Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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FRIDAY, MARCH 14, 1947 THE NEWBERRY SUN Comments On Men and Things BY SPECTATOR Every man has rights; he also has obligations. A man’s rights and obligations develop into re sponsibilities. Every man has individuality; and he has digni ty as a man. South Carolina has always recognized the dignity of the individual. Of course the greatest recognition of the indi vidual is that Jehovah treats us as individuals. It is marvellous to contemplate, the majesty, the Sovereign character, of each person. If, in ancient times, the man seemed lost in the crowd, the Bible tells us of great per sons, men who stood out as indi viduals. The Christian hope is that the redeemed man, a man standing alone in judgement and in salvation. Years ago our State refused to pass a garishee law—that is a law which would allow an ord er to attach a man’s wages. Un der the law as we have it, a Court will not compel a man to do a piece of work. It may be one-sided; it is one-sided; but it is the law, as we have it. The Courts will compel a man to pay money; they will compel him to give a deed to property —if a contract calls for the pay ment of money or the convey ance of land, but it will not com pel a man to do work that he must do with his own hands. Nor will the court imprison the man for failure to pay money, if he has not the money. Why? The individual, under the law of South Carolina, enjoys the spe cial regard due to the dignity of his manhood. That is why this State has always regarded a man’s wages as something sacred in law. The worker receives his wages, and he pays his church, his lodge, his taxes, his physi cian—and whatever else he may owe. The inusarnce agent, the furniture man, the butcher and the baker can’t send bills to the paymaster to be taken by him from the worker’s wages. The South Carolina policy against a garnishee law is exact ly, in spirit, a conclusive reason for outlawing the check-off in this State. What is the check-off? It is the practice of deducting Union dues from a worker’s pay enve lope. Why do that? Does the paymaster deduct Masonic dues, or those of the Knights of Py thias, or the Woodmen of the World, or the Red Men? Does he take out money for the Church? Does he take out money for poll taxes, or the automobile lic ense tax? No; all these receive from the individual himself what he obligates to pay. Why take anything from the enve lope? The practice of the check-off is a form of slavery; it is a com pulsion, though the worker is supposed to be a free man in a free country. The compulsion is there in some form, as all know Another matter is the Closed- Shop. One need not be opposed to Labor in orddr to oppose that. Let us look at the matter of La bor: Labor, as we think of it, is a Union, an organization of workers. Let us consider the Worker, as an individual. What are his rights? He has a right to work, when and where he chooses. We understand, nat urally, that his right may con flict with rights of his employer. We can hold that in mind. The worker cannot be compelled to work. His rights as an Ameri can citizen are not rights as a member of a Union. He is a cit izen, and as a citizen, he is en titled to the equal protection of the law with all other citizens. The law protects citizens as citizens, not as members of the Church, or the Masonic Order, or the Labor Union. The law is a sword of defense, to guaran tee to each man his liberty. It is perfectly clear that no citizen should fiiyl a door clsed to him when he asserts the right to la bor usefully. Every man has an obligation to work; he must sup port himself; he must support his family; he must support the government which protects him in the enjoyment of his rights as a citizen. How, then, can any group of men forbid another man to work? How can any group bar a man from earning bread and meat for his children? If this is a democracy, even in the mildest degree, how can we tolerate a ban on a man’s right to work? Not only is the Closed Shop un-democratic, it is sub versive of a basic right of every man. Is this an argument against the working man? No, indeed; far from it. It is an argument for the right of every man. The only argument for the Check-off and the Closed-Shop is that those practices make it easy to maintain Unions. But no Union is worthy of the name if it thrives at the expenses of a man’s bread and meat. Even if the Union can claim and prove a clear majority, the minority has rights. The minority is a group of men with wives and children, little boys and girls, looking to daddy for daily bread, for shoes and clothing. Whoever prevents that man from working is threatening the wife and chil dren. Of course his rights as a man have been violated. We may sum it up by saying that no man can base a right on a hardship to another man. Nothing that I’ve written is against anybody; I’m arguing for a basic right of every man. “By the sweat of your brow you eat bread”, said the Apostle Paul; but he didn’t say that any man has the right to exclude a man from working, thereby making an American citizen a beggar, a pensioner or an idler. There is something wrong, badly wrong, with the admini stration of our Workmen’s Com pensation Act. Either the fault is with the Administration, or the Act is itself badly written. The industries of our State are not less safe than the industries of Georgia and North Carolina; nor are the workers of our State less careful than are the work ers of Georgia and North Caro lina. Get to the bottom of this, then, and where is the trouble? Why do our workers complain of the Industrial Commission: why do the employers complain of it; why do the insurance com panies complain of it? Why? There must be an answer. The answer should be found at once. I am not attacking the mem bers of the Commission, some of whom I know very pleasantly; but where is the trouble? When you find that the rates charged our South Carolina busi ness are from thirty nine per cent to eighty seven per cent above the rates charged similar enterprises in North