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Cty flaalc^muii anb Southron. rnhttshsd W?U?HkU7 nud BfJijff, ?BY? ORKEN PTJBLi?Hl.lQ COMP ANT. lumiR, a. o. Inwnnst lift 9? BMBBB I? advaaoe, I - ? liaitlsaa?anta: DM IfMM trtt Insertion.11.06 ?my anbasquaut Insertion.SO Oes tracts f#r three moot ha, or Xeeget will ha Binde at reduced rataa AH saensaaaloatloae which irub ?arre private tataraata will ba ohaj-ged aar en advertseeaaeat*. Otitaartee and trtbataa of reo pact ?111 ne olenrgnd far. Um ?master Watabsann was found* en In 1IH and the Tree Southron In MM* The Weteaa&a-t and Bootliron fsrw |na the ansahlned otrenlnflon and Mansion ad hath of the old papers, Mai H nuntfasUy the beet advnrtlslnf The deficit of the National Demo? cratic campaign fund has not been made up and contributions are dill being called for. Mr. Daniel C. Hoper of this State, formerly assist? ant postmaster general, and a mom bar of the National Democratic Cam? paign Committee, has appealed to the South Carolina members of congress to raise 97.000. ths balance of the amount apportioned to South Caro? lina, before February 15th, so that the debt of the Democratic party may be paid In full before President Wil? son Is relnaugurated on March 4th. Bach of the seven congressmen is asked to raise $1,000 In hie district. Mr. Lover has sent a copy of Mr. Roper's letter to each newspaper In the Seventh district with his endorse? ment of ths appeal to loyal Demo? crats to do their part to assist In promptly wiping out the campaign debt of their party. The appeal is pass? ed on and put up to the individual Democrats. The debt Is dv.e. It engt contracted for tks legitimate neces? sary expenses of the campaign to re elect President Wilson, and It should' be pa d. Every Democrat who bo lleves In the policies of his party xnii voted for Woodrow Wilson owes a part otf It It should not be difficult to raise H 1.000 in the Seventh district It woe Id be easily and quickly raljed if every Democrat, who Is able to contribute |1 ??r $6 without mbndng It, mould make his contrlbu ton pmmitJy. Contributions are still be who wish to mako contributions may send their checke to either plac?. nan High prlcee of the necessities of life cause considerable financial dlsttoss, but the primary and principal cause of the unusual complaint of bard times and the high cost of living is the effort of the family whose income Is, sei. $1.000 a year, to live aa well, or, perhaps, a little better, and to have ill the comforts and luxuries md eomforts of life that their friends and neighbors of twice that Income enjoy and d splay. Living beyond one's means, lack of thrift and needless waste In numberless ways are the things that cause high prices to pinch so hard. The cost of high liv? ing ard careless waste causes more anxiety and dlstross In the majority of caaee '.ban the high cost of ths actual necessities. THE VALUE OF COTTON. The violent fluctuation of cotton futures during the past few weeks is a purely speculative performance, the result of calculated manipulation by those who And an "active" and ' re? active" market profitable. The short crop, the constantly grow? ing demand for cotton, with con sumpt.on by mills euch month show? ing a gain over previous months and prevlojs years, forced the price steadily upward from the compara? tively low level of last year to a point ?here cotton was se'ltng ou the open market at something approxi? mating its real value. In comparison with prices-current of other .-taple commodities?wheat, corn, coal, stoel, Iron, leather, parking house products, etc. The Immediate and prospective de? mand was ho groat, and the supply so short, that the market got beyond the control of the professional traders and price-fixers of the future ?MMflCtt and tlie price advanced from the price-level to which the traders future thought It should be limited to \wthin measurable distance of its real worth to the manufacturers who buy and sell reul cotton. There was eager and sustained competition In the spot markot for all the cotton that came Into sght below twenty cents, for the mills, with an ever widening market for the manufactured product at any price fixed by them, were making every ef? fort to secure supplies of cotton to cover their bona fide contracts for fu? ture delivery of cotton goods The mills have been running full time, over-time and with double shifts of hands for months, and Still this output baa not kept pace with the demand and they are sold months ahead Thev have Hold goods for in ture delivery at high prices on a hungry market and they must have the cotton to make good these con? tracts. Their profits are certain, for their selling prices were based upon the certainty of higher prices for cotton, as the result of the short crop, the increasing demand for cotton goods and the inflated conditions existing (in all lines of business. The greatness of their profits was limited only by the amount of cotton that could be purchased at comparatively low prices before the cotton producers realized the situation. To cotton farmers, who could find no sale at ten cents for their cot? ton eighteen months ago, fifteen cents seemed a big price this