Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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SSirartauM THE NEWBERRY SUN FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1960 1218 College Street NEWBERRY, S. C. O. F. Armfield 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., $1.50 per year in advance outside S. C., $2.00 per year in advance. COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS BY SPECTATOR We need more public reve nue; everybody seems to think that the State should broaden public services even though the expansion should result in a seven million dollar deficit. I am using the estimate of a well - informed leader who knows the State government and its finances as well as anyone. I wonder how we can spend more money unless we have more revenue; and how can the State get more revenue with out imposing new taxes? But we are pursuing a course which is difficult to understand; We need more revenue, but we steadily follow a course which threatens to reduce our reve nue. Look over the tax books of your County and then read the State Treasurer’s report. From what sources do we receive most of the revenue? The Rail Roads, Cotton Mills and Power Companies. Rail Roads are taking up some miles of tracks. Thousands of dollars will be lost to our schools and other agencies by that. Now we are threatening the Power Com panies. How? Well these Companies which paid to the State and Counties $4,841,497 last year are to find themselves • paralleled with Central Co-op lines through a loan of about nine million dollars as a start er. I am on a Co-op line my self. but there should be a way to serve our farms with out building parallel lines at great cost. Even though there be no motive now to destroy private Companies, no one will care to invest his money in private power when a parallel line might be used to destroy the private Company. I know many of the gentle men who are promoting the parallel lines and I accept their statement that the parallel lines are intended solely for our farms, mine, too. But the recent news story that 2 of our power companies, working together, 3 will spend $34,000,000 of fresh capital in new facilities brings sharply to mind the need for all tire power we can generate. And men must feel confident that their investment will not be destroyed by a competition financed with government mon ey, or they will not invest their money. Ireadily accept the assur ance that the Central Coop par- allel lines are not intended as a hostile gesture against the private Companies. Senator Edgar Brown, for example, is himself a businessman and a man fully alive to all the needs of the State. Senator Brown is not a Socialist, nor an un practical dreamer; he is a man with both feet on the ground. So it strikes me that what moves the Senator’s heart is the desire for more service and cheaper service for our farms, my land as well as my neigh bor’s. With that we can all agree. But all this can be done without borrowing one dollar. There is pending an offer to supply power to us for less than the contract that has been signed. I can see a great need for all our power; the power of Santee-Cooper and the power of the private companies. There is no need for hostility; and all the power interests can coop erate for the development of the State. In so saykig I speak with appreciation .. of Senator Jefferies and Senator Brown. What they would like to do can be done .^without loans, or mortgages i^-and it can be done under full power of our Staty^XJovernment. More than j are planning can be done, 'for a lower rate has been offer ed to us, a guaranteed rate, under full legal protection. At any rate, do you want to invest your money in a Com pany which has a sword hang ing over it and a knife at its throat? And if we do not in vest in it how shall it raise the money to provide more fa cilities for service? Would the Government provide us with power? Then we lose $4,841,- 497 in talc revenues. iytst can t beat the old saving *fchat ypu can’t eat your cake f^nd haTe it, too. If we lose.4 4 > 84 M 97 * in State revenue, j nr luding hu Adreds of thou- •bcftids of do.4ars in County taxes, shall 'jre ask the Gov ernment to o'Jerate our schools, build our rtmds and operate our health afld police services? If what we want is a sort of Russianized State we can easily find a Stalin among us, for everybody is willing to be the dictator, but nobody wants to be the victim of dictatorship. Those friends of mine whose names I called are in positions of leadership in the State. They have attained high position through