Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Thursday, January 29, 193f McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, SOUTH CAROLINA PAGE NUMBER FOUR MFSSKNfl™ a kld fr0m accidentally setting out cessful railroads are conservative. Published Every Thursday Established June 5, 1902 EDMOND J. McCRACKEN, Editor and Owner more and more worried about the speed of the autos that dashed by constantly; and then he happened to think that these motorists, after all, probably felt that they were Entered at the Post Office at Me- no j. d r j V jng so very fast. They Cormick, S. C., as mail matter of _ were no ^ exceeding the speed limit. He himself often drove that fast in the street once in a while.” | The purchases mean the ex- So, as he mused, the father got penditure in the South of new the second class. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: — Strictly Cash In Advance — One Year $1.00 Six Months 1 .75 Three Months .50 A GRATIFYING REPORT on quiet residential streets. And then this man formulated a new resolution, to govern his own conduct behind the steering wheel. He resolved that whenever he drove along a street beside which chil dren were playing he would drive as slowly and as carefully as he money to the extent involved in payment for more than 30,000 tons of rail in the Alabama steel industry plus the expenditure in volved in the laying of the rails and the removal of old rails from their present location on 231 miles of track to other locations. The process is to replace lighter rail with new and heavier.—Charlotte Observer. X MAKE HASTE SLAVERY There is the imminent danger just at present of the state’s law making body in its conflicting views and convictions on econ omy and how to obtain it enact ing unwise legislation. The state (would want other motorists *to Only four pei; cent more fatalities d r i ve where his child was playing, lesulted from automobile accidents ^ n( j ^3^ 15^ a b a cl resolution In the United States in 1930, than f or every driver. You never know In 1929, according to a press as- what a c hiid W ill t do. A speed , of mind of the people undergoing sociation’s report. For the year be- t hat ^ perfectly safe on a clear a protracted depression could eas- fore the increase was 13 per cent street can be hazardous on a street! ily be translated into reactionary over 1928. (lined with playing children. When |and oppressive laws by legislators While the number of deaths yQ U ^rive along such a street try! who make it a point to hear from reached 32,500 from automobiles, it CO pying this man’s resolution and home. That the most scrupulous Is gratifying to learn that the in- see if it doesn’t make you go a economy and integrity should crease was not as great as the year uttie more slowly. . | characterize every consideration before. Accidents to school chil- 1 x -- j and art by the representatives of dren also did not register a gain uSQigLATURE FACES REAL TEST goes without saying. In over the preceding year. While motor vehicle accidents ac counted for well over 30 per cent of the nation’s accidental death toll last year, they accounted for but 15 per cent of accidents to school children. The report cov ers the first four months of* the school year, September to January. Motor vehicle accidents lead all other causes of accidental death throughout the country as a whole I* a wide margin but, among school ^jhildren, they occur Only one-hali as frequently as home ac cidents. "it would be misleading to imply that they are only half as important, however, because of the nature of the injuries. The report shows that one out of 40 motor ve hicle accidents was fatal, while on ly one out of 155 other accidents resulted in death. , The report brings to light some interesting facts showing how the seasons change the. nature of ac cidents. As cold weather came on, home accidents, as well as those in school buildings showed striking increases. School ground accidents showed a substaintial decrease des pite the fact that the coming of ice and snow usually add to the ac? ddent hazards with which children have to contend. due of the most interesting facts disclosed in the report is that in all grades more than half of the mo tor vehicle accidents occured at times and places other than when the student was on his way to or from school. This points directly to such activities as playing in the streets ana running out into the street without watching carefully for approaching automobiles. Among the younger pupils, the chief cause of motor vehicle ac cidents is lack of care in crossing the streets; among high school- students, Careless driving on the part of students themselves. X A RESOLVE FOR DRIVERS (The State of Monday.) The