Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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HOUSTON MA Spillman Alleges Rotteness in the Management of the Department of Agriculture SECRETARY NOT IN SYMPATHY WITH FARMERS Investigation of Department and Bureau of Markets. Announced By House Resolution. Editor. Daily Item: ?I am inclosing" you copy of House Resolution 611, providing for investi gation of the charges of Dr., Spillman concerning the Secretary of AgricuT - "lure. Dr. Spilhnan's address was de livered before the national Board of Farm Organizations February 11 a,nd is set forth in the document I am? inclosing. I think your readers will be greatly interested in the revela tions set forth by Dr. Spillman of soine of the inner history of the Department of Agriculture. I am particularly interested be- j cause it shows why the bureau of. packets which was the direct resultj of my collaboration with Mr. Lever j in January 191li, utterly faikd dur-! ing that year to even start the great i work we expected. In September of I that year at the instance of the Nat- I j ional Farmers' Union I was sent to1 Washington as chairman of a com- j mittee to interview Secretary Hous-! t?n and urge.him to make the Bureau! of Markets worth something to ourf people. It was then that I came to ; ihe : conclusion that Secretary Hous- j ton was tbtaiiy out of sympathy with : the farmers, and should bev removed i from office: It is a sad commentary! (J5n the lack of organization of thej farmers that such a man should re-! main at the head of the Department! of; Agriculture for six years, and' will probably stay on to the end of Pres ident Wilson's administration. I pro tested six years ago: When in Wash ' ington last w<>ek i was told that in view of Dr. Spiilman's revelations, a movement to have Houston removed had started. I doubt if it amounts to anything. Lever has said to me On more than one occasion that he re- ( garded Houston as the brains jof the j administration. I never could under- j stand how Mr. Lever had been so de- j ceived in Houston. I trust you 'will i .give space to the publication of Dr. j Jj^illman's address, even if you have i to do so in installments. I am sure 1; your readers will appreciate it. I Yours truly, i E. W. Dabbs. j _^Whereas at the semiannual confer- j ,en?? of the National Board of Farm j: Organization^, on February eleventh^ ninetcS-L hundred and nineteen, j#e i following statements and charges <fon-T c i ning ihi>-.tJnited States D^jSart- j went of Agriculture were pade by j Doctor W. J.. SpflTmTtf^ turner Chief of the Office of Farm Management in | said department: Why Data on Cost of Production avc \ "Sol Reliable" After ten years of patient study the,) Office of Farm Management felt that! by the summer of nineteen hundred ??nd seventeen it had worked out! satisfactory method's for determin- j ing the cost of producing prac- ; tically all kinds of farm products In these studies vast quantities of data had been collected, and several bulle tins on the cost of producing various products had been published. What was mainly needed to enable the ex perts of the oifice to state current costs Of most products was knowledge of current wages and prices Of materials. It happened that just at this time the President directed the Federal j Trade Commission to undertake cer-' tain studies of food production and distribution with a view to determin- ! ?ng cost at various stages and of as- j curtaining whether unfair practices; prevailed in the trades based on food; products. The Federal Trad- Com-i mission u?ok up with the Bureau of! Markets "f the Department of Agri-j culture the'matter <>i" ascertaining cost! of production of farm products, j Arrangements were made for the I Office of Farm Management to j have charge of this work fn cooperation with the Bureau of Mar- j kets. '* As Chief of the O.'fier of Farm Man- 1 agement. I request* d letters of auth- ! orizaticn for the purpose of sending I thirteen experts from that office to the j field to collect the data necessary for determining current costs. This was' early in October, nineteen hundred and seventeen. Sine- the money avail-' able.for this would lapse on July lirst. ? ninteen hundred and eighteen, it was planned to finish the work by that i time. Secretary Houston refused to grant these letters and called me to his office for a consultation. This is the conference referred to by Secretary of"Agriculture in his letter to the Sen ate of November seventh, ninetee i hundred and eighteen, in which he says: "I indicated to him (Spillman) my desire that careful consideration be given the whole matter and that a system of inquiry and interpretation be devised which would be regardded by competent students of farm econo mics as sound and which would fur nish results reasonably reliable and creditable to the department." Every word of that statement is deliberate falsehood. Scretary lions ton made no such suggestion to me al that or any other time. What he did say at this particular interview was substantially <'?s follows: He first rebuked me in the st?rmst manner for having gone before Qarfield committee at the time the price, of wheat wa.s fixed the nrsi time, and reminded me th .t 1 had done so Without his permission. He stated that it was well understood armmgsl those .who were in a position t<? know thai the price" to be fixed for wheat was .?,b.:i'i $1.9-0'. but that my testimony had resulted in the unreasonbale price t of ?2.