Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PAGE POUR 1218 College Street NEWBERRY, S. C. PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY By ARMFIELD BROTHERS Entered as second-dmM matter December 6, 1937, at the Poatoffice at Newberry, South Carolina, under the Act of Congreea 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 Government Estimate 2,000,000 Off Remember all that we hold against the Republicans? Well, if the Republicans had hoodwincked the farmers as sadly as the Trumanites buffaloed the cotton-farmers in 1951 the sons and grandsons and great-grandsons would have reviled the name and memory of the Republicans. But so much shenanigan has been palmed off on us that we did not even notice it! The Government missed its guess on the cotton crop of 1951 by two million bales! That cost the cotton farmers at least $25 a bale! And then while the American cotton farmer sold his cotton under - a ceiling of 45 cents, the Mexican farmers—and others—sold their cotton on a world market for sixty cents, and more! But there is hope yet, for we are, about to harvest a cotton crop in 1952 and the Govern ment has found out its mistake. A lot of good that will do our farmers, eh! Read this: “A House subcommittee said today an over-estimate of the 1951 cotton crop by the Agriculture Department caused a serious break in cotton prices and a resulting loss of millions of dollars to cotton farmers. A large part of the over-estimate ‘could and should have been avoided/ the agricuture subcommittee told the House. Chairman Cooley (D-NC) of the full Agriculture Com mittee made public the repoi*t of the subcommittee which was headed by Rep. Abernethy (D-Miss). Cooley named the subcommittee to investigate the de partment’s crop reporting and estimating procedures upon request of Abernethy and others who complained that the estimate of cotton production dropped two million bales between September and December. In assigning the reason for the over-estimate, the sub committee said that about one-third could be attributed to an error in estimating the acreage in cultivation on July 1, and the other two-thirds to failure to reflect proper ly and promptly bad weather during July and August. The subcommittee .said it was ‘encouraged to find that the general accuracy of the department’s cotton estimates has improved gradually over the past 35 years/ But it added that the crop reporting methods haven’t changed for many years ‘and it is still possible and proable that there will be serious errors in its calculations in any ab normal or unusual years.’ It said a more modern method of estimating crops based on statistical samplings would be much more costly and it doubted if the ‘improvement in the over-all accuracy would justify the increased cost’.” m- Deliberate Foolish Spending How is this for foolish spending? Why should the Government buy stuff and sell it at a loss, deliberately? Well, here we read: “US TO BUY CRYOLITE FOR $260, PLANS TO RE SELL IT FOR $190 A TON. The Government has agreed to buy 13,700 short tons of refined cryolite from the Pennsylvania Salt -Manu facturing Co. of Philadelphia at a price of $260 a ton and will resell it to aluminum companies at $190. In making this announcement, the Defense Materials Procurement Agency said Pennsalt will import, during the next 12 months, 31,000 long tons of .natural cryolite ore from Greeland instead of its usual 12,000. But the company will have to pay a premium price of $100 a long ton for the extra 19,000 tons. The regular price is $48.31. The $260 price the Government is paying Pennsalt for the re fined material—sold under the trade name Kryolith—re imburses the company for the difference in cost. DMPA said this contract will double the amount of cryolite available to the alumium industry in the coming fiscal year. Pennsalt is the only American Processor of natural cryolite. A synthetic substitute is also manu factured, but it is considerably more expensive than the natural material. Cryolite is used as a flux in reducing alumina, the raw material, to the solid metal. DMPA ex plained that Greenland is the only world source for cryolite ore, where it is mined by a single Danish company. In order to supply the ynited States with the extra supply this year, the Danish company is expanding its opera tions. An agency official said that the sharp increase in price demanded by the Danes is partly because of extra costs involved in expanding production, but also because the company knows we need the extra cryolite and that it is the only world source.” Old Dominion Lowers Taxes The Old Dominion! What a grand State she is! Vir ginia calls herself The. Commonwealth of Virginia. So does Massachusetts, as I recall. In this day, when everything goes up and up, it is re freshing to read that Virginia has learned to reduce taxes. I quote: THE NEWBERRY SUN CHICAGO, HERE WE COME “THE STATE OF VIRGINIA For those who have become convinced that the only way taxes can go is up, it is a great relief to learn that in Virginia, the state income tax was cut by 20 percent for 1951 and. 1952. Asked for an explanation of this phenomenon, state leaders say it’s very