Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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.-HE NEWBERRY SUN FRIDAY, JANDAKY 26, 1945 ►un 1218 Collect Street NEWBERRY, SOUTH CAROLINA O. P. ARMFIELD Editor and Publisher Published Every Friday In The Year Entered a« second-class matter December 6, 1937, at tht postoffice at Newberry, South Carolina, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. SPECTATOR The State of South Carolina has complete charge of the General Election. We have Democratic Pri mary Elections and could have pri mary elections for other parties; but the real decision is the General Elec tion which is called, financed, man aged byl the State; and the result is declared officially by the State in its sovereign official capacity. Most South Carolinians pay so lit tle attention to the General Election that they even fail to ask for regis tration cerifkates from the County Board* of Registration. They think of the Democratic Primary as the election; and even citizens of the State in ipublic office sometimes con fuse the rules of the Democratic Primary with the election laws of the State. The Democratic Primary is noth ing but a vote among Democrats to determine which Democrat shall rep resent the Democratic. Party in the Geneal Election. The State has failed for many years to prepare the’ ballot for the General Election; and the different, or various political par ties print ballots and circulate them at the polls for the voters. This is a bad pa ret ice .because the State is holding the election, not a political party; and we must distinguish sharply between the official election and the so-called Party or Democrat ic Election—which is only a Party choice and not an election. There has been much agitation for the Australian Ballot, or a Secret Ballot for the General Election. Un fortunately the expressions “AUS TRALIAN” and “SECRET” have so confused many of our people that they have come to believe that this is something dangerous and foreign. I have been amased at the complete lack of information about this which has served to arouse strong preju dice. One very distinguished lawyer In high official position told! me that he was opposed to the Australian or ] Secret Ballot because it would let down various bars and cause the peo ple of a county to vote for a Repub lican for Sheriff. A considerable number of the most intelligent men in the State have so expressed them selves against this Secret or Austra lian Ballot that we must recognize as a fact the profound and wide spread misinformation among many of our best people. I think the best approach to this question is to omit such words as “Secret” and “Australian” from the discussion. What is it that we ad vocate? Simply that the State in its official character prepare and dis tribute the ballots for the General Election, since it calls the election, appoints and pays the managers, re ceives and counts the ballots, de clares the result officially, and offi cially makes it effective. Our accomplished and courteous Secretary of State, Mr. W. P. Black- well, and I made quite a study of this simple matter and our conclusion was, after studying the laws of many states, that the only thing that our State need do was to direct that the Secretary of State should print and circulate the ballots for the General Election. Obviously, that raises the question HOW SHALL THE SEC RETARY OF STATE DETERMINE WHAT NAME TO PUT ON THE BALLOT? Mr. Blackwell and 1 ■wrestled with that and this is our conclusion which seems to us to^be asf plain as day; 1. That any political party submit its candidates if that party polled 15 per cent of the total vote in the most recent General Election. Now how about other parties? In order to be legal the State cannot discriminate either between parties or against parties. We did not think it would help mattes to have every handful of people call themselves a party; so we worked out this ex pedient: 2. The Secretary of State should include the names of any group which may be submitted by a peti tion signed by 1,000 qualified and xegisetred electors of the State. That provision would rule out all the little two-by-four and fly-by- night groups. One of the most prominent offi cials of the state raised an object- tion to the State Ballot on the ground that it would be too long, too compli cated, for the average citizen to Un derstand. He evidently looked the present law of the State, which pre scribes three State Ballots: (a) For Senators and Representa tives in Congress and Presidential Electors, That is one ballot and it could not be very long or confusing. (b) One for State Officers, Solici tors, Legislators, and county offi cers. (c) One for Constitutional Amend ments. This is the law of the State today and is found in the Code of 1942, Vol ume 2, Section 2304. This section might be amended so as to provide for four tickets. The Fourth ballot might be used for County officers and Legislators—Senator and Rep resentatives. This would avoid all confusion in local elections by separating County officers (and the legislative delega tion from State and Federal elec tions). As will be seen, there is