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• - • w. PAGE TWO THE NEWBERRY SUN THURSDAY, MAY 19, 1955 ' 1218 College Street NEWBERRY, S. C. PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY 0. F. Armfield, Jr., Owner 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: $2.00 per year in ad vance; six months, $1.25. m g p Wt r - ■ COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS Fly-by-night people seldom build communities. The citi zens who own their homes have roots deep in the ground; they soon become interested in the schools, churches, play grounds, as well as the quality of the local government, the efficiency of the public services—and a score of other things. There was a time when a young man bought a lot and then saved the money for a house. Perhaps the time between beginning to pay for the lot and the completion of a house was a matter of years And we were taught to think soberly about mortgages. We live in a new era today. “The housing boom continues at a record pace. In the first two months of this year no fewer than 178,000 homes were started, by far the hottest pace in US history and 25 per ct. above last year. At this rate—if it holds—close to 1,400,000 new homes will be started in 1955. But while the residential construction industry sets one record after another, an increasing number of bankers, mortgage men, industrialists and even builders themselves fret about the future.. They fear the pent-up housing de mand of War II is largely satisfied, or soon will be. They foresee plenty of problems rising from the present building 'frenzy, and the high level of mortgage debt—as well as the apparently inevitable decline to come. New housing starts have exceeded 1,000,000 units in each of the last six years. In the ten years ended last Deecember 9,400,000 new homes were built, equal to one-third of all those standing when the boom began. This compares with only around 200,000 a year in several War H years, when la bor and materials were mobilized for the war effort. House starts reached a post-war peak of 1,400,000 in 1950, then re ceded somewhat, only to gather steam again in late 1953, even while industrial production slipped. Last summer a big boost was provided by the easy mortgage terms in the 1954 housing act. Most experts agree that building will slacken later this year. But US Housing Administrator thinks new units-in 1955 will reach 1,300.000 which would be the second highest total on record. Walter W. McAllister, chairman of the Home Loan Bank Board, places the figure for this yeear at 1,200, 000. |jg| All the front page commentary on the situation under scores the importance of this part of the nation’s business The industry runs at $12 billion a year and a good part of the 2,500,000 construction workers get their livelihood from it. New houses generate a good part of the demand for plumbing supplies, gypsum, lumber, furniture, rugs and a variety of home appliances. The impact goes still deeper, since a nice home, with all its appurtenances, helps symbolize the Americafa Way. Sooner or later any proud homeowner becomes addicted to such trivia and triumphs as posies a- long the driveway (seed, fertilizer, hoe and rake) or a gay rumpus room (plywood, paint; bar and booze). All this is business for American business. Just how many more new houses the country needs—or w iU buy has become a multi-millipn dollar question. Be sides the millions of homes built since Wqr H, there are other factors which may indicate a slow-down; rising con struction costs, already skv-high; fewer marriages, and con sequent family formation, because of the low birth rate in the Nineteen Thirties. Even though new family formations decline, housing de mand will be helped by the American habit of continual moving and the simple desire to own a better castle. The desire for a higher standard of living means.more houses just as it does more cars. One economist says there should be a ‘tremendous con tinuing upsurge in new family formations to heights never before known, beginning aboht 1961!’ Reason: the War II babies will get married. And, as for the years immediately ahead, the economist doubts that new starts will fall below 1,000,000 annually. Other sources of continuing housing demand include in dustry growth areas. Suburbs continue to grow at the expense of cities. For example, Long Island’s Nassau county population is up 50 per cent since 1950, while in the crowded New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn population has de creased by 78,000. Finally, even if new home construction does fall off, there still remains a huge market for home repairs and moderni zation. Nawadays house owners spend $4 to fix up old home steads for every $5 which buyers (and their bankers) put up for new homes. Aside from row after row of new homes in old communi ties, and complete new cities, the most spectacular by-prod uct of the residential building boom is the heavy mortgage debt. Today it totals $75 billion against $19 billion just ten years ago. And it continues to grow. Latest figures from the Federal Loan Bank Board show $2 billion new home mortga ges recorded in January against $1.4 billion for the first month of 1954.” BEWARE THE TRAP Let us hope that out of this easy