Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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THE SCMTER WATCHMAN, Establisl Consolidated Aug. 2? 1 ? ????????????????^^ THE COTTON SITUATION! Commissioner of Agricultnre Ad vises Farmers to Hold Cot ton and Force Mills to Pay a Fair Price Columbia, May ^3?Commissioner Karris has been making a personal j survey of crop conditions in South Carolina and offers some advice to the farmers. "Usually by the middle of April/' says Mr. Harris. "We fmd ! planting of cotton well under way, j and indeedV quite a lot of cotton above j ground. This year, owing, to the un-I usual weather, very little cotton has been planted here pr anywhere in the ^cotton belt. Not over 50 per cent of \ the average crcp has been planted itnd a great deai of the land is yet to "be prepared for the planting. , "Therefore, in order to make a nor mal crop, every day from now hence forth must be ideal cotton weather. * "The spinning trade ii-in the most tfluorishing condition in its history, and it is being more generally recog nized that with the large demands for goods at present high levels the price of Southern cotton is relatively cheap. According to the law of sup ply and demand, cotton should be sell ing for 60 cents, the price that the American Cotton Association recom mended for the remainder of the 1919 crop. ** Affairs are entirely in the hand's of the farmeas and spct holders. If they positively refuse to take present ^prices it,will immediately advance to 5Cc and above, as the spinners will call the speculators for delivery as they. are making unheard of profits now. So, I say again, sit steady in the boat and, freeze to your spots and they will pay your price. "Pay no attention to futures con tracts prices, they cannot be spun. However, if you have no use for your money, if you will hold your cotton until July 1921 it will pay you a big Interest for after careful review of the first crop and weather reports of tho season State by State and after comparison with private reports from every State in the belt, we have ar rived at the conclusion that this is! likely to be. another season of short | yield and that from the beginning itj 5s, doomed to be a short crop. In the j few sections of the belt where plant ing .has be^n done, germination is t very unsatisfactory .mainly because of ! the' low temperature that has pre vailed and the first planting went to "zjanght in -lur^e areas. "In many places in the belt it has been planted now the third time be forevgetting a"stand: Too much''rain and. low temperatures always work in Jury to the crops, especially cotton. "There has never been a time sinco cotton has been planted that such a bear raid has been made upon spot's: -cotton, and they have not succeeded ! in driving it down. I want to say j to spots holders that if the weather j keeps good for a week or so they will' drive October and December contract:*' -much lower, but this will not effect the spots if the holders will not get panicky and sell. "Freeze to your spots. Don't sell until the price is reached. It will come if the farmers will not reieass a .pound until it gets\to 50 cents and >ve. The price of goods justifies it. If you don't get your price ' don't hlame the other fellow. Did you know lat the spinnable cotton is not "enough to run mills of the world more than five or six months. ;?p.< that if the cotton to be grown thi: year should be withheld from the market until December 1st then the majority of. the mills*" would have to close down bri aceount of lack of cot ton to spin? Well, these are facts, and the producers of cotton never had the opportunity in their hands as they have today. "X hope -that the producers- wi'J realize that this is a fact and that they will make up their minds not to put any new cotton on the market urn til December. Then market sparingly and you can name your own price, i Xow I want to urge every farmer so i to arrange his farm this year that he j will make plenty of supplies.such as corn, hogs, hay and syrup. Don't' neglect planting a pop-corn patch | and peanuts so that the children may i .nmuse themselves on .rainy days and j in the long winter evenings. "Remember, the. farmer that makes all his home supplies has half finan- I ced h^cotion crop to begin with." AMERICANS ARE KILLED IN MEXICO The American Embassy Reports Two Americans Killed by Ban?its Washington. May 3.?Mexican ban dits killed Eben Francis Grenlaw and his son. American citizens, according to reports from the American embassy at Mexico City to the State Depart ment. DANVILLE, VA., HAS BIG FIRE -Claimed to Be the Result of De fective Wiring Danville, Va., May 3.?Damages es timated at $70,000 done in the busi ness section of Danville, Va., were the result of a big fire. Defective electric wiring was thought to be the cause. led April, 1830. Be Just ? 