The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, September 08, 1955, Image 2
PAGE TWO
THE NEWBERRY SUN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1955
1218 College Street
NEWBERRY. S. C.
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY
O. 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.
COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS
I read the annual report of a great National corporation
recently and IVe thought over it while driving miles and
miles over the State. It brought to mind something I heard
a short time ago—that we should be in favor of SMALL
businesses instead of BIG business.
That appeals to our sympathy because most of us are en
gaged in business in a small way. We think of the man
planting twenty to fifty acres, or operating from one to
three mules. But this country is fast getting away from
that; tractors are seen all around us. There is a point at
which machinery becomes less expensive in operation than
mules and men behind the plow. Of course there may be
machinery which costs too much for a few acres.
It is probable that we of the South may have to produce
cotton in competition with countries of cheap labor; we
can't compete in a world market unless we can produce as
cheaply as the others. The remedy will be more machinery,
larger cotton plantations, with lower cost per pound. That
may mean farming by corporations. That may bring about
the loss of the life on the farm as we know it. Progress,
however, points that way.
What would an automobile cost if made by hand, as wagons
were made a hundred years ago? The two thousand dollar
car would probably cost at least six thousand dollars, even
with inferior tires. Heavy investment in machinery makes
a lower cost for each part. That great investment is based
on investigation and experimentation.
The gasoline we use in our cars today is much better than
the gas we used in the Model T. The improvements are
based on expensive tests and laboratory development.
Says a mammoth oil corporation: “Crude reserves in the
ground were larger at the end of 1954 than at the beginn
ing of that year. That was because that company—and all
other companies—are constantly buying land and making
expensive explorations and tests. This company I am talk
ing about invested $600,000,000 last year in expending and
improving plants and equipment. That big figure is just
two percent morethan it spent for the same purpose in 1953.
And, in addition to the $600,000,000 spent in 1954, it in
vested $164,000,000 for leasing, exploration, dry holes and
other costs involved in the search for oil.
During five years the affiliate, or subsidiary companies,
belonging to the big company, spent for plants and facilities
$2,500,000,000.
I quote this explanatory statement: “The need for very
large capital investments year after year is one of the
striking characteristics of the oil business; they are es
sential in order to meet ever-increasing demands and to
maintain our position in this highly competitive industry."
That great company has 300,000 stockholders; it isn’t a
millionaires’ club; the man whose purchase of stock made
him number 300,000 bought eight shares through the Thrift
Club. We have gasoline everywhere. No other country has
such convenient pumps and other facilities.
I am not on the payroll of any oil company; I am interest
ed primarily as a student of economics, as well as one who
has to buy quite a bit of gasoline.
My mind ran along this line following a conversation I
recently had with a graduate of the Citadel who is now an
executive in a concern not selling gasoline. He is a student
of affairs and talks to me as a one-time instructor at The
Citadel. I find him very stimulating.
How would you like to go back to the era of smokey,
smelly, dim oil lamps? Even the oil is cheap because pro
duced as I’ve said about gasoline. But today we have elec
tric lights, electric power, at the turn of a switch. You
don’t have to run out and recharge a battery, as we do for
our cars; the current, the power, is there. Well, how can
the company know whether you will use ten 100-power
lights tonight, or darken the house for a week? How does
it know whether a thousand operatives will rest an after
noon throughout the territory? It must be ready for all
demands. That means heavy investments, heavy costs, and
we have cheap, dependable power day and night. The
company serving this territory spend millions and millions
every year in order to be ready, because it can’t tell how
many of us will suddenly install air conditioners, yard
lights—and all those items of present-day good living.
One night, just a week ago, the telephone at the head of
my bed started to wake the dead. It was two o’clock mid
night. I touched a button and had light. What a con
venience. I don’t know whether that gentleman is a late
sitter or an early riser, but there was his telephone at his
hand and at my head.
'In the days of little oil companies, little power companies
and little telephone companies we had no such service.