credit will come a citi zenship trained to appreciate the American way of life, even as so greatly modified. The very latest figures on loans for homes may be in this statement from Chicago: “Home loans by savings and loan associations for the three months ended March 31 were 33 per cent higher than in the similar quarter a year ago, J. Howard Edgerton, presi dent of the United States Savings and Loan League, has announced. >. * The volume of home loans in the first quarter totaled about $2.3 billion, compared with $1,744,000 in the corres ponding period in 1954, he reported. Home loans for the year as a whole should top 10 billion in 1955, compared with $8.3 billion last year, he predicted. Loan repayments for the first quarter amounted to $1.2 billion, an increase of 29 per cent over the total of $942 mil lion in the like period a year ago, he said. Repayments should total $4.7 billion in 1955, he added. The other large source of loan capital, savings, should show a gain of $5.2 billions in 1955, a gain of $l billion over new savings in 1954, he reported. Dale Carnegie -it; AUTHOR OF "HOW TO STOP WORRYING AND START LIVING" ^ T F YOU think you can write a story, or a song or a poem, the chances are you can. It must be in you, or you would not be clamoring for expression. Having it accepted by a publisher of stories, or a house that brings out songs, or selling a poem, is another matter. A publisher once told me that one of the greatest mistakes in the profession was a writer not knowing his market, and sending his work to some publication, or publishing house for whom it was wholly unsuited. Naturally, when a writer has put down on paper hia innermost thoughts and feeling, he thinks at once of publish ers’ names that he sees most frequently. So off goes his work to one of them, regardless of whether those particular houses go in for his “type of stuff.” So the second thing for a writer to do is 4o learn his market. Many a good piece of work has gone unread, or a lovely song unaimg because has not been done. . An unknown name is, of course, another obstacle. CABNEGOp Carrie Jacobs Bond, whose “The End of a Perfect Day” is sung all over the world, could not get it published. So she had it printed and went from door to door selling it. The late Dr. Charles Wakefield Cadman wrote some to an Indian legend and called it “The Land of the Sky Blue Water.” Eight publishers turned it down. Most of them gave him miyi encourage^ ment, however. That song, long before Mr. Cadman died more Cum a decade ago, sold more than a million copies, after the eighth pub lisher recognized its quality and its possibilities. I could go on and on with similar recitals. So if you want to write something anything at all—write it; and don’t allow yourself to become discouraged! o n »» This is an age of power, all kinds of power. The trained man of science dreams of using explosive power for industry, substituting coal, oil, gas and electricity. The electric power leaders are experimenting to find practical uses for the so- called Atomic power in the generation of electricity. I quote something of interest on the general studies and experiments to harness the incalculable energy which can be released by atomic power. “American scientists are hard at work seeking to harness the limitless energy of the H-bomb for peaceful production of power. Success, if it comes, would be a matter of years. One leading nuclear physicist says: Tt won’t come within the next five yeears.’ But some day this effort could make ob solete today’s new uranium-fueled atomic reactors. It would employ plentiful, relatively cheap lithium as a prime source of atomic fuel. • One AEG statement woudn’t disclose any revolutionary way to tap this H-Bomb energy. Much important work re mains to be done on highly intricate problems. But lifting the secrecy lid on what’s already known would enable indus trial laboratories to get along on work they‘ve been ham pered in tackling thus far. * Uranium reactors being built for power purposes depend on the atom-splitting process, known as nuclear^ fission, which first made the atomic bomb possible. This reaction occurs because one form of the mineral uranium gives off particles called neutrons which have the ability to split the uranium atom. When the atom-splitting takes place, enor mous amounts of heat and energy are released. This reac tion feeds on itself, in chain fashion; as more atoms are split, additional neutrons are released. The process contin ues until much of the uranium is used up. In a borqb, energy is unleashed in an uncontrolled explosion. In a reactor, the process is controlled so heat is generated more slowly and over a longer period of time.” As a plain American citizeii I am doubtful of much of our effort to do with, or do for, so-called backward nations. I know that the purpose is a noble one and I sympathize with the magnanimous spirit which inspires our American world mindedness, but I have spent a lot of time in foreign coun- tries-^-ten years in one group—and I think we are the world’s best-intentioned people but the world’s worst bung- I thing our foreign aid was a grandoise scheme of hectic dreaming, a sort of nightmare, and I think it continues as a fervent hallucination. The President and