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 FOUTl THE NEWBERRY SUN FRIDAY, JUNE 6, 1952 T 1218 College Street NEWBERRY, S. C. PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY By ARMFIELD BROTHERS Entered as eecond-claas matter December 6. 1937, at the Poatoffice at Newberry, South Carolina, under the Act of Congreei of March 3, 1879. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: In S. C., 31.50 per year in advance outaide S. C., 82.00 per year in advance. COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS By SPECTATOR Yielding To Prisoners Unthinkable Are we Americans losing our pep? Have we become soft and flabby? In recent weeks we have had prison riots at home and war-prisoner riots in Korea. And we negotiate with the prisoners! Anyone who has ever had to main tain dicipline knows that he must always “Command the situation he must not be coerced by prisoners. If a military officer or a prison officer is not ready to give his life, if need be, he is not the man for the job, for that is his job. The old-time school master had some iron in his blood, too; he had to be in full command—and he was. I find it unthinkable that we should yield to rebellious prisoners. Even if the American General who was a cap tive had been killed in the action our army should have taken those prisoners in hand beyond any peradventure. Indiscipline in no new incident in schools, colleges, or armies. Revolts, mutinies, stubborn resistance—all that is old, well known since the world began. But bowing and scraping and coddling—that marks the weakling; it shows a timid spirit where strength and resolution are needed. Sometimes a class has to be disciplined; sometimes a stu dent or a hundred students may have to be expelled; but the present-day habit of yield, yielding, surrendering, is making us ridiculous in the eyes of the world and craven in our own eyes. ■ Many years ago The Citadel shipped (expelled) many Seniors because they “broke garrison”—left barracks after hours, let themselves out -of the windows with sheets, as I recall. Well, now% “breaking garrison is nothing heinous, is it? It doesn't indicate a case of turpitude that makes one think of the devouring flames of the infernal regions. No, indeed! But discipline is discipline. If we don’t want boys to become, men let us send them where milk and honey will be served after they’ve been affectionately tuck ed in bed. And in the handling of men one must have iron in his glove though it may lo^k like velvet. Haven’t you heard of the Sheriffs who walked into the very jaws of death to arrest their man? That was their duty. I like something I heard of my old Chief, President Leguia of Peru. During one of his terms he was seized in the Palace by revolutionists and brought out to the Plaza de Armas (public square) the guards on the Palace roof feared to shoot lest they kill the President, but they stood ready to shoot. The revolutionists said to President Leguia “Tell them not to shoot, or they’ll kill you.” That spunky little gentleman called out to the guards “Do your duty.” Another time Mr. Leguia was virtually dragged from the Palace and carried about four blocks and order ed to sign a resignation as President. With all the guns pointing his way he delayed and delayed, adjusting his glasses and reading slowly the wording of the paper. When he was prodded he said “I'll sign, but the wording isn’t good Spanish; revise it, so I can afford to sign.” He was bidding for time. Then came youtig' Lieutenant Gomez with a platoon. The revolutionists fired point blank and President Leguia and Lieutenant Gomez fell to the ground. Not dead, however, but just prudently. That grand little gentleman rose and held out his hand and said “Rise, Cap tain Gomez”! Men were men in those days! That was before the days of nice, easy young fellows in Washington serving souffles to prisoners and issuing tailored suits! Years ago a distinguished Methodist Minister visited an institution for the mentally afflicted. As he went through a ward one of the inmates approached and asked: “Is the pomposity of the pompous unconditioned?” The great preacher tactfully replied: “Well, that depends.” We might ask today “Is the folly of the foolish unconditioned?” Truman’s Steel Talk Misleading Lying as a fine art: Someone should write a book on the subject. We find all sorts of statements, misstate ments, distortions and perversions, but you can’t pin any one down; he is all things to all men but nothing to any body if that evasion or outright denial will best serve his purpose, or suit his mood. Some people go off half-cocked; some talk through their hats; others perjure themselves without hats, and even when bald-headed. An illuminating instance of entirely misleading talk was the remark of President Truman that the Steel Companies were “making 319 a ton profit on steel.” It