simple—you just cut expenses. This revolutionary idea has kept the dog wood state in the black every year, except one, in the past quarter century. The fact that in 1952 most states took a record bite from incomes, and in 1950, 40 states spent more than they took in, makes the Old Dominion’s achieve ment little less than extraordinary. Virginia statesmen responsible for this miracle insist that only nonessential expenses were eliminated and that citizens were not shortchanged by cutting budgets for edu cation and health. In 1950, percentage expenditures for schools were higher than in 40 other states and 2.5 per cent above the national average. In the same year, the state’s per capita outlay for health services was also above the U. S. average. Many Virginians have shared in the fight to keep ex penses down, among them Gov. John S. Battle, who re cently cut the 1952-54 legislative budget by nearly 3 percent. Last year, 100 nonessential employees were drop ped from the state payroll. And in 1946, Gov. William M. Tuck pared down 50 departments and agencies to 14 departments and three agencies, thereby saving an esti mated $500,000 a year. State Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr., son of the U. S. senator, sponsored the automatic income- tax-cut law which was responsible for the recent 20 percent reduction. Under this law, the tax is automatically reduced whenever revenues exceed the cost of running the govern ment for that tax year—and the state is careful to b** con servative when sizing up her expected receipts.” As a grandson of Virginia I am proud of her way of doing things. Give Millions, But Taxed Anyway I think it will shock and disgust our people to know that this country has paid millions of dollars in taxes to European countries for the privilege of helping them! A strange thing, surely! We have sent hundreds of thou sands of men to help the countries of Europe defend themselves, or to prepare resistance to any possible ag gression by Russia. Well, we actually lend money— billions—^without hope of repayment, but we have given money outright also in credits, in goods, in munitions— and all that. And we pay a tax to those people for the privilege! I heard that we paid trench-rent—and all that—in the First World War, but I thought it was just idle talk. Doesn’t it seem the last word in tomfoolery? If we had said to the French, in their hour of dire extremity: “We shall send you men and money and equipment and you must pay so much down and so much a month, for all eternity—would they not have jumped at the chance? Yes! But we, we Americans, of all people, we who have sold billions of dollars of stuff to ourselves, on the dollar- down, dollar-a-week for a hundred years—shouldn’t we know how to deal with people? No! We don’t know! We run around handing out the money of American taxpayers and bow and scrape and beg for the honor of giving away our money, and then we pay a tax on it! How did we ever rear such people as misspend the nation’s money? We’ve been reading that the Congress, both the Sen ate and the House of Representatives, have suggested, have recommended, that Mr. Truman apply the so-called- Taft- Hartley law to prevent or curb the steel strike. Well, now: is that a law, or not? If it is a law, why doesn’t Mr. Truman apply it? If it is not a law, then why have it? Someone says that the Taft-Hartley law is suggestive, is permissive, is optional with the President. Is that true? Well, if that is true what sort of men have we in Congress? And what kind of legislation have we? It is said that the President may invoke some other law; he may rely on a section of the Conscription Act, or the Price Stabilization provision, or something else. In recent years bright young theorists thave prepared bills for Congress and the Presi dent has told the leaders in Congress that these bills are “musts,” must be enacted into law; and the Congress jumps at the crack of the whip. I’m reminded that we have a so-called Majority leader in each House of Congress and that he runs about as an errand boy for the President! TT asHngton By Walter Staead S THE TWO political parties prepare for the long battle to the November election, it appears that the American people have some fine hairs to split to deter mine the winner of the presidential contest. » For, as is customary at the close of the fiscal* year, every econ omist, government and private, and all large business trade groups in cluding the United States Cham ber of Commerce, come out with their predictions for business dur ing the.coming year . . . and all, without exception predict business vill be good and employment high. In its prognostications the U.S. Jhamber reported a $40 billion in crease in the gross national pred ict during the past year and a rise if $13 billion in the national income n the first quarter of the year. Prices have remained stable, per sonal savings continued to climb, remendous expansions.are planned jy the oil, chemicals and electric >ower industries, the defense pro gram is “now really beginning to oil” and will preceed without un- lue hardship to the civilian econ- >my. • The disturbing factor, the Cham- er