-?. H ma&eJt very cl?sar to hie I'that 1 had ;<? oil''guilty "f ah i;v'ar ^OivtVie' otei'i? jn Ih's uter. 1 S tSi .?fin f.tct. prepare J .i report to be :*>il> miited to the price-fixing: committed . 'with Mr. Houston's consent, but when it came tinic- to present this repor; Y?r ; Houston was conveniently out of town i and I could not learn where he was. I ; therefore presented the report in per j son. and without his permission. The ; price I nrgd upon the committee was j $2.30. for at that time a farmer could ;get $2.2$ for his wheat by feeding it : to h<.>a:s. and 1 argued that any price ? belw $2.2$ would induce many farmers to feed their wheat, a result which ac tually occurred. The Secretary further stated at this j interview that he had made a thor i ongh investigation of the whole sub ' ject of cost of production on the farm 1 and that there "is nothing to it." He : j described his thorough investigation ;' j as follows: He had visited a cousin of j i his on a farm in North Carolina and; j ; had asked him the cost of producing; j cotton. "Well." rrplied the cousin.; j "last year I had the same acreage of, ' cotton as this; I used the same amount j . of labor and fertilizer; my expnses i j were, in fact the same for two years. ' i In one of these years I made half a ! j bale to the acre and in the other three j quarters of a bale. Da\*id, there is no j J such thing as the cost of producing j j cotton." ! . This, "thorough investigation," J i which I may say is quite character- j ! istic of the worthy Secretary, had con- { j vinced him of what he wanted to be-; j lievc, namely, that there is no such ! [thing as the cost of production. Mr. Houston then said: "The farmer ! is not entitled to any information on ! the subject' of cost of production. His! business is to produce. The only use : over made of such information is for j agitators like this man ?aer, of North Dakota, to go out and stir the farmers up with it." He then ordered me in ?he most positive terms to stop all in-! vestigations dealing wish the cost of; production. The next day I received from the | Secretary an unsigned letter, sent os-' tensibly that I might suggest any '? changes in the wording necessary to i make it effective, the Srst sentence of; which began: "According to the agree- I ment (italics mine) we reached in our ; conference yesteray, the following; pro>o+s in your office will be discon- ; tin.ueu He then went on to enume- ; rate, by number, every one of our pro- j jects dealing with cost of production. ; includng nearly half the work of the ! office. I sent a note to the Secretary. reminding him that these particular j ( investigatons had been requested by j the Federal Trade Commission, but j he did not deign to reply to this note, j, Under the circumstances we were J compelled to desist from such of thisi, work as required new letters of au- ! \ thorization. j ( I immediately resolved to leave the j department so as to be ;n position to ; force the Secretary to sha&gje?1 iris |, mind about this work, as well as other ; work of (the OiTicQ^Of Farm Manage ment w*hicr^iu*r'rtad dscouraged from j first. It was not until June following' that J was able to complete these ar- ;, rairgements. Meanwhile, early in Jan- ! uary. nineteen hundred and eigh- j teen. Mr. E. C. Lasater came to my j Office and inquired as to the progross of the cost of production studies. I j told him the situation, and he sug- j gested that if I would wait a little.he | could render some assistance. I told j him his help would be welcome. { About the middle of January, nine- j teen hunrdeed and eighteen, the Sec- j retary received a telegram from Mir. j Iko Pry or. president of the American : National Livestock Association, read- ' ing substantially as follows: "The j Amercan Livestock Association.,. in ses- j sion at Salt Lake City, would like to know the status of the investigations on cost of producing beef being con ducted by your office of Farm Man agement. Please wire roply in time for me to read it to this convention before it adjourns to-mor row at four thirty." This telegram was sent to me to prepare a reply for the Secretary's signature. I prepared substantially the following: "The in vestigations on cost of production re ferred to in your telgram have been j greatly extended and are being push- j od vigorously. A report on them will j be ready by the first of July. About ten minutes after I sent this, to the Secretary's office Mr. Harrison.] secretary to Secretary Houston, called j me over the phone and said, as nearly j as i ean remember: "Spiilman; what in hell do you mean by sending a tele gram like this over here for the Secre tary to sign, You know damned well he has ordered all those investigations stopped.." "Yes," I replied, "I know he has ordered them stopped, but 1 j have a suspicion he is going to order j them started again." "What /do yon i mean by that." responded the astound- j t<! Mr. Harrison. "1 mean just what] ihv words imply." was my rejoinder, i "But the telegram isn't true." insisted Harrison. "It will be