??kI&he? 'Wednesday nnd Saturday , ?BY? ?ffTE?g? PUBLISHING COMPANY SUMTKR, & G. Terms: #1.5* p&r annum?In advance. Advertisemeats. Qfie Scsu&rs first insertion .. ..$1.00 VBrery subsequent insertion.SO Contracts for three months, or "longer wilL fes made at reduced rates. All communications which sub. *erv*. private interests will be charged for .as advertisements. . Obituaries and tributes of respect be charged for. Tlie Snmter Watchman was found 18&? and the True Southron m IS?4. The Watchman and Soutiro?.; jttdw has the Combined circ?Jation and influence of both of the old papers sad is manifestly the best advert**::-., medium ia Sun ter._ ICE TO ORBER. The Shamokin, Pa., Dispatch is, authority for the statement that the \ outlook for ice in its community is'. very gloomy, and unless Old Kingj ^"Winter gets back on to his throne the j world will not be safe for the butter^ /and egg democracy next summer. Ap-j parohtly some kings have their uses, though they treat their subjects cold ;iy- ' ^ The condition of affairs in Shamo- j . kin is a fair example of a large part; of this country, for the mild weath- j " er' ha? prevailed very generally. Unless the situation is relieved *by weather of cons;derable severity the only resource will be the establish ment of artificial ice factories. With' the prevailing- .urgency that public ' work be started promptly everywhere i so that soldiers may find emplov nieut, there may be a wide-spread demand for municipal ice-plants. . ?toce the millpond will not freeze, ; the* owner may harness the falling j Stream and manufacture his ice. Cor porations may build electrical power plants which can furnish electricity cheaply to the c:tiezns, and make a snflBeient market for the small refrig eration machines so that they may] be reduced in price to meet the com ibo> purse. The stoppage of the brewing indus try should release for the market quantities of chemicals necessary co the manufacture of ice and freezing compounds. -.Artificial See is much more sanitary thai the natural product, anyway. Tile refrigerating room or box is bet* v$r than either. And necessity doesn't j need to do her mothering stunt, for the Inventions are all ready for the mac who is enterprising enough to use them. BOLD N'OW. IThere is no use in postponing building projects longer in the hope that building materials will be cheap- j er. -This is the verdict of the federal l?bor and treasury departments and the opinion likewise of most business t?eh .conversant with present condi* fions. Unquestionably there is going to bej a; great deal of building this year, r*v \ gStrdless of what the doubters may do. j la most states ?he building permits al-1 ready issued are far ahead of those | issued last year or the year before, j There is a vast amount of construe- j tion that has to be done, regardless of j cost. The nation is short about 1,000.- j 009 homes. Public buildings arc need- { ed in many cities. There are thou- j sands of miles of roads to be paved, j There are Almost countless bridges j to be built and sewers to be dug. A j great deal of railroad and factory de, j velopment is necessary, in most castrsj ?the money for the work can now bej obtained. The demand from all these j sources :s bound to keep up the prices of materials for some time to come, perhaps for years. ;Real estate men say, too, that it is! sstie to put money into buildings now, even at prevailing prices, because realty values which have risen so no tably during the war are going to stay up. . Thus the money put into a home or office building or factory is not like ly to suffer any ioss?the value will remain, and in seneral the rvorth of the improvement may be expected to increase rather than decrease during the next few years. THE HOME LETTEK. ? The boys in the American army o: occupation are already tired of their job. The defeated Germans are not interesting?no defeated German ev er is?and there is none of the stimulus of excitement or of victory unwon to make army life tolerable. There is no way in which such a condition can be avoided. Of course every effort will be made by officers and relief orgamaztions to keep the men interested and happy, but th?? home folks are already receiving let ters full of the soldier's weariness a1 inactivity, his longing to be at home However much sympathy may bt felt for the boy who must *tay, ii must not