years of attention to public affairs. They want to see a glorious era for our State. So do I; and so do you. With their business training they can see that the development of our State does not call for threat and menaces to big public ser vices; nor need a great enter prise like Santee-Cooper tie up its funds to support a Co-op parallel line when it can sell all its power at even a lower rate to the Coops without con structing a mile of line. Before it is too late, why not make a new study of all this situation? I do not suggest an investiga tion by the Legislature; it is not, or should not be, a matter of politics. If men like Edgar A. Brown, James H. Hammond, and Richard M. Jefferies will sit at a table with the private power managers with only the purpose to serve the State, by giving abundant, reliable, de pendable and cheap electric power, the whole matter can be resolved in friendly cooper ation, with better service and without a dollar of unnecessary investment. I have given a lot of thought to this because I have faith in the possibilities of our State; and faith in the ability and pa triotism of the public men who guide the destiny of the State. Think of the possibilities: Our Planning Board could say that South Carolina has unlim ited power; and we should have all the power interests pulling together for the State, public and private power. When a new enterprise seeks a location it gets in touch with the power people. Power is a paramount consideration. Then, again, the Power men know all about water for industrial use—another big factor. With practical, friendly working to gether, our power people are our hope for the great new day. Pretty Bride Of A Newberrian Pictured above is Mrs. Perry Metts Fant, Jr., who is a grad uate of Alabama College and is now teaching in the City School system in Decatur. Mrs. Fant, who before her marriage in January was the former Sarah Barret, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Barret, Mont gomery, is a member of the American Association of Uni versity Women. Mr. Fant at tended Newberry College, and is now manager of the Decatur District of the Guaranty Sav ings Life Insurance Company. The couple is at home at 429 Jackson Street, Decatur, Ala. HARD TO PLEASE Her car stalled at the corner, and the traffic light kept chang ing—red, yellow, green, red, yellow, green. The policeman stepped over to the car and asked in a hurt voice; “What’s the matter lady, ain’t we got any colors you like?” By all means there should be an agreement restricting or pro hibiting the use of atomic bombs. Such an agreement could be effective, as was the agreement not to use gas. But all the nations had gas, had it ready. But the nation that finds itself without the bomb will be pulverized before ; t can say Jack Robinson. So. as a practical matter, let us have the bombs, plenty of them, even with an agreement, for if we do not make the bombs we may be completely smoth ered by any designing Nation that has the bomb. Too much oil in the world! At one time we were told that we were about to exhaust our supply of oil, but now we find that one little country is able to send us more oil than we draw from the land of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Kan sas. By the way, it is interest ing to find that ftie old world produces something more than petitions for our help, isn’t it? The land of the Bible; the land of the Garden of Eden, of Adam and Eve—that land of every good thing, now springs into notice as a fabu lous producer of oil. I quote an account that is of absorbing interest; “The Middle East is the Adam-and-Eve and Garden of Eden country. Its center is the Tigris-Euphrates valley where history began. The nations which form the bulk of it to day are Iran, Iraq, Saudi Ara bia, and the Sheikhdom of Ku wait. In these four countries there are only about 30 million peo ple—about as many as live in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But under their earth, discoveries of recent years show, is nearly half the known oil of the world. Some peroleum has been coming from the area for decades; hectic drilling and piping activity since the war has been spurt- it into world commerce in a rising flood. Last year saw oil pumped from Middle Eastern wells at a 1,300,OOO-barrels-a-day clip. That was almost twice the rate of three years earlier—flour times the volume of pre-war WITHOUT GRAVY . . . A southern mother took her small daughter up north with her last winter. Thje child, having never seen snow before, aroused her mother early one morning, exclaiming; ‘•‘Wake up mother, there is grits every where outside!” They were skating in the rink, and Liza fell down, flop ped over, and came upright again in front of Rastus with remarkable agility. “Did you see how quick Ah recovered may equilib’ium, Ras tus?” “Golly, yaas—almost befo’ Ah noticed it was uncovahed!” 