true when the. Secretary has signed it." 1 replied. ' "But he won't si^n it," said Harrison.! I said I thought he would, and asked j j Mr. Harrison if he know who Ike Pry-j 1 or is. "All 1 know." responded he. > is that he signed here as president! if this association." "Yes." said 1. \ j "and that is one of the largest and | '? livest bunches of men in the country, | and I happen to know that they know] j what they arc aftei. Please tell tin*; j'Secretary form me that if he values! ihis job he will sh\u that telegram." i ' A few minutes later 1 received a I i courteous note from Mr. Harrison.! ? ? with a copy of tin- telegram, which he said the Secretary had si^rx-l and sent. The next day 1 renewed my re i qu'-st for the thirteen letters of au thorization, und. after some wrang-1 : Ing, obtained them. Bin this was in ithe dead of winter, and tin- man j [could not ?.et into the winter-wheatj ? districts until about the ?rsi of April. ! I We had thus P>st six of ihr :j months; I available for this particular snub. ;i I P.ss for which the Secretary <>f Agri culture is directly responsible. In the tbr< <? months remaining w?- could no*. | or course, collect and digcsl as much j data as w<- could have obtained had j not Mr. Houston attempted l?> i>in n I Stop to all wor k of this- kind. As i re sult sonv of the reports were n?*i |?re l.i?red in as good form as migh> wished, but the accuracy of the rcsvtltsj j contained in them was not thereby j ' Impaired. Thi? point ie fully covered in my let:er to the chairman of the Senate Cmumilree on ?grjcwJrunj m December seventeenth, nineteen hun dred and eighteen, and need hot be gone over again here, i have no. doubt that Senator G?re would have this letter printed and distributed if a sufficient number of requests are re ceived for it. It was printed in full j in Farm, Food, and Home January ? first. . In all, twenty-three reports on cost. I of producing various farm products were delivered to Secretary Houston, most of them on July 12th. 1918.' Several- of these dealt with the cost of producing beef. Included in them ; were the results of five years care : fully kept records, by trained book ! keepers, covering one hundred and i forty-one farm years and the fat tening of more than forty-eight thou ; sand steers. One of the reports on I wheat was based on five years care i fully kept records on a large number of farms. Yet the secretary, in his letter to the senate, regretted that he could "not send to the senate depend-' able data on the subject*' of the cost of producing "wheat and other farm products." There is no shadow of ! doubt that it has all along been Sec- j retary Houston's fixed purpose to pre-1 vent the farmers of this country from j benefiting by these investigations. Toj accomplish this it was necessary for him, by deliberate misstatement of( fact, to bring discredit on the results.; These twenty-three reports were: promptly pigeonholed, as I fully ex-' pected them to be. To force them1 put, I appeared before the senate; Committee on Agriculture the last; week in August and gave the facts] concerning them, together with some of the results they contained. This was the first publicity given these re ports. Yet the Secretary, in his let ter to the senate, states that these reports Were not brought to his at-' tention until after some publicity had: been given them. This statement of j the Secretary does not square with the: facta. In his determination to prevent! farmers from getting any benefit from ! this work, the secretary resorted to' desperate measures. i can not give: you the full facts about this matter; without exposing honest and hon-! orable men to the fury of this brutal autocrat, under whom they unfortu nately have to serve. I will say, 1 however, that browbeating and intim-: idation were resorted to. T will also; say, that the secretary's letter | to the senate deliberately misrepre- j sents the opinions of the committee i of experts he called in. These facts i could all be brought out fully in an ! investigation by an official body au thorized to summon witnesses and compel testimony. I have reason to believe that congress would make such an investigation if the farmers of the country are sufficiently insist- : c-nt in their demands for it. This opposition of Secretary Hons- ' ton's to cost investigations was no muden inspiration. Early in his ad- | ministration there was circulated through the department a typewrit ten sheet said to have been written; by a member of Mr; Rockefeller's I General Education Board, and which : was said to represent Mr. Rockefcl- j. ler's views, in which Secretary Hons- j ton concurred.. Th:s sheet purported ' to outline the duties' of the depart ment. It stated that the depar t- j ment should make no investigations I that would reveal the profits made; by farmers, or that would determine i the cost of producing farm products.; No representative of the department should ever under any circumstances even intimate that it is possible to; overproduce any farm product The entire business of the departnien: ? was to teach farmers how to pro- '? duce more than they -now produce.; Although the entire department has] been working under these orders, and Mr. Houston has made it plain , on several. occasions that he