go into the answering letter: from home in any weakening terms At no time since our boys enters the service has the content of sin home letter been so vital. Ther? is a ?ne line between discoa tent and dishonor. In order that the boy may stay on the safe side of the line and perform his dull duty well, the home letter must be interesting, must be cheerful, free from cither mawkish sympathy which shall make him sorry for himself and from de tailed accounts of family distresses which ?lay -tempt him to desert. PaiSfcg "with" sons and husbands was agony when they went away to I the danger of active service; but to j every one of them the going was made I easier by the tar.g of adventure. Now, ! to the boy bored with static duty, [home is a place of infinite variety, ot i freedom and opportunity. Just a j word might tempt him to come back < to it before his time. It will take a I finer courage to withhold that word perhaps than it took to speak the one which sent the soldier on his way, but it must be withheld. Better death j than life without honor. Better the almost intolerable boredom of bar-1 rack life than the truly intolerable! stigma of desertion or insubordination, j Such letters only should be written! as will help a boy to held on, and I then the public should insist that these letters have safe pasage and prompt delivery. Good faith de mands it. -LJ-Ll-g- j i i\0 nation is being coerced at the peace conference. All agreements are to be made net by majorities, but by unanimous consent. At the same time, any power or minority group! of' powers that holds out for selfish ends against the generous will of the majority is going to find itself mighty uncomfortable. The Allies have stopped talking of collecting an indemnity of $140,000, 060,000 from Germany, whose entire assets amount to probably $79.00,000, 009. Many another bunch of credi tors has decided that you can get more out of a bankrupt concern by soing slow and nursing it along. A RAILROAD PL/ <\ Hardly anybody seems to want gov ernment ownership of the railroads. Searly everybody, however, wants aj arger and more enlightened control ixercised by the government. Director General Hines comes pret :y near the prevailing view in a re .?ent statement made *o a senate com mittee. "I believe," he said !*that a !?rm of radically reconstructed pri vate ownership, with close govern nent supervision, including govern nent representation on the boards of lirectors will give the public and la tor all the benefits of government ownership and at the same time pre serve the benefits of private owner ship." The railroad men themselves have been thinking and working along the same line. Perhaps the best plan yet put forward is that offered by the Association of Railroad Executives, representing 92 per cent of American railroads. The Literary Digest sum marizes this plan as follows: Private ownership and operation to ie maintained. Regulative power invested solely in the national government. Interstate Commerce Commission, relieved of administrative duties to act as a quasi-judicial body, passing | en rates and hearing complaints. A Secretary of Transportation in the cabinet to take over the Commis sion's executive functions, oversee the country's transportation facilites, look out for maintenance of service and ' financial credit, distribute vraluc. in emergencies, and allow building of now lines and terminals. Rates to be initi "* .1 by carriers in accordance with rate-making rule embodied in statute and subject to ap proval of Secretary of Transportation and appeal to Interstate Commerce Commission. Commission to establish regional commissions. Anti-trust laws to be modified to al low pooling, rate agreements, joint i use of facilities, and mergers, as ap- j proved by Secretary of Transportation.1 Labor questions to be handled by; Wage Board. Federal Government to regulate se curity issues. Railroads to be federally incorpor ated. The plan is not perfect, but it .'s something1 to work on. From pres 1 eat indications, the ultimate solution lies in this direction. LFT GERMAN*Y DO TF. The American people are genor ! ous and philanthropic and all that. Nevertheless we advise our foreign ; friends to go a little bit slow witn that plan of pooling the war expenses land letting the big powers par etpia! ! l> Italy and Japan would not enter j such an agreement, because their ex