University of South Carolina Libraries
.., ■ . SUM IIP AY, JANUARY 6, 1989 iSutt 1218 Colletfe Street Newberry, S. C. O. F. ARMFIELD Editor and Publisher One Year $1.00 Published Every Friday Entered as second-class matter December 6, 1937, at the post office at Newberry, South Carolina, under the Act of March 3, 1879. DOUBLE PORTION OF SPECTATOR Waxes Eloquent Over Christmas Grub Farley In The Running It now seems almost certain that Mr. Roosevelt will not offer for a third term. Some see in his promo tion of Harry Hopkins a move to groom him for the high plr.ee but the country does not want Harry, nor could he get the nomination. Mr. Hopkins is not a well-rounded indi vidual. His life hrs been spent in relief work and this naturally would eclipse anything else in his sight. The other half of the country would go on relief if he were President. Then there’s “Old John” Garner. About the greatest tribute we have ever seen paid the vice-president (Yes, he’s the vice-president!) is that he’s a shrewd politician and a good poker player. Not exactly the type to uphold the dignity of the White House. And wasn’t Harding a pok er player! Playing poker of course is not the greatest of the evils, but it doesn’t exactly comport with the of fice of Wilson, and Jefferson and Lincoln. In laying Mr. Hopkins and Mr. Garner on the shelf we do not by any means dispose of all the would-be presidents. There are literally le gions of them but they don’t count for much—with one exception. Carter Field informs us in a copy righted article in The State of De ls A Sales Tax The Remedy? A gentleman addressing the legis lative committee the other day sug gested a sales tax to relieve the bur. den on farm land. We suppose he means ihe kind of sales tax now in .force in North Carolina, i. e., a tax on everything we eat and wear and chew. At first thought the sales tax seems a very just form of taxation. It sounds entirely reasonable and ra tional to apply taxes according to ones ability to pay; according to the cash laid on the barrel head. But the sales tax as many North Carolinians have discovered is not a panacea for tax ills. In fact, the opposition there to that form of taxation is so strong that that an organization fighting it backed a practically unknown uni versity professor for governor and scared the daylights out of the old politicians and roiled up a huge vote for their man. The man with the big income does not pay in proportion to the man with the little income as is so commonly believed. It is true he pays the same on what he spends, but not what he earns. Under North Carolina’s plan the $30 a week wage earner contri butes about a dollar of it to the state for the privilege of buying what he cember 29th, that the boom for James eats and wears and burns and so on. A. F’arley is “far from a joke.” Mr. He contributes that because he is for- Field continues: “There is no doubt . . . that he has more real friends in the Democratic party, from Maine to California, and from Washington to Florida, than any other single De mocrat—more friends, that is, who are potent politically, are apt to have something to say about the selection of delegates to the Democratic na tional convention." We agree entirely with Mr. Field. Jim Farley has friends, warm friends. He seems to be the kind of fellow who makes that kind of friends.—the “po tent politically” kind. We have watched Jim Farley’s ca reer since the advent of the New Deal pretty closely. He is liberal a plenty but belongs to the conservative wing of the Dealers, and he believes the people of each state or sub-division thereof scrsible enough to choose tbeir representatives without outside aid, or suggestions. Parley has climbed to his present high position from humble surround ings He is as self-made as they come and usually when they come that way they know the value of a dollar and something of the hopes and ambi tions pf the common lot. There would be a lot of harmony and singleness of purpose if Jim were president. He appears to know how to keep peace in the family and a lot of that sort of tact is going to be ne cessary for party solidarity in the coming months. Yes, Jim is a Catholic but we be lieve the South is pretty well asham ed of its display of intolerance visit ed on A1 Smith in 1988. Most of us ced to. He cannot withhold any great part of $30 if he is honest with the tradesmen. On the other hand the $5000 man in many, many cases lives as economically as the $30 per week man. His surplus is not subject to the sales tax and he usually puts it where it is free