fall and they sold freely as rapidly as they could get it ginned and on the market. But the demand was so great and the competition so keen among the buy? ers for American mills and for export that the price was forced upward cent by cent to the twenty cent level. If the farmers had been as well in? formed and as well organized as the situation and could have fixed the market price themselves. But being neither informed nor organized the mills profited by their ignorance and on all the cotton purchased early in the season they have a tremendous profit assured. They paid up to twenty cents h pound and there was no break in the upward movement until the twenty cent level was passed and the sin? ners' report showed an excess of two hundred thousand bales above the minimum estimate of the government crop estimators. Then the organiza? tion and cooperation of the mills and the professional traders got in its work. The buying support was with? drawn from the spot market and the bear speculators hammered the future market for a11 they were worth. Gamblers, pikers and bucket shop traders everywhere were either wiped out or made frantic haste to unload their future contracts, so as to save some of tfcetr paper profits; and the bottom waa sat of the future market. Thus, as asserted at the outset, the existing situation in the future mar? ket is clearly seen to be the result of speculation, and is illogical and unnatural. Cotton is worth no less today than it was three weeks ago, the supply is no larger, the estimated total crop is only a trifle greater than the previous tfW'l Ai mm in f mar days oon demand has not fallen off. The mills are still sold months ahead, they are still running overtime and production cannot catch up with the demand for manufactured product; consequent? ly the mills will need and must have all the cotton that will be available until the next crop comes on the market. Therefore, the holders of spot cotton should not catch the in? fection of tho panic that now pos? sesses the future gamblers, who have been trying to get rich quick on a shoe-string. Cotton at twenty cents is not only not high, but is, to the contrary, in comparison with other great staple commodities, the cheapest thing in the World. Cotton to be on a parity with other staples should be selling today at more than twenty-five cents. If the unsold remainder of the crop could be held, on the farms or locked up In warehouses for a month or six weeks and not a bale turned loose, the owners of this cotton could fix their own price?provided they doled it out to the mills slowly and miserly and only as the mills paid the price de? manded. ? It Is a matter of common knowl? edge now, and it has been stated more than once by so well informed authority as the Wall Street Journal, that the mills need, can spin at a profit and must have all of the cot? ton available from this crop, and that, at the present rate of consump? tion, the world will be on the verse of a cotton famine before the crop of 1111 is on the market. In these circumstances, why should those who are holding cotton be? come weak-kneed and panicky? Mon- j ey Is plentiul, cotton in a warehouse is gilt-edge collateral, and, thanks to the Regional Reserve Banking Sys- i tern, Interest is low; which conditions I render the South independent of the Wall Street banking trust that once blocked every attempt to linance and valorise the cotton crop for the bene? fit of the South and the producers of cotton. If the demand for cotton goods was slack or uncertain, if the mills were ?hut down or running without orders, then there would he cause for appre? hension. But the crop is short, the demand great, the mills havo sol 1 their output for months ahead, and they have got to have all the cotton there is at some price. So why not hold fast to the unsold cotton and exact a price approximating its real value, in comparison with the prh M current of other staple commodities and necessities? Let the future mar? ket skyrocket up and down as much and for as Ions a time as it muy please the future market traders to continue the performance. That can? not effect real cotton, so \m\k :>*; it mills, they could have is kept in warehouses, and the mills cannot spin futures?they need the real article. Bear that fact in mind and do not be influenced by the anitcs of the New York cotton exchange to imagine that it has lost 2 or 3 cents in value within ten days. If the mills could afford to pay more than twenty cents for cotton two weeks ago thoy will be able to pay twenty cents or more next month or the month af? ter. An estimated increase of two hundred thousand bales in the total prospective crop could not knock two to three cents from the value ct cotton. Mills that bought^^enty cent cotton a month ago afW?' still selling cotton goods on a twenty cant basis and they will continue to sell on that basis until another big crop is produced to make the supply exceed the immediate demand. Those who own cotton occupy an advantageous position and should make the most of It, although thoy have to play a waiting game and must taks some risks, for, of course, there is a risk in every waiting game. ROBERT E. GONZALES. The death of Robert E. Gonzales, of the Columbia State, at the age of 28, - is a loss to journalism and to South Carolina. The striking individuality of his work as a paragrapher and its uniform excellence had won him a national reputation and his future was bright with promise. All who read The State are saddened by his death for they had come to look to his col? umn for a daily portion of wit, wis? dom and good natured satire. He was cut off in the flower of youth with his life work only c?t its begin? ning, but he had accomplished much already and what he did was so well done that he had made his mark, up? on Journalism in South Carolina. His influence and inspiration will r ot soon be effaced. TOWNSHIP ROAD BONDS. The proposition advanced by May? or L.