panses have beet: much smaller than : those of Britain, France and America, and they are so poor comparativelv. ; that they could not afford to mak^ ! up the difference. j As for the three foremost powers. the expenditures of Britain and j France have been a good deal mor<* ] than those of the United States. : owing to their longer period of fight ' ing, and to place all three on an equality the United States would havf I to make them a present of many bil j lions. That hiighl be done, if sufticien I reason vver? shown for it. But whilt 'the Americans appreciate the ir-cul culable services of Britain and France in holding the fort of civilization be fore we arrived on the field, few Americans would consider this a le | gitimate obligation. It is Germany's place, not ours, \o ? ease the war burdens of our allies. Let Britain and France, collect from Germany ail their war expenses in excess of ours. America will not ob ject to the collection of such an in demnity. When the war is all over, and the I peace conference has finished and jgone home, and the League of Nations I has settled down to work, and Ger jmany has reformed, and the bills and j indemnities are all paid, and peace j broods over the world like a dove, we j suppose congress will still be ar guing about hew the war ought to [have been fought and settled, in-, ? stead of doing its own work. * * ? - - j New York restaurant proprietors say prohibition will make it neccs-1 sary to raise the price of food, be-, cause all their profit now is made on j booze. And seeing that they would J raise the price anyhow, that will do j just cs well as any other reason. * * * From the New York World's frenzy j over prohibition, one gathers that the World is equally concerned with the right of nations to control their' own de.*;tiny and the right of individ- j uals to drink beer. NO PROHIBITION FOR TOBACCO. A professor in Syracuse University is said to hw.ye organized a Tobacco League of America, not, as the name might-suggest to make, everybody' smoke, but to obtain a national pro- | hibition to stop everybody from smok ing. The president of the W. C. T. U. in Cleveland is quoted as saying that her organization is "planning to con duct an active antinarcotic campaign in the county this year." Buch acts and utterances naturally! tend to arouse indignation in the j hearts of smokers. Possibly too much j is being made of them. Some temper- ] ance workers charge that this wave of j anti-tobacco publicity is a deliberate I attempt op the part of the liquor men to discredit prohibition. Dr. Clarence T. Wilson, general sec- j rotary of the board of5 temperance, j prohibition and public morale of the j Methodist -Episcopal Church, takes1, this view. He condemns "the desper- j ate effort of the out-awed liquor traf-: fic to make credulous people believe j that victorious prohibitionists will now! demand a constitutional amendment j against tobacco, not to mention danc ing and failure to attend Wednesday! evening prayer meeting." While ": insisting that the tobacco j habit is a bad one, particularly, fori young people, aud that its ev'.; effects), should be brought home to the! youth of the nation, he disclaims all] desire to prohibi? it, because tobacco; is not so bad in its effects as alcohol, and 'the tobacco business has notj corrupted politics, bought journalism,! tried to remake the country in the i image of Germany or allied itself with] prostitution and gambling as the beer] business, did." j It is well that this asurance iai given. A time may come, and may! ! even be ardently desired, when tobao-j co will go the way of booze. But m.tn-1 kind is not .vet evolved to the re- i quisite stage of enlightenment and? self-sacrifice. gggggag gggg?ea SENATORIAL CONSISTENCY. United States senators, in their per- j jsistent efforts to discredit the peace I [conference, have made much of the! ! "secrecy" with which that body is: I doing its work. j It may be grafted that the confer-, fence is not operating with th*-- de-i jgree of openness and publicity thatj [most.people expected. But it is cu-; j rious that th< senators should find (this fact so shocking and intolerable.! seeing that the peace conference is 'following precisely the same method that has been used from time imme PALACE BUFFET Atop i DELORME'S PHARMACY, Sumter, S. C. U.YDEB NEW MANAGEMENT Steaks, Chops. Deviled Crabs. Sal | ads. Homo Made Pie, Cake and Pud I dings. Delirious Sandwiches, j Open Daily 10.00 A. M. to 12 P. M. I Sunday 12 31. to o P. M. ' j Music AH the Time. Dance if You Like. %T 0 fps f~% rs If you have cotton to sell, see us, it will pay you. If you have fertilizer ?r fertilizer materials to buy it will pay ysu te see us before yeu buy, Cash or approved collateral. 