of any tax. They Did Right Elsewhere on this page is a letter which is self-explanatory, except that we might say that no good whatever would accrue to the county from the two pages of advertising at $250 per so generously offered by the Colum bia Record and an Anderson paper at what is probably double their re gular rate. Neither the county dele gation nor the board of commission ers have any right to spend the county’s tax money for advertising of any kind in any newspaper any where, and this goes for city council as well. Pampered people we are. Time was when mother served hot cakes, freah home-made biscuits, waffles, too, for breakfast—along with hominy (grits, grist) ham and gravy. On that sort of “vittles” men cleared the forests and stumped the fields. Men were men in those days. But now, forsooth, what have we? Daughter, in her turn, is a housekeeper. And she serves what? Why bread from a bakery, and it must be sliced at the bakery! Too much labor to slice a loaf of bread. Soon the baker will be asked to Chew it, too. My word! Oh time, oh customs! Daughter will run around the stores two hours, to avoid thirty minutes of work at home. The ladies, bless ’em, are now running all about for shelled nuts rather than devote thirty minutes to shelling a few. Women used to earn their way as housekeepers; now they spend their way—what? Well, this is getting pretty deep, for this is deep stuff. Poor old mother used to bake for Christmas—oh my! —fruit cakes, light and dark, coconut cakes, mince pies, potato custard pies —and all that; but Daughter buys a cake, or buys the ingredients already mixed, if she can spare the time from the clubs. And the old man, now; how does he fare? Does he come to the table with buoyant step like Alexander con quering the world? Nay, Nay; he slides in gently and quaffs his toma to juice, munches a transparent piece of toast, sips a swallow of coffee and goes forth into the battle of life ready to compromise or surrender. Too bad! I’ve read that the mind Is clearer if the body be stinted of food; that when one fasts he has visions and dreams; that “the imagination bodies forth in forms of things unseen”—and so on, vou know. All of which suggests that ninety per cent of all the vague unfounded so-called thinking of today is due to poor nourishment. After all is said and done, you can’t lick the world under the inspira tion of a gulp of saur kraut “licker.” Now real old “pot likker,” with a chunk of cornbread and a hunk of ‘■side meat” — now that’s another story. Yes, men were men in those days. They could “take it,” as the elegant language of today would phrase it. We, poor weaklings of ro bust parents, if we eat ten cents worth of real grub we spend ten dol lars for physicians and physics. It’s a sad thought, mates. “What we must do to save the country is to do away with break fast illusions and eat more ham and hominy.” invited to address the annual Con vention of the Farmers and Taxpay ers League sometime this month, possibly the 18th, if convenient to him. The Senator has accepted, con ditioned upon being able to leave Washington. The League has re quested Senators Smith and Byrnes to co-operate in making it possible for Senator Byrd to come. While Governor of Virgina Mr. Byrd re-organized the State govern ment and made a notable reduction in number of offices msintained and in the cost of the government. Vir- <Hnia. thouvh much larver and rich- «r than South Carolina, has not a? manv public offices as we have. Sena tor Bvrd is invited as an expert on state government who has accom- nli-hed somethinv in a big way. The League will fix any date that may assure the coming of Senator Byrd. Taxing The Farmer “If farmers knew their power they would rise in revolt on this inequit able tax situation but they do not seem to understand that they pay a :igher rate of tax on their land than do other owners or real estate. Why they do not as a class understand this is puzzling but it is a fact that they do not.’’