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PAGE TWO THE NEWBERRY SUN THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1956 1218 CoU*za 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. COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS By SPECTATOR I was called to the Clarendon County Memorial Hospital a day or two ago. A friend who is ready to lend a hand, Mr. Alton Eadon, called to say that there had been a disastrous wreck, with death and other degrees of misfortune and that our surgeons an nurses could not understand the patients, all of whom spoke Spanish, co m ing from Barranquilla, Co lombia, South America. Singularly enough one of the men is Alberto Giesecke and I knew well a man by that name in Peru. Being called to interpret, listening to men and women, then relaying in Spanish what the State Patrolman want ed to know, as well as our own Chief of Police, Capt. Blease Shorter, and the physcians and nurses, all this brought viv idly to mind a somewhat similar call that came to me about ten or twelve years ago. A highly placed official of Uruguay was visiting cities and institutions of our country as a guest of the Govern ment. He spok4 no English, but wished to pay his respects to all officials in the very courtly manner of the Latins. So I was called in and accompanied the visitor in his calls on the Governor, the Mayor, the President of the University, the Superintendent of City Schools, and others. I presented the Senor in each case, explaining in English, then translating in Englsh his diplomatic eloquence; and in response, I rendered into Spanish their gracious acknow ledgments. One of my friends in the Hospital wondered why anyone would travel in a country without fair knowledge of the language. I reminded him that, although I wrestled with Spanish and French I made no effort to speak Dutch, though I boldly travelled through Holland. I read notes on business from many sources, but no re port is more illuminating that the monthly letter from The First National Bank of Boston, from which I am quoting: “Some of the basic stimulating forces are gathering strength. Business spending for plant and equipment is at a record high, and is headed upward. Plans for business expansion are on a longer-range basis than ever before. Consumer spending, while not so dominating a force as it was last year, continues upward, fortified by record high individual income and a willingness to spend. Governmental expenditures are steadily rising. In other words, spending by the three major groups is on the upgrade, and this should be a strong sustaining force. , The steel industry has produced more steel than was consumed during the first half year. The demand for capital and credit exceeds the supply of available funds, and money rates are at the highest level since the early 1930’s. The pinch came in the first half of this year when record-breaking spending for plant and equipment was superimposed upon the economy when it was operating at near capacity. With a growing shortage of materials and manpower, there was a bidding up of prices and wages rather than an expansion of output, j* Heavy borrowings have made it possible for the Ameri can people to spend at a faster pace than the growth of savings. Since 1946, the increase in total debt—public and private—has exceeded national income for this period by $111 billion, while last year the excess of increase in debt was $23 billion, or nearly twice the annual average for the last decade. Consumer credit and home mortgage debt have increased more than fourfold since 1946 and now con stitute 46 percent of disposable personal income as compar ed with 19 percent in 1946. The danger comes when there is a widening gap between debt and income. This can eventually bring about a busi ness recession which would make debt payments difficult and in many cases intolerable. A revival of thrift in this country is urgently needed. Under-secretary of the Treasury W. Randolph Burgess re cently observed that ‘Economic events in the United States . . . give evidence that for its long-term growth the coun try needs a higher rate of saving ... We need to develop thrift and encourage it by attractive rewards’. Personal savings last year were only 6.3 percent of disposable per sonal income as compared with 7.3 percent for the preced ing five years, while it is estimated that around 8 percent is necessary for the dynamic growth of the economy. His torical evidence clearly points to the fact that the degree of progress of any nation is measured by its accumulated savings. Without this fund, whereby producers’ goods— tools, machinery, building, transportation, storage facili ties, and the like—are created, mankind would still be in a» primitive stage, eking out a precarious living from day to day, the victim of capricious nature. Inasmuch as sav ings involve waiting and the postponement of consumption, confidence in the future and in the purchasing power of the dollar is necessary in order that individuals may practice thrift, and businessmen be willing to assume the risk of directing their investments into productive channels. Should there be a stoppage of savings, progress would halt and then