said, was the ponderous gov- ' .rnment payrolls. Total civilian •mployment rose in May to 01.2 nillion and the roll of unemployed .'emained at a post-war low of 1.6 million. In any ordinary year such a rosy report as this, particularly .rom the .most constant critic of .he administration- in power, would >e enough to win an election. # * * However, it appears this one is iot going to be any ordinary elec- ion. One issue, of course, will be n foreign policy and the Korean ar. ^ The 82nd congress adjourned for ie conventions with more work left ndone than was accomplished As is usually the case, for" six month* the congress fritters away long hours on useless debate and thei come down to the last week and passes a whole raft of measures of which 75 per cent of the member ship does not know the content. On the huge money appropriations, over which they have wrangled all sessions, huge sums are added ot slashed from the totals and a mere handful of one house or the other ratify by voice vote after hearing reports of the conference commit tees. • • • The house really went wild on the. controls bills, and was bailed out by the Senate just as it happened in the passing of the 1951 version oi the defense production act. Then were many amendments, slashes cuts, contradictions, and the con ference committee worked lorn hours in bringing some semblanct of order to the weakened bill. Whih it was far from the administratioi bill presented,'it still gave control, over wages, prices, rents, credits and allocations for another K months. As it left the house, it war a politic club in the hands of th« administration, since tl^e house hao killed price controls but hung onto wage controls, thus lifting the lit: on everything the working man hac to buy but keeping a lid on hi.‘ wages . . . and that act may hav< repercussions in many labor cen ters in the coming election. • * • Overriding veto of the McCarrar bill on immigration was a bittei pill for the President to take, th proponents winning by one vot over the necessary two-thirds While the President admitted then were some good features in th« bill, he said they were so embeddec in un-American and other bad fea tures it was impossible for him t. sign it. However the bill become law, at least until the next congress DaleCarnegie AUTHOR OF "HOW TO STOP WORRYING AND START LIVING" Serving Others Dispels Fright ^*WELVE YEARS AGO, says Miss Marguerite Perry, Clanton Alabama, she met one of the most desperately unhappy boys she has ever known. She was working at the Alabama Baptist Children’s Home in Troy, when there came a knock on the door of her room. Opening it she found a young lad of 14, whom we will call John, who lived in one of the nearby cottages. The boy was very much upset and could not control his tears. She invited him in and per suaded him to talk with her, only to learn that he was in such distress that he wasn’t sleeping at night. He didn’t really want to talk over what troubled him, but she induced him to tell her what was worrying him, saying she couldn’t pos sibly help him unless she knew the source of his distress. Finally, after she had made him realize that she was his friend and that she would con- _ . slder his story confidential, he said that he could not think of anything else at night except a scene in which he saw his father kill his mother and then kill himself. Miss I%rry made him realize that this was something in which he had had no hand and told him there was just one way to overcome his distress: to do something for someone else every time the subject came to his mind. She encouraged him to go on long hikes on Saturday afternoons, and during the rest of the week to tire himself physically so he would fall asleep despite himself. And that was all; advice so simple that anyone could fol low it. Shortly after that, Miss Perry left and began teaching in Clanton. To her great and happy surprise one day she found John singing in one of the church choirs, being enrolled as a student in the University engineering school. He had conquered his worry and his sleeplessness, and had achieved a peaceful mental atti tude in doing for others. It would not lend itself to smoothe operation, but we need a President and a Congress of different Parties for ten years so as to get the Government straight again. Magnesium From Sea Water There is a great plant near Wilmington, North Caro lina, for extracting Bromine from sea water. So this will be interesting: “HOW MUCH SALT WATER CONTAINS 5-MILLION TONS OF METAL? The chemical industry, in extracting magnesium from sea water, works one of its many modern miracles. In each cubic mile there are 5-million tons of this ultra-light weight metal! Through equally fantastic chemical magic, this industry turns soybeans into paint, natural gas into television cabinets and coal into shower curtains! Even more fabulous is the ability of the research chemist to take apart various forms of matter, molecule by molecule, and put them together to form entirely new substances never found in nature. From hydro-carbons alone the chemical industry now produces over fifty-thounsand compounds. The vast changes in our economy and the measurable advance to ward continental self-sufficiency brought about by the chemical industry are typical of the forward strides being made by progressive American companies. Only under a system of free competitive enterprise can men exercise the vision and initiative esential to such progress.” So long as Communism exists we cannot afford to re lax. It is the duty of every American to keep the defense effort rolling—the only way to insure our freedom. