Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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C{[t itejjimtit mis Smttjnm Published Wednesday and Saturday _ ?BY? OSTEEN PUBLISHING COMPANY SUMTER, S. C. Terms: 91.50 par annum?in advance. Advertisements. 9&e Square first insertion ..$1.00 Uvery subsequent insertion.60 Contracts for three months, or longer will be made at reduced rates. All communications which sub servo.private interests will be charged V>r as advertisements. Obituaiies and tributes of respect V?1 be charged for. The Sumter Watchman was found V? in 1S50 and the True Southron m 1866. The Watchman and Southron now has <->.e combined circulation and influence of both of the eld papers, and is manifestly the best advertising medium in Sumter. THE RANS03IED CONSUL. The case of William O. Jenkins, American consular agent at Puebla, Mexico, is of a sort to make the av erage American do some serious thinking about this Mexican bandit business. Jenkins was kidnapped and held far $150,000 ransom. This was by far the biggest demand of the _kind that any Mexican outlaws have ven . ture.i to make. Apparently the value j of Americans for ransom purposes is1 rising. The bandits got the money, too, some in cash and the rest in notes which apparently are to be met hon orably, though such forced pledges presumably have no standing in Mex ican law. To hcnorable men a prom ,f jse is sacred, even when made to men . without honor. , It develops further that this big ex pense is to be met personally by Mr. . Jenkins and his relatives. The United States government has disclaimed any intention of asking Mexico to pay it. The Mexican government is held . blameless and there is no warrant in international law for such a claim. It is said to have no more legal standing than there would be in the demand of | *any foreign government for repay-j ment by the United States government of a ransom paid by one of its sub jects to American kidnappers, if such a case were to arise. Maybe it is all strictly legal, con formable to international procedure, etc; But it is humiliating to every American to have this kind of thing happening all the time, with an ever growing audacity on the part of the Mexicans. It may oe granted that the offenders are outlaws, whom the Carranza government would gladly hang-and whom he is trying his best to suppress, bu.: that does not help the case much. Every such occurrence adds to the shame felt by the American public, and doubtless to the scorn which the ignorant and insolent Mexican popu lace feels for Americans. The of fense is all the greater when, as in this case and several previous cases, the victim is an official representative of the United States. The nation cannot continue to stand for this sort of thing much longer. WHAT CONSUMERS CAN DO. Not much can be done in the long run, to remedy the cost of living, says an expert.. Prices have a definite re lation to people's earnings, and these things are regulated rather automati cally by general economic conditions? the "law of supply and demand," and other vo-called laws connected with it. Prices of things in general will go up for a while, and then up again, and so on over and over, rather indepen oently of anything that can be done by individuals or governments. There are some things, however, which he admits will have a tempor ary effect on prices. As immediate remedies for the high cost of living he offers these recommendations: Patronize the dealer who charges only reasonable profits. Stop buying things out of season. Admit the right of manufacturers and farmers to make reasonable re-1 i turns. j Let no workman demand more for similar service than a fellow-work man. Increase production. The factors here indicated may be transient and trivial compared with the big, ever-operating influences by which price levels are made and changed. But they will help, at this time or at any time. THE FOOD GAMBLERS. Some of the self-satisfied economists who have been prating about the om nipotence of the "law of supply and demand" have been rather discredited by recent developments. It is true that this so-called law au tomatically regulates prices, and does It on the whole satisfactorily?when it is allowed to work unhindered. The trouble comes when people insist on interfering with it. And this trouble some meddling is not- by any means confined to legislative bodies and ex ecutive departments of government, as some of the critics have maintain ed. There has been some very mis chievous meddling: done recently, in a manner not at all unusual, by spec ulators. Herbert Hoover has called attention to this fact. Testifying before a con gressional committee, ho gave it as his1 opinion that one of the main causes of high prices in this country has been the cornering of food by speculators who stored it in expectation of big profit, either abroad cr at home. It worked after ths familiar manner. These profiteering gamblers, profess ing merely to "hold the stuff for a