-D. Jennings and endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce, that an i.et be passed by the legislature au? thorizing tho several townships of Sumter county to issue bonds for the construction of permanent highways, is a matter that calls for full investi? gation and mature consideration. The passage of the act can do no larm, since the bonds cannot be issued un? til authorized by vote of the qualified ? vi? auviiviiavu ? wv> v/l vuc ^uiu.tiv^t , LdagtauM^J?nijghen it cornea to calling., Uhe Ue?Tloir ?nd~mr^g~To issue sever-* a! million dollars in bonds?several million dollars wuT be required to pave all the main public roads of Sumter county?no hasty action should be taken. If the proposed roads can be maintained, the Interest paid and a sinking fund provided at an expense that will not be burden? some, then It will be wise to issue the bonds, but if the property owners will want indubitable proof of this fact before they will assume the added burden of taxation that the road bonds will impose upon them, j CHRISTMAS GREETING. We extend to our friends every? where, to whom these greetings come our best wishes for a happy Christ? mas, attended by all the joys and blessings of the season. For all the readers of this newspaper we have a real and personal frendship and we sincerely wish that the joys of those who are happy may be increased and that those who are In sorrow and af? fliction may be comforted. For the lit? tle children to whom Christmas Is a season of mystery and Joy and hap? py anticipations, we wish the realiza? tion of their hopes and stockings fill? ed to overflowing by kindly Old Santa Claus. May God bless and keep us all safely through the coming year. TO RECLAIM LANDS. 1 'ititcd Stuten Engineer Engaged In Making Survey of Big Drainage Dis? trict on Black River. Salem, Black River, Dec. 19.?S. W. Frescoln, drainage engineer of the I'nited States department of agricul? ture, is making a survey of the Black river drainage district comprising the Dabbe-McBride lands of about 6,000 acres. Other thousands of acres to the south and north of this tract may l?e surveyed later, This tract occu? pies a table land hetween the waters of Black river and Pudding swamp that will make it easy to drain; as much as 1H foot fall being found to tho mile in parts of the tract. The Sumter and Turheville railroad will, w hen built, traverse these lands from east to west, a distance of seven miles. Part of the development scheme is to lay out new public roads, one of which will be the main road from Sumter to the growing town of Turheville in eastern (Marendon county, which will shorten the distance between the two places live or six miles, and then to offer tracts of 50 to 200 acres front ins these main roads to Turheville and Hhtloh from Sumter to white settlers. Tho Shiloh-Trinlty road was located and built two years ago and Is a popu? lar route for automobiles from Flor? ence to Sumter. J W hen the survey is completed Hr?; MOORE DEFENDS THE GUARD. THE ADJUTANT GENERAL COM? MENTS ON STATEMENTS IJY GENS. SCOTT AND WOOD. Says Tlint Militin Companies Came 1 Nearer to Having Full Quota of Men Than Regulars?Does Not Believe Militia System Will be Abandoned. Columbia, Dec. Adjt. Gen. W. W. Moore, feels that the statements of Major Gens. Leonard Wood, com? manding the Department of the Bast, and of Hugh L. Scott, chief of staff of the United States army, that the National Guard is a failure only pre? sents one side of the picture and measuring the regular army by the same ward stick the South Carolina adjutant general thinks that it is much more of a failure than the Nat? ional Guard, and he does not agree that the guard ia by any means a failure. He thinks that Gens. Wood and Scott and other regular army offi? cers took the stand in the beginning ithat the National Guard would prove a failure and they are refusing to {change their position because of their prejudice against the guard, and thus I are justifying their ow n predictions. I The National Guard regiments were, inearer the quota of enlisted men than the regular regiments, said the adju? tant general, and still the regular army officers are always talking about the quota of men in the Guard regi? ments. He says that figures will show that there are many companies in the regular army with as low as forty men and some even smaller, but Gens. Wood and Scott never said any? thing about them. He pointed