Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TRUE TO OURSELVES, OUR NEIGHBORS, OUR COUNTRY AND OUR GOD. ity-Sixth Year 8 Pages — All Home Print MeCOilMICK, S. C., Thursday, February 16, 1928 Established June 5, 1902 Number 38 ;e Savannah - Above Augusta . ' '■/* HIM I II— p "The day need not be far. distant steam or motor freight navi- n will exist on the Savannah from Augusta upward to Mc- irmick and beyond, if the people the river take the proper interest the matter” said Hugh C. tliddle- when in' McCormick this week, request of the Messenger, Mr. iddleton elaborated' Okie subject, as Hows: , - ' v• r. "This wi^l be practleable as the wer ponds are created on the riv- , and since water will probably be ked to'a considerable depth up ttle R ! ver.. S. C., navigation may me pretty rear McCormick^—closer n the-Savannah River. I would advise an the territory neighboring to the Savannah Rivei* in South Car olina and Georgia to get their con gressmen to urge the installation of Locks in &H these dams and not leave this to be done at some indefinite fu ture time. The 'Government could deepen the Augusta canal and strengthen the banks and provide first-class barge communication from Augusta ‘ to the Stephens’ Creek dam. Large locks are already in stalled in the Stephens’ Creek dam. Navigation is therefore easy to. es tablish now from Augusta to nmr the mouth of Little River, Georgia, * distance of about 22 nrle^. If a 9° foot dam gups in that neighborhood as is . proposed, and is provided with locks, navigation would bd establish ed far past McCormick; that is, to 'the mouth of Bioad River, Georgia —old Petersburg, a distance of 63 m'les above Augusta. “Ultimately, and probably in a few years, a dam will go ?n below mouth of Broad River backing water far up 'broad* River and 1 tover pTrotfeKs ShoaJe tpn ^Savaruab to the foot of Gregg; Shoals. Another dam at. the latter point will hack water to the mouth? of Seneca River where a dam will bp back it probab ly to the mouth .of Chattooga and Tullolah River. A dam there can back to the Tullulah power plant, where locks can raise boats into the Tullulah pond. From there upwards two other power ponds already exist, ending in the Burton Pond, which washes the very feet of the Blue Ridge and in which those mountains are reflected.. It is evident that a series of connecting ponds will ex tend in a few yeais from Augusta to the very foot of the Blue Ridge. With locks in these dams, river nav igation w'll be practicable over' all this stretch of river to the great ad vantage of upper South Carolina and Georgia. Let it extend from Au* gusta upward as fast as the dams are built so that the people can get the immediate benefit of it. “It is worth while knowing that an exactly Similar power development :s going on on the Little Tennessee River, and down into the Tennessee past Muscle Shoals, and beginning just over the Blue Ridge a few miles from the ponds on the head waters of the Savannah—both washing the feet of the same identical mountains. We can soon stand on a mountain and see the pon^s on each stream. The day will come when these two rivers will be connoted in my opin- on—through a Gap or by Tunnelling, the navigation ponds will be created on the rivers by the power compan ies and the government will be able to connect the upper ponds by the construction of navigation dams and locks. That is not far-fetched. Eu ropean rivers have many similar de velopments. The French developed the Girond River going via Bor deaux back in 1650-80, by a series of locks, with a channel about 300 miles in length and rising over a height of 650 feet, connecting the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. This barge channel is still in operation. That was before the day of electricity. We can do similar things in'this country much more, easily today. “Augusta will ultimately have a channel for odean vessels—that is for vessels drawing 20 feet or more —from the sea similar to Houston’s ship channel. The 100 feet 6t fall be>i tween Augusta and Savannah will be developed electrically and provide this d?ep channel. The p^wer more than pay for the pro, is, probably around 150000 power, could be produced would sell for between $3 S'. Three Fertilzier Meetings In County Friday And Saturday Three fertilizer meetings will bo held in the county on next, Friday and Saturday February 17 and 18. The places and dates of these meet ings will be as follows: Dc la Howe State School Auditor ium. Friday afternoon, February 17, at