Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PAGE TWO THE NEWBERRY SUN THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 1957 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. COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS By SPECTATOR Our country is operating both as a foremost nation of individual enterprise and as a Socialist State. V henever the Government operates a business that is socialism. If you think socialism is a good thing then you must endorse Gov ernment in business. If it be correct or desirable for the Government to build and operate power plants it must logi cally follow that it would be desirable for the Government to build factories for the production of clothing, shoes, food— and everything else. Why should the Government operate a power plant? Why does it not take over or compete with General Electric and Westinghouse? If the idea of Government power be to help the farmers, why not have the Government build factories to produce tractors? And why not produce fertilizer? I have no definite data but I venture the guess that the average farmer does not use $200 worth of electric power in a year. As a matter of fact, I am over-shooting the mark en ormously, as I know from; my own farming operations. I venture to say that a moderately equipped farm uses twice to ten times as much gasoline as electric power! Of course I am measuring this in dollars. Now, then, shall the govern ment bore wells, operate refineries, for the farmers ! The average up-and-doing farmer spends more every year on his car or cars than for electric power. And his clothing and food cost ten times as much as his electric power! If we are bound for Socialism, let’s go “all out and have the Government do everything!” Then who would pay the taxes ? Well, in such a glorious era we should not need taxes, perhaps. Perhaps the Govern ment might furnish us with teachers, public officials, courts —and what-not. If we must have taxes then a democracy must require that all share alike, both in benefits and obligations. Clearly if all use Government power there will be no Power taxes. And clearly, all must enjoy equal opportuni ties, equal consideration, equal favors. Equality before the law presupposes equal rights, equal obligations. For ex ample, we don’t say that one class must be taxed and the others go Scot-free. But we have a lot of that in our half- Socialistic program. I quote a recent editorial in The News & Courier: “The Duke Pow r er Co. has announced plans to build a pow er dam on the Catawba River to produce 350,000 kilow r atts of electricity. The dam will cost $54 million. The federal government has proposed the building of Hart well Dam on the Savannah River. Hartwell’s capacity will be about 300,000 kilowatts. The cost: in excess of $100 million. There is a prime example of government boondoggling. A federal power dam is scheduled to cost approximately twice as much as a private power dam located less than 150 miles distant! Actually, the cost of Hartw’ell Dam to the taxpayers will far exceed construction costs. Not only will the Duke Power Co. pay all construction costs but it will pay taxes on the power dam as long as the dam is in operation. As long as Hartwell is in existence, the taxpay ers won't gain a nickel in taxes. Federal property is non- taxable. Despite the vast discrepancy in costs between the private and federal projects ,the Hartwell Dam supporters will un doubtedly attempt to use the Duke project as an argument for constructing the boondoggle. ‘Look/ they will most prob ably say, ‘private industry is constructing a hydroelectric dam and opponents of Hartwell have been saying hydroelec tric dams are out-of-date in this era of emerging atomic power/ The answer to such a statement is this: none of the fac tors that prompted the Duke Power Co. to propose to con struct its first hydroelectric dam in almost 30 years are ap plicable to Hartwell. The Greenville News well explained the difference in a recent editorial. The News points out that ‘First off, Duke does not expect to use (the dam) as a primary source of pow r er, as Hartwell will have to be if it is to pay out as its proponents claim it will. As in the case with the other hydro units in the Duke system, the new plant will be inte grated into the overall operation without any change in en gineering policy/ The News said that before Hartwell could be made eco nomically feasible, alU other factors being equal, ‘it would have to be integrated with a steam generating system to guarantee a steady supply of primary power/ In order to maintain a constant delivery of power, a hydroelectric facility needs steam plants. This is the case with Santee- Cooper and the Tennessee Valley Authority. If Hartwell is constructed, The News warns, the time will not be far off when the taxpayers will be asked ‘to put up more millions to provide steam plants to level off the pro ductive Rapacity of the Clark Hill-Hartwell system/ The Poke system, of which the proposed Catawba dam would bg bfie of 19 existing units, is a completely integrated JUNE WEDDING. THE GET-AWAY hydroelectric and steam operation. We