out, too, that the new defense act had just gone into effect and that the National Guard had not had time to be tried o?t before the call came for them from the president. Also, he said, when the call came the citizens began enrolling promptly, but it was soon apparent that they would not be needed for war but only for patrol duty on the border and many men did not feel that the 'occasion called for the sacrifice which they would willingly have made if war had been imminent and therefore the enlistments dwindled. He also mentioned that the regular army offi? cers took the recruiting out of the hands of the local companies and put lit in the hands of people who were i not in sympathy with the Guard and I cared nothing about it. The adjutant general pointed to the ^{^TfecSrd wlacfi .tlie isarcir/rjra^ c?^jui. hud made on the border from the re? ports of the regular army men and many of them are not in sympathy with the Guard and are secretly If not openly hostile to its continuation. This record, in the face of the unsym? pathetic attitude of the regular army, thinks the adjutant general, proof enough of the efficiency of the Guard. If universal military training is necessary for the National Guard, then what is the matter with the reg? ular army, he asked? The regular army can't get the recruits sufficient to bring them up to the required strength and their companies on the average are lower in enlistment than tho National Guard companies, he stated. Another matter which he mentioned was that the regular army is for pro? fessional soldiers and those who go into tho National Guard do so from patriotic motives and are not attract? ed by any desire to make a living as is the regular army line and crowd. Gen. Moore and many of the Nat? ional Guard feel that the regular army authorities, or many of them at least, started out to make the National Guard a failure because they were op? posed to it from the first and that they have refused to give it justice. They have on every occasion rushed into print with condemnation of the Guard and charging it with lack of efficiency and yet the general believes that man for man and considering the situation as between the professional soldier and the citizen soldiery the Guard Is more efficient than the regular army. In plainer words he and many others feel that the regular army needs more attention right now than the Guards? men. Gen. Moore does not believe there is any danger of abandonment of the National Guard, even though the high army officers are lighting it. He thinks Secretary Maker will sec that It is given a square deal and a fair chance. nals and ditches staked out, maps and excavations calculated, construc? tion will begin, probably about March 1. Hartman Gamble has bought the S. D. MoBlveen place on Pudding ?wamp and will move there January 1 s. J, Blackwell will move from Col. It. M. Cooper's "Dick" plantation Jan? uary 1 to the Thompson place near Dalsell. D. w. Goodman will take Mr. Black well's place on t lie "Dick" planta? tion. A. J. Pringle has leased the Mc Bride winter place farm. Tho Misses Warren will move from the MeP.rido winter place t?? th?> Me ?hie summer place on January i \ To The Planters [ of Sumter County We want you to call upon us before you buy your Fertilizers this season. We can and will save you money. Fertilizer materials are higher propor? tionately than mixed goods. It will pay you to talk it over with us be? fore you buy. Respectfully, HARBY & CO., Inc., SUMTER, S. C. :titii?!>i;???i!!i?in?i?initM?MtfniK?n?ti>iii?yMmm?i??nmii Your Boy's Xmas Gift? Last Christmas his father gave him a Bank Book with a de? posit in it of $10. Today he has in his account $178.50?every dollar besides the interest he earned himself. He is 14 years old. Before last Christmas he had never put by a dollar. Let's start your boys with Christmas Accounts thie year. $1?$5?$10 does it. May we make them out for you? THE PEOPLES BANK. We pay 4 per cent, interest in our Savings Department frrm.TrmmiiimmHtmiuiH The Best Argument in Favor of Our 1917 Christmas Savings Club is that practically all of our 1916 mem? bers have joined the new club. T&cy know by experience that it is the best and easiest way to save a specified amount each year and get interest on their deposits from date. Why not pay your InsuianGe Premiums by This Savings Fund? For instance, if your annual premium amounts to $100.00 then take out a card in the $2.00 a week class?When pay time comes there is no worry, you have it all ready. THINK IT OVER The National Bank of Sumter, SUMTER, S. C. "Where Your Savings Grow/' um * n year EXCURSION FARES Between all points on the Atlantic Coast Line The Standard Railro.\d of The South Also to practically every point in the Southeast, including Wash? ington, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Memphis and New Orleans. Tickets will be sold DECEMBER 20, 21, 22, 23. 24 and 25. Limited returning to reach original starting point by or before Wednesday, January 10th, 1017. Uon desired call on reservations and any further informa For schedules, Pullman O. V. PLAYKK, Ticket Agent, Sumtor, S. C. im:nnu:i:nnn:n:mtn:in:ntunmxn:i:m:::n:tnt::::n:::i:tim:nmmm$m$mm