Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PAGE FOUfc > Ttnt WgWUgftRT gWf FRIDAY. APRIL 9, 1943 1 J' - ■ ' J L-lB^ 1218 College Street NEWBERRY, SOUTH CAROLINA O. F. ARMFIELD Editor end Publisher One Year 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. THEY MUST EAT DRAFT DODGERS Former president Herbert Hoover, outstanding leaders in agriculture and milk production, and the gover nors of many states have been point ing out the dangers involved in un dermining our farm output by poli cies which treat agriculture as a non-essential industry, in cotnparison wih so-called -war industries. It is self-evident that any policy which cripples food production, will wreck the whole war program. Men and women have to eat before they can produce or fight. We can’t keep our promises to our allies to furnish them food, and at the same time feed this nation, unless the fanmtr has the manpower and the equipment to raise the crops. A lost crop season or a lost milch cow involves a time element for re placement, of from one to three years. It is well that these facts are now being impressed on those responsible for future farm policies. THE PRICE OF FREEDOM Everybody wants freedon. “Free dom” is a popular word. But, as Eric Johnson recently pointed out in an article in Reader’s Digest enti tled “Your Stake in Capitalism,” you cannot have freedom unless you also have “capitalism. ’XHapitfalism is as unpopular as freedom is popular —ant therein lies the danger to freedom. It has long been good political strat egy to talk about freedom and damn capital in the same breath. Under such inconsistent reasoning our law makers have enacted much social legislation designed to enhance the freedom of th e individual by estab lishing wage and hour standards and other economic safeguards, while at the same time passing laws which destroy capital and threaten the very freedom they profess to uphold. Capital is accumulated savings which, put to productive use by pri vate citizens, supplies jobs and op portunities. When private citizens are prevented from accumulating capital and using it to create jobs, private jobs in free enterprise grad ually cease to exist. As Mr. Johnson observes: “A great many people—in polling booths and in legislative bodies—have thought that you can tax business just as much as you like and still have free enterprise and the ‘American way of life.’ You cannot. Just suppose that you taxed all new savings and all new profits and all new capital eut of private hands into the public treasury. What would you have left to be the creator of new jobs? Only the government. Only the to talitarian state. We stand at the solemn parting of the ways. Our business leaders and our labor lead ers want freedom. But what is the price of freedom? I say it is the capital with which to operate capi talism. The word is capitalism." Freedom will be lost unless we recognize the truth of Mr. Johnson's words. FLAGRANT HYPOCRISY We are writing a short letter, And every word is true, Don’t look away, draft-dodger, For it’s addressed to you. You feel at ease, in no danger, Back in the old home town. You cook up your pitiful story, So the draft board will turn you down. You never think of the real men Who leave their homes day by day. You just think of their girl friends That you can get while they are away. You sit home and read your paper, You jump up and say, “We’ll win.” Just where do you get that “we” stuff? This war will be won by men. J What do you think, draft dodger, That this free nation would do, If all the men were slackers And scared to fight like you? % We guess that’s all, Mr. Slacker, And your face should be awfully red, For America is no place for your kind And we mean every word we have said. So we’re closing this letter, draft dodger, Just remember what we say. Keep away from our girl friends, see? For we’re coming back some day. BIG SYNTHETIC RUBBER PLANT IN OPERATION Baton Rouge, La., March 30— The first government plant to man ufacture synthetic rubber from pe troleum since the war began went into operation today with an output sufficient to make 4,000,000 tires a vear for the nation’s mechanized forces. The 30,000-ton unit, rushed to completion since the Baruch report led the way for a wartime synthetic program to replace the Nation’s severed sources of natural rubber rolled into production in record time. Buildings constructed with a min imum of steel and other critical materials, throbbed with mixtures of liquids and gases which turned out raw rubber badly needed by the Army and Navy in fighting the Axis. Hailed by government experts on hand for the event as one of the “fastest construction jobs in the en tire war construction program,” the great chemical works began operat ing just about 20 weeks after de signs were mapped out on blue prints—-a tribute to American engi neering design and execution. KEY TO SECOND FRONT Anderson Independent The Balkans may provid* the site for the second front. Anyway, a number of intelligent people seem to think that is to be the next move. It is learned that the uncanny Swiss Minister at Sofia has asked all Swiss citizens in Bulgaria to send their women and children home. And this is very significant, be cause the Swiss intelligence service is the best in the world. r Long before the world believed there would be a war, the Swias had made all plans to cope with it. Another