Carolina and Georgia, then you know that something is badly wrong. We ought not to play fast and loose with either the workers or the employers. The worker is entitled to prompt settlement, a fair settlement, and all the mon ey of the award. The employer should be charged with only what is necessary and fair. No one need argue this; it is as plain as the nose on your face. But we South Carolinians must stop playing small' politics and use our brains. We have brains in the Legisalture, and charac ter, too; so why not clear away the laws and practices which op erate against us? Because the textile industry is our largest, I looked up the rates KILROY HERE ^^herever merrhprs of the apned forces went—from Korea to Cape Horn ... to Attu ... to Berchtesgaden ... to Kunming ... to Broadway and 42nd Street—there, too, went Kilroy! Who was Kilroy? He could have been a Red Cross worker. Because they’re everywhere ... all the time. Giving aid is their job. No one can tell when or where trouble will stumble into someone’s lap... when some human will need help—and need it badly. A GI desperately needs transportation to the bedside of a stricken mother. That's a job for the Red Cross. Disaster hits a rural area. Who will meet food and housing needs of the sufferers? The Red Cross. A wind-whipped fire leaves a tenement section gutted—63 families destitute. An other job for the Red Cross. Multiply those cases a thousandfold—and you begin to get an idea of the money tha*’s needed . . . the work that’s involved! The work’s ours. The money’s yours. Do your part! GIVE - so your RED CROSS can carry on! Home Furniture Co. Davis Motor Co. SPONSORED Mrs. J. W. White Wells Theater Newberry Ins. & Realty Co. Maxwell Bros. & Lindsay BY: Ritz Theater Fennell’s Jewelry Store Reagin’s Shoe Shop Smiths Cut-Rate Drug Co. T. M. Rogers & Son PATROLMAN SWILLEY AT WHITMIRE Patrolman H. F. Swilley, who has been with the State Highway department as a patrolman since 1941, with the exception of a tour of duty in the Navy is again back on the job with the de partment and is now located in Whitmire, after his recent re lease from the service, after serving over two years as “war den of the brig”, in Bainbridge, Md. Prior to volunteering his serv ices to the Navy on January 22, 1945, patrolman Swilley was lo cated in Watlerboro county. His wife and their two child ren, Horace Thomas, eight, and Mary Frances, who will be seven in June, expect to move to the county at an early date to make their home. They are now resid ing in Florence. Mr. and Mrs. R. J. Nichols of Orangeburg, spent the past weekend in Newberry with Mr. and Mrs. Roland Bobb at their home on Floyd street. and found that South Carolina rates are thirty nine per cent above the rates of Georgia and North Carolina; but the grocery business pays seventy nine per cent more; the bottlers pay eighty per cent more; and paint manufacturer pays eighty seven per cent more. Why? , A Stale-Owned Warehouse And Distribution System For Liquor? In what may be a good bill that is a provision. What would be the difference between the State Liquor Warehouse System and the late State Dispensary of bad odor? While our legislators are struggling with the liquor ques tion—which is a baffling one— they should not delude them selves into believing that a .Wholesale Warehouse System 'will promote temperance. In saying that, the advocates are being misled by the music of words. The South Carolina Dispen sary, in its most evil-smelling days, was not a public stench in its retail operations, but in the Wholesale operations. Look up the record, gentlemen. Young people are not impres sed by the warnings of the older people. It was always so. The young man thinks the old lows are just moss-backs, bull frogs, sitting on logs croaking. And yet the croakers once were young full of the assurance and vanity of the young of today. Almost no one under thirty- five had to struggle against the Great Depression of 1931. The golden stream is all that they know; and they think it will flow on forever. Such generation seems to have a depression; therefore each generation must generate the forces which produce depres sions. Since depressions, like rain and cold, have come, the wise man looks ahead; he pre pares for the rainy day; the fool ish man, like the Prodigal Son, spends everything — and runs back to dad, or imposes on his kin, his father, brother, uncle— or some prudent kinsman who did not think the sun would shine every day. Some men spend freely, depending on in surance to provide for the wid ow and children. But how much insurance? Even at four per cent (which is doubtful) an in surance policy of twenty five thousand dollars yields only one thousand dollars a year. We need not wonder at the ever-growing public spending, for men in private life operate on the same basis. Only an oc casional calamity teaches us anything. Mrs. R. B. Moore has returned to her home in Oxford, N. C., after spending a week here in the home of her sister and broth er-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. J. Dave Caldwell at their home near the city. Mrs. L. W. Little has returned to her home in the county after spending some time in Freehold, N. J., with her daughter, Mrs. A. P. Ramage. Want To Buy A Home Select the place you want and finance it through the » Newberry County Bank Get a mortgage at reasonable interest rates that will fit your budget—the kind we arrange for home planners who look ahead. A talk with us will place you under no obligation. NEWBERRY COUNTY BANK ‘The Friendly Bank In The Friendly City’ Visit the... Carolina Remnant Store V/A Crinkled Crepe, Floral Stripe* and Checks, per yard ........ Chambray, Stripes and Solids, per yard Curiam Scrim, Per Yard Here you will find many hard-to-get items 59c 69c 39c " d 49c 89c 98c 42c 49c 89c 39c Spun Rayon in Assorted Patterns, per yard Silk Poplin—Blue, rose And Gold, per yard . . . Gingham in All Colors Per yard Striped Print For Men’s Pajamas Per yard Cretonnes in Floral Patterns Per Yard All Chenille Bed Spreads Reduced. Good Prints Per Yard Carolina Remnant Store Caldwell Street