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1952 ,qss i4fit from ofhT •ditof The BuUetin Free Press, Denver, Colorado, believes it has found the one great trouble with our coun try. In a short editorial entitled “Few Statesmen,the Free Press says: - “The one great trouble with our country today is that we have few statesmen . . . We have a great swarm, a great hoard of politici ans; but it is only now and then that we find a man who is large enough truly to deserve the name— statesman. The large majority in public life today are there not for the purpose of serving the best interest of those whom they are supposed to represent, but they are there purely for self, for self- aggrandizement in this form or that, as the case may be.” * • * Smoke That Cigarette Commenting on gadgets, the Phoenix Home News, Phoenix, Arizona, had this to say recently: “One deviow recently patented would select a cigarette, light it and give it a puff so that an auto mobile driver won’t have to take his eyes off the road when lighting up. The device fits into an automo bile panal. “The inventor says that motorist should not attempt lighting ciga rettes themselves when driving, since such a procedure is danger ous on the modern highway. Thus, his invention which selects, lights and takes a puff,of the cigarette desired. "// occurs to us that the idos may cut down on driver-distrac tion but that the only way to as sure complete concentration in heavy traffic is for the driver to refrain from all other activities. Perhaps a machine that selected a cigarette, lit it and, instead of taking one puff, smoked it com pletely and then tossed it out the window, might be the answer." • • • Irresponsibility The Brownsville Telegraph, Brownsville, Pennsylvania, had this to say recently of responsibility in government: “Freedom automatically entails responsibility. One of the marks of the slave is that he d not need to be responsible beca he has lost his authority over own actions. And when the man becomes irresponsible, he s becomes a slave. Today the pie* of the United States are thre ened by actual tyrannies without and potential tyranny from within. But neither of these men aces so seriously threatens our liberty as our own irresponsibility. Whenever we subordinate the gen-, eral welfare to self-interest is the essence of social irres sibility) we weaken another sto: in the foundation of our freedom.’ KNOW SOUTH CAROLIN, By GEORGE MocNABB CMCT OP PUBLIC RELATIONS SOUTH CAROUNA RESEARCH, PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT BOARD iiill i p mm ■Hi The Council Chamber, in the Charleston City Hall, contains qiany priceless famous visitors to Charleston in the eighteenth century. COUNCIL CHAMBER, CITY HALL, CHARLESTON The Council Chamber in Charleston City Hall contains many valuable works of art, dating from the eighteenth century. At that time it was customary to commission paintings include one Beauregard, defender Other General HH _ Charleston; James Monroe by_S uel F. B. Morse; Charles miniatures of Moultrie and mgs are displayed in the Council Chamber. The best known of these portraits is the John Trumbull painting of George Washington, dated 1791. Trumbull had painted one portrait of the president, but a high official, thinking it too severe, asked him to paint another. The artist was much chagrined by this decision since he knew Washington well, having served as his aide de camp. Nevertheless, he persuaded the president to pose for another. This second portrait, an excellent x likeness and one of the few painted building on the "spot was the without wig and false teeth, is the Market, but it was destroyed in 1796 Washington painting that hangs in in the Charleston fire. In 1801 the the Council Chamber. new city hall was built on that site. r anderlyn r s portrait Jpekson in uniform after the ' T ew Orleans. Historic relics in battle flags; the sword of ' . al Beauregard which he willed *. e city; and a signed letter from \ ictoria Regina expressing sym pathy at the destruction caused by the great earthquake of 1886. Where the City Hall now stands, eighteenth century Charlestonians used to be able to swim, but as the city grew, much of it was filled in and new buildings erected. The first <5 i Mil WITH DiVl.NE AID . . . When the Rev. William Bowen called for divine aid, 200 men leaped to action in Santa Rosa, Calif., and built a church in five hours, 16 minutes. _ ilfS* . ... mm t '% V f ' / Z-y.&iX ' iil .•.* yyyy. •. m •y.yyyyyyyy m X.yy>>s- HOSPITAL GRADUATION . . . Robert Polsunas, 13, received ele mentary grade diploma in Brooklyn hospital, where he as a victim of rheumatic fever. Here, he is congratulated by nurses. He com pleted courses in hospital.