Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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1218 College Street NEWBERRY, SOUTH CAROLINA O. F. ARMFIELD Editor and Publisher One Yeur One Dollar Published Every Friday In The Year Entered as second-class matter December 6, 1937, at the postoffice at Newberry. South Carolina, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. A LIVING SYMBOL Families or parents who have men in military service have something to be thankful for that they probably do not fully appreciate as yet. Our military forces enjoy the most tech nically perfect, the most humane med ical care ever conceived. The best men from the ranks of medicine are in uniform. An accident that happened recent ly aboard a battleship “somewhere in the Pacific” may not prove un usual. An enlisted man was abrupt ly stricken with acute appendicitis. After a successful emergency opera tion in the ship’s surgery, he found himself attended by his family doc tor from his home town. The feeling of confidence and reassurance that flowed into the heart of the patient can well be imagined! Such inci dents by repetition will become one of the biggest morale boosters both on the home front and the military front. The doctor is a vital connecting link between the service men and the country for which they fight. And he takes far more into the Army with him than the skills of his profession. He takes with him the cream of American character, instilled in him through years of study in our cul tural and medical institutions. He is the best that our way of life can produce. He is a living smybol to the men at the front of the principles of integrity and decency that we are fighting to save. WHY SUCH A POLICY? Regulation of business has grown so voluminous that it may soon be necessary to regulate the regulators. It is becoming a threat to expanding production in the United States. Countless examples could be cited. One of the latest is the proposal of the Security and Exchange Com mission for proxy rules changes in corporation management, publication of salaries in addition to the rules highest as at present, publication of pensions and a new method of pre paring annua! reports which it is feared would principally promote controversy and disagreement rather than the interest of the stockhold ers. If some corporations are making unsatisfactory reports, the Commis- 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 deHver to your farm Strother C. Paysinger AGENT SINCLAIR REFINING COMPANY From where I sit.. .> Joe Marsh ^ Ed Carey, our fire chief, came Stompin’ into the printin’ office last week, madder’n a hornet. “Say!” he yells. “If I could get ■ay hands on that fellow Goebbels, I'd stick a fire hose in his mouth and turn on the pressure,” Ed shouts, poundin’ my desk. “Do you know what he’s puttin’ on the German short-wave propaganda to America NOW? He’s tellin’ folks that American army camps are full of drunkenness! Can you beat it?” “Calm yourself, Ed,” says I. “Nobody’s going to believe what Goebbels tells ’em.” < “But don’t you see? He’s puttin’ this bare-faced lie on the air to stir up trouble.” “Pretty stupid ^fc-opaganda, I’d say. Pretty silly, even for the Nazis,” says I. “How so?” says Ed. “There’s people in this country that want beer taken out of the camps. That sure is going to hurt army morale. And this lie certainly is fuel for their fire.” “Not if I know Americans,’' I says. “And the Nazis don’t know us. People realize that if Goebbels wants beer taken away from our soldiers—there must be a reason. The enemy won’t stop anything that’s hurting our army. They’ll try to stop whatever’s helping it.” “Say! That’s true, ain’t it?” Ed began to grin. “Of course it’s true—and rea sonable people can’t help but see it. So instead of makin’ trouble— like they hope—they’re just con firmin’ what the Secretary of War and the other Army leaders be lieve—that among the other good wholesome things a fighting man can get at the canteen in camp— America should include beer.”' From where I sit—I can guess why Goebbels wants beer out of the camps. The Nazis would a heap rather face an army that already lost its rights than one that was fighting for freedom it could touch and taste and feel every day ... Wouldn’t you? sion can correct such cases without disrupting the long established and satisfactory business practices of the great majority of corporations, at a time when tell public and (private agencies should be straining them selves to smoth out production prob lems, rather than complicate tnem. The seriousness of the situation at a critical time like this, cannot be over-erifphasized. Executives already swamped with their endeavors to meet war production demands should not be needlessly compelled to divert their energies to meet new red tape regulations, largely to satisfy the appetite of growing bureaucracy for a constantly increasing hold on the operation of private business. BUILT BY INDIVIDUALS The electric light and power in dustry has been continually among the fastest growing of all forms of enterprise. This statistical fact, dug up by the Brokings Institution, niust come as a shock to those who have taken the claims of the power poli ticians at face value. In the 60 years of its existence, the electric industry has revolution ized human existence. Prior to 1900 it supplied lights. After the turn of th e century, it entered full stride, bringing both light and power to fac tory and home. By 1914, the fac tories of