the Congress should balance our Na tional budget by stern measures of elimination, as well as resolute measures of retrenchment. Here in South Carolina our budget should be balanced by making the budget conform to probable revenue. Apparently this is an era of unreason and all of us are as unbalanced as the State government is. Governments are like men and women; most of our people spend large sums of money merely to gratify whims, or to keep up with the neighbors. We need a political martyr—a man who will do what needs to be done; who will take the bull by the horns and choke him. Such a courageous course would win the applause of most taxpayers, though it might inflame and alienate tax- eaters. Q—Caa yon tell me ham hunting and flehtng ranks with ether sports? A—In 1953 there were about 32 million hunting and fishing licenses issued. For the same year, baseball drew 18 million paid cus tomers. Rodeos drew 20 million and horse racing about 30 million. Q—Can yen tell me aetoaBy hew many attended the dinner fat Wash- fegton for Speaker Sam Baybnrn? Who got the money? A—There were 3700 places set. More than that number attended at a rate of $100 per plate. The dinner was in the National Guard armory and was served by the combined cuisine of the Mayflower and Statler hotels. Profit went to the Democratic National Com mittee. Q—Which President was l» who la said to have been drafted and hired n snbstttnte to serve In the army far him? A—Grover Cleveland was drafted for service in the Civil War by the Federal Army. He hired a substitute, then a legal right. Q- Can yea give me the names of ether army officers boaldco Flam hewer who became President. A—Generals Grant and Zachary Taylor became president. Other pres idents have performed military service in some capacity, includ ing Jackson. William Henry Harrison, Pierce, Tyler, Johnson, Lincoln, Hayes, Garfield. Benjamin Harrison. McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and Truman. Q—What are the qualifications pres crib ad for n president? A—He must be a natural-bom citizen, at least 38 years eld end tor At least 14 yaars a resident of the United States. Q Peea the Library of Congress have a file of newapapecs? A—Yes. The library receives 770 American newspapers and 870 for- v eign. Only 210 American newspapers are preserved in hi»*di"gv or microfilm: 800 of the foreign papers are preserved. The Library also has about 20.000 periodicals. From the Wildwood Independent Record, Wildwood, N. J.: Remem ber the prises that obtained back in 1925? You could get a new small car for $500. You could get a good cigar for a nickel. And you could buy a reliable watch for one dollar. Those days are gone, no doubt forever. But there are a few—a very few—commodities in general use which still sell at around the 1925 price. Gasoline, the oil industry’s principal product, is one of them. Exclusive of the taxes, over which the industry has no control, and which are up 250 per cent, gaso line now costs only slightly more than it did in 1925. And, measure by the barometer of performance, it costs substantially less—for two Igalkms of today’s motor fuel do • the work that required three in an earlier era. - Various forces .have helped to | bring this about. For one, con- sumption is far greater, and the more,we use of anything, general ly speaking, the cheaper the price. For another, the oil in dustry has always been a leader in scientific research designed to produce new products, better prod ucts, and lower-priced products. And for still another, intense com petition is a hallmark of the oil industry—in refining, selling and •very other phase of operation. Very likely that has been the greatest of all the forces. In any line of endeavor, competition la the consumer’s best friend. From the Harvard Herald, Har vard, Illinois: Recently the word spread in Livingston, Mont, that mountain lions had been spotted on a nearby ranch.' The chase was on and before the hunt was over two large cats had been treed and shot One measured se^-n feet and weighed. 125 pounds and the other was seven feet six inches and weighed 145 pounds. The interesting part about these native lions is that they always head for the false security of a tree when the hounds are after us assuring their ultimate destruction. They cannot reason that immediate security is, not always the best—that the only escape from the tree is down, into a trap of their own setting. Sometimes we people reason as poorly. We encourage inflated government spending and public debt to get some easy money, thereby setting a tax trap for our selves just as the lion made the fatal mistake of dimbipg a tree for temporary relief. More than one people has been trapped into bankruptcy by the baying of public spenders. : roue W HATEVER one may think about former President Har ry S. Truman, his recent visit to Washington was as refreshing as a mountain breeze in the stuffy, whispering-in-ears and censor laden atmosphere of the Capitol City. Mr. Truman’s visit brought back some of the human warmth now missing here. His effervescense and frank down-to-earth comments were at wide variance to the secrecy and behind-door meetings of Congressional committees which are now largely becoming the rule, rather than the exception. His