881. s. C. develop ment board _ Plans Formulated to Secure j State-Wide Membership ! and Assured In come - Columbia, May 3.^Plans for the! State wide campaign of the South j Carolina Development Board are go-1 ing forward rapidly. The object of the drive, which will be made between f May 24 and June 5, is to enroll a total j of 5,000 individual memberships and J pledge an. annual income of $250,090 j for three years. . Members of the \ campaign forces say there is no doubt of success, for the - average in each j county need reach only 109 members and $5,433. [ "Do it for South Carolina" will"bei the slogan of the campaign. Officers! of the development board point ou?. j that this is not a promise to do some- < thing but ja justifiable boast of having j already done several specific things, j They .say that it is the success which j has been attained already with a small j membership and income which has prompted the effort to do more and in a larger way for South Carolina: The tentative program of the or ganization contains IS projects of State wide interest, none of which has heretofore been possible of accom plishment, but which, will be certain to go through with 5,000 South Caro linians united behind them. Most of! these- relate to the State's agriculture, \ with liberal attention to industrial] and commercial possibilities. With the income sought, th,e board will be able to csrry along all of them rapidly and then take on others as they may arise. bankers to fight reserve ruling Financial Men Plan National Pro tective Association Washington, May 2.?Delegates] from 30 odd States were here today for the permanent organization meet ing tomorrow of the Nation and State ? Bankers Protective Association. Theyj are chiefly State bankers opposing the universal par clearance ruling of the Federal Reserve Board, who infor mally organized at New Orleans last P'obruary at the call of the Country Bankers* Association of Georgia- Va- i rious organizations of ? both National and .State banks have since joined j the movement. Resolutions, now before - congress! calling for investigation of the poli-j cies and actionn of the Federal Re serve Board will be urged for definite action and a move toward a deposit | boycott by," State banks against city ! banks using Federal Reserve Clearing! House facilities-may be taken. Under1 the plan advocated. State banks would1 withdraw their deposit acbunts from city banks collecting State bank ?checks through the Federal Reserve. A resolution "*for such action was adopted by the State bankers of Flor ida recently at Pensacola with rccom I'mendation that similar action be ta | ken at tomorrow's meeting to make j the "boycott nationwide. The banker^ ?will have a hearing Wednesday befprc i the Federal Reserve Board: - i - j Government Harness ! Being; Distributed to Counties in This State '.. Columbia. .May 3?Twenty thousand ! dol'ars worth of harness is being di > i'?ributcd .among the counties of South j Carolina at practically no cost, by the i Stafe Highway Department. The de ' partroent Saturday received a ship ment of 260 double sets of wagon harnes (tehe. equivalent of 269 dou ble sets) from the federal government, shipped from Jeffersonville, Ind.. har ness that was purchased for army mules. The harness is valued at ?80 a double set, ihe total value being $20.800. The first set to be delivered to a county was turned over to Richland road authorities Saturday. Every county in the State is to he given some of the sets, at a cost of per set, this to cover transportation costs. -:- / british dere lict destroyed Washington. May 3.?The coast guard service announced the destruc tion of the British ship Westgate, which was reported as derelict 300 miles southeast. richl?nd'f?r"" prohibition Columbia. S. C. May 3.?The Rich- ; land county Democratic convention this afternoon adopted resolutions en