rise in price," by their very act of hoard ing forced the rise, through the artifi cial scarcity they created. There have been many revelations of late corroborating this statement. Food lias been found stored in vast quantities along the eastern seaboard, I especially in thvj vicinity of New York, including hundreds of thousands of i tons of the sugar for which the Ameri can market has been starving. The gamblers shoulu be forced to disgorge these hoards; then the eco nomic law will etc the rest. ADVANTAGES OF UNIONIZATION. One cf the unfortunate results of recent strikes in this country is that they encourage the ciiticism and dis crediting of 'th? basic principles of union labor. This is unfortunate not only for workmen, but for the public. Aayone who will condemn all labor unions because of the conduct of some of them, and thus deny any general benefits of unionization, is illogical and short-sighted. He ignores the fact that trade-unoinism with centralized control is a natrval development, and perhaps an inevitable step in the pro cess of industrial evolution, and that even in its present imperfect state it has accomplished much good. The New York World, which has been condemning labor more severely than capital for the present industrial situation, recogni-Tes this, pointing out the folly of urging, as some extremists have done, th?> disbandment of the Federation of Tabor. "Federation;" says the World, "sim plifies and stabilizes industrial condi tion's; places employers as well as em ployees upon comrnor- ground; op-r ates as a checK upon unscrupulous competition, /and when honorably en forced makes fo>- justice, equality :?t?-JH peace in wide areas. "The right and desirability of labor! organization and collective bargaining j being conceded, it is evident that the greater their scope the more service! able industrially and economically they must be. Nearly all productive enterprises today deal with several labor unions. Although it has failed grievously at times, federation as a rule has harmonized and disciplined the old independent shop organiza tions that once were a very' uncertain law unta themselves. "With labor as with men generally, leadership is the most important con sideration. The more centralized that control becomes, the. easier it will be to do business with it when it is well disposed and to correct it by law .vhen it is at fault.' This is a good statement of the sit uation. There is nothing to be gained at this tihie, or possibly at any time, by fighting the principle of labor or ganization. It is as justifiable, natural and inevitable for labor to organize as for capital to organize. When both are completely organized it will be far simpler for them to deal with each other, and far easier for the govern ment to deal with, both and correct the errors of both. / MINERS' GRIEVANCES AND MIS TAKES. It is unfortunate, from the stand- j point of the local coal miners and of] common humanity, that the strike has placed the miners at present in so un favorable a light. The obvious wrong tfess of their action in this case has largely obscured their present griev ances, and the hardship which is their usual lot and for which they ought to be properly compensated. Nobody who is familiar with an or dinary mining settlement and who knows the typical life of miners, can fail to sec that they have more than most workmen to make ihem discon tented. They live in dreary homes, amid dreary surroundings, usually in remote places, with few of the com- I forts and little of the entertainment and varied experience of the city person or the comfortable farmer. Their homes are generally owned by tho company they work for. They buy their provisions perforce at com pany stores. They work underground, ip continual dan? er of lire, asphyxia tion or entombment, in quarters so! cramped that often they cannvt j straighten their backs or their cramp-j ed limbs. They are subject to the! diseases that come from bad air, dark j ness and dampness. They are compar atively short-lived. Their work is "in- j certain. In ordinary circumstances their occupation comes about as near to practical slavery as it is possible for any class of men to pert In mis free country. Conditions have improved eonsider ably in recent \cars, in respect to wages, hours, living conditions and safety appliances. Still there is much to be desired. The uncertain tenure of their jobs, with the idleness forced on them for about one-third of the time in an average year, is one of their worst evils. Regular work with shorter hours would be preferable to the present system, if it were possible. As for wages, it seems clear that they have not been paid enough to meet the new cost of living, which seems to have risen more in mining camps than I in most other places. If the miners had bad these facts ?properly presented to the public, and I had made demands, based on them, of such a natun. as seemed reason able, they might have got what they wanted without much difficulty. The