four o’clock. Washington High School auditor ium at Parksville on Friday night, February *17, at seven-thirty o’clock. McCormick court house on Satur day morning, February 18, at eleven o’clock. Mr. T. S. Bu o head of the Agro nomy division of Clsmson College, will be present at these meetings and Will discuss the present fertilizer sit uation, and the outlook and lecom- mendatiers for 1928. The fertilizer situation :s -cne of great interest to the farmers of the state at the pres ent time, and it will be well worth the while of every fanner in the county to hear Mr. Buie. These meetings hav? been arrang ed so as to bring them within reach of every farmer in the county, and it is hoped that many farmers, busi- n-ss mer* and fertilizer dealers will take advantage of this opportunity to get first-hand information on the fertilizer situation for this year. THOS. W. MORGAN, County Agent. and $4,000,000 per annum, which sum capitalized would be more than sufficient to prov de this deeep chan nel by two or more dams. There are doubtless power companies which would be glad to build these dams now if the land were offered to them, and this land could probably be bought for only a little more com paratively, than . PS9Posed_jHb4 foot channel would cost. Such an ocean channel would cheapen rates far westward to the Mississippi Riv er and beyond. A project to bring ocea n transportation one hundred pa les inland at Augusta would en list the co-operation pf a number of states to the westward in congress. Taken together with a project to car ry barge navigation on up the Sav annah River, into the Tennessee, thence into the Ohio and Mississippi and their tributaries certainly a very wide co-operation should be en listed. Of course, such a large pro ject might take years to accomplish; but it could be. settled upon by the government and gradually worked to. “As to ocean transpoi tation to Au gusta. While the elevation of the river at the fall line at Augusta is only 100 feet hbove the sea, it is 250 feet above the sea at Milledgeville and Macon; 199 feet at Columbus and about 200 feet at Columbia. It is easier to bring deep navigation in land to the fall line on the Savannah River than on any other river on the South Atlantic. And no two rivers come as close together in their head waters with capab lities for power development to the upper limits as the Savannah and Tennessee. “I believe it is possible to interest the U. S. Government in a project like this. Th.e first thing would be to get a n appropriation for a sur vey to determine whether it is prac ticable, where the connection could be made and what it would cost. In Rabun Gap the two headwaters come very near together. Also at other points. • Tunnelling, if necessary, would not be impracticable tn con nect these rivers, since tunnelling is rather a small matter these days. A French tunnel, near Marseilles, for water navigation, has just been com-, pleted, about 4 1-2 miles long, 71 feet wide and 52 feet high. On the Little Tennessee, not far beyond the Blue Ridgq, a tunnel is now being cut near Bryson at a cost of several million dollars to connect two power pords. , Let our people reflect on these possibilities. Ocean navigation to Augusta and barges into the Ten nessee, Ohio and Mississippi valley would cause a “gold rush” to the Augusta and Savannah River terri tories. Frequently it is the large undertaking that awakens the great est spiritual resources of a Sen. Robinson’s Bill Would Save This County $300,000.00 When ask?d by The Messenger about the bill now nearing passage and more clearly defined below in a general way. Senator Frank C. Rob inson said: “If th’s bill passes the house, and I believe tliat it will, it will be rated as one of the outstanding pieces of legislation of this session. The ‘Pay as you Go’ act of 1925 allowed reim bursement to counties that had is sued bonds, for paving prior to the passage of the act and prohibited payment to the counties that had bonded themselves and built soft sur face roads. The purpose of the bill is to remove this discriminat on as far as possible. McCormick County issued and spent in road building approximately $300,000.00 and if rembursement contracts can be had to take care of the principal of these bonds it will be a tremendous help in our taxes within a few years. I may say that I had but little encouragement when this bill was introduced, but when its poss ; bilities were made apparent it passed without difficulty, in fact I do not think a .single