The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, September 14, 1951, Image 4
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THE NEWBERRY SUN
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBEft^i4, 1951
1218 College Street
NEWBERRY, S. C.
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
By ARMFIELD BROTHERS
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 . . .
Real Cost Of Food Compared With
Wages Below Level Of 1929-1939
What is a dollar, worth? That
is discussed among bankers and
economists and public speakers.
Most of us don’t worry about the
gold content of the dollar; we
know that beefsteak is so high
that we stand on a ladder to see
it; and we remember that some
years ago, not many years, beef
steak could be bought for one-
third of today’s price. That is
not the fault of the market which
sells the beef; that steer or
“beef” on the foot on the farm or
ranch sells . at a skyrocketing
price. Nor does that mean that
the farmer or rancher is waxing
rich; he may be handling more
money, but what remains in his
hands won’t buy much..
We are, all, dancing around and
around.
In this era of high wages and
high prices there is more money
floating around, but the condition
of each man may be like that of
a fine gentleman I knew in Beau
fort some years ago—when a dol
lar was a dollar and would buy
four pounds of Beaufort steak;
when men were men and lived in
the wide, open spaces—and all
that. The gentleman of Beaufort
was the top citizen and a fine
Chrisitan gentleman. Many visit
ors to Beaufort asked “Is Mr. X
very wealthy? The reply was us
ually this: “He isn’t so wealthy
but he handles a lot of money.”
That’s our condition; we handle
a lot of money because it
takes a lot of money to buy
anything. We ‘“handle it” but it
won’t stick; at least what re
mains won’t be very much. This
condition, as you know, is called
INFLATION.
I read a number of commercial
and financial reports, business
papers and corporation returns,
and it is quite common to find a
business concern doing more bu
siness and making less money.
Many a large corporation reports
20 per cent more sales and 20 per
cent less profits. Like my Beau
fort friend, they handle a lot of
money, but it won’t stick.
Some of the writers and ex
perts tell us that a dollar is
worth only a part of what it used
to be worth, or example, 54 cents
generally, as compared with what
it would buy in 1940. In buying
food it is worth 44 cents; 77
cents in paying rent; but if you
buy material to equip a home the
dollar is worth just 46 cents;
when you buy clothing, or coal,
the dollar is 50 cents; but the dol
lar of today is worth 65 cents
when you buy ice. The learned
man who gave us all this infor
mation tells us that the house
that cost $4,400 in 1940 has taken
wings and now is $10,000.
Turning to Mrs. Annie King’s
Standard and Review of Aiken,
I find that she has something to
say about the cost of high living
as well as the high cost of liv
ing. Says Mrs. King:
“One of the common beliefs to
day is that the cost of food is
sky-high, and is completely out
of line in the light of the prices
of past times. So it will come as
a surprise to most people to
learn that the ‘real cost’—the
amount of time workers must
spend to buy given quantities of
food—is lower than it used to be.
As proof of this, take a typical
‘market basket’ of foods contain
ing bread, round steak and pork
chops, butter, flour, coffee, and so
on. According to U. S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics, the average in
dustrial worker would have had
to work 438 minutes to buy the
basket in 1929, 275 minutes in
1939 and 274 minutes in June of
last year. In April of this year,
by contrast, he could buy it with
264 minutes of work. It is notable
that the ‘real cost’ of food , in
terms of wages is substantially
lower than in 1929 and 1939 which
were periods of severe depress
ion of agriculture, with resulting
drops in prices.
In short, the worker can buy
more food with his labor than be
fore.
I’ve held back a shock for you.
The United Press sent from Min
neapolis a news release under the
date of August 27, which says:
“Gas and electric rates are about
what they were before the war.
The Government’s Consumer in
dex of prices shows the* com
bined gas-and-electricity item as
costing one per cent less than it
did in 1940, making your 1951
dollar worth $1.01—one dollar
and one cent. This I found in The
News and Courier of August 28.
If my very able friend. Editor T.
R. Waring, does not know that
“‘The Courier” carried this item
he must acquire the habit of read
ing his good paper every morn
ing.
So the dollar is not only a dol
lar, but a dollar and one cent
when you buy gas and electric
ity! That means that it must be
two or three dollars if we think
of steak, or the American favor
ite— ham and eggs.
As I write this I have The
State and The News and Courier
on my table* and am impressed
by the statement of Mr. S. C.