dorsing the Wilson administration and. rejected resolutions urging an amend- ! ment to the Volstead act to allow the sale of light wines and beer. There j was strong sentiment. however, though in the minority, in favor of mending the present prohibition laws. The principles of Jefferson and Jack son were also endorsed in res61ution. | cleared of charge of murder Buffalo. N. Y.. May 3.?John Ed ward Teiper has been acquitted of the charge of murdering his mother. uid Fear Not?Let all the ends Thou A SUMTER, S. C, WEDN WINTHROP RAISES SALARIES OF ALL! General Increases Given to En * able Faculty and Officers to Meet H. C. L. ! ? , - ? i Rock Hill May 2.?The board ofj Winthrop college, in order to meet \ competition with other institutions in 1 securing and retaining instructors and j to enable the professors and instruc-.j tors of Winthrop to meet the high cost, of living, has raised salaries to equal those paid by the other State colleges] and institutions similar to WinthropJ elsewhere. The salaries of the men heads of I departments have been raised from $2,400 to $3',000 and a home, or $300 for rent of a home; of women heads I 'of departments from $1,000 to $2*000;' of assistant instructors from $1,000, as a minmum, to $1,200 as a mini mum, and from $1,200 as a maximum: to $1,400 as a maximum. No assist ant will be paid less than $1.200 here after. The salaries of the matrons,; housekeeper, bookkeeper, secretary,! registrar, librarian, stenographers. | nurses and other officers and workers! about the college have been raised onj lan average of 16 2-3 per cent. * 1 DEMOCRATS IN CONVENTION! ._ i South Carolina ?arty Getting Ready for the Campaign' Columbia, S. C, May 3.?Demo crats are meeting today in county conventions throughout the State to elect" delegates to the State conven tion. ; COTTON MILLS SHUT DOWN Thirty Thousand Operatives ai New Bedford Walk Out New Bedford, Mass., May 3.?The strike of approximately 20,000 opera-^ tives in 37 cotton cloth mills wen^ into effect today. The walkout was the result of posting notices requiring* loom fixers to operate more looms tha^j formerly. ROAD BUILDING . AND LABOR Wo have sehsed the facet that there is .a feeling of considerable apprehen sion in the minds of many of our farmers as to how the Hard Surface i Bond Issue proposition carried to its conclusion would affect the farm labor j question, already serious. We must confess that we had looked upon this ' as one of the serious obstacles to be \ met and overcome. But in the light I of late rehab''- information this ob j stae'e dissolves itself into very insig iniJ'icant proportion;;. For instance i Major W. Loring Lee teils us that he i has just noticed where the West Con struction. Company has taken a $2. J 000,000 contract for hard surfacing ! roads in North Carolina and that on j this work it expects to employ 68 day : laborers only and that the greater ! part of these are part of their organi sation trained for the special work in ; hard. We don't think it is any loo 'early for the speakers, the newspap i crs and any others who arc interested in getting all the facts before the [people to see to it that this phase of ?the situation is brought to the at tention of those of our citizens who i are directly interested from thiu j standpoint. We know of one instance ! where a farmer stated that he ex : pected to vote against the issue unless j definite- assurance 'was furnished be ? forehand that the work would be i done in .such a way as not further to ! com plicate the farm labor situation. jRoad construction today is done with i the least possible employment and cx J penditure of hand labor by employ [ ing machinery in every way possible and we do not think that the labor phase need be one over which any farm* r should unneccsarily worry. STEEL TRUST CASE CLOSED Supreme Court Refuses to Grant a Rehearing Washington, May 30.?The Supreme Court, refused to grant the govern ment's request for a rehearing of the anti-trust suit against the United States Steel Corporation. COLORED METHO DISTS TALK UNION Various Branches of the Denom ination Hold Conference St. Louis. May 3.?Plans for the amalgamation of colored Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episco pal, Zion and African Methodist Epis copal denominations will be consid ered at the general conference of the African Methodist Episcopal