—Greenwood Index-Journal. The above is what we have been saying for years. Very few farmers The old-time mother! Wasn’t she a queen in her kitchen? She didn’t boss her old man, nor run the farm, nor manage the church, nor direct the clubs. But didn’t she rise to heights of supreme splendor in her kitchen? What feasts she provided! Som and daughters, grandsons and grand daughters from far and wide remem ber her dishes and rejoice to come home. She was happy to see the boys eat. Not many of those old- time mothers left. Nowadays they all open the same kind of canned stuff, make any substantial profits—es- have come tojrealize that a Catholic pecially on poor lands. Some argue in the White House doesn’t mean that the Pope will change his ancient place of abode. CINCHING A DIAGNOSIS Calhoun Times. We have never voted for Gover nor Olin D. Johnston. He was not considered the proper material for his high honors, nor sincere in his pretensions, as far as they went. We did compliment him, from time to time, on his attitude in refusing reck less pardon to criminals. It now de velops that he has abscorded from this lone virtue. He is turning loose murderers, right and left. Thus, our one compliment is vitl ated. He thought he was playing good politics, a n d now seems mad be cause he was disappointed in his am bition to climb up the ladder of fame. His recent pardon of Starnes was an outragt*. Just why the solons per sist ir allowing such powers in the hands of weak and incompetent gov ernors is a mystery. Governor Ole ander J. has made a cleanup of our lack of confidence in his ability in his ability and sincerity. FIRE DESTROYS TENANT HOUSE On Monday morning, December 26, about 12:30, a tenant house burned on the farm of C. L. Ruff in the St. Philips section. The house was almost consumed by the flames when dis covered. There was no one living in the house in which was stored about 100 bushels of corn, and a quantity of peas and fodder. Origin of the fire is unknown. that these few should not be penaliz ed for developing and improving their lands. If there is any virtue, how ever, in the statement that taxes should be levied in proportion to the ability to pay, then good lands and high class farming should pay more. It is enough for the farmers, par ticularly, to be taxed for county pur poses. That is why we have been contend ing for the removal of the State pro perty, a'id rejoiced over voting off the 3 mill constitutional state school tax. The State should bear these burdens, and not the counties. Slippery politicians may “frog” us on that school tax vote, as they did on biennial sessions. Let the Calhoun Times, from which the above is taken, appeal to its le gislative delegation as we here and now do, not to “frog” on us in this matter. There was no sense in sub mitting it to the voters unless they intend to ratify it Bi-ennial sessions have been voter’ twice we believe and ignored by the solons twice but in that matter they knew there would be little reaction. After a ll most of us enjoy the go ings-on of the boys at Columbia each year and they know it. But this matter of taxes is far different— that hits us where we live and move —and have our arguments, and we have little doubt that it will be rati fied without any trouble. You may sart now to figure your savings on basis of three mills less than your 'nst tax bill. Translated in miles while most of us are pulling in the ner gallon it means that we will be belt another notch, able to ride more next year if we . can keep up the payments until then. Senator Harry F. Byrd has been Who said that we were poor? Well if I said it, I should have qualified my statement, as becomes a man trained in the law. Not every man among us is poor; nor can I say that 1938 was a bad year for everybody. Not so, indeed. Some among us may have occasion to look back on 1938 as a year of special blessings, brimful of all the good things of life, succu lent, even, in rich plenitude and am brosial delight. Even so. We men who farm—well, that’s a sad story and dO»s not lend itself to any vision of Santa Claus in the am plitude of his beneficence, but, lis ten now, there be those whose stock ings were full of good things even when the rest of us couldn’t guard our few raisins because of the holes in the hose. Say, what do you think of this? Once there was a man who occupied a position of trust and received near ly six hundred dollars a month from the public purse. Get that, now: six hundred dollars a month, every month, twelve months In the year, every year. Even so. No frosts, nor rain, nor drouth, nor hail troubled him. No! His money was sure—every month. No glutted world market af fected his income, no bountiful corn '■rop reduced his earnings. No street Six hundred iron men every month. And he has a member of his family '•n tht payroll of the public, too, al though those six hundred simoleons should suffice to feed and clothe all and singular the family aforesaid. And there be others, my bretheren. They tell me of a man withone pub- ’ic salary of about three thousand dollars a year for five months work, who also has another public job at a