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PAGE FOUR THE NEWBERRY SUN FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1949 ~r~ i v ■ "TTiiigfc 'ST 1218 College Street ’ NEWBERRY, S. C. 0. F. Armfifld Editor and Publisher PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY Entered as second-class matter December 6, 1937, at the Postoffice at Newberry, South Carolina, under the Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In S. C., S1.50 per year in advance outside S. C., $2.00 per year in advance. COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS What’s going on in South Carolina? Well, in the politi cal field we are observing, just looking around. The overwhel ming call has not been heard, though many are listening in tently. There may be murmurs, a still, small voice, perhaps, but the aspirants have ampli fiers more powerful than those in a radio station, and with these acute aids to hearing the softest trickle sounds like a mountain torrent. In other fields we are pro gressing What do you think of this item? — “South Carolina ranked second in the nation in ‘value added by manufacture,’ the census of manufacturers shows. South Carolina’s in crease from 1939 to 1947, in value added by manufacture, was 370 per cent. Between 1939 and 1947 the number of pro duction workers in this state increased 50,000 to a total of 40 per cent increase. The big gest job provider for South Carolina’s 189,000 factory em ployees was the textile indus try, which accounted for 65.9 per ent. Next in line were lumber, 11.5 per cent; food 4.3 per cent, and paper, 3.1 per ct. That is something to think about. We enjoy our politics, but this is the news which counts most, or this is the ham- and egg phase of our living. In the same paper, on the same page, I read that South ern Cotton mills paid wage rates as high as ninety four cents an hour in 1948. I note also that there was in increase of five per cent in the Southern scale, whereas New England had no increase. You have read of the cam paign to have congress raise the minimum rate to “seventy- five cents an hour. The mills have been paying more than 75 cents, but that is no argu ment for a law establishing 75 cents as the minimum. Although I am sure that this is not properly within the scope of the Federal govern ment, or even the State gov ernment, I am arguing the point now as to the economic asppect of the question. Wages are not the concern of any government; the workers are organized and can negotiate for wages and conditions of work. The government should hold the balance so that equal ly before the law is maintain ed. That is all. When industries flourish, the mills pay what they can, be cause their prosperity depends upon sales, on production. Mills and farmers and offices ara alike in this; they want all the help they can use profit ably; and all pay as much as their business will permit if necessary to get the help. So, when the mills can sell their output at good prices they pay high wages, when the sales fall off and prices go down the mills will close rather than operate at a loss. Only the government can spend and spend without limit, because it can tax and tax to cover up its losses, its ignor ance and its blundering. Private business cannot do that. A mill can easily have a weekly pay roll of fifty thousand dollars. In four weeks that would be $200,000. If we add the other items of operation for a month the cost of operating during four weeks might be $300,000. Where would the mill find the $300,000, if business falls down? There are not many banks that will lend $300,000 when the mill is virtually at a standstill. Bankers are not easy about lending money in dull times. They can’t afford to take long chances with their depositor’s money. You’ve heard it said that a banker will lend you money when you don’t need it, but will freeze you out when you do need it. That is a sort of misleading statement, a half- truth. But it really means this —the banker will lend money when he sees some reasonable prospect of repayment. That, of course is his business. But he isn’t likely to lend you mon ey when there is no security and no liklihood of repayment. The banker maintains the same attitude toward big business that he maintains toward you and me. He doesn’t operate a Welfare Department or a Gov ernment agency. If a law should require in dustry to pay a high minimum .wage industry will have to suspend work when it cannot pay that wage and earn a prof it. That is commonsense; it cannot draw on the air or hake the trees for money. When a mill closes who prif- jts? Does idleness pay the worker? There is one scource of help for an industry during a dull time: its reserves, its surplus, unpaid profits saved over the years. That surplus is money which belongs to the stock holders; it is the profit which belongs to trem but was never paid to trem. Now, in emerg ency, it is drawn on for wages, to keep the organization to gether when the sales do not cover the cost of • operating. All big enterprises have these surpluses, the money which should have been paid to the owners of the business. Read the bank statement. You see these items: Capital $100,000; surplus $50,000; reserved for contingencies $10,000. What does that mean? Nowadays we have invented something else— Capital Surplus. But for illus tration, the firgures I’ve used mean that the bank did not pay all the profits to the men who own the bank; it held back a part, which became surplus, etc. Now you and I in our small way can get the real feeling of that if some one were to hold out a half of our pay and call it our surplus. It might sound imposing: John Doe Clerk. Salary $175 a month, surplus $50. Wife couldn’t use that surplus on a fur, nor daughter on a trousseau, nor son on a car. But there it stands. In almost every business of any size the management holds back part of the profits. Later that money is used as a cushion against shocks and losses. This so-called surplus is just as much the stockholder’s money, the profit due him, as is a bail of cotton the property of the farmer. If somebody would take half of the farmer’s crop and hold it in his name then the farmer might have the same kind of surplus, though the farmer couldn’t use it to pay for his tractor. Other wonder drugs have come to my attention. We’ve had penicillin and streptomysin and Chloromycetin. I wonder how much more wonderful they are than calomel and quinine. I need not go so far back as to talk about portafillin, blue mass, rhubarb, ipecac and other delights of one’s child hood, not forgetting syrup of squills. But in the family of anti-biotics we must list other products of mold. I wonder how valuable the blue mold will become some day. Today it drives the tobacco farmer into a mild frenzy every Spring. Some day he may plant to bacco just to attract or deve lop blue mold and sell