Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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PAGE TWO 1218 College Street NEWBERRY. S C PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY O. E. Armfield, Jr., Owner Second-Class postage paid at Newberry, South Carolina. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: $2.00 per year in ad vance; six months, $1.25. COMMENTS ON MEN AND THINGS By SPECTATOR Santee-Cooper is in the news. I quote Major W. D. Work man in The News & Courier and Editor Robert S. Latimer, Jr. of the Lee County Messenger: Says Mr. Workman: “The announcement that a $36 mil lion steam generating plant is to be built at Conway strips the last vestige of camouflage away from the Santee-Cooper development and exposes it for what it is and always has been—a public power project. All the hocus-pocus about flood control and navigation now fades away into nothingness, for not even the most ra bid public power advocate can sensibly link a steam genera ting plant between Conway and Myrtle Beach with the pur pose for which Santee-Cooper ostensibly was created. The Act Creating the South Carolina Public Service Au thority (the official designation of the Santee-Cooper Auth ority) vested that agency with considerable power, but those powers presumably were linked with the purpose for which the Authority was established. So that there can be no misunderstanding of what that purpose was, the following is quoted from that section of the Santee-Cooper act which spells out both the purpose and a declaration of public interest: ‘The Public Service Authority is created primarily for the purpose of developing the Cooper River, the Santee Riv er, the Congaree River and their tributaries upstream to the confluence of the Broad and Saluda Rivers and upstream oh the Wateree River to a point at or near Camden and other similar projects as instrumentalities of intrastate, inter state and foreign commerce and navigation: of reclaiming waste lands by the elimination or control of flood waters, re foresting the water sheds of such rivers and improving pu blic health conditions in those areas. ‘It is hereby found and declared that the project author ized by this chapter is not for the aid of intrastate, inter state and foreign commerce and navigation and the deve lopment, sale and the distribution of hydro-electric power is in all respects for the benefit of all the people of the State of South Carolina, for the improvement of their health and welfare and material prosperity, and is a public purpose, and being a corporation owned completely by the people of South Carolina and operated by said Authority for the benefit of all the people of the State, the Public Service Authority shall be required to pay no taxes or assessments upon any of the property acquired by it for this project or upon its activities in the operation and maintenance thereof except as herein after provided. . . .’ . Those high-sounding words sufficed to get federal backing (and money) for the start of the Santee-Cooper project. At the outset, emphasis was placed on the navigation and flood-control aspects of the project. The generation of hydro-electric power, while admittedly important, was not givep any paramount position. In the initial stages of development, care was taken to belittle any fears that the power potential might pose a threat to privately-owned utilities of the area. On that score. General manager R. M. Jefferies had this to say in court pro ceedings of March 18, 1937: ‘Our application very clearly disclosed our purpose to sell ui pun ‘saiunduioD joaux! aqi o} ^Saauo ano jo lunoum oSjuj h fact so far as the application is concerned all of it except about 21 per cent which we thought bad a certain market for that would not compete with the utility companies . . . . It is not my attitude to com(e before this Court and try to persecute and prosecute these utility companies, because I have always said .... that the Santee-Cooper’s project was not designed for the purpose of putting any of them out of business’. But with the passage of years and Santee-Cooper’s grow th of political as well as electrical power, the Authority changed both its attitude and its operation. Ten years after that disavowal of anti-utility sentiment, Santee-Cooper was fighting tooth-and-nail to buy the South Carolina Power Company (a Charlestofi utility ultimately acquired by the S. C. Electric and Gas Company). When that fight appeared to be lost, Jefferies told a Charleston service club that Santee-Cooper would give the private utilities ‘competition to the Nth degree’.’ Within five more years, Santee-Cooper was building a huge steam plant of its own alongside the hydro-electric plant at Pinopolis and had teamed up with a combination of Rural Electric Cooperatives to distribute public power throughout lower and central South Carolina. Now another steam plant is in the offing, this one almost 100 miles distant from the hydro plant (and about the same distance from a large new steam plant being built in Dar lington county by the Carolina Power and Light Company). Whether the people of South Carolina, who own Santee- Cooper, approve of this continuing expansion into the utility field is not clear, but at least they now have the bare facts be- forethem—devoid of the trappings of navigation and flood control.” Now Mr. Latimer: “Santee-Cooper has recently announced that it intends to THE NEWBERRY SUN THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 1959 FARMS AND FOLKS By J. M. ELEAZER Ciemson Extension Information Specialist SOME COW Gordon Newton of Tatum (Marl boro county (has a Holstein cow that has just established a new state record for 2-year olds of this breed, milked twice a day, for a period of 365 days. In your lan- tfuatfe and mine, she averaged 6.8 gallons of milk and 1.84 pounds of butterfat a day! And in the language of the dairyman best knows, that’s 19,729 pounds of milk and 670 pounds of butterfat in a year. The weighing and test ing were supervised by Clemson, in cooperation with the national Holstein organization. This fine cow, Gorlib Genius Early, was sired by the bull Car nation Madcap Genius that Mr. Newton got from Clemson some years ago. GARDENING TIME March winds are beginning to blow the last traces of winter away. Birds have started carrying straws. The smell of fresh soil is getting in the air. And the urge to plant is coming strong. The garden, flower and veget able, is calling. One for the soul, the other for the body. Your coun ty and home agent have good gar den bulletins if you are rusty. Use them. I want to plead again for the small garden, the good garden. The trouble with most gardens, ambition makes ’em too large. We stretch our fertility and ef forts over too much area. And then comes the long hot days, and grass takes it, or it dries out and turns out inferior stuff. build a huge $36,000,000 steam generating plant at Conway. It already operates a hydro-electric plant, as well as a steam generating plant, near Moncks Corner. During recent years Santee-Cooper, supposed to be state-owned and operated, has gobbled up service area after service area and seems deter mined to grow larger and larger at the expense of privately owned financed power companies. We wonder if it isn’t high time for the South Carolina General Assembly to find out whether Santee-Cooper is sub servient to the State or whether the State of South Carolina is subservient to Santee-Cooper. Santee-Cooper pays little in taxes and does not have to comply with the restrictions im posed on electric generating companies not state-owned and operated. Personally we would like to see a move started to get South Carolina and Santee-Cooper out of competition with the companies which pay taxes into the state treasury.” Santee-Cooper has an interesting history, in part cited by Mr. Workman. When the late T. C. Williams urged that the different ele vation of the Santee and Cooper Rivers gave us a fall of forty-two feet, more or less, he was full of enthusiasm and wunpelling persistence. At one time it was suggested seriously that the State of -'.uuth Carolina should issue bonds to the amount of twenty five million dollars for the proposed Santee-Cooper project. 