public and the government would have championed their cause. Unfortunately they were persuaded by wrong head ed leaders to commit two great mis takes: First, to demand the 30-hour week, and with it a 60 per cent, raise in pay; second, to start negotiations with the ultimatum that they would strike unless these impossible demands] had been met by November 1. Such a combination of extravagant terms and public menace could not be tolerated. It swung public sentiment and governmental support away from the miners and prejudiced their legiti mate grievances. The miners may still regain some of their lost ground. By facing about and giving the nation a square deal, they may get a so.uare deal themselves. But they can hardly expect as much as they would hr.ve got in the way of either public approval or material gains if they had not permitted their leaders, in their name, to defy publ:c opinion and menace the national wel fare at a critical time. THE FOURTEENTH RESERVATION Regarding most of the treaty reser vations now being disposed of in the Senate there is no need to get excited. Ardent, friends of the treaty oppose them on the ground that they tend to weaken the document and lessen the authority of the League of Nations. Others s-eem to feel that, though pos sibly necessary, they may do no harm. At least they have the practical merit of allaying criticism and placating the enemies of the treaty in the Senate, and thus making ratification possible. There is one reservation, however, that canhot be treated with indiffer ence. That is the folrteenth offered by Senator Reed, as follows: 'The United States reserves to itself exclusively the right to decide what question affects its honor or its vital interests, and declares that such ques tions are not under this treaty to be submitted in any way either to arbi tration or to th< consideration of the council or of the .assembly of the League of Nations or any agency thereof or to the decision or recom mendation of any other power." As William H. Taft says, in a state ment ai.alyzing the whole set of re>er vations: "This emasculates the treaty and makes the relation of the United States to the League one of a mere visitor to the council of nations, with no responsibility and a corresponding absence, of influence or power for good." If that fourteenth reservation is to be tacked on to the treaty there might just about as well be no treaty, or at least no League of Nations. It strikes at the heart of all serious effort to prevent war by international co-opera tion and conciliation. It is at variance with the whole pacifist trend of Ameri can diplomacy for the iast twenty years. It sets at naught the lessons of the present war. It invites war and confusion for ihe immediate future, when there is s possibility of peace, order and happiness. Whatever is done with the other 13 reservations, it is to be hoped that Mr. Taft will prove a true profit when he says that "this reservation will be de feated, as it ou^ht to be." WISE IMMIGRATION POLICIES. The new immigration bill reported to the House provides that immigrants hereafter must furnish evidence of ability to speak and read the English language, and ;?.lso of attachment to the principles of the Constitution of the United States. This it may be presumed, will free the United Stales government in the future from the disagreeable duty it is now performing. of rounding up hundreds of aliens or enemies of America and shipping them back where they cam*- from. Under such legislation as that which is being en acted, they would not get into the country in the first place. The bill also provides that the wives and children of aliens, in order to ac quire citizenship, must take the oath of allegiance. Our recent war expe rience has shown the desirability of this regulation. It his been demon strated that a woman can be an alien enemy as dangerous as a man. As for children, they cannot be taught and turned into the right course too early. A particularly pleasing clause ol this bill grants citizenship to sever;/", thousand aliens who refused to (daim exemption from military service on ac count of alien birth, even though these men were not finally acepted for the army. There is also an admirable pro vision declaring that aliens who have! HARBY & CO., Inc. COTTON MO FERTILIZER MERCHANTS If you have cotton to sell, see us, it will pay you. If you have fertilizer or fertilizer materials to buy it will pay you to see us before you buy, Cash or approved collateral. 