McMeekin and Mr. E. L. God-
shalk of The South Carolina Elec
tric and Gas Company that the
increase in rates asked by the
Company will still leave the rate
lower than it was in 1939. I was
so impressed by that that I
asked to see the figures and was
really surprised to observe the
result. Our Public Service Com
mission recently granted the big
bus companies another increase—
this time about 20 per cent on
the tickets I have bought. Since
this makes the third or fourth
increase in my bus fares within
about five years I am convinced
that the Public Service Commis
sion is looking into all the facts
Iso that the Utilities (Buses, Rail-
| roads, Telephones, Telegraph and
Power companies) will not be
forced to operate at a loss. All
other business fixes it own prices.
These regulated companies are
controlled by Public Commissions
which have not hesitated to de
mand lower rates in years gone
by; so, perhaps, turn-about is
fair play, as we used to say.
Of course if I don’t want to pay
the increased rates on the buses
“It PAYS
to
Get Started
RIGHT!
Yes, it certainly pays to get started right by putting
away a fixed amount of your income every week in a
savings account against the time when your income
may lessen.
You can go around with a smile on your face because
you won't have any worries about your saving account,
and too you will know that a savings account here is
always liquid, always safe, and insured by the govern
ment.
South Carolina National Bank
John T. Norris, Mgr.
Joe L. Keitt, Asst. Mgr.
Gigi Perreau, the 10-year-old who has taken over the Shirley Temple-
Margaret O'Brien crown as juvenile queen of the movies, is what actors
call a natural "fast study." Not only does she learn her roles fast, well and
easily, but she's a natural mimic, as Virginia Field found when she
strutted her stuff in a bathing-suit for Universal-International’s "Week
end With Father." Gigi will be seen with Miss Field, Van Heflin and
Patricia Neal in that one.
I can drive my car.
The only draw-back there, is
that something has happened to
the price of gasoline, tires, oils,
grease—and all that. Don’t over
look that the car that sells for
$1600, stripped like a lad in a
bathing suit, may have sold for
$800 years ago. Cars, gasoline,
tires grease and oil do not re
quire permission of fi Public
Service Commission to “go up”—
they just rise, like the leaven in
the three measures of meal, the
Good Book tells about.
Is there such a thing as “War-
prosperity”? Well, people think
so; at least we "handle more mon
ey,” don’t we? I’ve just seen h
statement by one of the experts.
Here’s what he says:
“Our whole experience shows
that much that is said and be
lieved on the subject of ‘excess
profits from war orders’ is pure
fiction—and no segment of our
economy realizes this better than
business itself. .Records show that
business generally, including the
so-called war industries, enjoys
wider profit margins in peace
time than it can ever expect to
make in wartime or emergency
rearmament.
During 1941 to 1945, inclusive,
the average profit on sales of all
manufacturing operations publish
ing reports was 4.3 per cent; in
1936-40 the comparable figure was
6.6 per cent; and in 1946-50 it
was 7.0 per-cent.
What no doubt gives many peo
ple an illusion of profit and pros
perity in time of war and heavy
rearmament is the inflation that
goes along with it. They should
remember that sooner or later
the penalty of fiscal, monetary,
political and social disorder and
disruption of production, price
and trade relationships has at
be paid.
In *,1914 a man earning $80,000,
kept after Federal income taxes,
96 cents of his top bracket dol
lar. In 1948 he could keep only 26
cents. And under the bill now
before congress he may keep on
ly 5.5 cents.
There is no profit in war.
Tom Lindler of Georgia is up-
in-arms frequently. In fact there
is occasion for someone to speak
in loud tonds and in emphatic
words. Our friend ’'Lindler has
something to talk about when he
proves that the Government
which loves us so tenderly has
flim-flammed us much of the
time. This country needs more
Tom Lindlers. Our late Senator
Tillman once spoke at length in
the Senate and seemed to be
rambling. A senator who prod
ded our famour “Pitchfork Ben’”
asked, “Would the senator please
tell the senate what he is talking
about?” To which Mr. Tillman
replied in a harsh voice, “I am
discussing the general cussed
ness of the situation.” Well, Tom
Lindler gets down to cases. He
tells us that our government
compelled all American citizens
to “turn in” their gold and pafd
$20 an ounce for it, while the
same government paid foreigner?
$35 for it. And Mr. Lindler has
been telling us for some months
that our government put a ceil
ing price of 45 cents on Ameri
can cotton while foreign cotton
was belling for much more in
world markets, in world competi
tion.
was nearly 52 cents a pound, or
14.70 cents above the price of
our cotton on that day, and six
cents above# the ceiling price
clamped down on American cot
ton by our government.
The report was sent to me by
a leading Southern cotton man
ufacturer.
I think our government is so
busy meddling with the affairs of
Europe and Asia that it hasn’t
time to consider America. We are
all upset about the oil problem
in Iran and what may happen to
Britian; and we finance with bil
lions all sorts of regimes all
over the world; and our tea
cup and spoon specialists are
gravely concerned about so
much poverty in the world that
they are blind to what is under
their feet. Some measure of con
sideration we owe the people of
other countries, but charity is an
individual quality, not the prov
ince of governments spending the
income of their own taxpayers.
