Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

PAGE FOUR THE NEWBERRY SUN FRIDAY, MARCH 4, 1949 Senator McFaddin hopes to save South Carolina political independence by a bill he has introduced in the Senate to de fine and regulate political par ties. The idea of the Senator is to get around the decisions of Judge Waring. All of us may wish the Clarendon Sena tor success in his effort to make a political party the pri vate instrument of the popu lar will which it was intend ed to be. The men who wrote our basic law both Federal and State Constitutions, set up an elec toral and election machinery, without regard to political par ties. That was the law, and that was the dominant idea. No one can challenge that, un less he mere’/ wants to talk. Here is where States Rights come in, for we are careless ly speaking of States Rights as a measure dealing with race questions. When we find that the Courts can construe a private practice as an instrument of law, or a:- a denial of legal rights, though exactly as it has been carried on for eighty years we run head-on against an American practice which is the most oligarchic procedure imaginable, though in the name of dempcracy. When a Court can change the whole course of two centuries by interpreting the law as accepted for eighty years, we are face to face with a problem much greater than the mere decision of the dis tinguished jurist of Charleston. The problem is this: how can we have a democracy when the law is so cloudy that the avern'e man doesn’t know v he law is? Worse than uiai.. t iie average lawyer does n’t know either; and far worse yet: the judges don’t know. Look over the record: the highest court decides cases five to four. Are the four eminent justices wrong or ignorant? What is the law? We begin in the Federal Court, for ex ample. One district judge in Georgia says the law is so-and- For Expert Repair Bring Your Radio GEO. N. MARTIN Radio Service SALES and SERVICE 1014 Main Street Opposite Memorial Square 24 HOURS SERVICE elephone 311W so; another district judge in Illinois says th e law is some thing else; and a third judge in Massachusetts says it is something else, quite different from the other. So what is the law? The case gres on appeal to a Circuit Court Of Appeals. It sustains the Massachusetts judge, but the decisions in the other states still stand. Then the Supreme Courp steps in and decides the case 5-to-4. The lawyers and judges are bound by that supreme court decision, but they probably doubt th e soundness of it. So where are we—a great democracy? It is no new thing—^judge- made law; the law books are full of it; but the most urgent need is for a clarification of all the law, with definite, pre cise, lucid statements in the form of Statutes. The gravest indictment of our American way is that the law is what the Judges say; busi nessmen who plan a course cannot proceed with confidence because the lawyers can’t speak with certainty. As I’ve said, •even the Courts can’t be ac cepted as final arbiters until the Supreme Court enters a judgment; and even then the Supreme Court may turn a somersault as it has done in recent years. So we, a great democracy, based on law, don’t, know, and can’t predict, what the law is most of the time. Laymen and lawyers alike stand in wonderment and help lessness. All this may help support the legal profession, though I doubt it. The first requirement of good citizen ship is obedience to law. Well, what is the law We have in Senator Mc-Fad- din’s bill a fundamental con cern of States Rights; but the first concern must be to de termine what the law is and who made the law. We should put our Courts under a sharp study so that we may have law. one law for all the Na tion; and one law settled by long observance not merely a matter of some individual’s in terpretation. America is a land of pressure groups; we must become a Nation of law, main taining the ancient doctrine of the Equal protection of the Law. That means law as re cognized law; not theories, phil osophies, ideologies or whims fastened on the law and made the law itself. The saddest handicap on the human race today is the readi- i ness to appeal for help. What super-men, what marvellous women, were those Southern ers of the Civil War and Re construction eras! Here in South Carolina, once the State of self-reliant men and women, the idea of easy money now prevails. Those older people were poor, poor in dollars, perhaps, but how wondrously rich in char acter, in the spirit of self-help. I do