And now comes natural gas, brought to us from Texas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Alabama, through hun
dreds of miles of big pipes. What a convenience! Well I
recall, just six or seven years ago, riding across Texas at
"PLODS HIS WEARY WAY"
night—that is part of Texas—I saw flares burning. That
was natural gas set on fire because it was a nuisance. We
didn’t know what to do with it; it was as useless to us as
cotton seed was to our forefathers. Do you know about
that? Cotton seed, so rich in oil, meal, hulls, linters, was
a waste material. Then someone had a bright idea and
used the seed for a stable bed!!‘And now so valuable today
that a few Maine sardines in cotton-seed oil can’t be dis
tinguished from high-priced French sardines in olive oil—
and so on, except by people of such acutely sensitive taste
perception as to be miserable at all times.
A story from Geneva.
“The first global atomic conference ended with the two
leading commercial powers, Britain and America, each
starting with a supercilious air at the other’s program for
building nuclear power stations.
England’s distinguished newspaper, the Manchester Guar
dian, seemed ready to burst into derisive song. It plastered
this on its front page: ’The United Kingdom has made, and
proved, a claim to be more advanced in the development of
atomic power than any other country, the United States
and Russia included. No wonder the British delegates as
well as the exhibitors at the commercial exhibition, wear a
smile of bouyant confidence’.
This divergence of opinion, which is both honest and ex
pert, can be explained simply. In their quest for atomic pow
er the two nations are traveling quite different roads—and
with very good reason.
The big fact about England is that it is running out of
coal and of men willing to mine coal. Thus fuel for conven
tional electric utility plants is becoming fabulously expen
sive and much of it must be imported with expenditure of
dollars that are hard for the British to come by. Under these
circumstances even inefficient atom plants can be competi
tive with the old coal burners, so the British government
certainly is going to build a lot of them in a hurry. Seven
teen large atomic stations, some of them powered by more
than one reactor, are slated to begin production within the
next decade; the first will begin producing electricity next
year. But even in launching its atomic program Britain
has encountered a grave problem of fuel. For the first
phase of its civilian construction—involving a dozen sta
tions—it wil have only natural uranium available to put in
the reactors. In this natural form only one atom out of 140
is the kind that will ’burn.’ The great bulk of such fuel will
be inert.
Designing an atomic furnace to utilize such an inefficient
fuel is like designing an orthodox plant to bum peat. The
British have made the best of a bad proposition; they are
building ’safe’ atom plants, ones that seem sure to work.
But they will be bulky, expensive, primiil e affairs. Tons
of carbon dioxide gas will carry heat rather inefficiently
from the reactors to water boilers; steam from this water
will drive turbines and thus generate electricity.
It will take eight or ten years apparently for England to
obtain a significant supply of enriched fuel.
Now turn to America. The United States, with abundant
cheap coal and oil, really has no urgent need for atom
power. Officials of the companies which make reactors say
I
frankly that most of thejr utility company customers have
no early expectation of cutting costs by building atom plants;
their primary motive is to stake this out as an area of pri
vate rather than public power.
And since the first atomic stations are, at best, going to
be less economic than orthodox modern coal-fired plants—
are, in effect, going to be subsidized by purchasers and their
power customers—the American gambling spirit comes into
play. Instead of concentrating like the British on one ’sure’
type of plant, the Americans are experimenting with a be
wildering variety.
One can think of these U. S. Commercial experiments as
forming the pattern of a roulette wheel. One or more of the
gambles may be a winner—may prove able even in America
to undercut the cost of producing electricity from tradi
tional fosil fuels. If so, there could within a few years be
a stampede to atomic power that might dwarf the big Brit
ish program. England’s scheme now looks larger partly be
cause it is socialized, planned as a unit by government of
fices and projected far in advance. When the atom power
rush gathers force in the U. S. it will develop as a host of
individual corporate decisions made only when the time is
• •• '
ripe.’’
T HE most recent evidence of
arbitrary censorship in the Ex-
excutive Department of the gov
ernment at Washington has run
afoul of a Congressional Committee.