the blue mold for fabulous prices. Frankly, I’m just speculating wildly, though you never can tell. Now we find Aureomycin and Bacitracin. What are they good for? Three powerful new dis ease fighters are rolling into mass production. Like famed penicillin and streptomycin, these new “wonder drugs” are produced from molds. Drug men call them “anti-biotics and aureomycin. One of the first triumphs scored by aureomycin was to cure a small boy living near the Lederle plant at Pearl River, N. Y., who was afflicted with a case of Rocky Mountain spotted fever. This rickettsiae- caused disease formerly killed one ot every five suffers and no effective treatment was known. Aureomycin cured in a week an employe of the American Cyanamid Co., who came down with a case of Friedlander’s pnuemonia; this malady, re sistant to penicillin and sulfa, has up to now been fatal in about 95 percent of all cases. The list of ailments against which aureomycin gets results is now long and growing stead ily. The drug has successfully treated parrot fever (psitta cosis). rabbit fever (tularemia), a wide variety of skin dieseses including impetigo, and many “strep” infections which are unaffected by either penicillin or streptomycin. It appears to be one of the most effective drugs yet used to treat undu- lant fever, which is transmitted in the milk of infected cows. Among the advantages of the drug are greater potency and speed than penicillin in acting against certain diseases. It can also be given by mouth, an advantage over the injection method generally used for ad ministering penicillin. When penicillin is given orally, much larger doses are needed because its strength is partially dissi pated in the stomach. Bacitracin is taken by mouth in capsules and lozenges—with nose drops available soon, and seems to have no ill after-ef fects. Although it has not scor ed the dramatic results of aureomycin, it appears to have a number of special uses. Its nost remarkable feat so far has been to cure amoe bic dysentery, a disease of the intestines widely prevalent in the southern states as well as tropical countries. The drug has demonstrated another in teresting value in apparently shortening the duration of a head cold. It does not attack the virus which causes the cold originally but wars on the germs that follow the virus and cause a cold to drag on for weeks. Still another important use for bacitracin is in curing, as an ointment, various skin infections such as boils, acne, carbuncles and impetigo. It also provides an effective treat ment for infected wounds and acute cases of “pink eye” of conjunctivitis. Nearly every month research scientists come up with a new anti-biotic drug to be further explored in the commercial laboratories and clinics. One, called mycomycin, has acted against virulent tuberculosis in test tubes so far. Another, named borrelindin, in early experiments appears to step up the effectiveness of penicillin against certain diseases in CENSUS EXPECTED TO SHOW 150.000,000 Washington, July 31 —. The Census Bureau tonight was busy laying the groundwork for the biggest nose-counting in the nation’s history—a $70,000,- 000 project which may have an important bearing on thq way you live. It is the government’s de cennial census, a once-every-10 years operation in which an army of 150,000 canvassers will cover every household in the nation and its possessions. When it’s all over, the Cen sus Bureau expects to know how many people there are in the nation, how and where they live, what they do for a living, and scores of other facts that have a direct bear ing on American economic and social life. Census bureau officials esti mate the population of con tinental United States will top 150,000,000 in 1950. In the last official census nine years ago it was 131,662,275. Officials believe this will be the first census to show a fe male majority in the United States. Men had the edge in 1940 by about 500,000, but 1945 estimates showed that the wo men had gained a majority of some 300,000. In addition to the 150,000 enumerators, who will earn an average of $10 a day for a month or two, the Census Bu reau expects to bring its Wash ington staff of 3,000 up to 10,- 000 to correlate the informa tion. They will be aided by com plex machines, punch cards and other modern methods of analyzing information. Census Bureau employes will work in- animals. Drug makers are not afraid the newcomers will shove established ones off the map. Penicillin is now being made at the rate of 60,000 pounds yearly and output is steadily increasing. About 24,000 pounds of streptomycin are being turned out annually. Meanwhile, the sulfa drugs, the first weapons to be found against pneumonia and blood poisoning, are selling at the rate of 6 million pounds a year compared with less than 2 million pounds yearly before the war. In the mystery of the Uni verse so much is hidden. Provi dence lights the way as we are psepared to read the signs and walk in the way. to 1953 analyzing and publish ing their findings. While the whole job will cost about $70,000,000 only $40, 000,000 of it has been appro priated by Congress. The rest must be made available later. The Census Bureau has un til December 1, 1950, to report to the President on the popu lation of each of the 48 states and the possessions. The Pres ident then must report the findings to Congress in Janu ary, and Congress will have 15 days to decide whether they want to increase the size of the House of Representatives. Flowers and Gifts for All Occasions CARTER’S Day Phone 719 — Night 6212 ICE COLD Watermelons FARMERS Ice and Fuel Co Phone 155 THE BEST PLACE FOR Buick & Chevrolet Service is Davis Motor Company v 1515-1517 Main Street WOOD is still the favorite of HomeBuilders Forests provided materials for the rude huts of the first colonists and the log cabins of west-moving pioneers. As America’s forest | industries grew, the woodlands furnished material for classic man sions, picturesque town houses and attractive cottages. The abund ance of our forests gave the world a new architecture. After 300 years, many descendants of these pioneer builders are still living in these houses. • Today’s builders are converting the produce of our forests into modern homes of charm and utility unmatched elsewhere in the world today. So that tomorrow’s generations may enjoy the advantages of an adequate supply of wood, America’s forest products industries stress the .fact that trees are a crop. By managing our lands as we do to grow corn or cotton, we may enjoy an abundance of wood—forever. Chapman Lumber Co. PARKING METERS In California, recently, a man was arrested for stealing 33 parking meters. Said the culprit, “I wanted to provide for my family.” Looking out for the family is advisable, and we suggest you let us handle your financing. 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