church here. ; Nat. H. Portnoff formerly of Phila delphia Conservatory of Music has ac fcepted a position at the Lyric Theativ and is .also making :i specialty of pi iano teaching. Ims't at be tby Country's, Thy God's a ES DAY, MAY 5, 1920, PANAMANS START A DISTURBANCE _ Thousands Protest Against Ac-i quisition of Island by United States ! Panama, May 3.?Several thousand I Panamans marched +hrough the! streets as a protest against the ac- j quisition by the United States of the j major portion of Tobaga Island for j fortification as part of the Paoific de- i fense scheme for the Panama Canal. Mounted Police dispersed mobs which I rocked prominent Panama officials. 5_ I WILD CAT SCHEMES j State Insurance Commissioner j r* Issues Warning As to Oil Well Schemes *'? / ? - ; I \ - ? ! f Columbia. May 3?South Carolina I is .being' overrun with "wild cat" fi-1 hnahcial schemes, especially oil well1 rstock projects, according to Insurance j Commissioner MeSwain, of Columbia. : ?who today issued a warning to the ! people of the State, through the press, j not to invest in any stock propositions j ?unless they were' sure that those con- i -cerns had been licensed by the insur- j ance commissioner. i Mr. MeSwain is sending to all sher- I ! iffs of the State and to all chiefs of | police a letter asking them to be on j the lookout for agents of "blue sky" stock projects who are selling stock without a current license from the in surance department. Mr. MeSwain states that every mail brings some inquiry regarding the re quirements under the state's "blue sky" laws for such concerns to cell their stock in this State. A few days ago Mr. MeSwain was visited by three men from Washing ton. D. C, who wpnted a license to -jrell stock in an oil weiy development, j They told him that the first State they had visited for ne sale of their stock fcwas South Carolina, and asked why this was they told the insurance com ] missioner that their section of th^> country had been thoroughly worked on such propositions and they heard of the unusual prosperity of this State and th' .?~ht it a good field in which to begin tht- .-ale of their stock. [|;Their financial showing, however, did not warrant the insurance commis sioner in issuing them a license. Recently Mr. MeSwain was in the ''hospital for an operation and in his { weakened condition he was visited I one day by three persistent agents for fjsorae oiLwell proposition, who wanted ? a license to sell their stock in th* State. Mr. MeSwain told them that i his voice was too weak for him to talk Imuch, but thaC he could listen. They '"fired away" and Mr. MeSwain lis j tened, but he hasn't yet issued their j license. Mr. MeSwain says the State j is being flooded with people who ! want to soil stock in concerns that I propose ail sorts of moncy-maXing j schemes. J The insurance commissioner states , that he is confident there are a num \her of concerns selling their stock in i the State without license, in violation j of the laws, and it is with a view to catching these agents that he is noti I fying the sheriffs and police chiefs. ?If the agents are caught they will bo I prosecuted. Licenses for the sale of j such stocks must be issued April 1 j of each year. No license :s good un j less it has bee.i issued subsequent to ?that date. I The insum.nre commissioner reccnt : ly investigated an oil well schema I which was applying for license to sell ! its stock in South Carolina, and hie ; wrote to a prominent South Carolin i i ian now practicing law in Texas. The ! lawyer's report on the company show j ed that it was not well known and was without strong financial founda i tions. The lawyer advised Mr. Me Swain not to License it, and he stated i that if the concern were good it would \ have no trouble in selling its stock in Texas and would not have to come : to South Carolina for capital. Ho j stated that one out of every 778 of I the small oil well developments suc jceed. j Insurance Commissioner MeSwain has reports to show that the South is i being overridden with "blue sky" ! financial propositions and he says he j is doing all he can to warn the people , of the State against such investments. Enormous Profits of Southern Mills I (From the Manufacturer's Record) 1 The Tucapau Mills, of Spartanburg, : S. C, one of the big cotton manufac turers of the South, has just declared a stock dividend