As a result, a full-dress probe of
censorship in the name of security
likely will be one of the burning
issues in the second session of the
84th Congress.
This latest evidence of peacetime
censorship comes at the hands of
Secretary of Commerce Sinclair
Weeks who has refused to make
information relative to his depart
ment available either to the pub
lic or to a House Judiciary sub
committee. Secretary Weeks
charged the house committee with
playing, politics, with an attack
against free enterprise; said it was
no business of the Congress to
probe into the operations of his
Business Advisory Council.
The Secretary's arbitrary refus
al is the result of the same kind
of thinking among some business
men who have come into govern
ment, that has resulted during the
past several months in the resig
nation of two or three cabinet
members . . that what he does,
or his department does is no busi
ness of the Congress, and there
fore is not the public's business.
It is the same kind of thinking
that many top business men take
into government . . . they fail to
realize when they enter the gov
ernment that the rules are changed
. . . they cannot do as they please,
or operate the government's busi
ness as they would their own . .
for the Government's business is
the public's business, and the
Congress as the elected represent
ative of the people has a perfect
right to investigate the operation
of any governmental agency.
Secretary Weeks is hiding be
hind two false premises: (1) that
the President’s security order
gives him the right to decide
what is and what is not security;
(2) that his Business Advisory
Committee is financed with private
funds, draws no pay from Con
gress, and therefore Congress has
no business investigating what his
Committee does.
But that isn’t true. The Council
has official status which makes it
a part of the Government as an
advisory group to the Department
of Commerce. Here’s what hap
pened. The Bureau of the Budget,
with the approval of Secretary
Weeks eliminated many of the
services which the Commerce De
partment was giving to business
generally. These services in the
way of industrial and other busi
ness surveys were invaluable in
formation and open to all business,
large and small Business rebelled
at the Ipss of these services! So
Mr. Weeks set up an Advisory
Committee supported by contribu
tions from Big Business firms to
provide these services to Big Busi
ness. Result is Little Business is
shut oft from the service.
Mr. Weeks contends, as other
business men in the Government
have contended, and as the Presi
dent has contendWd thus far, that
the executive branch of the gov
ernment has a right to keep its af
fairs to itself, secured by a Presi
dential order, against the prying
eyes of Congress; that the Presi
dent has the constitutional right
to do so.
i n c t o n
Q—Will tbm Senate continue the investigation into the appointment er
nomination of Mr. Allen Whitfield to be a member of the Atomln
Energy Commission? • w
A—Likely not. Mr. Whitfield withdrew his name before final actloo
was taken, so is no longer a contender for the post Some mem- ;
ben of the investigatinji committee were hot pleased with Mr.
Whitfield’S given reasons tor withdrawing his name. For instance
Whitfield said some questions asked him were of an extraordinary
nature that would involve a question of breech of legal ethics.
Some would like to have the public judge whether they would so
involve, but the majority likely wm now let the matter drop,
years age I applied for disability cempeneatien. but I -
ppotatment for phyaleel examination with V«
Oaa 1
can me a
of data eC the
begin aa
application. If
application.
payments
the old one.
were admitted without having been territories.
It has a unicameral legislature of one House consisting of
smaller states has the largest
population of about 600,000, has a
with StO members.
Dale Carnegie
•jf- AUTHOR OF “HOW TO STOP WORRYING AND START UVING"
A/f RS. MARIE A. DUSSEAULT, 00 Quirin Street, Manchester. New
Hampshire, has written me a letter that X fori wiB help some
reader of this column. She says:
'Tor about ten yeers I have been a professional worrier, afraid of
criticism, almost to the extent of making myself sick. I got to the
point where I could hardly digest anything and my weight went down
to 94 pounds. Then one Sunday night my hnehand and*
I were looking at Ed Sullivan’s
*fce was
her secret ta r
ing eo happy, and ashed E rite ewer thought of the
pest and troubles that might have come her army. 1
She replied, ‘Ed. tt you want my secret, you may
have it. It is very simple. Every night when I go to
bed I pull the shade down and forget all about the
past. Every morning X start a new day.*
"Just then X got right up from my chair and' said
to my husband. Tf Gloria Swanson can pufi the
night and make herself happy so can L* My hue-
&
)
band root from Ids chair, went to the bookcase and pulled out
on Worry, threw it on my lap and said, ’Read this book. 1
*T did read the book and found in it ao much
many helpful suggestions for conquering worry that my life
transformed due mostly to just one suggestion: Tri the dead pari
remain dead and live ea^h day for that day alone.* **
i* ■■■■■■■■■ ■—mist Many of our
older residents may remember
the sight of e horse with white
trappings hauling a white beans
through the streets.
