University of South Carolina Libraries
BUY BONDS FOR CHRISTMAS THE NEWBERRY SUN FRIDAY, DECEMBER 24, 1943 Holiday Notice/ Offices in the County Court House will be closed on the following dates, pn account of the holidays: . FRIDAY, DEC. 24 i£'i# SATURDAY, DEC. 25 and SATURDAY, Jan. 1, 1944 1943 Tax Notice After the close of business on December 31, 1942, a 1 per ct. Penalty will be added to all unpaid 1943 State and County taxes. J. RAY DAWKINS COUNTY TREASURER THE SPECTATOR Whom does the Spectator repre sent? My esteemed friend of the years, Mr. Fitzhugh McMaster, edi torializing in The News and Herald (Winnsboro), under the flattering heading “No Fool, He”, says the Spectator’s interests are those of or ganized business, other things being equal. Well, let us accept that—so what? Spectator is the opinion of its author. He bows and scrapes to no body. Never has Spectator advocat ed selfish advantage for any inter est; never has it opposed a laudable plan, unless on constitutional ground, or because the State should not un dertake it for reason of principle or sound financing; never has Spectator failed to speak vigorously for the farming interests; never has Spec tator failed to speak for the genera! public interest if a special interest stood in conflict. - Since the matter of Organized Business has been brought up, 1 make the same point for it. Organized Business really fights for the man or enterprise which is being unjustly attacked. Some times Organized Business has not only defended or advocated meas ures for the general public, but has done so in opposition to a group of very powerful members. I could tell Mr. McMaster all about that. Is it not a fact that through Spec tator and over he radio I have al ways written and spoken for the farmer. Mr. McMaster must know that. It so happens that nobody has eve* suggested subjects for me to tall about or write about. Speaking and writing what I think may not be ir harmony with some of my friends but I shall continue to do both with complete independence, with proper regard for the dignity of the radic and the press. What' really irritates my friend (and he is a true man) is that he embraces the New- Deal, whereas I am not always quite as enthusiastic as he is over the messianic charac ter or mission or ministry of the gentlemen of the White House, who masquerades as a Democrat, though doing violence to all Southern Dem ocrats, except the few whose charity covers a multitude of sins. We have not a Democratic party in power, but a conglomerate aggre gation of New Dealers, Republicans, Time-servers, Job-seekers, and Syco phants. Even two Cabinet officers are well-known Republicans. _ If all the New Dealers were as high-minded as Mr. McMaster, as unselfish and unseeking, the Not oel. Unfortunately the New Dea s so practical that it must be judg ad on the basis of practicality. I has no spiritual concept or force; i ‘alks of stuff for tse body and play, ball with anybody who crawls ove: the fence. CHRRISTMAS is in the air. No thing quite so distinguishes thr country a s the thrill of the Christ mas season which begins about th< first of December. All is aglow, atingle, and Santa Claus greets m in person and in spirit. There is a great ado about buy ing. It all simmers down to thought fulness for others. First, of course come the little fellows, with the candy, cake, fruit, toys—and what not. Then the others. • No one need be reminded that thr Spirit of Christmas is what counts for it in indeed, a gift of the spirit. The very word “CHRISTMAS” means a celebration of the Christ There was the babe of Bethlehem who became the man Jesus. Jesus was a common name, as John is with us. My Spanish friends name streets Jesus, Maria, Jesus Maria, Espiritu Santo, Todos Los Santos, Los Apostolos, La Virgen, Dios To- dopodoroso, Santa Cruz, Los Afligi- dos, and son on. WE have a feeling that the common use of such words is sacriligeous. In conversation, even without ex citement, you man hear a Spaniard say, Jesus, Jesus Maria, Dios Mio. I think we might do well to dis tinguish between Jesus and the Christ. Christmas is not in honor of Jesus, but of the Christ, signify ing the Saviour, the Mesiah, The Lamb of God, The Redeemer, The Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, Immanuel, or God with us. For the Christ who came in lowliness; and who was despised and rejected of men, wag of the Triune Godhead, and lived before the creation of the world. It is beyond our range of un derstanding that the Son of God should walk among us, tempted in all parts as we a re» bringing to our sim ple understanding the Fatherhood of God and the Way of Salvation. Nor do we grasp it yet in its fullness and power. As Tennyson said: “That we who have not seen Thy face, By faith, and faith alone, embrace; Believing, where we cannot prove.” The love of God which prompted che coming of the Savior is the key note of the occasion. All the frills and furbeloes are splendid if in that spirit. Christmas, as a mere occasion of over-eating, is a sad perversion of the meaning of Bethlehem. The government should buy space in the newspapers, as I see it. That .s not a subsidy, of the sort we ob ject to. That is the same as paying for any other service commodity Why should a