salary reputed to be five thousand dollars. And a boy or two also en joys public recompense for public services. Yes, I tell you; there be men among us who should remember that while the rest of us can’t reach the fodder it hangs low in the rack for them. If they don’t offer special thanks for the rich prosperity of 1938 they should look at the rest of us. I repeat: Some people are feasting My, my, my. As though to rebuke SpecUtor for saying that the house wives of today don’t perform the cul inary art with the profusion and skill of our mothers, Spectator must tell of being a guest at a baronial estate of renown in old Clarendon—-near where the Santee rushes along to the first proposed dam. The family in residence is not one to rejoice over a drop of tomato juice. Here’s a truthful account of what was offered to Spectator, though he, alas!, could not measure up to the occasion, albeit he “help himself la- venous”, as a Sumter County man once said. Look at this knigly feast: Rice, biscuits (home-made and hot), tur key and gravy, ham and gravy, tur key dressing, chicken salad, potato salad, spinach, stewed tomatoes, ma caroni, pickle, lima beans, cranberry sauce, salted nuts, home-made candy, lemon pie, cocoanut pie, white fruit cake, dark fruit cake, pound cake, nut-date cake, banana cake, chocolate cake, cocoanut cake, lemon cake, gela tine (in Christmas colors) with whip ped cream, tea, and coffee. In the preparation of this spread seven dozen eggs were used. Spectator will have to swallow (if able to swallow anything more) what he has B aid, perhaps. Still, this good house-wife is a grandmother at that —though, of course, a very youth ful one. There was no “licker” in the fruit cake, nor on it, nor about it Grand ma will not permit anything more ar dent about the plantation than Grand pa’s pipe—which is a strong conces sion, believe me. But Grandma her- aelf had indulged in a cooking spree, like the sainted grandmothers of bid. Spectator, even in moments and moods of poetic frenzy, must per force come down from the Olympian heights and Elysian delights to the hard realities of the commonplace, so he surveyed Grandpa to ascertian how he was “holding up under the strain”. He was holding his own, for tified by that remarkable pipe, which never weakens. HAPPY NEW YEAR! May prove a happy new year, a year of peace and of quiet satisfactions, such as comes to one from the knowledge of having done his part faithfully. Most of us are humble and obscure workers to the great world, but to our families and friends we are val iant soldiers in the thick of the fray. Just as the war is fought by the pri vates, we, too, have our part to play, and the world needs us. Let no one regard himself as un necessary; far from it; we form the backbone of the great army of civili zation; every one must be in his place and do his part. Each of us may have the thrill of having done some kindly deed or some manly deed. We might tell some one that we were wrong, or in error; or we might back down from some attitude we have assumed. In deed, we might get off our high horse and be natural. So, in whatever place, high humble, we may live and ^Jhve and have our being we can live w .-rtbily and well, enjoying a prosperity of good will and good neighborliness that will be more enduring than bank balances and bonds. We are in the midst of a competi tion, it seems, between the Execu tive, the Congress and the Supreme Court, to see which can go farthest along certain lines. The Court is win ning the race and no man knows what the law is. Every man trained in the law knows that the Great Court has so interpreted the meaning of our Con stitution^ as to bring under Federal jurisdiction about everything. We know, all of us know, that the de cisions of the last three years have virtually taken all power from the States except to try criminal cases of violence. We have in truth such an assumption of power by the Court that was never dreamed of. The practice of the Court to broad en or narrow the scope of the na tional government needs to be re buked by all the Legislatures, for moral effect. Don’t think the Supreme Court would ignore this; no, Indeed. If the Legislatures should assert the nowers of the States the Court would lio+en attentively, lest the Congress might be temnted to do something to the Court. And the Congress could do some distasteful things. Spectator has been a warm cham pion of the Court against the Exe cutive, but on* can’t twallow every thing. The United State* Supreme Court says that a State may not exclude a Colored