9 West Liberty Street morial by the American senate itself. When the peace program is finally I completed, and is submitted to the [Tinted States senate for ratification j the senate will then do just whal I has always done?go into executive session and discuss the document T;^ : hind closed doors mull it has come to agreement and is ready to submit its .-exclusions to the worlds This is ex actly whal the peace conference h '";en doing; except that it has beer: discussing the eaty more publicly than the so ' ? . Of course, if th.- peace delegates undertook to thresh out r dif ferences of opinion and ?dju ? ii their conflicting claims r an open forum in the hearine- of all the world, they would take ?? ars tor the job, and end in a hopeless row. The senators know this. Let them b< honest about it. even if they cannol give due .credit to an international as sembly of statesmen handling a big ger job, and handling it more h( r. t ly and efficiently, than any ether dip lomatic body ha3 ever dor..- in human history. Call to Fanners Quick and Decided Action Is Needed to Save Situation. At the request of Gov'ernoi Rohi. A Cooper, I am issuing a call :<> all counties to send a strong delegation of farmers, bankers, business a. -:: and county demonstrating agen s repre senting the various counties to n: - at the county court house in Co um bia on Thursday. February 13th t ? At., to map out and adopi .-? practical method to reduce the produ Lie-n 'cotton in IMS at least r>:j 1-3 per cent. With a large part of the spindles of the world standing idle, a vast ma jority ?>f them working on short time. it is absolutely essential that the pro duction of cotton l>e. fully reduced in proportion to the spindles standing idle in order that a fair price to the : aluccr of cotton car: he had ! or the residue of the ISIS .err.;,, and' nioro es?>eci?lly for the crc-p of It):!'. :? or ?0 years the product of South ern farms has maintain - d the lapce '? ? - .' r.-'dc i r i'r '.' . isG State;?, a::J for forty years the cotton crop has been [marketed regardless of the cost of . production. F< r the first time in f *r . tv years; due entirely ta four short crops of cotton (and not on ac :cuiit of f-t'ie war) the ba~ aavanco : : eve'rv way possible the plans being r j educe production of cotton r\ at The me'.'tint; called in Columbia on the 13th is to devise ways and meaas this end. Let every county in the State be fully represented at this e< ting that they may present their Eocal conditions and help in an in telligible s ! t-tion <>r the situation. Gov Bickett, o;' North- Caro lina, has Iss ted a call through Messrs. C] >.-.n acreage reduction. Li. I: GUION. Camden, S: C. Feb. 10 :013. ? tton .i again in price Fri ty. v buyers were paying enly twenty-two cents for middling cotton. The pinch is beginning to be felt 5>y those who are holding cot ton end some of them weakening-or are veins forced to sell to raise mon . y to pay pressing debt. There was more cotton so'i. on the local mar?' ket today than during the past week altogether. TAX RETURN NOTICE. I will appear in person or by deputy at the following named places, and on the dates given below, for the pur-, pese of receiving tax returns for yestr" 1019. Return should be made en per sonal property, poll, road and dogs:-.' Privateer Station?Wednesday, Jan, S. I vi Siding?Thursday, Jan. 3. . Widgetield?Friday, Jan. Id. Clu rei acn:?Wednesday, Jan. 15. ?agoed-?Thursday, Jan. 16. R< rt?Friday, Jan. 17. : : '??/.?? [I- -Wednesday, Jan. 22. Erogdon?Thursday, Jan. 23. ;:i?Friday, Jan. 24. Pleasant Grove?Tuesday, Jan. 21.' Shilch -Wednesday, Jan. 29. Norwood Cross Roads?T^?rsdayT' Jan. 30. R. E. WILDER,.. Auditor: l? vom MM f $ ??s-- er iss # % The new Hats are here, ail kinds, all colors, all styles. A hat to suit every person and every pocket. 1 i^fc^... Iis * . ? .'\; F. S.&.C& ?-? mists* :< ri^'0 * TIPS roc r ^ oest n -?> s " c? ? :j ? ?. .- .- - U ^- :* -.1 ' ? >W ' ' ?* .?' ?! frllIii ii > ? ? ? .> fc.-.s ?tiv i-'s /?? /^>i5*'t,