of 303 per cent, and the Spartanburg Herald reports that $850 a share was bid for the stock of this company. The Easley Mills, of Easley. S. C. has also declared a stock dividend of 300 per cent, pay aide in preferred stock yielding 7 per cent a year. The Saxon Mills havci declared a stock dividend of 100 per cent and other mills are reported us likely to declare large stock divi dends. While the amazing prosperity, of the cotton mill industry is adding enor mously to the wealth of the South, these great dividends show that the cotton mills could have paid a much higher price fo** coton and still have earned enormous profits. Unquestion ably the cotton producers have not had a fair division of this prosperity. Rev. .1. I*. Marion went to Columbia this morning to attend a meeting of tho trustees of Chicora College. COTTON STOR-^ < AGE COMPANY $100,000 Company Organized to - Store and Finance Cotton Columbia, May 3?The Southern ' Factorage & Storage Comp my u .->~w} > Columbia concern, capitalized at | j >i*H?.0O0, will begin operations on | ? J'me 1st, with offices in the Palmet- j1 to National Bank building. Thid company proposes to do a general i cotton factorage business, which will | i consist of th^following services to j the farmer and-merchant: 1. Se-j: curing for them storage space. 2. The accurate classing and weighing) of their cotton. <This work the com pany proposes to have done by gov ernment expert graders). 3. Finan cing it during the period it is con- J signed. . 4. Securing for them it3| value when sold. S Columbia's railroad facilities and j its geographical location make it a | most advantageous point to store cot- | ton, as cotton concentrated in Colum- i bia is available to both the foreign buyer and the American mills. It is the object of this Company to put the farmer and smaller merchant in direct touch with these buyers at as small a cost as possible, and by the use of the Company's facilities, the farmer and merchai.t can be assured of .getting what their cotton grades, weights and its full value when sold. The stockholders of this concern are numbered among some of the largest farmers and business men of this State, and its officers, named be low, are men of long experience in the cotton and banking business: Joseph Walker, president; G. M. J Tarrant, vice president and manager; ! R. L. Hollowell, treasurer; J. E. Davis j secretary. OKLAHOMA TOWNS HIT BY TORNADO j At Least Five Dead and a Dozen Injured 1 ? . -; I Muskogee, Okla., May 2.?At least J five persons were killed and a dozen j or more seriously injured in a tornado i which swept a wide path through the j countryside north of Chelsea. Okla., . lato today. Passengers arriving here ) tonight on trains also reported a tor ! nado at Lusta. several miles east of !Chelsea'? and about IS miles northwest j of Choteau. one near Venita and an :othc? near Pryor. Ail wires in that i section are down. The town of Chel j sea ? -itself - wst*?~rrot --damaged- by the ! storm. j All the persons killed or .injured j near Chelsea except one, who was j struck while riding a horse, were in i farm houses which were demolished, i according to reports received tonight, j Resellers tonight had been unable to I traverse more Uha:i several miles of jthe stricken area about Chelsea, j A Missouri. Kansas and Texas southbound passenger train which left j Venita for Wagoner a fexv minutes i before a tornado swept across, the j railroad tracks several miles south . of that town, was posted here as j "lost," but limped into Muskogee (shortly after midnight with a crippled j engine. Passengers said they had ob j served large areas of devastated coun ? try just south of Venita, but they > could give r,o details of the storm's damage in that section: TEXAS DEMOCRATS BACK PRESIDENT _ \ Present Administration Receives Indorsement' Dallas, Tex., May 2.?Latest returns tonight from Saturday's Democratic j precinct convention throughout Tob ias showed definitely that candidates ; favoring the president national ad ministration had won 1,200 of the 1, : 400 votes in the State convention to be .held May 2Z. The1 anti-administration i forces, headed by former . ^Senator Joseph W. Bailey, according to avail able returns had obtained 49 of the State convention votes. One hundred and 51 votes still were unaccounted , for in the unofficial returns. Tabulators made