1. for one, opposed it strenously on behalf of the Farmers and Taxpayers’ League. The project at that time of depres sion and cheap prices probably could have been built for $25,000,000. But general sentiment opposed pledging the cre dit of the State. Incidentally that question may be raised to day. Came Mr. Roosevelt with the idea of fighting the De pression by more spending. I do not know what part our Sen ator Byrnes had in the beginning, but Mr. Roosevelt virtual ly gave us the Santee-Cooper as a tribute of appreciation of Senator Byrnes who had been the most adroit and resource ful sponsor of Mr. Roosevelt in the Senate. So, by favor of Mr. Roosevelt we had one of the many na tural resources developments promoted by Mr. Roosevelt. So far as I know our Santee-Cooper project was somewhat different from most others. In this project the State of South Carolina owns the Santee-Cooper, subject to certain debts; and the Santee-Cooper, as I recall, has borrowed some monev from bankers. A peculiar problem confronts the State: Is Santee- Cooper a self-governing, independent State organization, re sponsible to no one? Of course it may be called to account since the State chooses the Board of Directors. If the State wishes to exercise more authority it is fully empowered to do so. It is for the General Assembly to decide. The Governor also may have some prerogative in the management. And other state officials have a supervisory prerogative. The Santee-Cooper is, then, as much under the control of the General Assembly as is Winthrop College or the State University. But there is a vast difference: alike, yet totally different. Quite an anomaly grows as we look into details. Clemson, Carolina, Winthrop, The Citadel, The State Hos pital, and all State Commissions, Departments and Services, from the Governor, the Supreme Court on down—all have to come down before the House and Senate, hat in hand and bowing low, asking, urging, insisting on appropriations. And today all the installations and services are most earnestly and solicitously pleading for more money. But the word is out that the State faces a deficit of at least twelve million dollars!!! . But Santee-Cooper is a case of special privilege: it pro duces and sells power ;* and it controls its revenue absolutely. It contributes a token to the State and Counties, as it may please, the total so far being very little, probably not a tenth of what a private power Company of the same capacity con- cributes. In fairness to everybody, for I am not making this a per sonal or political question, the course followed by Santee- Cooper is in harmony with the one-sided Act of creation. Should this condition continue? This is not an attack on Mr. Jefferies; he is acting on his interpretation of the law. But, as old Judge Hudson said to a young lawyer of Anderson who was citing the Code in sup- port of his position, “It does seem to be the law, but you’ll have to admit that its a fool law”. Read the Act and see for yourselves. Then think, think. While Winthrop, Clemson, The Citadel, Carolina—and all other State services beg plead and wonder where a dollar can be found, Santee-Cooper arranges to borrow $36,000,000. For what ? To promote the water or develop natural resourc es? Not at all; but to build a gigantic Steam plant in or near Conway. There is no sense in oeing mealy-mouthed; this is Socialism. A small garden, made rich, with just enough things planted to fill family needs, one that you can mulch, keep clean, and water as needed is far better than the ‘ar- ger sort that soon becomes .rrass- grown and snakey, yielding little of value. Handled this way, here’s what makes enough for us. fine stuff too. A dozen staked hills of Mana- lucie tomatoes, 2 hills of cucum bers, 3 of squash, a 20 foot row of okra, and a similar one of nut ter peas and snap beans (these repeated in 30 days and 3 bell pepper plants. Now our place is very small, about 20 by 30 feet. But its amazing the stuff we can grow there, and how easy, to say nothing of the pleasure we get out of it too. Your county and home .agents have many garden helps if you need them. TELEPHONE RATES Now that we are getting tele phones down practically all rural lanes, as well as in the heavily populated areas, rates are of in terest to more folks! I did not understand them. But Mr. Estes, our local manager, has told me a bit about ’em. And un derstanding them a bit can help us save money on our long dis tance calls. He tells me the state day rate from Clemson to Sumter, for in stance, where you call a number and not a person is 65 cents for 2 minutes until 6 P. M., or just double that if you call a person, $1.30. The night rate to Sumter from Clemson, that’s after 6 P. M. and on holidays and Sundays, you get 4 minutes to talk for the same price as 2 minutes cost you during the busy hours of the day. For some reasons, calls to far away places