rather corny adjectives, his broad grin, his rubbing shoulders with taxi-drivers, with people on the streets, his very innate friend liness, his early morning walks which drew crowds everywhere and friendly greetings from the men and women on the streets— all were in such broad contrast to the stilted, looking-over-the- shoulder, chilly and cheerless attitudes and blank faces which now pervade official Washington, as to invite widespread comment throughout, not only the news paper fraternity, but almost every where in the city. More, Mr. Truman brought back to Washington the two-party sys tem. He made it plain there was a Democratic party and a Repub lican party and that next year there is a Presidential election; that so far afc he was concerned there was no bi-partisanship about this. There was no hush-hush about his attacks upon the Admin istration, nor upon President Eisenhower where he thought the President was wrong. And in so — doing he issued a plain rebuke to the leaders of the Democratic par ty in Congress who at best have been politically afraid of criticis ing President Eisenhower because of his widespread popularity. As a matter of fact it begins to appear that many of the top Dem ocrats in both Senate and House, most of whom come from the South, and who can be reelected in 1968 almost without firing • shot at the Eisenhower adminis tration, have decided to use Just those tactics. Which wiU make It tough for the relatively few north ern Democrats up for reelection in 1956, and who must base a cam paign upon opposition to Eisen hower and the Eisenhower admin istration. Debate and committee — over the restoration of the 90% of parity to farm prices set a precedent It was such a remark able precedent that Representa- tive Harold D. Cooley, chairman of the House Agricultural commit tee a committee member for twenty years, printed a committee document and distributed thous ands of copies to farm groups. Tha pamphlet contained the testi mony of Walter P. Reuther, Pres ident of the CIO; George Meany, President of the AFL, and the presidents of lour or five unions the CIO ranks, all in favor of restoration of 90% of parity for the farm basic crops. ggi The writer of this column, has for 15 years been saying that if the Labor and Farm groups would Mice get together on a single ob jective they could get wi they wanted in Congress. m ■jwm. By Maurice Vincent ' !. I — Mm m ' il T HE gentleman entering the Silver Dollar Cafe wore tan gloves and carried a silver headed type that concealed a long and Tha genflaman, ] Quincy Harrigan by name, was known by tha police of three con tinents for certain felonious activi ties concerning the v banking pro fession. Every literate person in the world had heard of “Come counter, ttowd his hat at an ex- Mr. nate counter, tipped his hat at an passive angle and looked at tha picked up his cane, and waitress who appeared to be slightly flustered. She was staring at the man as she might geze at an exotic bird. , “Coffee, my dear,” said Mr. Harrington gently. He had a weak ness for pretty girls and Trexy Hartman was decidedly a pretty girl Mr. Harrington’s tastes were generally pretty jaded . . . and expensive. But this girl could well be an exception, Mr. Harrington mused. “What is the name of the banker in this village, my girl?” asked “Come Again.” He waved n hand expressively and on his little finger glittered a stone large enough to blind a locomotive headon. “Mr. Grange Hartman .... sir,” said Trexy. Harrington fashioq that believe she of Einstein’ ory- “And where does Mr, . . . live?” asked Mr. softly. It was his fashion to make a social call on the bankers of his choice. What went on at those conferences only the bankers and f Mr. Harrington were aware. Mr. Harrington considered this knowledge as business secrets and the bankers were generally too reluctant to bring up the subject . . . even to the police. “Mr. Hartman.... Uvea tha street (she pointed a 0 In the white hou “Mr. thing. of money, the the Silver Dollar Cafe, and them to the gaudy stranger. “Would you...give this money, to my Harrington aa his walking stick ■ ~ v - ■> his gloves. tleman’s poise had left him. **My dear,” said Mr. ton sadly. “You have just a fine career.” Trexy looked at him, not standing. There was a light in eyes that no one, e Harrington, had been pri to see. “Come Again” recognised the look and him a bit sad to think of wasted years. As he arose f the stool, leaving his coffee he looked at the of the Silver Dollar. __ glanced at the lovely features 1 Trexy Hartman. He handed the money the girl. ‘ “Must be gc soft,” he muttered. He his gloves and stfc you to to leave. He “WiU you again?* “I doubt it,” said ton. Then he “Congratulate your upon his good fortune... him teat “Come Again” ton win not paas this wa: He’ll understands Then, polite tip of his expensive was gone. imi — ■ ■ ■c mmm : sr r s Rtf L The science of kinematics relates to (a) motion; (b) (c) relationships. 2. Otiose means (a) vain; (b) still; (e) apparent. 3. A shake is (a) walking stick; (b) tall military cap; (o) foal weather garment. ' : ANSWERS *r*A •* *mn«ai MBg *l —— — mm m m WEED CUTTER . . With an bat thr shawn, a discarded or U ms a mowtng , «■ light and 4 , <&.- J -- YS’ -'/''• i/Sss*-* ' -1