1939. Why is so much of the boom- in foreign oil production head ing for U.S. Ports? Simply be cause there is no place else for it to go. The rest of the world can’t consume it all—yet. To consume a lot of oil a nation must use a lot of mach inery—such as automobiles. A few figures on autos show the great gulf between the U.S and the rest of the world in oil-civ ilization progress. In the U.S. there is one car for every 3.5 people. In Europe there is only one car for every 58 peo ple. In Asia—where the big Middle Eastern oil fountain gushes—there is only one car to every 1,600 people. This nation (150 million peo ple) consumes almost as much oil in a day as all of non-Rus sian Europe (350 million peo ple) consumes in a month. But the U. S., despite its great petroleum thirst, can pro duce almost all the oil it needs in peacetime. The nation has had nearly a million producing wells punched into its earth in the past century. Nearly half a million of them are still dis charging oil today. From them still comes over half of global oil output. In the past cen tury more petroleum has been produced by five U.S. states— Texas, California, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Kansas—than by all the rest of the world. “Thus it is obvious,” says one petrol eum economist, “That, as an import torrent comes in, this hefty home production has got to be throttled down.” And that’s just what’s happening. At the end of 1949, foreign oil, which only a few years back entered the U.S. only in negli gible amounts, was coming in at the rate of about 750,000 bar rels a day—twice as much oil as is consumed by England and three-fourths as much as is used by all Europe outside of Russia. Meanwhile a 750,- 000-barrels-a-day slowdown has hit U.S. oil fields. Most people know the U.S. is a big oil producer itself. What many a man-on-the-street doesn’t know is that of all the oil flowing from foreign fields for international commerce — nearly half is produced by U.S. Companies operating abroad. At the end of 1948 the Texas Co) had total foreign investments of $221 million; Gulf Oil Corp., $107 million; Socony Vacuum Oil Co., Inc., $253 million; Standard Oil Co. (N. J.), $1,- 225,000,000; and Standard Oil Co. of California, $74,677,186. In some cases foreign invest ment is after allowing for re serves for possible losses.” So our oil people have their troubles. €■> o An Important Message from General Marshall A STBONG RBD CROSS mera America. With its host of volunteers the Red / Cross brings relief to the victims of disaster... gives comfort to the hospitalized soldier and veteran • • • helps relieve the anxieties of the serviceman and his family... provides, v in many communities, life-giving blood to the sick and injured. Each year the millions who need help and the millions who want to help are This voluntary effort in behalf of our neighbors strengthens the fibres of democracy. So I ask you to respond to the call for help this year as you have always responded before—with a kind and generous heart. IMS ■ •i.'’ 5- . i 1 - M mm mwz - ■ p You, too, Jg?* can Your RED CROSS > - % p • These Advertisements Sponsored by the Following Firms in Behalf of the 1950 Red Cross Drive now Under Way. Newberry Federal Savings & Loan Association G. B. SUMMER & SONS South Carolina National Bank ODORLESS CLEANERS • MRS. J. W. WHITE Millinery, “Gifts, Baby Garments Size—Infants to 4 years T. ROY SUMMER CARPENTER’S PURCELLS LOMINICK’S DRUG STORE REAGIN’S SHOE SHOP CHAPMAN-HAWKINS HD WE. SHEET’S GULF SERVICE WELLS THEATRE Main Street Pure Oil Station B. C. MOORE & SONS, INC. AMERICAN LEGION POST 24 NEWBERRY MONUMENT CO. MITCHELL’S GRILL Livingston-Wise Post No. 5968 VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS Fairfield Forest Products Co. Carolina Reporting Agency Ruth Doris Armfield I. V. McKinnie NEWBERRY PACKING CO. KEMPER MOTOR COMPANY FARMERS ICE & FUEL CO. Newberry Coca Cola Bottling Co. SAM COOK’S BEER PARLOR NEWBERRY LUMBER CO. ? MURRAY LUMBER CO. NEWBERRY CREAMERY THE MARKET BASKET C. D. COLEMAN COMPANY Newberry Remnant Store BUZHARDT FURNITURE CO. Firestone Home & Auto Supplies Whitesides Dept Store, Inc. R. E. SUMMER, Insurance CITY FILLING STATION “Next to the Postoffice and Just as Reliable” BELK-BEARD COMPANY College Street Texaco Station