general assembly of South (The Anderson Daily Mail) dealing with public funds the law maker with a clear conception of his responsibility will act as if the public treasury contained trust Carolina has been in session two funds in which he is agent in weeks. their custody or disbursement. Ec- Interest during the fortnight has onomy must be maintained and ap-» very naturally centered in the more propriations reduced, but that obvious—the appointment of com- should be brought about without mittees, the election of committee causing state institutions to be un chairmen, the inauguration of a dul y crippled and hampered. Tem porarily they may have to under go a period of curtailment of oper ations or enlarged plans, but noth ing too drastic or revolutionary should characterize legislation even in such times, that would re turn in the days when business is normal to haunt and plague as precedents.—Spartanburg Journal. X 1 Cites Figures On Teachers’ Pay new governor, the balloting for an associate justice of the state sup reme court. , Except for the election of an as sociate justice, the other matters have been disposed of—they belong to the past. Now the general assembly has opportunity to set itself to the real tasks before it—to concentrate its attention. Many of the members, especially in the house, are new to legislative affairs.- Very probably some of them came to Columbia with a de termination to jump right into the- w# D . NIXON QUOTES * 1 * * FROM STA- * There is nothing particularly new in the statement that a tremendous , number of people are killed by officials who handle the revenues middle of things and bring about sweeping reforms within a month’s time—the promises they had made on the stump were fresh in their minds. They may feel frustrated, baffled, like & man fighting his way through a thick mist, unable to grapple with it yet hindered in his progress by its presence. So many matters, especially the tak ing of 24 ballots for an associate justice, have occurred to delay con sideration in the two houses of im portant matters. Yet the time has not been whol ly lost. True it is that little of leadership in either house has yet developed. But the new members have become acquainted with one another; those of somewhat similar views on affairs have had oppor tunity to discuss them and ap praise each other; there has come about a better understanding of the difficulties before them. They know now something of the deficit, which drags as a hungry leech, at the state treasury; they have heard discussed educational matters and the 0-0-1 law by men who know of what they speak; they have held conferences with state TISTICS OF HOPE’S 1930 REPORT (Greenwood Index-Journal Of January 25.) American automobile traffic every year. The exact figure is suffi ciently startling, but all of us, when get in our cars, reassure our- William D. Nixon, superintendent of the Tucapau Schools and chair man of the committees on public relations r of the South Carolina State Teachers’ Association, says the teachers of the state are not opposed to any fair means of econ omy, but if cuts are to come they should come from the governor down. He made this statement yes terday in discussing the bill now in the house of representatives pro viding for a reduction in teachers’ salaries. Mr. Nixon is spending the week end with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Nixon. His statement follows: Press dispatches carry news of a proposed bill in the house of rep resentatives at Columbia to cut the salaries of the teachers of the state by twenty per cent. A few facts and figures taken from the annual report of the state superintendent of education, 1930, may throw some light upon this much discussed subject. According to that report the average salaries for the year quoted, 1929-30, were as follows: Wl\ite School Teachers— Annual Salary Gallant-Belk Company \ GREENWOOD’S LEADING DEPARTMENT STORE MEN’S CLOTHING • Men’s Black Calf Skin Welt Sole Oxfords, black and tan. Bal and Blucher, $4.00 values, only at • GREATLY REDUCED $24.50 Quality Style-Plus, Art ..... $2.95 Fashion, Powers Men’s Suits, Men’s New Spring Felt Reduced to (T <f yi AE K..S, 82.95 $105 quality, each ^ \ Men’s 50c Quality Silk Hose, reduced OCf* pair Men’s Solid Color Broad cloth Shirts 50C Boy’s good Triple Stitched Overalls, elastic suspend er back and high A Q back^ pair Men’s and Boy’s adjustable head size Caps, 48c 39c # Men’s plain and fancy Dress Socks \ A Aft pair ■ Good quality Gray and White Goods 3^215 yard - ^ ^ Men’s $1.00 quality Dress • Shirts 79c each £ ^ 48 Octagon Soap, Octagon Washing Powder and Star Naptha Powder OCf* 8 for Men’s good Blue CCIf* Overalls, pair %rwV Good 4-string Corn