i ■ Our thoughts at this time are with the new Chief of Naval Oper ations. All he has to do Is live with the admirals while doing business with the generals.—Wash ington Evening Star. , , . - • J&g - . ' ’i 6 • pyJ W. * v * May Be Increased financial placed on the breadwinner at this time of year may, in some in stances, be traced to the fact that other members of the family want to get him a. Christmas gift— Christian Science Monitor. The F.H.A. Ruling The Washington Star is authori ty for the statenNnt that the change la the P. H. A. rules, de signed to bar federal financing to housing projects in which racial or religious discrimination is or may be practiced, will be more far reaching and “far more strict” than F. H. A. authorities have been intimating. PrankUn D. Richards. P. H. A. commissioner, tried te explain away the announcement after it had been made by Solicitor Gen eral Perlman at New York. It woultf not, he said, attempt to control any owner in determining what tenants he shall have to whom he shall sell his property. But the exercise of Just this control is the purpose of the change, The Star points out. The new rule results from conk plaints filed with the President by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, as presented last February by Thurgood Marshall, attorney for the association. "(The new P. H. A. policy, how ever),” The Star said, “will show that every one of Marshall’s sug gestions for changes have been adopted . . . "(It will also) 'mark the first attempt by a government agency to eliminate all consideration at property value, in appraising prop erty for loans, that are based on the theory that such value is ■» mlxtur, * _ Srsups due to differences tn J?* color, creed or nationality'. N r>e *’ Instead of working the STrse S^J^Swce it s?*fS2 £ ieXdTh relauon. generis toe.iUb^ ectte* Racial relations » cannot * «ivM authority by executive flat to ten any person where he should Urt or with whom he should aasociiu «" ■-»*---» ^Xursi”? t^A. financing of residences Private enterprise in the houslM Principle, 3 prudent nek. And real estate values are affected by the fact Girt every person desires to make his home where he can find con- genial neighbors 000 ♦ J! lhe el, nilna- Uon of all P. H. A. loans for Southern construction, this despite the fact that Southerners must pay taxes at the same rate that other citizens do. But the greatest danger in the new Truman rule is the fact that it Is being pot into effect contrary to the wishes of Congress, without the authority of the Congress. Mr. Truman has made the Demo cratic platform, the work of the politicians, claiming to represent only a minority of the people, su perior to the eonatitution and the elected represemtatlvea of the peo ple In Congress. In defiance of the constitution he undertakes to usurp the func tions of Congress and to make law by executive order. if the Congress and the con stitution are 'no longer sufficient to safeguard the people what safe guards are there? "All power corrupts and absolute (power corrupts absolutely.1—Co lumbia Record. MILLER'S For Liimbtr McLEOD & BOYKIN COMPANY — Phon* SB Cool Ice Feed Fuel Oil Fertilizer Cotton Seed Meal .... VERTE6REEN PLANT POOD .... .... ITALIAN RYE GRASS SEED .... / M The 1949 Sunday Afternoon's Concert The people of Camden should turn out in full force Sunday afternoon to hear the Christmas concert of the Camden Choral Society which will be presented in the Lyttleton Street Methodist church. In this concert the 50 voices of the Camden Choral Society will combine with a 21-piece symphonette to present a pro gram that will rank with the all-time great musical presentations in the city. A very large turnout of the people of the city will be proof of the fact that the city is behind the Choral Society in its ambitious program for next year. is now being displayed by ^ if * rff * a Vv Smoak Motor Company E. DeKalb Avenue Newly Appointed Cadillac Dealer for Camden and Vicinity Buy It In Camden Hundreds of Camden people earn their living through operating mercantile busi nesses here or working in them. These people contribute to our churches, they pay city and county taxes, they are a vital part of the life of the city. Whenever a resident of Camden goes to another city to trade he or she is hurt-, ing not only the merchants of Camden but the people who work for them and he or she is hurting Camden itself. There may be, of course, some things that they cannot get here but the trouble is that many people will go to a larger city to buy the things that they can’t get here and while shopping there will also buy many things that they can get here. Your first duty is to your hometown bur in ess man or woman. Don’t buy any thing out of Camden that you can buy that your rule tit ths future. It is a pleasure to make this dual an nouncement. It marks the introduction, in Camden, of the finest Cadillac ever built, while, at die same time, assuring the highest type of Cadillac sales and service to motoriats of this vicinity. The 1949 Cadillac—the most beautiful car ever to bear the Cadillac name-offers a wholly new V-type, eight-cylinder engine which it, beyond all doubt, the highest development yet attained in automotive power plants. So smooth and eager is its performance that the car almost seems to move by automatic propulsion. You art cordially invited to see this new car and inspect the modern and complete facilities of this new Cadillac dealership, operated under (he able management of Mr. M. P. Smoak, Jr. Cadillac service work will be handled by factory-trained mechanica, using approvad tools end' methods and genuine Cadillac replace ment parts. ■■ Regardless of whether you new own a Cadillac car, you will be a welcome visitor at this new dealership. You will find it an interesting and enlightening insight into modern motor car progress. K MUTUAL MOTORS Distributor COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA 1 * r*f - v- '■*.