stagnate, as happened in our country in the |.930’s, when the flow of capital funds was reduced to a LAST UP trickle. For the first time in our history there was no gain for that decade in production, or in the well-being of our people. It was held at that time by Keynes and his followers that the country had reached maturity and was suffering from ‘oversavings’ since there was no real out let for investments. The Administration then in power, in an attempt to promote recovery, proceeded to siphon off profits into Governmental spending channels. During this period, successful firms were penalized through a system of extortionate, punitive, and discriminatory taxes, and a hodge-podge of Government interference with economic laws. Surtaxes on upper income groups soared and practi cally eliminated the well-to-do from supplying venture capi tal. To cap the climax, an undistributed profits tax was enacted in 1936. The folly of this measure was so obvious that it was subsequently repealed. The net result of these pernicious measures w&s to destroy job money, with the ««/CREEPING INFIvATION" may ^ be a major domestic issue before the summer is over along the political hustings. According to the records, despite the appar ent increase in wages and income, the income just cannot keep up with the cost of living. And the spiral for higher wages starts. And, according to the econo mists, there is a major and basic reason behind this continual inch ing up of the cost ef everything the consumer buys, including serv ices. And the answer adds up to the tremendous increase in busi ness mergers, and the subsequent trend toward monopoly. Here in the Washington climate, It is almost considered “im-Amer ican” to whisper a word against private enterprise. But private en terprise is one thing, and private competitive enterprise is some thing else. It is the lack of private competitive enterprise which is the baric cause of this creeping inflation which is stifling consumer purchasing power. A large grocery chain, takas over a smaller grocery chain, and competition is Icrtcncd that much; sad grocery prices inch up. The automobile business is a prime of why automobiles cost so much today and why prices for next year's models win be higher. The prediction is that with in a year there wffl be only Gen eral Motors, Ford and Chrysler left In the field. The rate of mergers continues to grow, and the smaller compe titive firms disappear from the business community, from banks to the corner groceries. Around the cities, branches of the huge down-town firms are moving into the suburban areas, smothering out competition of the smaller firms. The trend for suburban living accounts for this new dan ger to competition. As a classic ex ample this column has watched the grewth of a huge suburban center near Washington in a area of new homes. The shopping center con sisted of some 30 or more small business firms which readily filled the needs of the area. However a large downtown department store moved in, constructing a huge de partment store at a cost of about $3,000,000. Within three months, 14 of the small business firms were out of business with that many store rooms vacant. Others are hanging on, may make it, may not; thus competition is stifled. More bankruptcies added to the growing list. There is almost a frantic at tempt in the congress to strength en the laws governing monopoly and mergers without much suc cess. The Department of Justice, charged with enforcement of anti monopoly laws already on the statute books, together with the Federal. Tirade Commission, have adopted a policy of winking at violations by so-called "consent decrees", or such actions as "stip ulation agreements" instead of outright prosecution. One of the most flagrant ex amples of this fetish of worshipping at the altar of private enterprise is the fight made by private electric utilities against advocates of pub lic power, of even the Rural Elec tric Cooperatives. The only thing private about an electric utility is that it is financed by private capital. consequence that at the end of the decade there were ap proximately ten million persons unemployed. The dismal Record of the 1930’s should be a warning against the de struction of capital savings by unsound tax laws. During the last decade and a half, the wage price spiral has had a corrosive effect upon capital savings by shrinking the purchasing power of funds for promoting and expan sion. This is clearly indicated in the steel industry. Since the end of the war, the cost of iron ore, steel scrap, con struction, and labor has more than doubled. In order to in crease capacity by 40 percent in the last decade, it has been necessary for the steel industry to raise capital investment 110 percent. The problem facing individual steel firms was strikingly set forth at the annual stockholders’ meeting of United States Steel Corporation. It was pointed out by its chairman, Mr. Blough, that it would cost $64 million today to replace a plant built for $10 million in 1930. While $10 million has been recovered through depreciation allow ances, there remains $54 million that must come from re tained profits. It would be necessary to .have sales of $600 million to earn gross profits of $112.5 million to pro duce a net profit of $54 million^ in view of the 52 percent tax levy. For replacement and new capacity for the next five years, it is estimated that United States Steel must spend $500 million annually. This amount exceeds its re invested profits plus normal depreciation allowances^ for 1955—its record years—by $140 million. Should the cost of new facilities rise at the same rate as in the past ten years, then the shortage would be around $240 million.