OCft Broom* 11-.. fiww vh:o..v FOLLOW THE CROWDS TO GALLANT-BELK “GREENWOOD’S LEADING DEPARTMENT STORE” COMPANY “THE HOME OF BETTER VALUES” WE SELL EVERYTHING AND SELL IT FOR LESS SEE 3E Women 303.84 From the above it will be seen that the average monthly salary of of the state government and who look after its expenditures. The general assembly this year impresses the visitor as a body 4 of Adves^with the notion that we, at ! serious-minded meq. They seem least, will never hit anyone; and so to realize the importance of the Men we go ahead, driving as we always work ahead of them. Women — liave driven, secure in our belief | The two weeks behind them have Negroes— that it is only the wildly reckless served somewhat as a period of Men 402.79 selfish* driver who ever runs training, ipyyfn a pedestrian. | The next two weeks will show of However, there is another way of what mettle they are made, looking at it that is rather whole- 1 Their problems are not easy of the men on a twelve months’ basis gQjQg solution and, so long as they show for you know we must eat and buy The other day a man was sitting intelligent appreciation of the clothes for twelve months, and pay his front porch, looking out at responsibilities resting upon them, bills .for life insurance also, is Ills little boy, who was playing with they are deserving of the sympathy roughly $138.50 per month; for pnmP other children in the front and co-operation of the people of women about $78.00 per month. The yard. The street was a fairly quiet the state. proposed bill would make teachers one, not over-burdened with traffic x pay for work in high schools the mb city streets go; but autos pass- FORSEES BETTER BUSINESS .handsome sum of $720.00 per year wd fairly frequently, and they or an average of $60.00 per month aecmed, to this watcher, to be go- While the wires and the news- on a twelve months’ basis. I teach tiip rather fast. The children ran papers carry bad news, they also in a mill district where our negroes skipped about the lawn, and bring considerable good news. An are paid something like $45.00 per now and then one would carelessly item that should bring some en- month for stoking the boilers and dart out into the street to pick up couragement in the South, because doing common day labor around a ball, or to chase a puppy dog or of its significance, is the announce- the village. Board costs our teach- to evade some other youngster in a ment of the Southern Railway that ers about $30.00 per month, and by game of tag; and the man who was it has just placed an order for the time summer school expenses watching them got more and more more than 35,000 tons of new rail, are paid, very little is left after nervous. enough to lay 231 miles of tract, paying ordinary living expenses. I “Those autos,” he mused to him- and representing an expenditure of have been informed by an expert jelf, “are traveling pretty fast, a large amount of money for a filling station operator in the^town Suppose that one of those kids— time like this, my kid, for instance—should hap- | The fact that a railroad com- pen to dart out there at just the pany is voluntarily making such an wrong time. What would happen? investment in permanent improve- The best driver in 4 the World | ment at this time indicates that it wouldn’t have time to stop, or is convinced that conditions will of Greenwood that a good filling station helper gets around $25.00 per week. Contrast that sum with the proposal to pay high school teachers $20.00 per week and gram mar school teachers $13.50 per tum but. And nobody can keep be materially better soon. Sue-.week, the majority of whom have spent four years in college. It would be interesting to know how much day laborers working for the State Highway Department re ceive. This is not a shot at the Highway Department, but simply an attempt to contrast actual con ditions. Average Attendance As to the proposal to base state aid on average attendance, this is nothing more than the teachers of the state have themselves request ed for some time. This, of course means fewer teachers and more work per teacher. Can anyone point to another group in the state “trying to work themselves out of a job,” and, for those “lucky enough” to hold their places, into more work? This matter was gone into very thoroughly last fall at a meeting of school superintendents and principals in Columbia, and the above recommendation was made at that time. As to costs of bonds for schools, the county of Spartanburg may be taken as an example. That county has a bonded indebtedness of about $4,500,000.00, of which $1,500,000.00 is for schools, roughly 33 per cent. Surely that other 67 per cent must have gone somewhere. Where? Not all