Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1942 The Newberry sow PAGE FIVE The Spectator By SPECTATOR Any discussion of farming brings up the very pressing and serious mat ter of farm-labor. The army, the navy, the marine and air forces have appealed powerfully to the martial ardor of beys on the farms; and the draft has taken even more. Then, again, the high wages in industry have drawn thousands from the soil to the dollar-an-hour and other jobs. The farmer can’t get the labor for his fields, nor can he pay wages in competition with industry. And all the time, while the farmer is strug gling to make a crop, and while the world calls on him to feed every body, he finds himself beset by lack of fertilizer, lack of labor, lack of other essentials; and what little he can get of anything, is priced on the cost-plus of a manufacturer, which in turn is based on high base pa_y, with time and a half and double time, and a lot of loafing thrown in, but added to the cost to the farmer. Many arms are being run by men single-handed, men over fifty years of age—some over sixty. You may recall that sturdy Newberry farmer, who, at sixty eight, does all his work and tended fifty acres, including fourteen acres of coton. But how many like him have we, in South Carolina ? is to tan camp, for the great throng from all the states, from Maine Florida, with Texas, Missouri, Illi nois, and others, numerically strong in representation. One meets a Charlestonian once in a while, though he appears lost in the shuffle. And “shuffle” is right, because the streets, stores, buses, theatres, restaurants, hotels, are all crowded. As to wheth er the new-comers have crowded the Charlestonians out of Sunday schools and churches I have not heard. A visit to Charleston now suggests the good old days of pioneering. For fifteen miles out of the City Imits are camps, house-trailers, houses, tents^hacks—and about every other type of habitation yet fabricated or conceived by man. How many thou sands live in all the improvised or quickly-built structures I don’t know, but North Charleston has become a City, though the stream of humani ty in the old City itself seems to move back and forth like the restless tides of the sea. Instead of hearing the soft voice so characteristic of the coastal area,one hears the speech, the tone, the accent of a cosmopoli- Our South Carolina Commissioner of Labor, Mr. Rhett Harley, gave out some interesting figures on the ad vance in prices of food in our State within recent months—41 per cent advance in 21 months, to be exact. The items of food mentioned are: eggs, butter, fresh fish, fresh beans, lettuce, prunes, lard, peanut butter, molases, fresh spinach, mild cheese, oranges, onions, wheat flour, corn meal, vanilla cookies, chuck roast, veal cutlets, bacon, roasting chickens, lamb chops, canned peaches. The following were cheaper: sugar, can ned peas, salt pork, com flakes. Every item cited by Commissioner Harley could be produced within this State. However, it is likely that nearly all the items are brought from other states. Beginning with eggs, which advanced 40 per cent in four months: Every country store and every small town store has eggs which come from the neighboring farms. Many a town and some city residents buy their eggs from thrif ty farm-wives of the community. But when you think of nearly two million people the egg market must be sup ported by hundreds of thousands of dozens of eggs from other states, Equally true is that of pork products. We don’t .pretend to be a lard-pro ducing State, though our several packing plants may sunoly a consid erable quantity. We bring in most of the lard, as well as vegetable oils. Butter is brought from the dairy To Our Customers Beginning Monday, November 9th, we will close our stores at 6 o’clock p. m., daily except Saturday. Satur days we will close at 9:30 p. m. R. M. Lominack Hardware Frank Lominack’s Hdw’e If You Want To Be Sure of Real Comfort This Winter PHONE 118 Today for a Supply of Good Coal You wouldn’t harbor the thought of intentionally bringing our troops and fighting machine transpor tation to a halt! Then don’t thoughtlessly risk im pending them by delaying your ordering of coal for winter heating! By buying now, you free the rails for war use. By waiting you slow down Victory! We stand ready to serve] our country by serving you at once! Southern Cotton Oil Co. ing states. I recall that during my residence in Anderson, years ago most of the butter sold in the stores there was made on the adjacent farms. Throughout the State, how ever, the butter consumed by our people is brought from other states Fresh fish plays a small part in the diet of our people. Probably sev enty-five per cent of our families never buy fish. Perhaps Mr. Har ley hasn’t the correct figures on the cost of fresh fish in South Carolina If he would take into consideration what a fish costs a townsman, when he spends a day at the lake, he would find that fish can be the most expensive item served to a hungry people. Seriously, I am told that fishing boats don’t even put put from some coastal points because the fishermen are either in the fighting services or have become carpenters on Government contracts at a dollar-an-hour. Fresh beans had jumped up 94 per cent since June. Some of the items cited by Mr, Harley may not solve the problem of subsistence for us, as peanut but ter, prunes, vanilla cookies and on ions. Any man who is willing to eat onions should pay well for them. The