desired' these orders carried out, he did not! have the temerity-to enforce them: openly. I was able, by persistent ef fort, to push to publication several I bulletins dealing with cost of pro duction. More than once I was se- j verely brought to task for this. Time j an% again he told me he disapprov- j ed of such publications. Anyone con-l; nected with the Division of Publica tions can tell you the difficulties en-1 countered by manuscripts submitted' for publication when these manu- j scripts related to any phase of farm ! profits or ccsts. Mr. Houston did not; summon up courage to stop the inves- j tigations completely until lie received i my request for thirteen letters of au thorization for extending this work j during the summer of 1'JlT. It will be recalled that when Mr.: Houston became Secretary he was a : member of the Southern Education Board, a subsidiary of Mr. Rocke fellers General Education Board of Xew York. Tim following incido:i" ? throws son;'- light on the purposes of this boar;!. Seme nine years ago. a wealthy friend of mine approache 1 nie with the statement thai Mr. j Rockefeller's object in establishing the General Education Board was to gain control of the education insti tutions of the country and see that the men employed in them an "right." Then he continued: "In this we have been quite successful with th<- smaller institutions, and now con-] troi all of them that rue worth con-! trolling. But the larger institutions have refused to accept our money! with the strings we ti<> to it. Mr. Rockefeller is now going t<> add a ? hundred million dol-lors to this founda-; ;i";!. for the express purpose of forc ing bis moiiej into these big institu tions. He is looking for ;i man who can put this across. I think yon are! just the ma a for the place. There is a fat sa:ar\ in ii for the man who caii do the trick. Think it ever, and if i; appeals (<> you let me know ami 1 will take i' up with Mr. Rockefeller through friends of mine. 1 think my recommendation will have consider able weight with Mr. Rockefeller." I declined to consider the matter and said very plainly what I thought of the proposition. I have never jheard of th<- matter again; 1 have no idea thai Mr. Rockefeller ever beard of this proposition to mo, but ilm incident is important in showing wba! people who :ire in sympathy with his views believe bis purpose t-> , be. i shall refer to this matter again 'shortly; Ii will be recoiled thai during (he '^administration of i?scrctafy Jat". s m Wilson those in charge of the county demonstration -work in the Sonth, r.ot being able u> get money from con gress as fast as they desired, applied ! to Mr; Rockefeller's General Educa tion Board for finals .and got them! At the time Mr. Houston became :;< e-j ; rotary this board was putting several i hundred thousand dollars a year into] this work. Secretary Wilson had not ! 'been wholly pleased with this situa-l tion. and to prevent tne Rockefeller j ?interests from getting their grasp on; 1 demonstration work over the entire j country, he had secured federal'funds ! ior similar work in the Northern j and "Western States, and had put this] ?work under the Oftice of Farm Man agement, of which I was then chief.: : This greatly offended the General j i Education Board and their friends in; j the department, and they began a j campaign to discredit the work of my j j office. When this coterie of men had i finally gotten one of their own men I in for Secretary of Agriculture, they j began to make it very clear that the j ! Office of Farm Management was un-i j der ban. One of them went so far as j I to tell a friend of mine that Mr. j Houston, before becoming secretary, I had pledged himself to destroy this I j office. At any rate, very soon after! : he was inducted into office he made a ! j public address in which the newspa pers report him as saying that the \ Office of Farm Management was a big mushroom growth, headed by men who did not know what they were doing, and who were wasting vast sums of public money. He pro posed to see that this office did not grow any in the near future. Mr. Houston has kept his word in this matter. When he came into oJiice j the Office of Farm Management had j a fund of about $330,000 a year fori field investigations. This fund is now! about S21S.0D0. This shows the kind j of support this important work has; had during Mr. Houston's adminis-; tration. In order to further hamper the work of the Office of Farm Manage ment, Mr. Houston issued orders to demonstration workers in the depart ment not to cooperate with any out side agency except Mr. Rockefeller's General Education Board. The pur pose of this order was to prevent the Office of Farm Management from benefiting by funds from various sources that were being made avail able for demonstration work outside of the Rockefeller territory. These orders were not reduced to writing, j They were delivered to me verbally j by a young man who is now a clerk in the department. Soon after Mr. Houston became j Secretary the Rockefelle:' people! established a bureau in the depart ment, known as the Rural Organiza tion Service. The important work of the Bureau of Markets was placed under this bureau, evidently for the purpose of seeing that its work should .conform to the