9 West Liberty Street announced their intention of becom ing citizens, and who fought in the allied armies, will be credited for the time they served as part of the re quired five years' residence in the Tnited States. This is a becoming recognition for service rendered. It I points to the moral that Americanism is a state of mind rather than a legal technicality, and is in itself a power ful lesson in gooc' citizenship. TAINTED MONEY AGAIN. A statement issued by Dr. Samuel Zane Batten, secretary of the social service education board for the Amer ican Baptist Publication Society, urges Baptist churches throughout the coum try to refuse money offered by profi teers. Dr. Batten maintains that ev ery church should know whether any of its members are engaged in profi teering:, and that the church shoai.1 refuse to touch the "dirty money" of these people. Just how the chureh is going to Ind out whethei any of its members have been overcharging for goods or service, in the present frenzied sta;o of business, is not made plain. If Dr. Batten could formulate rules by which the profiteer may be tested and foun *. profiteering, the country as a whole would be deeply grateful to him. Moreover, Dr. Batten brings up th-i whole moot qucstio/i of "tainted money" again. Just when and how does a given amount of coin or cur rency which has many times be??n honestly earned, and which is ready again to give honest service, acquire its taint? The whole thing, when analyzed. I becomes perple.\ing and baffling. Nevertheless, Pr. Batten, on the big ! moral issue, is more than half right. ! Profiteers are indeed, as be says, "the J meanest kind of thieves." And "the ; church must make the will of God j very plain on this subject.*' The (church is the vehicle for ? expressing j public opinion in the matter of morals, j If profiteering is held in abhorrence j by every church member the country j over, if every man sticks closely in his j business dealings to the letter and i spirit of the golden rule, profiteering i will die a suden and unprovided death. Red Cress Roll Call. For ten days in the one phase of the J Battle of the Argonne the American dine did not move as much as three kilometers. For ten days every Ameri can Division did its best, in a grind ing, muddy heartbreaking struggle, and at the end of that time, summing up the results it was found that the American army was almost exhaust ed, and the ground gained was negli ,'gible. ! So they decided to quit and let it !go at that. ! Not the American Army. That isn't ,'the way they do things. They sum moned the remainder of their reserv es. They brought up the remainder I of their artillery. They passed the word down from the "C in" to the buck private "tomorrow we will re double our efforts," and they did. And the next day the Kreimhilde Stel lung line through the Argonne Forest broke in half a dozen places, and the German High Command was frantic ally negotiating for an armistice, to save its army of Northern France from annihilation. The Third Red Cross Roll Call start ed well. From everywhere in the United States came reports that a smashing drive was under way the ! ! first day?they were enthusiastic and on the job. Now. when the first momentum of 1 the drive is spent, and it becomes j more difficult to carry on the drive, i will thfy stopfeand let it go at that?" i Xot Americans. That isn't the way I they do things. There will be a j marshalling of res-rves. and the word ?is going to be passed throughout the ! organization "we will redouble our 1 efforts" and they are going to carry this drive through to the greatest suc cess that has ever attended a Red ' Cross Roll Call. J Sumter County's quota in this Third 'Roll Call is 7.695 members. Up to j date only 2.100 memberships have jcome in. Are we going to become dis icouraged and quit*." Never! YVe are j Americans. Sumter County has never I failed yet in all the drives and cam paigns during the war and since the I Armistice. We will not fail now. The icampaign for the Red Cross will be carried on until the full quota of mem j berships has been secured. ! The teams that have been working ?so faithfully and well during the past ! ten days will visit all the homes ' where memberships have not as yet j be<-n secured. Everyone who has not I yet joined th* Red Cross will be given j an opportunity to do so. Don't wait j for some member of the Red Cross i Working Te?'ms to call on you. but if you have not yet joined for 1920, either mail your membership fee of $1.00. or take it to Miss Mamie .7. Chandler. 402 City National Bank Building. Marriage License. Colored?A. \D. Witherspoon, Sumter. and Eliza Wilson, Sumter. LOST1?Female pointer, liver colored with white specks and bobtail. Small head but large body and fat. Answers to the name of Beulah. Finder will please notify F. B. Creech, City National Bank Bldg., Sumter. S. C, Phone 293, and re ceive reward. The Service This Store Accords is Indicated by the Activity You See? People wouldn't keep on coming in ever increasing numbers, swelling volumes of sales with such regular ity, unless we provided values that can be found no where else. Every department is now overflowing with the new goods. Have you looked over our store lately? If not, drop in, and get posted. A cordial welcome awaits you. It is not a question of buying ?not at all. We wish to show you the new things. We want you to pass judg ment on them. Make our store your headquarters during the Fair. Shaw b McCollum Merc. Co.