interesting report comes from Turkey. Tokyo, Ankara says, has ordered the 76 Japanese nationals residing in the Balkans to return home. The Japs too, are very uncanny when it cornea to ferreting out dan ger zones. They are the human vats who de sert sinking ships. These two items coupled together lend to the possibility that the Bal kans may be the invasion field for the allies. Now that Turkey is no longer fear ful of a German invasion, it is deem- worthy of thought that that country may be he entrance into the Balkans. Turkey has recently turned pro- Ally. Air chief Marshall Sir Sholto Douglas, commander in chief of the Allied air forces, recently had a long conference with Turkish offi cials and the Turkish General staff. That, too, is regarded as signifi cant. Ever since the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad, Turkey has been looking to the Allies. Premier Churchill visited Ankara following his visit to North Africa and there apparently cemented good relations with Turkey. ■ Turkey would supply the best pos sible starting point for the Allied invasion. And signs point to that end. At least, it is a situation that will bear watching. NYA BOYS AND GIRLS TRAIN FOR VITAL WAR WORK The Charleston NYA resident cen ter, the Florence NYA resident cen ter, and the West Columbia NYA resident center are training boys and girls each day for defense jobs, which are vital to the winning of the war. The West Columbia resident cen ter which serves this area has spe cific training in machine shop, weld ing, shipfitting, and radio. The training period for the most part is governed by individual apt itude and averages from ten weeks to three months. Work experience can be had at the Maxcy Gregg park shops in welding, machine shop and radio. The welding course has allied shipfitting instruction, radio exper ience is given both in radio construc tion and message transmission, both code and oral. The machine shop, which attracts the greatest number of youths, contains all types of ma chine shop equipment and is at pres ent working on a government order which is turned out by the trainees themselves. While receiving work training ex perience youth residing at the West Columbia resident center receive $10. 80 per month as well as board and work clothes. Further information relative to NYA training may be secured from the nearest United States employ ment office or by cortnmunkating with Mrs. Mamie S. Summer, NYA representative, Newberry. The Spectator Public ownership of electric utili ties, which is being promoted ty the gM*t tax-exempt FJederally-owned power projects such as Booneville, TVA, and others in all parts of the country, is going to be a snare and a delusion to many unsuspecting communities. The minute a privately-owned elec tric company is taken over as a gov ernment or municipal project, it is no longer subject to the regulatory or tax laws which apply to all pri vately-owned electric companies. Taxable assets of that community are removed from the tax rolls with resulting tax loss to city, county, state and federal governments, which must be made up by other taxpayers. The Oregon legislature recently moved to tax publicly-owned utilities. The howl that went up from the municipal plants was ridiculous. The manager of the principal muni cipal plant in the state wailed that such a measure would cause an in crease in his rates of 20 per cent .al though he would still enjoy total ex emption from all federal taxes. What line of business couldn’t cut rates if they were exempt from state and federal taxes? Tax-exempt para sites add to the load of every other overburdened taxpayer. If public ownership (socialism) can compete with private enterprise on a basis of equality, why does it so strenuously object to pairing its just share of the cost of government, the same as any other American cit izen or industry? The settlement of the world after the war is occupying so much atten tion that we don’t seem to be able to settle down to the war itself. The big problem, and the immediate problem, is to win the war. Instead of concentrating our enAgies on this we are running for a fourth term, or fighting a fourth term, or bally- hooing for social reform—or doing something else that divides our time, our sympathies and our energy. It would be very fine if one might be bom into the world at govern ment expense, surrounded by hospi tal and medical attendants at federal expense; and it would be splendid if we might be fed and clothed at fed eral expense; and sent to a kinder- r$arden, a primary school, a high school, a college, a professional school—at federal expense; and then if we might be set up in business with money provided by the federal government, and guaranteed against failure or loss; if our food and cloth ing through life might be assured by the federal government; and at the close of this earthly pilgrimage we might be laid away in funeral pomp—in a big cemetery with an imposing monument—at federal ex pense; and if we might be able to die an easy mmd, knowing that all oud frief>ds. families and kindred will be cared for—at federal expense. Now wouldn’t that be just too fine for anything? Strange how won- drously wise we have become! The teachings of both experience and the Scripture seem to tell us “That man shall not live by bread alone”; and that by the sweat of a man’s brow shall h e eat. There is an illustration