repeat, it also pays taxes! The fact is. as South Carolinians who have watched the growth of Santee-Cooper well know, power authorities ex pand and expand and expand. They become political erh- pires, continually absorbing more and more of the taxpay ers' dollars. The time to stop empire building—and Hartwell Dam—is now before $100 million—the first of many demands for funds at Hartwell—is spent.” I am not discussing Santee-Cooper because it is in a different category; it belongs to the State of South Caro lina and is subject to control by the State. It the General Assembly should care to do so it might bring Santee-Cooper as fully under State supervision and control as the private power Companies which pay millions in taxes and operate strictly under the State and Federal Power (Public Service) Commissions. The fact that the State lets Santee-Cooper operate inde pendently of the Public Service Commission is entirely the will of the State itself. The State may do as it pleases, ap parently, though there are at least two opinions about that. The State may even sell or lease Santee-Cooper. or require it to pay taxes as do private companies. President Roosevelt owed much to our Senator Byrnes and Santee-Cooper -was virtually a donation to South Caro lina as a recognition o the public service of Senator Byrnes. It belong to the State of South Carolina though it appears to be able to negotiate and contract loans and make other dispositions and arrangements that no other State Board can make on its own initiative and without sanction. That must be within the law, so I don’t challenge it. While this matter of “foreign aid” is before the citizens of this republic let’s speak out against it. As a matter of common sense how does this strike you: A Nation deep in debt with very heavy taxes on all business and individuals (but not on Government Power), the individual paying up to 91% of his taxable income; business beginning at 52% and rapidly climbing—individual investment heavily discourag ed, and we giving away billions and billions, more than $50,000,000,000 to date! “When the President talks of military costs, he is apt to be especially persuasive because of his background. Also, this is the area of Government spending most difficult for the average citizen to judge; he doesn’t have enough fact's. Yet it is not only possible but essential to question the military budget estimates for fiscal 1958—$38 billion for the Defense Department plus about $3 billion for atomic energy and stockpiling. Everyone realizes defense is bound to be costly, but by no means everyone is convinced that this $41 billion is the minimum figure, or that we are getting the best possible defense for it. For one thing, the nuclear revolution is changing the plans of all the military powers including Russia. Britian claims, without serious challenge, that because of this revo lution it can nearly halve its troop strength and greatly re duce its military costs while actually increasing its military potential . Is the United States taking sufficient advantage of the vast changes in military methods ? Closely related is the matter of troop deployment. The Russians know we possess the power of annihilation and are prepared to use it if necessary, in the event of new aggres sions. In that situation, is it necessary to keep so many American divisions tied down all over the world? Even if it could be demonstrated that the United States is moving as fast as it safely can with these adjustments, that would not answer all the questions. Men of unquest ioned stature and knowledge are charging the Defense De partment with gross inefficiency. Chairman Mahon of a House military subcommittee says that unwholesome and very wasteful rivalry among the Baroque means (a) ft misdeed; (b) style of painting; (c) a meeting place. 2. The casaba is (a) a musical Instrument; (b) flower; (o) melon. 3. The word chaparral refers to (a) dense thicket; (b) en closure; (c) cowboy" gear. ANSWERS "t «I»it *» Sutiaivd l W HAT’S wrong with this pic ture? Wage increases are promptly labeled “inflationary” while price increases, with living costs now at highest point in his tory, are “gently chided.” Agricultural surpluses, instead of being used to provide adequate diets for millions of underfed Americans, and for starving peo ple in other nations to strengthen the free world, are being used as a pretext for forcing farmers into poverty. The President’s budget adding up to a record $71.8 billion and on a par with wartime budgets, in terms of a 1956 dollar, would total only $30.6 billions of goods and services in terms of 1940 dollars. Comparatively, in 1940 farmers spent $6.7 billion in cash on the operation of farms, while in 1956 they spent $21.7 billion, or more than three times a." much in terms of 1956 dollars. Price increases took the first big upturn in 1953 immediately after price and wage controls were taken off the econ omy in this administration, and the hard money and tight credit policy was inaugurated by the Treasury Department, with the Federal Reserve Banking system refusing to put on the brakes, as it had done in the past. In 