University of South Carolina Libraries
I BY THE WAY By DORIS A. SANDERS COTTON WEEK May is a month of many ob servances, among them National Cotton Week. This is one which perhaps doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but in our area it should. Although cotton fields are but few in this area, cotton still re mains the hub of our economic well-being in Newberry County, for it provides employment for many hundreds of our county residents. Too seldom do we pause to remember about the importance of cotton. Not only does it pro vide employment, but the city and county, the schools and all residents benefit from taxes paid by the Kendall Company, Newberry Mills, Inc., the J. P. Stevens Co., and the smaller manufacturers of cotton pro ducts. National Cotton Week gives us a good opportunity to express our appreciation for these fine industries which have been the backbone of our economy for many years You can support this industry by buying cotton goods at every opportunity, and by looking for name brands pro duced by our local manufactur ers. Support our local textile in dustry—buy more cotton! THE REASON The bleeding hearts of the left-wing news media are doing their utmost to convince you that the blame for the Kent State killing of four students rests upon “trigger-happy" Nat ional Guardsmen who fired without provocation. If one looks far enough and long enough, a few things come to light, buried down in the small print of an article in a reasonably uncontrolled news paper First, there is good evidence that there was sniper fire be fore the Guardsmen fired. Even without this, the Guardsmen had every right to believe their lives were in danger. The killings oc curred when 16 of the Guards men were maneuvered against a building by about 300 agita tors who were hurling rocks the size of baseballs, chunks of paving, railroad spikes, bricks, bottles and spent tear-gas con tainers If you had no avenue of es cape. if you were outnumbered almost 2o to 1 by such a mob of bums, surely you would take whatever measures were neces- sarv to defend yourself It is my belief that tins situa lion was just what the radical campus groups were looking for to start an incident, one which would discredit the commanding officer of the Ohio National Guard Communists leave no stone unturned to discredit those who expose them for what they are The Adjutant General in charge of the Ohio Guard is Major General Sylvester T. Del Corso Two paragraphs in a story in the National Observer reveal the reason the commun ists would be out “to get" Gen. Del Corso: “Not long ago, speaking to a group in Cleveland, he (Del Cor so) attacked the New Mobiliza tion Committee to End the War in Vietnam and the Students for a Democratic Society as •part of the international Com munist conspiracy'. ‘ The SDS had been 'stopped in Ohio’, General Del Corso said because law enforcement agen cies had pursued them. ‘These (Continued on page 8) tw Yol. 34—No. 4 Newberry, S. C. 29108, Thursday, May 14, 1970 $3 PER YEAR ■r* 1 Vb Y k The Exchange Club’s Boy of the Year and Girl of the Year received their awards at the Exchange Club meeting last week. From left are P. K. Fuller, project chair man; Nancy Floyd, William Renwick and Andrew Shealy, Exchange president. (Sunphoto) Gen. Pinckney comes to National Guard defense School office establishes ‘Hot Line’ The following announcement has been made by Ralph E. Watkins, Jr, director of New berry County Schools: “The Newberry County Board of Education and the school ad ministration wish to do every thing possible to have a smooth school opening in the fall. “Since we arc completing our school desegregation program, we realize there will be ques tions b> parents concerning the plans for next school year It is our intention to answer ques lions pertaining to our school program as completely as pos sible. “In order to better serve our parents we are establishing a School Information Hot Line’. Persons having questions are requested to call 276-3249 giving name, telephone number and questions to the person answer ing the phone between the hours of 9 a m and 12 noon and 2 until 5 p m. Monday through Friday. Questions will be ans wered by a return telephone call at the earliest possible time.’’ LOCAL FORESTER IS LICENSED Eight foresters were approved for registration and licensing re cently by the S. C. State Board of Registration for Foresters. Among the eight was Clarence Edmond Grove of Newberry. Ihis brings to 411 the num ber of foresters currently re gistered and licensed to prac tice forestry in South Carolina. The following statement was made last week by Major Gen eral Frank D. Pinckney, The Adjutant General of South Caro lina: The tragic events at Kent State University have disturbed many people. . myself includ ed. I deeply regret that four young students lost their lives, and that others were seriously hurt It is a terrible tragedy when lives are lost in a disturb ance of this sort. However, I am not here to condemn or eondone what happened at Kent State I don't have all the lads and neither does anyone else at this stage. 1 am here because 1 am frankly disturbed at the accus ing finger of “guilt by associa tion' that is being pointed at every National Guardsman, and I am concerned about the un reasoned, emotional wave of anti Guard sentiment this inci- uent has created. I ask only that you look at it in perspect ive Looking at it in perspective, we can see that in the last 24 months, approximately 200,000 Guardsmen have been called upon to maintain the peace or restore order in American com munities and on the nation’s campuses. . and this is per haps the most distasteful and unpleasant duty that you can assign to a National Guards man. Until this tragic incident at Kent, Ohio, there hasn’t been a smglc incident to blot the per formance of these 200,000 men. They have performed with great restraint and good judgment in the face of extreme provocation, abuse. . and sometimes injury. They have been the targets of epithets, bricks, rocks, boards, molotov cocktails and bullets. Yet, significantly, for more than two years not a single person has suffered serious harm or death as a result of any action by Guardsmen in scores of cities and towns around our nation. Look at the Guard’s perform ance in South Carolina during this 24 month period: More than 9,800 Guardsmen have been called upon in two dozen or so incidents. —We have been called upon in Charleston to protect the (Continued on Page 8) V Council backs president on Cambodia stand City employees continue to upgrade their efficiency in the positions they hold by studying at Technical Education Centers and other places. At Council meeting Tuesday night, Mayor Clarence A Shealy recognized achievements of six such city employees in the Util ity Department Certificates were presented to the following II T Boozer, completion of 120 hours in live lint 1 mainte nance by the S U Electric Cooperative; Shealy Counts. 80 hours in Heliarc welding at Piedmont TEC; Dawkins Den nis. 12 hours in Water distri bution at Greenville TEC; also Mayes Derrick, electric metei school at the Wilmington cam pus of N. C. State University. Doyle Gallman, 12 hours in wat er/ distribution at Greenville TEC; and C. E. Sims, Jr., 40 hours in live line maintenance by S. C. Electric Cooperative. In other action. Council ap proved a bid of $24,282 from Graves Electric Co. of Green ville for street lights at Wise Street Park. Council approved sending a telegram to President Nixon, approving the President’s action in Cambodia. Council agreed to an arrange ment leasing to the American Legion Post of Newberry, 27 acres of land owned jointly by the city and county The county has already given the necessary permission. The Legion Hut ha.> been located on the property for a number of years and some improvements are being plan ned. Keitt Purcell presents a two-volume set of “Letters of Michaelangelo’ to Mrs. B. A. Fretwell, chairman of the Board of Directors of the Newberry-Saluda Regional Library. Mr. Purcell has been a member of the Library Board for the past six years, the last three serving as chairman. The volumes were presented as a gift to the library at the time he resigned. (Sunphoto by Steve Armfield)