not mean by the word “character” that all were Psalm singers, loud prey-ers in church or meek and pious people. I use “character” to indicate the sum-total of the spirit, as well as the spirituality of men who faced and overcame hardships, perils, menaces and threats. Ac cording to the politicians of the day, the Government of the United States must feed, clothe, rebuild and re-finance the whole world. Haven’t we a job to do here at home? Quite apart from the bureaucrats who praise their own work, what really substantial and perma nent good have we done? We have encouraged all the world to ask, or demand, from us; and we must give them millions or billions so “as not to incur their displeasure. Now isn’t that true? Our Legislature seems to be catching the spirit, or singing the tune, of Mr. Truman. The idea of some is to pay every former service man a bonus; and to provide for everybody everything—& then more; and to give to every old-age pen sioner more largely; and to raise bottom wages so that business enterprises will have to lift themselves by their own bootstraps. We can go just so far and then th e bottom will drop out. Those of us who have farm ing interests know that the price of farm labor is determ ined by the productiveness of that labor. That is the theory and it has to work out in prac tice. Let us see; today the farmer down my way is plan ning his planting of tobacco, cotton and corn. The farmer wonders about prices naturally: the price he expects will de termine how much he can spend in producing the crop. If the prospect is fair for thir ty three cent cotton, with av erage yield, then the farmer will pay labor so much. And he will hunt for labor. Labor is still in demand. Then when picking time comes the farmers not only pay highly competi tive prices for labor, but send trucks thirty miles to get la bor. That same principle ap plies to labor everywhere. But in this State, even, following the political trend of Congress, at the behest of politicians in pressure groups, we, too, are urged to adopt minimum wage scales. I think the proper course is not to argue the minimum standard of living, but to meet the whole argument head-on: it is not the business of the National or State governments to fix wages. We cannot get back to the character-building era of individual^worth and in dividual productiveness except by throwing overboard all this Socialistic trend with the Com munistic flavor Why forget all the practical commonsense which made this Country? Don’t we know that individual incentive makes for larger individual achievement? The insurance solicitor makes an extra spurt because he will find his new effort reflected in his commissions; he will reap where he sowed When we pay all on a level we get Save Regularly Here you save money In convenidrA amounts. You* also save worry...for savings at work here have insured safety plus attractive earnings. S HSURED SAFETY Newberry Federal Savings and Loan Association level work; that is the lowest level, not th e highest. The drone and the incompetent will never reach the high level of the intelligent and industrious man, but the industrious and capable man can easily drop to the lower level. The only wage scale should be according to production. There are men and women who depend on their savings. They are not millionaires; many are thrifty souls who have sav ed thirty or forty years. It was by hard work, frugal liv ing, strict self-denial, that they accumulated twelve or fifteen thousand dollars. At eight per cent interest they could live on their savings; at four per cent they could make ends meet by doing little things now and then. Today who guaran tees them anything? Perhaps the bank pays one per cent, even if it pays any interest on the whole amount. Who guar antees them a minimum scale of living? Nobody. Then a young fellow puts all his mon ey and his time into a little business of his own—a filling station, a garage, a store, a little one-man enterprise. Who guarantes him a profit? His wife and children depend on his business, but • he depends on the cold world. Why not require the banks to pay ten per cent on savings? That would be foolish and would close the banks immediately. The same principle applies to wages. Why are we constantly pet ting and pampering one ele ment? Votes, politics. We now are thrusting politics into the very warp and woof of our business-life; we are sacrific ing the longtime benefit of self- reliance, vigour, thrifty citizen ship 'for a leveling off process