1957 the American people are paying at the rate of $425 bil lion dollars for goods and serv ices which in terms of 1940 dollars would have cost only $194.5 bil lions. In other words the people pay $230.4 billions which added to the cost of things by inflation. Take taxes—Personal taxes back in 1940 amounted to $2.6 billions. Today personal tax alone is run ning at the rate of $41 billions a year. President Eisenhower has tried to make a case for his super budget. He points out that $41 bil lion goes for defense and that’s not too high a price to pay for security. But he does not say why an airplane today costs three times as much as it did in 1946 or 1948, or why a submarine costs twice as much as it did seven years ago, or why Atomic Energy costs four times as much as it did in 1950. Economists within the govern ment say the reason for this pic ture is the so-called “wage-cost- spiral” bringing about inflation. But inflation, real inflation is only brought about when total demand for goods and services far exceeds our productive powers, when the economy expands at an unusually fast pace, when unemployment is negligible and almost all prices and income spiral upward. But today there is no shortage in anything. As a matter of fact total private and public demand for goods and services is far short of our productive capacities and the upward curve of our growth is flattening out. Soaring prices have not been caused by any excessive demand, nor justified by higher costs. And some economists out side the government see the cause as due to price fixing and profit eering, which is cutting into con sumer purchasing power—which boils down to a factor of under consumption of goods and serv ices, rather than over-production. As a matter of fact, due to this under - consumption, production rate is on the down-grade rather than increasing. Growth in pro duction rate has fallen from 4%% a year in the 1947-53 period to about 2% from the fourth quarter 1955 to the fourth quarter 1956. From the Vista Press, Vista Cali fornia: Even the youth in the high schools today are discussing the huge Eisenhower budget in conjunction with the curtailments in the postofflce department. Congressional investigations of the foreign aid program show evi dence of extravagance, waste and loss of prestige for the United States, and in the face of these in vestigations no effort has been made to slow down the aid pro gram nor to ease the tax burden on we, the people. At the time of inception of the foreign assistance plan it was thought that the idea was good, and the people went along with the program. But now that it seems there is to be no end. Were the funds administrated carefully, together with a more conservative spending on our in ternal and military expenditures, there is no doubt but that our tax burden would be lightened. But our government does not seem to care to work in this manner. It seems that there are too many novices playing at being financial wizards. The foreign aid program was presumably established in an effort to curtain the growth of Commu nism, yet statistics show that the Communists working quietly un derground in the United States are continually engaged in propagan da and securing converts, accord ing to the annual report of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. The report states: “The United States remains the major target of Soviet aggression; indifference to the Kremlin’s avowed program of global conquest can lead only to the inevitable destruction of our free institutions, and ourselves as • a free nation.” We are Americans; we only know and believe in the govern ment of the United States of America, but through the heavy tax load imposed upon us, we are beginning to lose confidence in our leaders, leaders who through heavy taxation have taken away the Incentive of youth; Teaders who through heavy taxation have fate-An away the right of small business to grow, and leaders who are sending billions out of our country only to earn the contempt of the recipients, due to the care less method of administration. It is only human to look for a way out of problems. It is with in reason to believe that we, as citizens of these United States of America, might, because of con tinued unwarranted tax, become fertile ground for the • seeds of Communism. art ^ni :ii :rs* q mm '(■■* ass :9k ' m r it aai ■B K ■PV 'PP fw** ft'BS# >9« V t'r*. iBSift SNI «• EGG GRADER . . . Made from 1-lb coffee can and metal light reflector, this egg candler makes possible quick and accurate grad ing. Lamp socket is attached to side of can by punching hole and inserting threaded boshing to screw into socket cap. three services has ‘gotten out of hand.’ Dr. Vannevar Bush, a noted scientist and military expert, says the military bud get can be cut substantially, with improved defense, if the President ‘will merely put his house in order at the Penta gon, The thing that needs to be done there is to see that the Joint Chiefs of Staff do some unified planning so that we don’t have three war plans, one for the Army, one for the Navy and one for the Air Force, and buy everything that every service wants to buy but buy the stuff for one war plan.’ This would mean treading on some sensitive toes and shattering some hallowed traditions of military bureau- NEW NAT BOSS ... In shakeup of last-place Washington Sena tors, coach Cookie Lavagetto (above) was named field man ager, succeeding Mgr. Chuck Dressen who was made co-or dinator of player personnel. This an' That Joe Mathes, former director of the St. Louis Cardinal farm system and a member of the organization for 29 years, has resigned. In a shift of front office personnel, Mathes had been reassigned to scouting duties with a one-third cut in salary . . . Convincing Australians that baseball is a bet ter game than cricket Is a tough assignment, Lon Brlssie, former pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Indians, will agree. Brlssie Is now director of American Legion baseball in the United States, recently went to Australia to lecture on baseball . . . European drivers, alarmed over the 13 persons killed in an Italian race and narrow escapes in the recent Monaco Grand Prix, have formed an association de signed to make the tracks safer. The organization Is known as the International Professional Drivers Union . . . Georgetown University graduates, polled by alumni lead ers., have favored resuming foot ball at the Washington, D. C. ' school on an “Ivy League basis.” I Georgetown dropped the sport at I the end of the 1950 season. Q—Is it true that the collapse of farm prices has helped the city work er in the price he pays for food? A—Farm prices have fallen 21% since 1951, but the retail price of food paid by consumers have increased 3% in the same period. At the same time the farmer’s costs went up 9.5% for the goods he bought which should have helped the city worker. Q—How long do widows of Veterans have to apply for the new In creased death compensation payments. A—The cut-off date is July 1, 1957. Those who file before that date will get increased payments retroactive to January 1, 1957. Those who do not will continue to get payments at the old rate. Q—Can you tell me the origin of the “Bull Moose” party? A—The party was originated in 1912 by Theodore Roosevelt and Sena tor Hiram Johnson. The name came from a remark made by Mr. Roosevelt when someone asked how he felt. He replied “As fit as a Bull Moose.” The official name was. the Progressive Party. Q—Can you give me the origin of the name “payroll patriots”? A—During ttte civil war persons who sought jobs on the Government payroll to escape military service were called “payroll patriots.” Q—How is a record vote taken in either the Senate or House? A—The rules provide that “the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those pres ent, be entered on the Journal.” Usually one or more members call for the Teas and Nays. CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1 To sing 6 Persian elves 12 Prong of fork (Pi.) 14 Fine line of a letter 16 ChUd for father 18 Theda —, former- actress 19 A domestic 20 Japanese marine measure 21 A macaw 23 Animal 25 Occupied a seat 26 Transgres sion 27 Furtiveness 29 Atmosphere 30 New Zealand aborgine 32 Occupy a seat 33 Bird 35 Cookies 37 Grows wan 38 Lean 39 Portion 40 Greek poet of Lesbos 43 Walks 46 Golf club 47 Malay pewter coin 49 American Indians 51 Beast of burden 52 Moslem hostile to PUZZLE No. 400 Crusader^* 55 To stroke lightly 56 Confederate General 57 Loaded 58 Guido’s high note 59 Plural ending 60 Go out buying 62 Tears 65 Spanish for 66 Secret agents 67 Make noise like sheep 69 Harvests 70 Having hearing organs DOWN 2 By 3 Part of body 4 Tierra del Fuego Indian 5 A dormouse 6 Frisky 7 Silkworm <var.) 8 To free of 9 Whether 11 Involuntary muscle con traction 13 Satisfies 14 Kind of fish 15 Saltpeter 17 Times 20 Shore birds 22 After awhile 24 Caudal ap pendage 25 Wise man 27 Tube for drawing off liquids (pi.) 28 To give courage to 31 Proportion 34 Change 36 Transgres sion 37 Dance step 40 Projecting part of a chutch <pl.) 41 Flower 42 Kind of naU 44 Smoking device 45 Closes securely 46 Business trans-actions 47 Snares 43 Harsh to lh« * taste 50 Rising step 53 Succulent plant ' pi.) 54 Ancient Roman ma cislrate • var. i 60 Mineral spring 61 Port of body 63 Edible seed 64 Babylonian numeral 66 A direction 68 Symbol for tellurium aiiaciHacHjculyijiJkj FininraBnHuyLiIntjGn a a Ei a ■ a s □ □ s I g e b u anaracann pponcnn u rcn ua cti o D CD uu ULJ DE3 UQBGOBB T 0 T A L S' M 0 T T r M P T € A c E E 1 A R T fS A N S ~ E I'.u.war t/» N a. 44s cracy. Until it is done, though, it w ill be hard to believe the talk about ‘rock-bottom’ military spending. Certainly Con gress should not approve the military budget unti it has thoroughly investigated these charges. Everyone can agree with Mr. Eisenhower when he says that T have seen unwise military cuts before. I have seen their terrible consequencs. I am determined to do all I can to see that we do not follow that foolhardy road again.' But nobody has a right to expect the American people to pay for anything but the best military thinking. Or to pay for the old military game of waste, duplication and padding. That is something far worse than foolhardy/’