Rockefeller ideas.' But these people made the mistake.' of assuming that any man who was! paid a fat salary by them would do j their bidding. By misrepresentation! of their purposes and plans, they in duced Professor T. X. Carver, of; Harvard University, to become head} of this new bureau. Professor Carv- j er came to the department with real enthusiasm for his work, and at once j proceeded to outline a series ot im-1 portant investigations on marketing of farm products, rural credits, and} similar subjects. But when he laid his plans before the General Educa tion Board they turned him downs flat, 'with no explanation for their action. Professor Carver was much puzzled at this, but a few days later there came another typewritten sheet, said to have come from the same source as the one previously mention ed, pointing out what Professor Carver should do. It stated that the professor had not understood what Mr. Rockefeller wanted. What Pro- 1 fesspr Carver should do was to em ploy about half a dozen of the ablest men he could find and send them around to the various educational in- jt.'j stitutions for the purpose of interest- I ing the professors in investigations of rural problems. It stated that Mr. Rockefeller would be very liberal . with funds for this purpose. Professor Carver sought an inter view with members of the board, and asked them if their object in bringing ( him to the' department was to re move the taint from Mr. Rockefeller's money, and force it into institutions that were now refusing to accept it. . They declined to answer this ques- \ tion. but would not say just what j they wanted. Professor Carver then told them in very plain language I just what he thought of the General j Education Board and its patron. Very j soon after this the newspapers car- j ricd a brief notice to the effect that j professor Carver had not found hisj work in the Department of Agrical-jj euro entirely congenial and would;] probably return to Harvard at theij end of the year. He did return t? < j Harvard soon thereafter. By this Lime conditions in the de-1 partmem had become so unbear-j able that I decided to take a hand inj! helping to remedy them. Accordingly, j I wrote a resolution removing the! Rockefeller funds from the depart-! ment. amounting at that time to $660.000 a year, and substituting fed eral l'\nu\a for them. The resolution; also prohibited the department from; cooperating with the General Eduea- j tion Board or any similar organiza-!; tion. I asked Senator Kcnyon to in troduce this [(solution in the senate j which he did the nexl day. Thisi resolution, modified in language, but]* not in effect, was finally embodied in j the agricultural appropriation bill, j ? and passed both houses without a j' sin^h- dissenting vote. It is still onj, the st.'1 lute hooks. i1 There was consternation in Sccre- ] [ary Houston's office at this action by:, congress. One of the Rockefeller ap- ? pointees in the department told ajj friend of mine thai the secretary', would like mighty well to know who * wrote that resolution. If he could;, rind oui who i; was he would make;, it blankefy blank interesting for him.!1 Secretary Houston's belated inter-:, est in cast investigations dates from I? the Ihne when he began to fear an|J investigation by congress. Even so , late as November Tili he says, in His* < letter to the senate: ;ff such invos- J tigatious are undertaken." and so], forth; and again. "I am taking steps ? ;o ve,. uia I further studies, if ruad< ' In this field," and r:o forth. But you j .-will observe 1 feat ' Ibis plan of pro Iced u re is carefully chosen so that it I will delay as along as possible the publication of any results that would be helpful to fanners during the present emergency, it took us ten years to develop satisfactory meth ods of finding the cost of producing farm products. The honorable secre tary now proposes to begin all over again, and thus waste the years of valuable time already consumed in preliminary studies. 'It is highly im portant that the farmers of the coun try insist that this entire situation be thoroughly investigated. I think I have now shown why the data on cost of production now in the hands of the secretary of agricul ture are considered to be "not re liable/' I have nothing personal to gain in thus exposing a small part of the rot tenness that has existed in the De partment of Agriculture since Mr. Houston took charge of it. Possibly I have much to lose. But it is a mat ter of small consequence what hap pens to any individual. The public welfare is at stake. The Depart ment of Agriculture needs to be thoroughly cleaned out before it can ever render the service the vast funds at its disposal justify us in expecting of it. And Whereas the statements thus pub licly made by a man but recently in a position of high responsibility in said department constitute charges against the conduct of said department by the Hon. David F. Houston, as sec retary of agriculture, and his policies with reference to matters of vital in terest to the agricultural interests of the nation which, if true, should be the basis of action to secure the adop tion of new policies in said depart ment to bring it in harmony with the purposes for which it was created and is maintained, and to secure