are proportionately cheaper. For instance a 3 minute daytime call to a station in St. Louis is just $1.25 and a 3 minute day call to a perosn there is $1.75 for 3 minutes, and for a night call this is just $1.45. So if we will use station to sta tion and night calls more, we can save considerably on our long dis tance charges. And this will help the telephone company give bet- ter service by better distribution of calls throughout the 24 hours. BOYS ARE THAT WAY By J M ELFAZFO Last week we talked about our liking of wild flowers as kids in the Stone Hills of the Dutch Fork. We liked the cultivated ones too. I was lazy as a kid, and hated to run errands. But there was one place I never minded being sent to. And that was down the valley to Aunt Venme’s. That has two reasons back of it. First was, Aunt Vennie liked children and always gave us some thing to eat. And, second, her yard was usually full of flowers and she gloried in giving them away. Those eats! She had a large family and that called for cooking bread every day, “mixed bread”. And I fear no one but a Dutchman raised there in the Fork can take in the full meaning of that, fresh mixed bread! Here I am writing about flowers and about to go off on a tangent of ecstasy about that greatest of all breads. Well, any way, it was best fresh, still warm. And she’d cut a thick slice through a round loaf, plaster the holes shut with fresh-churned butter, and then top it off with blackber ry jelly, and. Oh boy! But to flow ers. Aunt Vennie had myriads of bulbs, and most of them came early. She’d help us pick great handfuls of their blooms. And la ter there were roses in profusion, and other things, flowers just about all the time. Her yard was fenced, so she could really have flowers. Out- yard wasn’t And the poultry, goats, pigs, etc. made flowers there impossible. So we grew a few in our fenced veget able garden. One place I always coveted flowers from was the cemetery. In the home gardens we didn’t have many improved sorts. But a few of the families put rare things like large pansies, improved hya cinths, etc. on their plots. I thought these were the prettiest things I had ever seen. And my hands really itched for them. The urge was so strong that I sneaked in there, up through the woods on the back way, several times, firm ly resolved to pick me a few of those cherished flowers. But con science always starting gnawing the closer I got to the act. And, when I got to the graves, my will power failed. So I just stood, ad mired, stooped down smelled of’em and went away a bit unsatisfied. Zuni and Hopi, among other American Indians, cultivated cot ton long before the Spanish con quest. They used cotton primarily for ceremonial rights, putting raw fibers over faces of the dead and depositing seeds in food vessels on graves. PROSPERITY NEWS The Iris Garden Club met Fri day night with Mi's. Ira Kinard. Mrs. Thomas B. Harmon, the pre sident, presided. After the Lord’s Prayer in unison, the leader, Mrs. Leroy Pugn, lead in devotions. The subject for the afternoon was, Perennial Gardens. She gave an informative talk, enriched by pictures and her own experiences. Phlox plants were given to each. Mrs. Thomas B. Harmon was high scorer in playing Hearts. Easter egg hunt for the lucky number. Mrs. Isadore Ruff was the winner. Mrs. Kinard, the hos tess served a salad plate, toasted nuts, and punch. The Easter motif was carried out in refreshments, especially beautiful were the cakes, as decorated Easter eggs. The crepe Myrtle Garden club met with Mrs. John Taylor, Hos tess. Mrs. Ackerman, program leader, discussed “The Magnolia Tree,” its growth and strength and its need for warm climate. Mrs. Ruth Pugh gave “House hold Hints.” For recreation Miss Myrtle Ruff used the word “Irish” in a con test. The prize going to Mrs. Ruth Pugh. J he hostess served a salad plate and coffee. The Literary Sorosis met Fri day with Mrs. W. H. Leaphart, Jr. Mrs. S. H. Petrea and Mrs. Joe Lovelace were invited guests. The subject for the afternoon, “South Carolina Folklore,” was ably dis cussed by Mrs. Richard Foster. For refreshments, Mrs. Leap- hart served a salad plate and cof fee and carried out “St. Patrick’s Day Motif.” Mrs. L. J. Counts, Miss Annie Hunter Mr. and Mrs. Richard Fos ter and two children Rick and Lee, visited in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Krauss of Columbia ui Sunday. Mr. and Mrs. Joel Taylor of 'vilud.