Three score and more yean ago,
that white hearse was necessary
because of the number of children
and babies* who died. Major medi
cal advances have made baby
death an Infrequent event, elimi
nating the need for that "little
white hearse."
In the report of the Board of
Health for 1954, there was only one
death in the bracketing from 2
days to 24 yean of age. Compare
this with the report of 1909. That
year the record indicates that six
ty (00) died before the age of one
year. From one year to 'two, 13
more died, and from two to ten,
12 additional. Of the total of 178
deaths forty-five yean ago, the
grim reaper took 79 babies under
gfcreti a chance to
live.
an unaware of it, the impact
social' security in the United States
is having a profound effect on the
economy. It will have an even
more telling effect in the years
immediately ahead.
Experts estimate that a million
Americans will come wider Social
Security pension plan in this coun
try 'bach year from now on. The
program is twenty years old. and
the number of Americans being
retired under the program has not
approached figures which are now
being recorded.
Although Social Security and
pensions have been commonplace
in many countries for decades,
government pensions and many
pensions now being offered by prfct
vate businesses are just now en
compassing the vast majority of
Americana reaching retirement
age.
This is a factor which will tend
to ease the effect of economic r«*
cessions, open up new jobs tot
younger workers, -iactuem jobs by
maintaining a high level of buying
power, and act as a stabilising to
la pther ways. This Is
Freaa the R of ala Tribone, Enfa-
im. Alabama: Thouah of u*
r
lieve the level of purchasing power
in thi.c cv 'ry is to
relatively high in coming years.
>•;'. ■
ACROSS
1 Paradise
0 Gambling %
token
S Expense*
14 Ceremony
18 Rabbit
16 Startle
17 Ox of the
Celebes
18 Appellation
of Athena
15 upper bract
in grasses
SO Of a religious
fast day
S3 Thin, narrow
board
34 Roman bronxe
28 Sea eagle
27 A language
29 Dams
33 Cravat
34 Form of
“to be”
38 Errors
37 Unclothed
41 Canvas
shelter
43 Chairs
48 Tree
48 Kind of cloth
48 To pry
80 Prefix: not
El Dawn
goddess
83 Scantiest
SB Vegetables
60 Location
60 Native metal
61 Wrote “Two
Tears Before
The Mast**
63 Cautioned
DOWN
1 Of a period
- of time
2 To eat
3 Short jacket
4 Tidier
8 Grooves
• Man’s
nickname
T Angers
8 Resounds
9 Army
officer
10 Palm leaf
i var.)
:ast Indian
tree
13 Woody plants
13 Crush
21 Goddess of
discord
23 Suitable
26 American
TtiHInrui
28 Kind of tide /
29 Flying . l
mammals
30 Extent of land
31 ^
32 Reaches
across
36 Halts
38 Cows „ _ .
30 Ron of Seth
40 Depression
42 Row .
44 The eowfeerb
47 Ribbon-.
gsrs-y .
48 South Seas’
canoe
SS As it stands
(mua.)
84 Sharpens •
83 Contend*
88 Cultivated
67 Fail to
follow suit
in cards
_ (var.)
88 Showers
frozen rain
63 Opposed to
aweather
64 River of
Africa
66 Danish
weight
66 Incapable
of hearing
SB Guido’s high
note
70 Scotch for
John
V