vote was re corded against it.” The item below was sent out from Columb ; a last Thursday night: Senator Hammond of R chland lost in the senate Thursday an effort tb have certain toll bridges freed. The senate was considering a bill by Senator Robinso n to allow any roads built by counties before the passage of the “Pay-As-You-^Jo” highway ’act and now part of the state road system to be paid under re ; mbursement agreements with the state, provided that the mileage or allotment of funds to any county would not be increased.. -An attempted amendment by Sen- ator ffAmmond' to give the state highway department the right ’ to take over toll bridges by paying the balance of construction costs unpaid by tolls collected to the time of its takirig over was killed when Senator Rob : nso n argued that the amend ments would complicate the original bill and endanger its passage. McCormick County Should Produce More Cotton Lindbergh Gets Back Home ST. LOUIS Mo., Feb. 13.—The man and the airplane most famous in the history of aviation landed at their home port late today, complet ing a 40,000-mile tour Vhich in ten months has brought America good will and intense interest* in aeron autics to three continents. Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh brought the “Spirit of St. Lou ; s” down at Lambert field at 5:01 p. m. He had flown without stopping to St. Louis ffom Havana, Cuba, 1,200 miles, the last point on his 10,000- mile Latin American good-will tour. Lindbergh made the flight from Havana to St. Louis in 15 hours and 36 minutes. He left Havana at 2:25 a. m» eastern standard time. He was not sighted definitely along the route, but from reports to the United Press of planes heard at points in the south, his route was in dicated to have been along the west coast of Florida and through Ala bama, Tennessee and Illin&is. The distance roughly would be about 1,- 200 m ; les. The flight from Havana was one of the most dangerous of the entire 10,000-mile trip. Low v’sibility pre vailed most of the way and the Spirit of St. Louis was not definite ly identified along the route until Lindbergh started circling the field here. A plane believed to be the St. Louis had been reported earlier in the afternoon, however, from Talla- dega> Ala., and Hohenwald, Tenn., along the way. Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh, fly ing from Havana, Cuba, to St. Louis, Mo., encountered cloudy and rainy weather all the way. Lindbergh supposedly came from : Havana to Key West and then fol- people lowed the Florida west coast to Pen- i»n<i brings about their - positw* h.v . oltt. Iri-on ther to St • .on’ Here wbuld be something j cloudy-and rainy weather, the weatii- ile for this Savannah River er men reported, whether he went ieved ufould direct or by'. New Orleans and then [evelopnjent.” up the Mississippi River, / • Editor McCormick Messenger: We are hearing and reading quite a b t about reduction in cotton acre age this yeai; anc^ especially at this time; however, this is nothing new as it springs up about every other year. If I am correct, McCormick Coun ty produced nearly 20,000 bales of cotton several years before the boll weevil came here, and since then, which was since 1920, we have pro duced about an average of 5,000 bales mak ng as small as 1 600 in 1922. At any rate, McCormick Coun ty has reduced her cotton crop since 1920 about 75 per cent and I fail to see where we have increased any other crop even 1 per cent. Wc have cut our cotton crop and all other crops, also cut' our timber crop un til we have almost none left, and by cutting these different crops we have decreased our lands to where they have no real value, and when I. say no value I mean from a stand point of what’s being produced; the most of it is not worth paying tax es on. If the State of^outh Carolina had cut her cotton prop in proportion to McCormick County since 1920, she would have produced an average of about a quarter million bales. Texas likewise would have produced about one million instead of four, and the entire cotton belt would havo averag ed about four million instead of twelve, but instead of any decrease our cotton States have b?en breaking all records; especially did we do this in 1926; and I know where there have been normal crops of cotton product lands can’t be bought at low prices. No\y, before we consider anything else, let’s all, and I mean bankers, merchants, farmers, ginners, editor and all other persons in McCormick County consider the above facts, see just