* This graphic presentation of the financial problem facing United States Steel is reflected in the situation in other important industries in varying degrees. If we are to attain our goal of dyna m ic expansion in the face of a slackening in the growth of our labor force, a tremendous amount of capital must be spent on new facilL ties, new products, and processes, including research, auto mation, and atomic power. Everything possible must be done to insure adequate business savings, or seed money, so that these facilities may be soundly financed on a large scale since capital spending is the most powerful and con structive force in economic progress. These funds center around retained profits and depreciation allowances. The amount of busmen savings is largely determined by tax laws; retained earrings; by the corporate tax rate; and de preciation alIowaiv s by the provisions of the Revenue Act. While more liberal write-off provisions were made under the Revenue Act of 1954, the chief beneficiaries were those firms that participated in the defense facilities pro gram while it was under expansion. Industries that did not take part in this program, such as textiles, food processing, several kinds of machinery, and the like, are reported to face a shortage in investment funds.” Q—Hm Congress done anything: yet with health insurance? A—Nothing to speak of. The Administration bill which would provide a Government AmH for reinsuring private insurance companies against loss, intended to encourage extended health coverage, is still pend ing. The Health, Education and Welfare Department recently sent a bill to congress which would permit smaller health insurance companies and non-profit associations such as Blue Shield and Blue Cross to pool their resources in an attempt to develop improved cov erage, but no action has been taken. This pooling of resources would have to by-pass the anti-trust laws. Q—If a veteran dies without selecting any option of payment, hew wffl GI insurance be paid to the beneficiary? A—It wifi be paid in 38 equal monthly installments. However the bene ficiary has a right to choose some other method, so long as it is not a lump sum payment. Q Can you tell me how many volunteers are engaged tat the skywatoh for tike Ground Observer Corps? A—At present there are approximately 400,000. There are about 1,000,000 more trained for duty if needed. Q—Bow many government employees are affected by the new Civil gcfvtoe pay nisoi A—About 90,000, plus new recruitments of about 4,T00. Increase will mean about 912 Tr>mimn a year in salary increases. Them increases apply only to engineers, physical scientists and other types of spe cialists, such as chemists, meterologists, metallurgists,/actuaries, some patent specialists. It is a move to stem the raiding of gov ernment personnel in this field by private industry. CROSSWORD PUZZLE PUZZLE No. 404 / r SPRING ACTION . . . Hay rake tooth provides spring aotton and closes latch on farm gate as soon as handle Is rslcaard. Latah As heavy sliding member. One end of the tooth is sttsnhcd to the tbo other to a fixed cross member of the gate. ACROSS 1 Bird 7 Sick 10 Rotating piece 13 Kind of shawl 14 Japanese porgie 15 Tree yielding caucho 16 Vestment 17 The . strait between New York and Staten Island 19 Things In Isiw 20 The gums 21 Tune 22 Looks at fixedly 24 Male fore bears 28 Places 28 As it stands (mus.) 29 Worker who puts on ends 31 Line of Juncture 33 Hindu chari table gift 86 Levantine ketch 38 Thailand 40 Malay pewter coin 41 Perform 43 Peer 45 Prevaricator 47 Man’s nick name 48 Sphere 60 Loyalist S3 Let fall 94 Abound 56 Fastens 88 Kind of pastry (PU 61 Turmeric 63 Grape juice evaporated to syrupy consistency 65 Business transaction 66 Tortoise 69 Withered 71 — Fail, Irish crowning stone 72 Silkworm 73 Express dis approval 75 In music: high 76 Years old 77 Norse god dess of heal ing 78 Gives 80 French plural article 81 Signifying maiden name 82 Trapped DOWN 1 Measure of capacity 2 Ribbons 3 Bone 4 Elbow 5 Withers 6 Eagles’ nests 7 Japanese statesman 8 Regulations 9 Rosters 10 Edible berry 11 Opposed to aweather 12 State of dis order 13 Stop moment arily 18 Estimates 23 Consumed 25 Close securely 27 Cruise 30 Unruly out break 32 Domestic 34 Form of “to be” 35 Rabid 37 Shore bird 39 Place of trade 41 Period 42 Native metal 44 Malay dagger 46 Thoroughfare 49 Small juicy fruit (pi.) 51 Leavening compound 53 Church dig nitary 55 Encountered 67 Increases velocity 59 Followed (slang) 60 Narrow boards 62 Pertaining to European mountains 64 Incendiarism 68 Duck 67 Incite 68 A Great Lake 70 Heating vessel 74 Native metal 79 Land measure T L C 3 r\ 3 c 0 A T L T £ 0 C A T A N N [n 0 ’s T 7 31 0 £ 7 1 £ R [pj £ I T F E L 2 P 1 T A 1 k L L Is] r 5T Aj £ L A K c E ft" n F it 5“ E iE Dl 1 E E Answer te Pusie Ne. 493 PaieCarmegie ^ AUTHOR OF “HOW TO STOP WORRYING AND START LIVING' ^ M rs. MARTHA B. FOWUE, 2813 Jefferson Avenue, N. E., Albuquer que, New Mexico, who lived in Wiesbaden, Germany, after the war stm feared an enemy attack every night. They were constantly remind ed of dangers and perils by the packed suitcases, rations, alerts, and mock evacuations. Fear became an obsession with her. She contracted in her imngimMfw* every disease she had ever heard mentioned, literally made herself sick, mentally and physically. When her daughter was born, she wondered wheth er the baby would be left like one of the poor, starv ing, mangled orphans she saw every day. She feared for die life of her husband who had been threatened several times. Perhaps one of the ex-prisoners he had sent to jail would seek revenge. Fear followed her aboard ship when they went home. The 'boat might sink—and she couldn't swim. Or she could see them rolling later down the side of a mountain while driv- ing across country. Hef husband tried to laugh her out of her fears CARNEGIE but with no success. Finally rise heard of living in Day-Tight Compart ments, living one day at a time and letting the present day be that day. She deckled she was going to make that day a happier day for all she contacted. T^sat resolve, she says, revolutionized her life. m . From Wm Or—lta Hate News, WeKebcre, New Hampshire: It takes a few yean of living and •one urn of fbm pooron of bbsor- vatiott to gain perspective. And than, all too often a nun's con clusions are totaanoad by oofs background and baste views on very reasonable eost, come into being. The average men could not afford a power mower, an out board motor or a boat trailer. And those In existence, used by At rich, were far, far below the present day units to durability. We not tattrtng about the for these two clssses always get by and ^ enjoy themselves. The very well-to-do, because of the diversity of investments always took after themsolvec and have leisure time. The very poor, taken care of by Town, County, State or Federal funds, 1 always have time to hunt, fish, and sleep to the sun. Going back twenty-five yewp, the average man worked a forty- eight to fifty-four hour week and none of the protection of unemploy ment compensation and social security • Radio was still in the squawking stage and televirion was a dream in the minds of electrical engi- teg man. Air-conditioning was Utile used and was expensive. The automatic washing ms china and the home freezer were shnply on tiie drawing boards. Home in sulation was just beginning t& be available. And so on through a dozen more items. Twenty-five years have brought tremendous changes in the ease of living, to security and in lei sure time and in opportunities for self advancement Progress, both material and ed ucational has been very real Only when we look back over a span of twenty-five years do we realize the changes for the better that have been made. neers. ^ ' The opportunity to receive a high school education depended upon how near to a high school a young person lived. There was very little free transportation. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield, making hospitalization available at On the other hand, it is possible that Russian subs may pop up on the Atlantic Coast some night in the early morning hours and wipe out every city from Portland to Miami with short range guided missiles, armed to atopoic war beads. But that is another story. YOUNG AT 73—Still in the grueling business of testing automobiles at 73, Ab. Jenkins, veteran race driver, just set a new 24-hour stock car distance record on the Bonne ville Salt Flats in Utah. Under sanction of the National Association of Stock Car Racing he drove a 1956 Pontiac which covered 2,841 miles at an average speed of 118.375 miles per hour. TRIPLE WINNER... Australia's' Peter Thomson, 98, won British Open Golf ehampkniship at 'Hoy- lake, England, for third consecu tive year. HOs 286 score topped 930 entrants from 29 nations, and earned him 92,800. This an' That Outfielder BID Tattle of the Detroit Tigers to saperstttloaa tort not aka seme folks. Bffl likes the usually dtotastefal number "II". Tetfie recently asked the Tiger management to let kfap wear uniform No. II to the hopes it t might snap him out of a bat ting stomp. Seems he wore No. 19 while playing semi-pro ball to Illinois and had good Inch . . • Bin Lfflard of Chicago set a new money earning mark In the 1956 ABC bowling tournament when he earned 92,180.75. In 1955, Fred Bojaok of Detroit won $2,068.33 J . . Ron Church, 21, recently speared a 464% pound Mack sea* baas near San Diego, CaL, thought to be a record of the speotes for a skin diver . . . The New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts, who do not meet to regular Na tional Football Leagae season play, have agreed to a pro season exhibition football game at Boston University field August 26 for the benefit ef the Harry Agganls Foun dation . . . John F. Warner, as sistant track coach at the Univer sity of Eauoas, has been appointed head track coach at Colgate.