seems that they pay in taxes about nine or twelve dol lars of that. The President should know that; but he should avoid slamming around; it is not part of his busi ness to denounce any taxpayer. There is no such thing as a profit before taxes; the industries should stop talking such nonsense: the profit is only after all costs and charges have been deducted. That includes taxes. Taxes are just as much a charge on the product, just as much an item of cost, as labor or the raw material-used in manufacture. lop Priority The Russians are giving us examples of loose talk and utter falsehoods. They say anything, with complete dis regard for the truth, and the public, in part, believes what it reads and hears. We Americans have picked that up and we, too, have issued statements that show that we are becoming very apt followers of Ananias. We are developing a practice of using press agents to make some thing sound like the truth. We can scarcely believe the reports' that are issued because they have been- doctored and sugared, or, else, much of the essence has been strain ed out or drained off. One group of our citizens will shout that those in opposition are liars, thieves, scoundrels; then the other side will declare that the first crowd are just so many Reds, pinks, Stalingites, and enemies of the public. We are losing our sense of proportion, our sense of fair ness; everybody else is not only grievously wrong but villainously wrong, deeply imbrued in the blood of the op position. What’s the matter with us? Can’t we have dif ferences of opinion in mutual respect and forbearance, in love and charity and in brotherly compassion? Something* New From Coal Chemistry is a rich contributor to our National wealth and greatness; it gives us something new frequently and then that starts a great industry, employing thousands of people. It does more; it gives us a product that plays a, part in the American plan of living. Coal may yield many more items to our standard of living, but something new has just come from coal, after seventeen years of research, patient work of the labora tory technicians, assiduously studying, analyzing, compar ing, thinking, thinking all the time. Powdbred coal with hydrogen gas has given us some thing different. Here is part of the story: “The new plant is important because it points the way to a change in the whole economics of the chemical in dustry by providing a potentially large and cheap supply of additional raw material from coal. It will take years—and heavy investment—before it de rives important profits from this venture. This development offers a potential shift in the eco nomics of the local industry, as well, slowly, over the years, coal may find that its depressed market as a fuel is supplemented by an expanding market as a raw ma terial. The present coal tar chemical industry is based on tar made in the by-product coke ovens that feed the steel industry. Its supplies are thus limited by the rate of op eration and the rate of growth of the steel industry. At first steel grew fast and the chemical industry was small. But more recently coke production has been grow ing only about 3% to 5% yearly, and there is no guaran tee that growth based on the current burst of steel mill expansion will long continue. Meanwhile chemical needs have been skyrocketing. For example, stryene, used for synthetic rubber and plastics, which is made from coal-based benzene, has been growing in use at the rate of 37% yearly, and benzene was in critically short supply last year. Consumption of soap less soaps, partly based on coal tar, has been mounting at the rate of 30% yearly. Phenol, used in drugs and plas tics, has been growing at the rate of 14% yearly. The chemical industry therefore has long realized that some day it would have to cut itself loose from its de-< pendence on steel. This, of course, has happened with the development of the huge petro-chemicals industry, mainly on the Gulf Coast. However this hasn’t entirely solved the problem because it is much too expensive at present to make certain ‘coal tar’ chemicals like benzene out of oil or gas, though it is being done. There is also the long range prospect that natural gas will go up in price. ‘We can’t afford to pay as much for gas as housewives can for cooking,’ say the men. . \ The new coal-eating plant, stands among the huge plants which made over 60% of all the butadiene that went into synthetic rubber during the last war. It takes coal from the company’s mines, and grinds it to a fine powder. This is mixed with oils dervied from earlier cycles of the manufacturing process, to make a paste, and then passed into huge converters, looking like (continued on page nine) To Such A Grand Organization Noble Shriners And Their Visitors In Spring Ceremonies of Hejaz Temple-in Newberry Newbeny Federal Savings & Loan ASSOCIATION