this country had 3,886,000 horsepower of motors driven by pur chased electricity. When World War II began in 1939, our private electric utilities were supplying 29,888,000 horsepower to our factories aside from a lighting service to American homes without counterpart anywhere in the world. We now use nearly two billion kilowatt-hours per year of power developed for American con sumers by the private electric utility industry. This is the answer of the power industry to those who claim it has failed in its trust. Its whole history has been one of efficient, continuous expansion which demonstrates. Its expansion which demonstrates more powerfully than words can express, the deeds that can be accomplished when th e spirit & pioneering instinct of men are not dominated by gov ernment. We would be a beaten na tion today if the advocates of social ized industry had accomplished their aims. This is not an opinion. It is a fact, not even controverted by the magnificent performance of socializ ed Russia in stopping the German war machine; most of the technical achievements behind Russia — and Germany for that matter—were the creation of individual effort, not of socialized government. Our certainty of winning the war is increasing by the hour. Why? Because individual effort is still the guiding light in our nation. Like our Flying Fortresses, the electric in dustry is a product of individual ef fort. Both will improve with time even more if we leave their future in the hands of truly free men such as those who created them. PLAYING FOR KEEPS Government officials are reluctant to being financing the war on a wholly compulsory basis. Thlat means the grimmest of control over .the everyday affairs of the private citi zen. America’s bankers deserve much of the credit for delaying such con trol by voluntary war financing ef forts. And this is not all the banks have done. Secretary of the Treasury Morgen- thau expressed appreciation for the part the banks are playing in tbe war, in no uncertain terms: “In this voluntary program the bankers of America have stood in the forefront. They have given the equivalent of 25,000 full-time 'employes to the sale and promotion of War Bonds, and 86 per cent of the sales made have been through the banks. They have been fighting in the front lines of our battle on the home front by car rying out the restrictions ... on con sumer credit, by keeping a careful watch on all applications for non-es sential loans, and by helping to freeze foreign funds which the enemy might hlave used to spy upon our war effort, to sabotage our production, or to demoralize our people. They have given their time and energy to this effort without thought of any com pensation except the knowledge that they were helping their country in its time of greatest need.” The average banker, like the aver age business man, farmer or worker, knows that we have one great thing to save out of the untold suffering and tragedy now being endured by the world—the right of the indivi dual to start in again from scratch to paddle his own canoe. Liberty, economic and political, once lost eith er by military defeat or internal dis cord, would end that opportunity. INDIAN SOLDIERS RATE AMONG BEST ySARS BUY WAR BONDS Redskins Love Practice With Bayo net, Are Good Shots, Excellent Scouts A U. S. Army Camp, Nov. 21.— “The Indian is the best damn soldier in the army,” whipped out Major Leo Gilstrap. Major Gilstrap knows Indians. He fought beside Indians in the last war, coached them in football at Oklahoma Military academy during the peace ye- rs, and is “Big Chief” to 2,000 of them right now. Some of the officers at this post assert that Secretary of War Stim- son himself would vote the same way. They recall that Stimson was driving through the camp when his eye was caught by the feline grace and agility of an instructor in bayo net practice. “Stop the car,’’ ordered the sec retary. He watched in silence while the swift-moving bafonet flashed in the sun. “I want to meet that in structor,” he said. Stimson then complimented Ser geant Chauncey Matlock as “the finest instructor in bayonet prac tice I have ever seen”—an accolade to a full-blooded Indian who was a star football player and English scholar at Oklahoma college. “The Indians love to use that bayonet,” says Major Gilstrap, “and that probably explains why they are the best bayonet fighters.” In deed, they like the shining steel blades so well that it is a terrific job to make them remember that rifles carry bullets as well as bayonets. Major Gilstrap’s favorite example of over-use of the bayonet is that of an Indian named Hopocantubbe who served under Gilstrap in the last war. Hopocantubbe was out scouting in no man’s land when he flushed a big Prussian in a shell hole. Instead of drilling him with a bullet, Hopocan tubbe chased the Prussian for 600 yards right down the middle of no man’s land and into a dugout. No shots were fired even then, but only one came out, and it wasn’t the Prus sian. Out of more than 2,000 Indians at this post, the records show that the only ones who have not risen above the rank of private are a few “twen ty-eight-day - soldiers.” A twenty eight-day soldier is one Who is good for twenty-eight days and bad for the three days after pay day.’ “The Indians make such fine sol diers,” says Gilstrap, “that they soon become non-commissioned or regular officers. We have Indian officers in all branches and they rank all the way up to lieutenant colonel”. The most famous Indian fighter of the war so far is Major General Clarence L. Tinker, commander of "the Hawaiian army aviation forces, who was .killed in the battle of Midway. Indians may prefer to use the bayonet, but it is a fact also that they are the best rifle shots in their division. About half of them have an expert’s rating, and most of them are particularly adept at long range rifle shooting. “At scouting and patrol work,” Gilstrap adds, “the Indian stands out like a sore thumb. During recent combat maneuvers, one Indian single- handed captured a tank and its crew; another Indian came back with eigh ty-seven ‘scalps’, or idenifying arm bands”. The sense perception of many In dians is so acute that they can spot a snake by sound or smell before they can see it. They have an un canny faculty at weaseling over any kind of terrain at night and there is a saying that “the only Indian Who can’t find his way back to his own lines is a dead Indian.” Physically, most Indians have the qualifications for a perfect soldier. Their long, sleek, muscles are built for endurance. Some Indians at this post have been known to come in from a twenty-five mile hike, and then walk two or three miles to a.U. S. O. hut to a dance. Not only is the Indian well-nigh indefatigable, but he also has bet ter muscular coordination than any other race. “I coached athletics for fifteen years and I never saw an Indian who lacked that' rhythm, timing, coordination that golfers like to call ‘form’,” Gilstrap says. The real secret which makes the Indian such an outstanding soldier, in Gilstrap’s view, is his “enthu siasm for fighting”. Sergeant Echo- hawk, for example, a 126-pound Pawnee, is a judo expert who, in a rough and tumble battle, could snap the back of an opponent twice his size. Echohawk daily practices taking knives and clubs away from “enemies” with the same fervor that Hoppe practices billiard masses. This fighting spirit is attested by many semi-apocryphal tales. One concerns a portly Indian who tried to join the army, and, told by the recruiting officer he was too fat to qualify, tartly replied, “don’t want to run. Want to fight.” The great glasSic on the Indian’s fighting attitude, however, was made twenty-five years ago by John Rat, a Cherokee. When he came home from France in the last war, he was asked by his friends how he liked the army. His answer is still echoing in this war, “too much salute not enough shoot.” As a matter of fact, the Indian- talk business of “me-ketchum”, “me strong silent man”, is heard no more. Once their might have been Indians like the Cherokee soldier who saluted his colonel in the morning, but re fused to do so in the afternoon be cause, a® the Cherokee put it: “Back where I live, speak to men in morn ing. No more that day.” Some fifty different tribes are represented among the 2,000 Indians at this post. Many are college grad uates, and the number Who haven’t at least a high school education are few. As an example of the people who seem to persist in using “ugh” and one-syllable words qn their first conversational approach to an Indian, they tell the story here of a feminine radio program arranger, who asked tee Indians to sing their native songs, and wanted informational background about their songs so she could intro duce them intelligently to her listen ing audience. The task of informing the young lady fell to the bayonet specialist, Sergeant Matlock, who, with his sombr e face and a couple of football scars on his skull, was convincing evidence to the young woman that she was talking to an Indian .and no foolig. Timidly she outlined with tv^o-syllable words and sign language gestures that she’d like him to ex plain the background of his native songs. “Madam,” said Sergeant Matlock, in the mellifluous Oklahoma tone that is a combination of soft South ern and slow Western drawl, “the easiest way for me to explain our Indian songs is to tell you they are similar to a series of progressions in Chaucer’s Cantebury Tales”, and he then proceeded to quote examples from the prologue while the young lady’s chin dropped so low it was scratching on her brooch pin. ~ G. H.^UFF George Hamp Ruff, 66, died early Thursday afternoon at the home of his brother C. L. Buff. Mr. Ruff was a native of the St. Phillips section of the county and was a member of St. Phillips Luth eran church. Funeral services were held Friday afternoon from St. Phillips Lutheran church at 4:30 o’claek by the Rev. J. E. Ruff. Interment followed in tho church cemetery. Surviving are a sister, M*s. W. L. Kibler; two brothers, H. H. Ruff and C. L. Ruff of Newberry; a number of nieces and nephews. RETURNS HOME FROM HOSPITAL Mrs. W. Roy Anderson, who has been a patient in the Columbia hos pital for about four weeks, returned to her home in Newberry’last Friday, and is reported to be doing nicely. The Question of Your FOOD BllL Is of Growing Importance Many items are high and many are scarce, so now, more than ever you should “tie” to a dependable home grocer such as this store. We’ll do our best to see you through. MM Carnation or Pet 3 large 25c Treet Armours 35c Cranberries lb 17 l/2 c Cocoanuts Large fresh 20c In Our Market you’ll find Oysters 1 Poultry Meats CONDENSED MILK 15c Soda Crackers lb 10c Lemon PIE FILLING 5c DESSERT 3 plots 20c NOODLES 3 pks 25c Baking Powders 12 ozs 23c PRUNES 2 pound box 29c SOAP 4 bars 21c PIMIENTOS 15c CORNFLAKES 5c MAYONNAISE pint 29c CRISCO, 3 lb can 73c WAX PAPER 25c 33 BLEACH 15c GRAPE JUICE pints 18c LETTUCE 13c CLARENCE I. SUMMER, he.