what we have brought our coun ty to, ourselves to, and resolve right now that we will bring this county back to 20,000 bales and over; even if we can’t succeed this year* we can improve other years if we will only try. If it takes increase in acreage, let’s have it, and if we increase our cotton acreage, we will likew'se in crease other crops, and it decrease, we will decrease all. The past seven years have proved this. Let’s not be the goat any longer. Yours respectfully, R. M. WINN- Plum Branch, S. C. Feb. 14 1928. X $1,721.18 Worth Of Poultry And Cream Sold Here February 8 Wednesday, February 8th, was an unusual day in McCormick for the farmers of the county, in that a market was offered at the top prices for poultry and cream the same day. The proceeds - to the farmers from the sale of poultry and cream on that day were $1,608.23. Risser and Rabinowitz of Golds- borq N. C . the largest poultry buy ing firm in the eastern part of the country bought at the car door and paid cash for 7,495 pounds live poul try on'that date. Around 100 far mers loaded poultry in the car, and all were satisfied with prices and with the poultry sale. The McCormick Cream Station bought 258 pounds butterfat from 48 customers on the same date, paying 44 cents per pound and paying out a total of $112.95. McCormick County should have more days like that the year around, and especially in the seasons when there is no cotton on the market, and, consequently no income on a large majority of the farms in the county. Plenty of cows and poultry along with good hogs will keep the money coming in the year around, and will make it unnecessary for the farmers to mortgage their entire cot- toj, c ■ rd n many ca«-es most of theii other property to .1 money to live on during the slack seasons. THOS. W. MORGAN, . County Agent, 17-Year-Old Negro Confesses He Attack ed A. W. Bradley The Greenwood Index-Journal of Sunday <said: John D. Ware, also known as Jack Zimmerman, a 17- year-old negro boy, confessed to Sheriff E. M. White last night that he attacked Adam W. Bradley, pro prietor of the Troy Drug Store, Fri day night with a heavy hickory club and robbed him of $11 in monpy. Mr. Bradley was seriously injured when he was struck on the head just below the left ear as he was on his way home about 9 o’clock Friday night. Although he was in a serious condition when he was brought to the hospital here he was reported to be improv'ing yesterday and his phy sician bel’eved he was out of danger, however he is expected to be a pat ient at the hospital for at least a week. The young negro’s confession was made about 7 o’clock when he ,was brought to jail by Deputy R. L. Lyon and J. T. Clem and State Constable C. M. Foster, who had arrested him late in the day after following clues’ foe several hours. The arrest was made at the home of his mother on what is known as the Clinkscales place, about a mile southeast of Troy. The officers obtained the r first clues yesterday morning, although they remained in Troy several hours after the attack Friday night .in search of Mr. Bradley’s assailant who appeared then to Jmve covered his tracks completely. The deputies and state constable went to McCor mick, and, with the . assistance of Chief of Police B. D. Brown, learn ed that a young negro had spent money rather freely at stores there during the morning. He had pur chased a sport cap and paid for it in djjjjrs at one store and at another had "bought a box of stationery, a fountain peri ar.d a bottle of cologne. Further investigation showed that Ware was the purchaser and that he lived at Troy. The officers returned to Troy and arrested Ware and another young negro named Kirkland Lites, who acted nervously and suspiciously while they were quest'oning Ware. At first the boy denied positively that he was guilty, declaring that his mother had given him $2 which he spent at McCormick, but the officers already had found out that the pur chases amounted to much more than this sum. He then was taken to his heme and the large hickory stick ly ing in the* yard seemed to furnish an other clue. One of the officers pick ed it up (it is four feet long and two inches in diametor at the largest point) and accused him of striking Mr. Bradley with it. The youth ad mitted that he had cut the Pmb from a tree\ but declared it was to be used as a baseball bat. Then one of the officers, after having told him they did not believe his #?tory, commanded him to show just how he hit Mr Bradley. The boy hesitated awhile but finally admitted that he had cut the stick for the purpose of attack- '.rg the druggist and showed just how he struck tho blow. He then admitted that He alone was guilty and the Lites youth was released. Cotton Production Council Says Three Grave Dangers CLEMSON COLLEGE, Feb.