real staples didn’t advance so much —wheat flour 6 per cent; chuck roast 4 per cent; veal cutlets up '3 per cent; bacon up 7 per cent; roast ing chickens up 6 per cent. What sort of chicken is a roasting chick en? Surely our Charleston Harley isn’t pulling our leg. Fried chicken baked chicken, stewed chicken, chick en pie—all that we’ve known—and done—from our youth,up; but roast ing chicken ? I notice that Mr. Harley didn’t say anything about “roas’n ears”, or mutton corn, sweet com, sugar corn —just roasting chicken! Nor has he spoken of groundnuts, ground-peas, peanuts, goobers and pindara—just peanut-butter. Perhaps I told my audience about an experience I had with peanut butter. Years ago, in Peru, one of the side-lines I had was the 'respon sibility for feeding 2,400 hungry children at midday and 1,000 at breakfast. They had been given a little milk and a plain roll. So I or dered 4 tons of peanut butter from the United States, to be used with their rolls. They refused to eat pea nut butter, declaring it to be monkey food, and, therefore, unfit for even hungry children, fed as a Govern ment charity! What impresses me is that our people pay the high prices indicated,^ and are even bringing tanks of milk to some of our cities from other states, though every article could be produced here on a scale sufficient for all our needs, with a considera ble surplus for sale out of the State. There is something wrong with us South Carolinians. Why can’t we produce all those things at a profit? I know we can produce all that we’ve talked about, and many other things, too; but we all-too-freuqently find that we produce at a loss. Why? If other states can produce those things at a profit why can’t we do so? Just off-hand,consider the problem of dairying. With our mild climate we ought to be a second little Holland or Denmark—that is before the Ger mans went there. We haven’t the pastures, but we could have them; and we have thousands of acres of land which could be developed as .pastures. It might require lime, but we have lime. The fault is in our selves, not in our land. Whenever we are willing to organize our farm operations on a basis of 365 days a year, with all the mastery of detail necessary to operate at a profit, we shall succeed as others succeed. Naturally I do not advocate work in the field on Sundays, but stock has to be fed every day. The new Lieutenant Governor, Ransome Williams, has already made a good start. He declares his op position to bob-tailed bills and will not sign them except in an emerg ency. That is the attitude of Speaker Blatt, also. Now, if the new Governor, Olin D. Johnston, would go just a step further and de clare plainly that he will not sign ANY bob-tailed bill, the State would be still happier. There is no use in blinking the facts; the people of the State are distrustful of devices which are mere substerfuges. The bob-tailing of a bill suggests to the average cit izen some sort of evasion which vir tually amounts to trickery. The Constitution iprovides a plan for the introduction and considera tion of bills in the General Assembly. The citizens should know what is be ing considered; and surely the other members of the Legislature should kuow what is being voted on by them. You citizens just consider this: a member of the House intro duces a bill to regulate something in his county. No one pays any atten tion to the local bill, for under a very bad practice which obtains in our General Assembly the Legisla tive Delegation from a County may introduce any sort of measure so long as it affects only its County The measure passes, with the con sent of the other members, and is usually signed by the Governor. But at the last minute, the purely local measure, having been read as a local mesure; and having been voted on as a local measure, has something added to it. Some member adds some thing entirely new and radically different; something of State-wide application, and the bill, now bob tailed, passes. When it is too late; or when all the Acts are published, there appears a State-wide law which took most of the Legislators by surprise, well as the public, of course. The public had no chance to be heard; or to protest the bill; and the legislators were caught asleep at the switch. Why should there be any such practice as bob-tailing of bills? Precisely because the element of surprise motivates it. Somebody puts something through which might meet with opposition, in the usual, or regular processes. The Constitution is so precise IN STEP WITH JOHNNY DOUGHBOY Firms Are Warned To Replace Young Men Workers Pointing out that occupational de ferments are temporary, selective service officials this week warned employers to investigate the select ive service classification of all men on their pay rolls who are between the ages of 20 and 45 and to main tain orderly programs for replace ment of those who are physically fit for the armed forces. Every employer was advised to make a complete analysis of his manpower. Occupational deferments cannot exceed six months and in most cases they are for 30, 60, or 90 days. It was explained that the funda mental purpose of every occupation al deferment is to allow an employer to train a replacement. Only in a rare instance can an employer expect temporary deferment to be for more than six months. “Don’t ask deferment for any man who can be replaced by training another person not likely to be eligi ble soon for service in the armed forces,” officials said. “Make an