applicant from its school of law. To bring this home to us, it means that since our State does not provide a School of Law which is op erated at public expense. I wonder just how the Supreme Court would enforce that decree. Of course our State could resist until it had fought its own case through all the courts. By the same reason- ; ng, of course, we should receive Col ored students in The Citadel and in t^e Medical College, since we have no ■fich institutions for Colored people. Likewise, we shov’d admit them to all graduate and special courses in the University, since we have no - operate university for Colored stu dents. When I read the decision of the Court I felt a profound sorrow for our colored people. Most of us White people have a close attachment for our Colored neighbors and we are glad to observe their progress. But the aggressive effort on the pert of certain so-called leaders to mix the negro with the White man can have but one result; disaster for the ne gro. The University of South Carolina is probably forbidden by State laws to admit negroes. That is the de fence of the trustees. If any change must be made, let the Legislature! make it. What course is open to the Legis lature? It might decide to add a small law course at the State Negro College; or it might disregard the decision entirely unless some Feder al Court issued an order to matricu late a Colored student. In such a case the State in Its sovereign con stitutional right might become a par ty to the suit and insist that it shall be heard by the Supreme Court. That would allow a breathing spell for a couple of years. Perhaps in two years we shall have a New Deal for the South, meaning a different crowd of Democrats in power. We are'’ paying, just beginning to pay, for the smart politics which persuaded two million negroes to vote the Democratic ticket. We Southern people, for a mess of pot tage, have sold our birtrright. The rank and file of our Colored people might pray fervently to be let alone; their friends are about to bring untold misery to them. ing and whktnot, for a great high way b being cut through the dense Wateree Swamp, remembered in con nection with General Tbetnas Sumter, and with deferential boW to Secre tary Alex Salley. Brother Ben Saw yer’s mighty army is hacking its way through and pursues its course with relentless assiduity of resistless fate. Now if only there were a man of supreme faith he might remove the rugged hills with a gesture. We poor mortals, however, put too much trust in what we can see; so the hills must be cut and carted away. REFUSE TO BUY SPACE BANKS-FAUI.KNER MARRIAGE OF INTEREST The f.vllowing announcement cen ters much interest: Mr. P. B. Banks announces the marriage of his daughter, Margaret Vire’nia. to Mr. James Rogert Faulk ner on Saturday, December seven teenth, nineteen hundred and thirty- eight, Newberry, South Carolina. The following were guests of Mrs. J. K. Wicker on Boundary street over the holidays: Miss Gelene Pylant of Wilmington, N. C., Roy Tolbert and A. C. Hoover of HendersonviUe, N. C., Miss Jessie Lee Tolbert of Colum bia, and Miss Lucile Tolbert of Orangeburg. Newberry, S. C. •December 80, 1988 Hon. Burnet R. Maybank, Charleston, S. C. My Dear Mr. Maybank: The Newberry county legislative delegation has refused to appropriate ifunds to pay for advertising space in two neswpapers, which contemplate publishing editions celebrating your inauguration as Governor of South Carolina on January 17, 1939. The Newberry county legislative delegation wishes to advise that this refusal was made with the sincere belief that this was not a proper ap propriation of county funds and for no other reason. Assuring you of the co-operation of the Newberry county legislative delegation, I a m, Respectfully yours, R. Aubrey Harley, Secretary. Mr. and Mrs. Gardener Riley and family of Spartanburg recently vis ited relatives in the city. Miss Rosalind Werts was a recent visitor of her sister, Mrs. O. T. Scur ry Riley at Saluda. Miss Margie Summer of Florence was a visitor in the city last week. Oh for the man of faith! Coming along the Manning to Columbia high way—which passes through Sumter— one sees great digging, hauling, fill- 50c FLY Good-Will Flyers Return Visit Extra Added Attraction! “Crash” Miller and Wife in death-defying Motorcycle crash thru 3 inch Flaming board Wall Sat. and Sun. Today, Sat & Sun. Wells field, Newberry Free Admission Free Parking Reso. —to do your trading with home firms this year if it chokes you! And SiiiinHii 193 will be better for everybody I . .. • |