in The Book which tells us about the men who were given the talents. They were expected to use those talents and to be thrifty, enterprising, up- and-doing. We now are talking a so cial philosophy of making life easy for everybody. There will be no ambitious striving, no midnight oil in earnest thought and study over the problems of life. There will be no more problems in life: everything will be safe and secure. And all th e virtue developed through the obli gation to meet competition & to pro vide for he future, will be no more. Life is to be one sweet song and everybody will be carefree and hap py- What kind of country would this coddling develop? I do not insist that the Chinese are right in worshiping their ancestors; or that all virtue lived and died in the years that are gone; but I do ask seriously whether we men of America today; or whether we men of South Carolina today, have as much real manhood, the same tough moral fiber, as that of our grand fathers. I ask you to ponder this. Whatever distinguished them above us was due to their triumph over bard conditions. Life was simple and hard; it was full of work and worry; but it made a great people. This war may help us in proportion to the necessity to simplify our mode of living, to deny ourselves many of the things we have enjoyed. suffering, self denial, trial, aneuisfr :he Legislature would do. well not Life to us is a great discipline and we become successful as we over- •come difficulties. If our difficul ties are removed we shall not even have the training which makes real tekmhood. You observe that the Army sends men on long hikes. It is trying to toughen them; most men are too 0>tt for the rigors of military ser vice. Life is like that; we need the trials an ddifficulties, the hardships and suffering to develop a rounded character. All this social planning .from the cradle to the grave, may make us a standardized, soft people; but it will not produce leaders. A country needs leaders, a state, a county, a town, even a small community, needs lead ers; but we need also men who can follow the leaders and make their leadership effective. If we raise our Nation in a soft cradle we shall never be able to walk. To those who advocate the soft and easy life which all the coddling would bring about, it must seem strange that the Great Jehovah sent his Son into the world to suffer and die to redeerm humanity, instead of admitting humanity to salvation by a miracle of the moment. The Di vine plan with us consists of work, and death. But some of our social planners do not think that this Di vine plan is as good as making everything easy for everybody. An article in the esteemed Darling ton News aqd Press says that Or ganized Business, Incorporated, has joined the Power Companies in fighting the Santee-Cooper. The er ror is in associating us with the Power Companies; no Power Com pany has even insinuated that it was opposed to the grandiloquent claims of the Santee-Cooper, Magnified. Or ganized Business is opposing the plan of Santee-Cooper aggrandizement en tirely as ^/matter of State citizen ship. I have very friendly regard for the Columbia Power management and count some friends on the San- tee-Cooper, too, notably that fine, public-spirited and chivalrous gen tleman, James H. Hammond. Indeed I have spoken with great apprecia tion of the chief sponsor of the San- tee-Coper, Colossalized. But the present proposed merger does not commend itself; the more I look into it the more objectionable it appears. The Santee-Cooper appears to us as something with so many possibilities of harmfulness that any member of Shall we retire or pension Judges? That proposal—and the proposal to retire teachers—comes up frequently. Without going into the merit of either proposal, we have a strict con stitutional prohibition against it. As to the justices of the Supreme Court and the Judges of the Circuit Courts, their terms are fixed by the Consti tution. That, of course, could be amended, if the people are willing; as to both the judiciary and the teach ers, there is another constituional provision,—that forbidding pensions except for military and naval ser vice . The amendment which permits the Welfare Department to operate does not cover judges and teachers. It provides for help for needy chil dren, the blind, and others, but lim its the aid to thirty dollars a month. Furthermore, the Constitution ex pressly forbids the General Assembly to “retire any officer or pay or part pay.” I called attention once before, that in amending the Constitution the ratifying Act of the General Assem bly excludes even Confederate veter ans from receiving pensions. This was an oversight, of course, but that is what the record shows. Only *2“ does a room with Cm. U S- *«• ° H ' ONI COAT COVERS WAUPAMR, painted walls, wallboard, basement walls. APPLIES EASILY with a wide brush or with the Kem-Tone Roller-Koater. DRIES IN ONE HOUR ;.; room furnish ings may be replaced immediately. MIXES WITH WATER ... no turpentine or solvent thinners needed. WASHES EASILY- with ordinary wall cleaners. ONE GALLON DOES THE AVERAGE ROOM. $ GALLON VI PASTE FORM 98* A QUART 1 gal. Kem-Tone paste makes 1% gals. Kem-Tone finish. Ready-to-use—only $1.98 per gal. IVs. L IT ONI tust roll Keni- J J T one right over r your wall* . quickly- With the K« m I Tone R°' 1et ‘ Koater. 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