nothing difficult, or dangerous, or confusing about this. It is something we should do without fail, because the State must handle its General Elec tions as official State Elections in order to be free from challenge in the Federal Courts. When our Pimary decides who shall represent the Democratic Par ty the matter comes before the State. The State as a sovereign governing power is not connected with any po litical party. At least, that is the way it looks in law. The State sets up the machinery for what is the real election, as you well know, and appoints election managers, pub lishes legal notices of the election and takes general charge of every thing connected with the election, in cluding the Ballots, certifying the result through the State Board of Canvassers,—all purely governmen tal functions, not a party matter at all, of course. But, for some rea son, the State does not print the tickets. That is the whole matter. The State should, through the Sec retary of State, prepare $nd dis tribute the Ballots fe the General Election. You have read of cases in which the Federal Government has taken legal measures against certain Coun ty or Democratic Party officials be cause of the negro. We are advocat ing that the State shall prepare the Ballot, allowing all organized poli- ticl parties to be placed on the Bal lot, thus closing one little gap which the Federal Government may use in upsetting something we do. It is a very small matter, as all know, and there is no reason to oppose it. It is important, however, that it should be done. I must admit that until I talked to our Sqcretjary of Statei a few months ago I did not take much in terest in this, but since then I have seen that by mere neglect to do an obvious thing we Democrats are leav ing the bars down for legal attack. Governor Williams has made a good start, by declaring his purpose to enforce the laws. It shouldn’t be necessary, of course, for a Governor to make such declarations, but it is necessary. A general laxness is ob- servble throughout the State. When you get to the real trouble you will find that it lies with an easy-going, acquiescent citizenship agistrates are local State law men. but magistrates act only when some citizen makes a formal complaint and signs it. Most citizens refuse to do this. I have a case in point: An in dignant citizen told me of an elec tion fraud; his own vote was not even counted. He called the name of an election official who committed various irregularities. I asked if he would go to a magistrate with me. He would not make a formal charge. That attitude is where our law en forcement bogs down. A distinguished citu.m of the State, a careful and conservative man, said to me recently that he was reliably informed that a certain election was a fraudulent miscount WAR BONDS OtBcial U. S. Navy Photo “Tin Fish” goes down a hatch on first stage of its journey to sink an enemy vessel. War Bonds pay for these deadly missiles used in sub marines and also save money for your post-war necessities. U. S. Treasury DeportmtoP OVER 1,500 DRIVERS LOSE LICENSES IN 1944 We’re staking this claim all over the U, S. A, “Look ahead . . . look South! ” For more than two years, we’ve said this on millions of pages of advertising in magazines with national circulation . . . and we’re still at it. We’ve made the suggestion to investors and home-seekers ... to businessmen and captains of industry...to students, workers, housewives, tech nicians. Especially, we've addressed our adver tisements to those men and women who are today thinking ahead arid planning for tomorrow. To all of them we’ve said: “The South is a great place in which to work, to live, to build. Look ahead... look South!” Why do we do it? Because, it’s another way in which “the Southern Serves the South”... helping it to grow and prosper and march ahead to brighter and better days for all. President • Fifteen hundred twenty-seven driv ers’ licenses were revoked, suspended, or cancelled in South Carolina last year, according to Chief Highway Commissioner, J. S. Williamson, who further pointed out that many motorist do not fully realize that possession of a drivers’ license is a privilege granted by the state which can be withdrawn for sufficient cause. Over 1,400 drivers were apprehend ed during 1944 and found guilty of operating a motor vehicle while un der the influence of intoxicants. All convicitons of drunk driving result ed in the loss of operating privileges for a period of not less than six months', in addition to the fine im posed in the trial court. The fact that an average of four motorist per day were convicted of driving drunk last year should be convincing proof that it doesn’t pay to drink and drive, said the High way official. Other drivers had their licenses taken away because of bad driving records The individual operator’s file maintained by the Motor Vehicle Division reveals driver actions which made it necessary to suspend or re- vtoloe the driving privileges of 48 persons Warning letters were sent to 400 drivers when individual rec ords indicated by accidents arrests or traffic warnings that the motorist was interfering with the safety of