-t were visitors Sunday at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Harmon. -Mr. and Mrs. B. R. Taylor and son ( aughman, of Summerton spent Saturday with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Taylor. Mr. and Mrs. Earl Weismer Jr. and children, Lendon and Susan of Aiken were weekend guests of Mr. and Mrs. George Hawkins. Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Brooks, Allen and Tommy were dinner guests Sunday of Mr. and Mrs., Edd Counts. Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Barnes, Mrs. McFall Bedenbaugh visited their Uncle Rev. and Mrs. J. B. Con nelly, Saturday in Spartanburg, S. C. Attending the annual meeting of The W. S. C. S. at Shandon Metho dist Church in Columbia, Friday from Wightman Church were Mrs. Walter Hamm, Mrs. D. H. Hamm, Sr., Mrs. D. H. Hamm, Jr., Mrs. G. F. Clarkson, Mrs. W. L. Mills, Mrs. W. C. Barnes, Miss Myrtle Ruff and Mrs. Faye Amick. Mrs. Charles E„ Simmons, had as her guests Friday, Mrs. Ralph Connelly, Maria and Jean of West Columbia. Mrs. Pat E. Wise and Miss Phyllis Wise, were ata home for the the weekend with them were Mr. and Mrs. Austin Scott, Sonny and Melissa of Athens, Ga. We are glad to report that Mrs. B. T. Young has improved suffi ciently to be moved to the home of her sister, Mrs. C. B. Taylor, 3133 College St. Jacksonville 6, Fla. Mrs. Pat E. Wise Ijas returned to Jacksonville to be with Mrs. Young. With Dr. and Mrs. W. L. Mills for the weekend were Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Garner and son of Union. Mrs. Jesse Lewis, Ralph Lewis and Mrs. Mattie Wicker were re cent guests of Mr. and Mrs. Bur ton Lewis. Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Shealy spent Sunday in Greenville, S. C. with Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Shealy, Jr. Mr. and Mrs. Jack Summer of Lexington spent Sunday with his mother, .Mrs. Helen Summers. Sunday guests of Mrs. W. L. Mathis were Mrs. Bradley Shealy and Mrs. Marie Jones of New berry. Ralph Bowers is at home after serving six months of training at Fort Jackson. DEED TKANSFERS Newberry No. 1 Sara Hipp Hutto to William Howard Tedford and Sara Cromer Tedford, one lot and three build ings, 1.9 acres on Boundary street, $5 and other valuable con siderations. Willie Clyde Wofford to Harvey C. Wofford, one lot, $5 love and affection. Newberry No. 1 Outside Julian Spearman to Estelle Sims, 2Vi> acres-, $5 and other val uable considerations. Boss Coleman to Estelle Sims, 2 Va acres, $5 and other valuable considerations. Strother C. Paysinger to David G. Reams and Sara F. Reames, Route 3 Newberry, one lot $5 and other valuable considerations. James L. Wessinger to J. Carol Wessinger, 73.23 acres, $5 and other valuable considerations. W. C. Carter, to J. L. Wessing er, one acre, $100. Whitmire No. 4 Sara Welch Pitts to James Welch Pitts, 2 lots and one build ing, grantors % undivided inter est, $5 love and affection. Pomaria No. 5 Gilbert L. Hentz andEthel R. Hentz to Betty Ann A. Hentz, 67.79 acres, $10 and premises. Little Mountain No. 6 Ceyril E. Shealy to Heyward D. Shealy, one lot, 1.17 acre, $5 love and affection. T. H. Shealy to W. R. Cromer and Mabel S. Cromer, 12 acres and one building, $11,000. Prosperity No. 7 Gervais Burton to the Town oY Prosperity, S. C. one lot, $111.11. v Orlander Davis to the Town of Prosperity, one lot, $166.67. Carroll C. Hamm to Henry O. Newman, one lot and one building on Young street, $5 and other valu able considerations. BOOKMOBILE Thursday, March, 19th: Silverstreet Community—Shep pards Store Silverstreet School Chappells Community—Hollo ways Store Chappells Community Center Smyrna Community—Mrs. Frank Senn Friday, March, 20th: Mollohon School Prosperity School Mrs. D. A. White of Columbia was a weekend visitor of her sis ter Mrs. C. L. Wheeler. A Sound Investment For... BUSINESS FIRMS ESTATES CHURCHES CLUBS UNIONS FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS Guardians An Account at Newberry Federal is an ideal and convenient investment for surplus, reserve or special purpose funds. Insured safety . . . consistent attrac tive dividends . . . non-speculative . . . available when needed. CURRENT DIVIDEND RATE V/ 2 % 1&23 COLLEGE STBEET, NEWBERRY, S. C. “Use our Modern Night Depository for after office hours business.” “NEWBERRY’S LARGEST SAVINGS INSTITUTION”