such further action as will insure the con fidence and cooperation of the agri cultural interests of the nation in said department: Therefore be it Resolved, That the Speaker of the House is hereby authorized to ap point a select committee of nine members of the house, whose duty it shall be to make a thorough inves tigation of the statements and charges so made in the speech above set forth, and the administration of said department of agriculture, and to report its conclusions and recom mendations to The house. Said committee shall have power to send for persons and papers and enforce their appearance before said committee, administer oaths to wit ness, and to employ clerical and oth er necessary assistance. Said com mittee or any subcommittee thereof shall have the right to sit at such times and places in or out of the Dis trict of Columbia as the committee may deem advisable. ?^??????? Around-The- World Bon Fire j Boy Scouts of the World WiD Celebrate the Signing of the Treaty of Peace New York.-March 29.?The signing; of the peace treaty will be celebrated ] by the Boy Scouts with a world round j chain of bonfires. The headquarters of i the Boy Scouts of America annoimc- j ed- today the adoption of the sug-j gestion of the head of the British; Scouts. The fires will be bgbtod inj all sections of the country the night j the treaty is signed. The fire will be j taken beforehand from the staue ofj liberty at New York and carried as j far as possible in starting the "lib- I erty beacons." _ i Cardinal Mercier Coming j - Heroic r relate of Belgium To j Visit The United States New York. March 29.?Cardinal; VIercier, of Belgium, is planning a ; srisit to the United States within the ; next fmv months. according to j Chairman Mulligan of the Knights of j Columbus war activities committee. Ca? For Yolunteiers United States Will Recruit Army for Service in Europe : Washington. March 28.?An imme diate call for 50,000 volunteers for service in Europe has been prepared by the war department and probab ly will be published tomorrow. As an ?incentive to enlistment tnc men will be offered early duty in France as a relief for men in the expedition ary forces who wish to return home. Enlistment in this special force will be for three years. The men will be concentrated at Camp Meade, Md., and probably will be sent overseas in contingents 1,000 strong. War department officials expressed confidence that no trouble would be experienced in raising the GO.000 men or an even greater number if neces ; sary. The bulk of the men are ex ' pected to come from recently dis i charged troops, especially those who ? after having been drafted and train i ed were prevented from going over I seas by the armistice. Opportunity ! to see service in Germany, it is I thought, will lead many of these to ! enlist. A number of officers prooably ten to 12, will be sent overseas with each increment of 1.000 men leaving Camp Meade. These will be used at the concentration camp to give the pre liminary training necessary to whip the men into casual organizations and make the required examinations. On arrival in Europe they will take the places of officers eligible for dis charge. Awarded Croix de Guerre Lieut. Irvin M .Richardson Won Distinction for Gallantry in Action Col. It. C. Richardson has received j notice that his son, First Lieut Irvine 1M. Richardson, has received a Croix i de Guerre in recognition of his gal ; lantry at Manheulles, France, in the I Verdun sector, on November 11th. It j was at that time that he was gasied, j although he fought to the finish. He ; has not entirely recovered and has to jbe under treatment at the Base Hos > pital in Paris. \ - The Committee Enlarged A Third Member To Be Added to Ruling Body of League of Nations Paris. ?vlarch 28.?In the executive committee of the league of nations, Reuters says it understands, will be increased from two to three, the third member probably being a labor repre ::c r.ta-.ive. At Camp Jackson The Thirteenth Division in De mobilization Camp Columbia, March 28.?When the boys of the Thirtieth Division awoke this morning they saw for the first time in many months the early morn ing sun throwing its rays on the soil of their home country. Tired and weary as they were last night when they lay down in their bunks to rest in the terns at Camp Jackson but few of them sTept very much. They were eager for day to come that they might stir around again on ground which they call their own. Five train loads of troops came in last night. This afternoon at '2 o'clock more troops began to arrive. By the fall of night, practically the entire Thirtieth Division will be at Camp> Jackson. It is a far cry from the Hindenburg Itine, where the men were last Otcober, to the peaceful hills of Camp Jackson. All of the boys are looking well and hearty. The South Carolina boys are looking espociaiy wel and show no ill ef fects from the strcuous war itt which they took part._ BANK STH and you can BANK The First National Bank SUMTER, S. C. The National Ban!; of South Carolina of Sumter CAPITAL .$ 200,000.00 SURPLUS .175.000.00 RESOURCES .2.000,000.00 A bank big enough, strong enough, and liberal enough to take care of the legitimate needs of all its custo mers. 0.0. ROWLAND, President F E. HINNANT, Cashier.