other highway users. Over 100 traffic violation repeat ers who added to their bad records after official warnings were required to appear for an interview and spec ial driver examination. Nearly one- half of these regular violators lost their licenses because they refused to improve their driving habits. “The increase in traffic deaths during 1944 over the previous year makes it imperative that driver con tol be applied to violating motorists,” said Mr. Williamson. ‘“Every driver should avoid taking chances that may result in loss of driving privilege.” and that the man who holds the of fice today was not elected. I con sulted one of our best known public men about this and he said that he had no doubt about the fraud. Well, what of it? It is said that some election man agers stuff the boxes in this man ner: they deposit ballots for all names, or most of them, voting as they themselves choose. That is be ing told of many counties, not just one or two. And that also applies to the Democratic Primary. You hear it everywhere; but what is done about it? Do we wait for magis trates, Sheriffs and grand-juries to ( alct? Well, on what evidences? They can’t act on rumors. South Carolina must stop the practice of introducing freak bills by County delegations. We must stop the practice of enacting into law just whatever a local delegation intro duces for its county. Recently, by request of the City Council of Charleston, it appears, the Charleston delegation, or a mem ber of it, has introduced a bill to permit the City of Charleston to charge a concern 20 per cent of its gross revenue as a license tax. If a city should charge 20 per cent of gross revenue, where would the County, State and Federal govern ments come in ? 20 per cent of gross revenue tells you nothing of net income, or net profits. Rumors are that this is a wea pon that the City wishes to hold over a certain enterprise. The one thing we ought to avoid is any measure of taxation savoring of a punitive or oppressive flavor. The taxing power is not a play thing. 0M Barrage Balloons Ans'ver Voslc-Dridge Brcllem ; 1 Costly Dreams By GEORCr S BENSON President of Harding College Searcy. Arkansas .EEL— ~~ ABOUT ten years ago a foolish notion grew suddenly, almost mysteriously, popular. The idea was that poor farmers got ! poor (anyhow didn’t get rich) be- j cause they never had a chance. Big fat capitalists, it seemed, kept 1 the juice squeezed out of them all ‘ the time. So Uncle Sam, with Rexford Guy Tugwell standing on . his shoulder and whispering in his ear, dashed to the rescue. A famous federal project, one of many, to fortify hand-picked j relief cases “back on the soil,” 1 was the 2271-acre Deshee farm near Vincennes, Ind. It was taken for granted that 42 families could make a living there after the gov ernment had paid half a million dollars for the land and one of 20 agricultural lending agencies had helped out with $100,000 more. It was, however, too much to expect. They couldn’t make a living. j Save the WITH 60 acres per Farmers! family, homes cluster ed in artistic groups like chairs at a lawn fete, the “farmers” were supposed to do t specialty production of top-grade produce and truck to yield fancy p rices. Unfortunately, somehow, the plan didn’t work. Deshee is be ing sold, as are many of the go vernment’s other pipe-dream fai nu. Among them is the 3453- acr e Lake Dick farm near Pine Blu ff, Arkansas. /' A n'early discovery at Deshee was that specialty farmers don’t oftei t get on government relief rolls . The relief farmers knew little . more than the need to plant seed and scratch the ground. By this method of operation Deshee had 20 families too many. Finally the community shrank to eight families. Many of them left be cause they didn’t like the sur roundings. People on relief be come fastidious. Misfits HIGH prices on just Farming about everything of value, an aspect of war-born inflation, is what saves our country from charging off these highfalutin agricultural ex periments, almost completely. Losses on Deshee, and others to sell soon, may be small because of well-timed sales, but this fails to prove that the government can farm, least of all with human mis fits on the land. Up to now, the Federal Secur ity Administration has sold quite a few of the government’s reset tlement projects. The total num ber disposed of before the end of 1944 cost the taxpayers of America some 71 million dollars. All the government realized from the sales was 27 million dollars. It means that the FSA is. so far, liquidating these*costly dreams at less than 40 cents on thg. dollar. In farming, government man- • agement is showing a loss of 60%. Why expect less loss from government management of man ufacturing? If it ran only 50%, it would mean production cut in half, wages lowered accordingly, and prices advanced; perhaps doubled. On a big Kale, it would mean living standards for all of us, half as high as we are used to . . . Let’s keep our nrivat* an. terprise system. 1944 Tax Notice After the close of business on January 31, 1945, a 2 per cL Penalty will be added to all unpaid 1944 State and County taxes. J. Ray Dawkins COUNTY TREASURER wm