no effort to record the votes cast in the precinct meet ings, having confined themselves to the tabulation of county convention : delegates and their instructions on national questions. Complete returns will not be avail ? able, it was said, until the county conventions meet. Tuesday to select the State convention delegates in ac cordance with instructions given by yesterday's precinct meetings. .NEGROES GET NEW TRIAI Helena. Ark.. May 3?Six negroes, who were sentenced to death for al leged participation in race disturb ances last October, today faced a re trial, which was ordered because the -erdic* -.gainst them was held to have been worded unsatisfactorily. HUNTING FOR THE DEAD Chelsea, Okla., May 3?Searching parties are spread out over the coun try north of here attempting to ascer tain the full extent of the tornado. which struck this section at dusk last night, causing the death of five per sons and injuring a dozen. j -,- mm a UTHRON, Established June 1, 1866. VoLL. No. 24. GROWN PRINCESS DIES SUDDENLY, All Sweden Mourn Loss of . Daughter of Duke of Connaught i .j Stockholm, May 2.?The entire na tion has been plunged into mourning by the death yesterday of Crown Princess Gustave Adolph of Sweedea, daughter of the Duke of Connaught The official report of the physicians who attended the crown princess gives, the cause of death as general blood' poisoning. She had suffered. from inflammation of the ear which necessitated an operation last Decem ber'and this was followed by Maxilliar ' suppuration. Erysipelas developed aroimd the right ear Friday but the crown prin cess still appea-~d to be in no dan ger. The crown princess was able to b<* up Saturday morning but suffered a sudden change for:the worse and died within a few hours . -Weakness of J.ti$ ^ heart, augmented by the crown^ijrin cess' expectant motherhood. w?s: given * as the contributing cause of sdea'th: TO PROTECT AMERICANS Destroyers Orde1 1" to Vera Cruz and Tampico v Washington, May 3.?American de stroyers have been ordered to Veri Cruz and Tampico to protect Ameri cans there. ' ri TORNADO KILLS 50 Oklahoma Storm Left Tra? of Death In Its Wake Muskogee, Okfd., May 3.?Fifty persons are reported to have been i killed and more than one hundred and fifty injured as the result of the. storm which swept Peggs, Cherokee' county, 'last night. Not a house in Peggs was left standing, the reports said. ? . RAILR??DLA BORBJARD Will Move to Chicago In Next Two Weeks ????? * / ?. Wash mg^ton^May 3 ?The railroad labor board wifl move"" to Chicas^? j within the next two weeks, ChafirMah ? I Barton has announced. IN REGARD TO PRINT PAPER j Witnesses Differ as to Means;of Regulation j Washington, May 3.?Government j regulation of print paper consump tion by excise tax was opposed and ap proved by witnesses before the Sen ate Investigating Committee. CHICAGO BAKER IN COURT t ? t ?-?.^ j Chicago, May 3?Chicago bakers I have been summoned before the dis ! trict attorney, who is investigating ! bread prices. The bakers had ari | nounced an increase in prices. IBOMB FIEND j SUICIDES I New York, May 3?Tony Tazio, who ' I was detained by the Department of 'Justice as an important witness in I the bomb outrages of last June, com j mittcd suicide today by. hurling him-^ I self from the fourteenth floor of the i building. j New York. May 3.?Chief Flynn, j 'head of the department of justice i investigating bureau, said the man's j real name was Andrea Salsedo, and j Tazio was an alias. Chief Flynn ad j mitted that several other men had ! been arrested in connection with the j nation-wide bomb plots of last June; thai they had confessed participation I and agreed to turn government Wit j liases. BOLSHEVIKI IN A TIGHT PLACE Warsaw. May 3?The Bolshevik ; forces which have been backed up : ?igainst the Dneiper river, are prepar : ing to resist the Polish and Ukrainian j efforts to capture Kiev. Chinese mer : cenarics are being used by the Bolshe i viki in attempting to stem the Polish I advance. GIRL IS TREED FOR MURDER St. Louis. Mo.. May 3?Sixteen year old Ursula Broderick went to trial to day for the third time, charged with the murder of her stepfather in 1916./^ Miss Broderick was acquitted of the murder of her father when she testi fied that she shot in defense of her mother. Warsaw. May 3.?Polish forces have occupied Kiev, according to the news papers here. ; '