^ll.— Three grave dangers in cotton pro duction are pointed out in tin ’ re- poi t of The Cotton Production Coun- c ! l v of the. Association of Souther* Agricultural Workers, says Profes sor- H. W. Barre, director 'of ’ths South Carolina Experiment Station, who is also president of thn Agricul-* tural Workers, and chairman of ; ts Cotton Production Council. These dangers may be briefly stated art: ;(1.) the. pink boll worm invasion;,(2) the over-production of cotton of n- ferior staple; (3) th? likelihood of a price situation this fall approximate to that of i926. 1 Regarding the pink boll worm in- tvasion;. the report of the Cotton Pro duction Council states that in some respects the pink boll worm ; s the most destructive pest of cottom known, and the menace of this new pest to the cotton industry of this entire country is certainly as serious as was the invasion, of the Mexican cotton boll weevil 30 years agoT Council thinks it important, there-* fore, that the problem of oxterm'hat- ing the pink boll worm “should' re ceive from Congress the utmost needed financial ' support, that prompt exterminaton may b2 ac complished.” That the South is producing now much more cotton of three-fourths inch arid seven-eighths inch staple than th's country or the world will take at profit to’growers, ‘and that th? larger demand of manufactujers is for cotton of fifteen-sixteenths inch, one inch, and one and or.^-six-. teerth inch staple is pointed out ia discussing the quality of cotton pro duced and consumed. Th's Council feels therefo: e, that studies of; con sumption and demand should be closely correlated w'th studies of product’on and quality to thb erid that cotton growers may produce the kind and quality of staple need ed by the manufacturers. On the probable price situation for 1928 the report says that thb prices received for the 1927 crop are likely to result in increased acreage; that even on the acreage planted last year a normal yield per acre this year will increase the surplus and further depress the price; and that this w:B result in a loss to tho growers, es pecially where yields are low. Con sequently the Council recommends again that “every effort bo made t* produce better cotton on fewer acres and more food and feed crops ox more acres. -m- Court Adjourned Last Thursday The Messenger is asked to state that Chief of Police B. D. Brown of McCormick traced up cluos and got up enough evidence Saturday after noon to bring about the arrest of the boy who later confessed to com mitting the crime. Mr. Bradley was rushed to the Greenwood Hospital for treatment, and was able to return to his home in Troy Saturday afternoon, where he is getting along nicely. x Mr. H. N. Coleman’s Saw Mill Damaged By Fire Saturday Mi*. H. N. Cq]eman sustained a loss of about sixty dollars Saturday* afternon when the wood work around his saw mill and part of the big en gine belt were burned by fire which was supposed to have gotten its start from sparks jrom the smoke frill of the eated severj and had wee! ei Court adjourned here last Thurs day, after a mistrial was ordered ia the case of Frank Wideman, charged with murder. The only civil case tried was that of the Carolina F/ngineering Ccrrf-, pany against the Town of McCor mick, in wh’ch a verdict for $300.0# was rendered for the eng'neering company. Notice of appeal yvas field- txt S. C. May Send 653 j To Militia Camps COLUMBIA, Feb. 10—South Car olina has been provisionally assigned next summer and initial allotment of a quota of 365 admissions to the cit izens’ military training camps these among the 46 counties has beea made by Col. Richard H. McMaster, Columbia, chief of staff, 82nd Divis ion, as follows: Abbeville, 7; Aiken, 27; Allendalev 2; Anderson, 30; Bamberg, 9; Barn well, 10; Beaufort, 7; Berkeley, 8; Calhoun t 7; Charleston, 54; Cheio-. kea, 12; Chester, 9; Chesterfield, 12; Clarendon, 12; Colleton, 16; Darling ton, 10; Dillon, 7; Dorchester. 10; Edgefield, 9; Fairfield, 4; Florence, 15; Georgetown, 9; Greenville, 38; Greenwood. 10; Hampton, 10; Hor y, 15; Jasper, 4; Kershaw, 7; Lancaster, 31; McCormick, 3; Marion, 6: New berry, 9; Marlboro, 8; 14; Richland, 25; Saluda, 13; Spartan burg, 39; Sumtei, 7; Unior:. 10; Wil liamsburg*, 17; York, 15.