which will put a premium on mediocrity and sacrifice spe cial talents, extraordinary zeal and high endeavor. W e have a few geniuses in business. Such men as the Selfs, the Regnerys and the Springs are great men by any standard of measurement. But we must not require by law all that those great industrial ists do, unless such production and constructive leaders can be created by law, which is quite impossible. The few popular automobiles on the market to day bring to mind a dozen well known cars of ^ few years ago, now no longer manufactured. Our cotton mills have cost many millions to thousands who put their faith and money into cotton mills and had nei ther faith nor money left. Oc casionally a great genius comes on the scene and prospers where others fail. Wt must not expect all men to be gen iuses ; nor can the geniuses employ all the people who need employment, those whose bread and meat depend on their job. So we should be slow about requiring air-conditioned mills, just as we would do well to let the prosperity of a business determine in great part what should be required. Now that we have, such effective labor organizations why must the iron hand of the law be im posed? Aren’t we all growing weary of the abasement of every thing for political purposes? In the trial of the Catholic Car dinal we may assume that the trial was a travesty and the conviction a tragedy. We' may properly be righteously indig nant over the Bolshivist pro cedure in the name of justice; but why did President Truman of the United States discuss it? Ask yourself. Now the papers tell us that a dozen Protes tants are up for trial. Has all the mighty wrath been spent? Are we now exhausted in our spiritual emotions? Are our leaders profoundly indignant only when a great organiza tion is concerned? In this case it is not the church, but the politicians. If our anguish is because of tyranny, what about those Protestants? John Berley Enlow John Berley Enlow, 53, died suddenly Wednesday afternoon in the Fairview Section of Newberry County. He had been in declining health for thd past nine years _ but was attending his duties as usual at the time of hh death. Born and reared in the O’Neal Sec tion, he was a son of the late Jake and Alice Boland Enlow. For the past 26 years he made his home in the Fairview Com munity, where he was a farmer and also operated a grocery store. He is survived by his wife, Mrs. Rosa Stockman Enlow; two sisters, Mrs. John Daniels of Newberry and Rosea B. Johnson of Sanford, N.- C. and a number of nieces and neph ews. Funeral services will be Fri day morning at 11 o’clock at his residence with the Rev. L. H. Montgomery and Dr. J. B. Harman officiating. The truth is that Washington has become a sounding board 6f specialized political appeal; we American are dabbling with %how adherents here—in other any • case anywhere if it can words, Vote*. " • ' < ■ Coming• •.Next Week! 'BufrViftgAlr? It might be here! It might be any where in the United States. The Red Cross participates in an average of six disaster relief operations every week. In 303 disasters last year the local chapters of the Red Cross were on the scene at once, had relief organized in • matter of hours, served as the funnel PURCELL’S FINANCING — INSURANCE — REAL ESTATE REAGIN’S SHOE SHOP DAVIS MOTOR COMPANY JOHNNIE’S NEWS STAND & DO-NUT SHOP B. C. MOORE & SONS, INC. "BUY AT MOORE'S AND SAVE MORE" S. C. NATIONAL BANK SEARS-ROEBUCK & CO. AMERICAN LEGION POST 24 FEDERAL SAVINGS &' LOAN ASSOCIATION ODORLESS CLEANERS through which flowed the nation’s sym pathy and help. Your contributions brought temporary housing... emergency food supplies . . . medical and nursing care to 312,400 victims. Later, thousands of these victims received long-term re habilitation aid. To carry on this mission of mercy, the Red Cross once again asks your help. So won’t you give, and give generously ? MITCHELL’S GRILL 1209 FRIEND STREET You, too, con help through \ Your RED CROSS LIVINGSTON-WISE POST VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS BUZHAHDT FURNITURE CO. NEWBERRY, S. C. G. B. SUMMER & SONS GILDER & WEEKS "THE REXALL STORE" SMITH’S DRUG STORE T. ROY SUMMER MRS. J. W. WHITE MILLINERY, BABY & GIFT SHOP home Furniture co. FIRESTONfe HOME & AUTO SUPPLIES SUSANA SHOP CARPENTER’S SERVICE FINANCE CO. 1506 MA^N STREET LOMINICK’S DRUG STORE NEWBERRY LUMBER CO. COCA-COLA BOTTLING CO. NEWBERRY CREAMERY SPOTTS GROCERY 1251 HUNT STREET A. W. GLASGOW & SONS CITY FILLING STATION "NEXT TO THE P.O. & JUST AS RELIABLE"