We have been talked and press-
agented, and ballyhooed and ca
joled, admonished, warned, and
terrified into an attitude of ac
ceptance of m6st of the fantastic
imagining of theorists who think
of America as the fabulous land
which, under their guidance, shall
lead the peoples of all nations
and climes into #the Promised
Land; and that then they shall
be the leaders of men in all this
world Utopia.
We have not yet made ’Of our
own country the Garden of Eden;
we have far to go, although we
have made great progress.* We
are fast becoming gross mater
ialists; we think of America as
the great nation of billions and
the power of billions.
Look at little Scotland: she
sjands for sturdy qualities, for
spiritual leadership, for solid
attainments. She is respected
everywhere; she has developed
a world leadership built on
character. We need a fresh bap
tism of consecration, a renewing
of the forces within, emphasizing
the enduring ideals of our found
ers and repudiating the blatant
presumption of mere dollar-power.
There is a point at which even
justice does injury.—Shakespeare.
A man who neglects his duty
as a citizen is not entitled to his
rights as a citizen.—Tiorio.
Radio Woman
I have before me a report from
Paine, Webber, Jackson and Cur
tis, Cotton men of New York,
Boston and Chicago, showing that
on August 17 Brazalian cotton
Helen Sioussat, right. Director
of Talks for the CBS Radio
Network, receives an award
from Alice M. Chadwick, presi
dent of the Ladies Auxiliary of
the Veterans of Foreign Wars,
as “the outstanding woman of
1951 in Radio and TV.” Award,
for distinguished service, was
one of the first two ever given
by the organization.
:: •'>.
YES—YOU CAN
TALK YOUR.FAT
AWAY SAYS HE!
Want to loose weight? All
you have to do is talk your fat
away.
Louis T. Freed, writing in Coro
net, announces that “-group psy
chotherapy” is achieving miracul
ous results among the Mr. and
Mrs. Five-by-Fives of the nation.
Group psychotherapy, says
Freed’s article: TALK YOUR
FAT AWAY,, is basically nothing
more than putting to work the
adage: “Misery loves company.”
“People who have a problem in
common get together and freely
discuss it without fear of mock
ery,” says Freed, “In doing so,
they are stimulated to compete
with each other in accomplish
ing a common objective, while
each individual develops a feel
ing of mutual understanding and
support.”
obesity, therefore, is often a phy-
chological problem, why not try
to cure it through “group psycho
therapy?”
“The only way to lick a prob
lem is to be equal to it—not be
eating your way through it,” says
Dr. Chapman. “Whatever it is
that may be bothering you, talk
it out with others who have sim
ilar problems. Don’t try to digest
it in the stomach instead of the
mind!”
HARPE TO FT. AJCKSON
Second Lt. Nathaniel Harpe,
son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel
Harpe, 225 Werts Avenue, New
berry, S. C., has been assigned
to Company “I”, 61st Infantry
Regiment, 8th Infantry (Golden
Arrow) Infantry Division, gar
risoned at Fort Jackson.
He has served a sixty-day tour
of duty at port Bragg, N. C., be
fore reporting at Fort Jackson.
Flowers and Gifts for All Occasions
CARTER’S
Day Phone 719 — Night 6212
AVOID NEXT WINTER’S
UNCERTAINTIES
The talk-your-fat-away technique
in other words, works something
like Alcoholics Anonymous. For
example: Mrs. X lost 40 pounds
as a result of her “heart to
heart talks.” She had. them
with insurance executive Y, who
lost 34 pounds and stenographer
Z, who eventually lost 28, and
with 47 other fat people—men
and women in equal despair of
fruitless efforts to slim down.
Together these 50 people consti
tuted a “class” or “group psycho
therapy for weight control.” In
16 weeks the “class” lost a total
of 1,200 pounds! Meeting only
once a week for an hour a day,
its 50 “students” literally talked
themselves into becoming health
ier and happier individuals.
The idea ot using group
psychotherapy in weight reduc
tion is the brain child of Dr. Al
bert J. Chapman, former chief of
the Division of Chronic Disease,
U. S. Public Health Service. His
interest in the matter was arous
ed by a mountain of evidence
proving that fat people are more
susceptible to disease than those
of normal girth.
One of the most interesting
finds was the fact that fat peo
ple contrary to popular belief,
are neither characteristically hap
py nor lazy. At least 90 per
cent of the ones interviewed were
found to be active, hard working,
ambitious, intelligent — and un
happy.
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Dr. Chapman became convinced
that whatever was bothering fat
people the “irritant was being
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