newspaper give a ftf adYertising space? Advertising is its life-blood. Nobody advocates subsiding editorals, or newspaper po litical policy. . The government is collecting mon ey from every source; it has money for every sort of thing in every oth- ir country. Why, then, does it not pay the newspapers? Let us say, rather, why not buy its advertising space? The government collects income .ax, even a withholding tax, - which I think is quite all right. The gov- rnment has some sort of tax on .verthing you touch, or see or hear. Why tax the people with a care-free ibandon; and then virtually drive jven small wage-earners into a cor- ler to buy bonds; and then depend on the aroused spirit of the people co give and give, and keep on giv ing, - as an act of patriotism? With all that we pour into other ountries in a fancied campaign of good will, or rehabilitation, on Uto pian lines, why not pay the press ind the radio for advertising ser vices ? No one connected with either the press or the radio has ever mention ed this to me. But I once was a newspaperman and I know all about their problems. Instead of the government pro ceeding properly, as a matter of le gitimate business, merchants and others in business are urged to buy space to “back the bond sale”, and such as that. There is no such reason why this charity should be appealed to. Let the government pay its way so far as a service or commodity has a compensable value. Even then >eople will have much to give and nuch to do at their own cost. The Sumter Item quotes Senator Maybank as saying that he will sup port an amendment to freeze the Jld-Age Pension tax at 1 per cent >n employers and 1 per cent on em- iloyees if Congress should provide ndependently for the four million nen and women in the service whose payments have been discontinued. The question arises: Is this a mis- mderstanding on the part of the Senator? If he is thinking of unem- iloyment, this is not an unemploy ment tax; this Old-Age InsuraYice tax, so far as I see it, has nothing to do with returning service men md women. The record shows that there were millions of persons paying the tax, is of June 30, 1943. From a total of *ifty million persons 31,130,000,000 vas collected during the fiscal year jnding June 30, 1943. The papments luring the same period amounted to 3176, 000,000; the trust fund on June 30, was 34,268,000,000. So why should even four million service men and women threaten to absorb the fund? But, as I said, the Senator ust have been thinking of unemploy ment benifits, not Old-Age clais. Even if this fund were charger ble with benifits to returning service men, there is no reason to believe that all four million will suddenly attain to old age. The return of the millions now in the military services will present a grave problem bo employers if the men and women are given unemploy ment benefits, charged against the trust funds of their former employ ers. We may concede that they should have something to tide them over, but it should be a Federal ap propriation for that purpose. To clear this up: not everybody has paid the old-age insurance tax. AMERICAN HEROES BY LEFF It would not be fair to take the mon ey paid by one specially-taxed group and pay it to another group which had never contributed to it. As to the unemployment benefits-. If returning soldiers are given bene fits chargeable against the trust funds of former employers; and the benefits to those who took their place must also be charged against that account, the employers will face the payment of double benefits. That will mean that their taxes will be increased. Perhaps half of the soldiers, sail ors, marines and airmen worked for who were not covered by the unem ployment insurance. Weuld they get nothing ? Isn’t it apparent that all such ben efits must be paid from a special national appropriation? Even if four million become eli gible for benefits - all four million - the total would not reach a billion dollars. The Old-Age Insurance has a trust fund today of probably 35,- 000,000. And the total of all the trust funds for unemployment com pensation is now about five billion dollars feme If you haven’t gotten arou £|5 to buying a Second War Load Bond, stop and think what would mean to you if our sol- ' diers hadn’t gotten round to the fight. ►ET THE BELLS OF CHRISTMAS RING MERRILY... May they ring in a Season of good cheer, of happiness, of fellowship, of all things good. Because of the loyalty of our friends, we have en joyed a successful year, and in recognition of these friendships and favors we say “thank you”. The season's best to you is our Chf! tmas wish. Stokes’ Drug Store GOOD WISHCS FOR Christmas AND THE New Year Carolina Remnant Store A veteran Naval flyer at 25, Lieut. Robert Pershing Williams, of Pierre, S. Dak., prowls the Atlantic in a Grumman Avenger torpedo plane, hunting the German U-boat, HU battle station a plane carrier on the ocean. He lias just been credited with the destruction of 3 U-boats, and damage to a fourth. His bravery and \igilance guard our convoys. Our ITar Bonds fuel his plane. Give War Bonds for Christmas. Holiday Notice This Bank will not be open for business on the follow ing dates; Saturday, December 25 and * Saturday, Jan. 1, 1944 The South Carolina