inventory, request de ferment for any man whose immed iate going into the armed forces would retard production of vital war materials or other services essential to the war effort and who is needed maintain national health, safety, and interest.” Local selective service boards are now reclassifying 3-A registjrtants who have collateral dependents. The first groups of married men in this group will be called up, most likely, in December., SCHOOL CARRIES TO MILEAGE CUT Counties Asked to Revise Schedules No New Buses Available; Atlanta, October 26th. — School children may have to walk more because school buses have got to re- duse thier mileage in order to retain their certificates of war necessity. This was the announcement that came today from a conference here of educational officials of five South- era States with federal officials, Each county in the state will be asked to revise bus schedules so that all over laping of routes will be eliminated. The rerouting may force some studtnts who have been accus- tome to hording the bus in front of thier homes to walk short distances to catch a bus. The curtailment plans worked out by the counties will be submitted to state achool superintendents for review before being passed on to fed eral authorities. Other steps recommended to aid in conserving buses were careful training programs for drivers and rigid maintenance and inspection services. Dr. E. L. Morphet and Dr. A. R. Meadows, represihnatatlvlfes (ofi the United States office of education, said few, if any, new buses would be available for the duration because the limited stock of chasses must be ra tioned to all commercial users throughout the country. South Carolina was represented by S. P. Clemons, of Columbia; Flor ida by J. T. Graham, of Tallahassee. Alabama by J. Pope Baird, of Mont gomery, Tennessee by I. P. Wright and W. B. Shoulders, of Nashville, a.id Georgia by State School Super- tendent M. D. Collins. about the method of introducing bills, and enacting them, that the practice of bob-tailing should not be countenanced for a moment. $4tij000 APPROVED FOR NEGRO CENTER A federal Works administration allotment of $46,000 for construc tion of a negro recreation center at Charleston ha s been recommended by the federal works agency, Mayor Henry W. Lockwood was adviged yesterday. The mayor has been working on the project several months, and said the city would donate enough land on Fraser field for the building. The land will be revert to the city after the center is no longer needed for the armed forces, he said. GOVERNOR OPPOSES LAW Columbia, Oct. 27.—Governor R. M. Jefferies firmly adheres to the traditional South Carolina position on divorce. Expressing himself on the subject the chief executive said: “I’m opposed to a law allowing divorce. A divorce law increases di vorces. A man gets up out of sorts: the coffee is cold; whereupon he rushes up the street and intitutes divorce proceedings. “But if he knows there is no di vorce law, he composes himself and life gees on merrly as before.” 13 CARRIERS BEING BUILT Boston, Oct. 27.—Captain Leland P. Lovette, director of public rela tions for the navy, said today that the United States had 13 big air craft carriers under construction, de signed to “carry the fight to the enemy.” He told the advertising club of Boston that carriers were one of the most important weapons of offensive action on the seven fronts on which the United States is engaged. ★ ★ What you fituf, With WAR BONDS ★ ★ A pelorus, used by the Navy, is a device which fits over the surface of a compass to enable the operator to take bearings on distant objects. It has split hair sights, has been in use for many years approximately $125. and costs IGNORANCE OR SUPPRESSION? Of the astounding aspects of the agitation by the Northern liberalites and Democrats or repeal of the poll tax qualification for voting is their ignorance of the facts in the case— or, if it be not ignorance, it is wilful suppression of facts. For instance, they never refer to the regitration laws and their administrators in South Carolina. They do not know that of 75,000 negroes who pay poll taxes relatively few apply for regis tration certificates. In legal proceed ings, in a case from Berkeley county, is the recorded fact that four or five years ago in that county was but one negro qualified elector, yet hundreds of negroes in that county pay poll taxes year after year. In the coun ty’s population, the negroes are a large majority.!—News & Courier. A Quick Photo -Finishing Service That’s Priced Right Roll of 6 or 8 exp. rolls developed ^ and printed on “Velox” . . . Candid Rolls Blown up SOc You save time and money, you get better prints. Give us a trial with your next roll. Just Leave Your Films at LOMINICK'S DRUG STORE Finishing by Pearson’s Photo, Laurens, S. C. These instruments are essential equipment to every American ship which comes out of the shipyards. With the scores of ships now being completed each month, we need many of these instruments. Your purchase of War Bonds and Stamps will help pay for them. Invest at least ten percent of your income ev ery payday in these interest bear ing Government securities. U. S. Treasury Department Sinclair Greases save farmers money over a season because they last so long. They help prevent costly breakdowns because they lubricate moving parts safely. You play safe and save money when you use Sinclair Greases Let me deliver to your farm Strother C. Paysinger AGENT SINCLAIR REFINING COMPANY