the money has been spent for schools. The teachers of the state are not opposed to any fair means of econ omy, but if cuts are to come they should come from the governor on down. The legislature, of course, cannot cut the salary of constitu tional officers once they are into office. The News and Courier made an excellent suggestion to that ef fect, and our legislature had one week in which to get those cuts made before the new officers were inaugurated. Did they do it? Do most people realize that members of the legislature make for their forty days “work” more than half of the proposed salary for teachers, without the addition of other ex penses which they vote themselves. In other words our lawmakers get for six or seven weeks work more than half the proposed salary of teachers for thirty-six weeks. It is true that in our sister state, North Carolina, there is a proposal to cut teachers claries ten per cent, but the governor of that state has rec ommended a ten per cent cut from the governor on down, and not only a slice in teachers salaries. The transportation of pupils in buses has also come in for heavy criticism, and there are undoubted ly abuses which should be correct ed, but have the majority of our legislators taken into considera tion the fact that, exclusive of the original cost of the bus, pupils enough to do away with many one and two teacher schools may be transported for some five hundred dollars per year as against the cost of from one thousand to twenty- five hundred dollars per year; and this increased number of pupils may be absorbed into many of our larger schools without the addition of a single teacher or the purchase of a cent more of coal, fuel, etc. Surely, if the county delegations wish to make a saving, then an in telligent survey and re-districting of our counties would save the tax payers thousands of dollars. Many of our counties were laid out into their present school districts twen ty-five and thirty years ago when conditions were quite different. Many small schools are now trying to operate within a stone’s throw of larger schools that should be utilized in a larger way. One reason : for the deficits in many high school districts is the fact that they have been building and pay- 1 ing the costs of the education of surrounding grammar school dis trict children. Many high school districts are staggering under the (levy of 15 to 28 mills, and gram mar school districts whose proper ty differs only in being just across a road or a creek are not paying one cent towards the education of their children in the high schools. I The teachers of the state are more than willing, as they have shown in the past, to bear their share of the burden, but to quote the words of Dr. H. N. Snyder, of i Wofford College, “cut the salaries | of the teachers, get poor teachers, badly equipped for their work, and cheat the children of their birth- 1 right.” To quote Dr. Frank Evans, superintendent of Spartanburg City Schools, “the education of our chil dren is not charity, but an obliga tion.” Economy is the key word for our present predicament, but not false economy. x Dairy Cows Pay Laurens Farmers LAURENS, Jan. 28.—Records kept by W. A. Simpson, Ware Shoals, Poplar Springs section, on his small dairy herd for the past few years, show that in 1928 he milked an average of seven cows, receiv ing $195.56 labor income above feed bought per cow; in 1929 he milked an average of eight cows, receiving $247.24 labor income above feed bought per cow, and in 1930 he milked an average of nine cows receiving a labor income above feed bought of $226.98 per cow. A good profit per cow above feed bought from 1928 through 1930 is noted, and the increase of one cow each year to his herd, showing that as Mr. Simpson be comes more familiar with dairying and efficient in his work he adds additional cows. He is growing in- jto dairying and not jumping into it. 1 In the' above figures no value has been placed on the milk and dairy products used in the home of nine persons nor is there any value placed on the offspring of cattle and the compost. The dairy products were sold by Mr. Simpson at Ware Shoals, S. C. S. C. Powers, another Laurens farmer, shows a labor income above feed bought of $181.27 per cow for the year. Mr. Powers milks on the average of 11 cows. This record is figured on the same basis as Mr. Simpson’s, that is, placing no value on the milk pro ducts used in the home of seven persons, nor on off-spring of cat tle, compost, etc. X Yellow poplar can stage a rapid come-back, the United States For est Service reports. Some of the sprouts from trees felled last win ter on experimental plots in the North Carolina Coastal Plains grew ^ to 8 feet high the past season.