Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

PaoKsbed Wednesday and Saturday : . ?BY? ?KEEEN PUBLISHING COMPANY SUMTER, S. O. :fc Terms: $2.00 per annum?in advance. Advertisements. Ose Square, first insertoin_$1.00 SJvery subsequent insertion- .50 Contracts for three months or long er-will, be made at reduced rates. All communications which subserve private interests wili be charged for as advertisements. Obituaries and tributes of respect Will be. charged for. The Surater Watchman was found ed -in 1950 and the True Southron in IS65. The Watchman and Southron $ow has the combined circulation and Influence of both of the old papers,! %&d is manifestly the scat advertising medium in Sumter. A "GERMAN ADVANTAGE. As inatters stand, Germany has a huge joke on the allies, including the United States. While all of the other powers are straining their resources to maintain and increase their defen sive armament, Germany is freed .-from that burden, and able therefore to devote all her resources to paying I liej\.war bills and getting on her feet economically. Germany, it must be admitted, would never have chosen this situa tion. Disarmament never appealed to the Germans. They opposed it con temptuously every time it "was sug gested, before 1914?for what rea son, the world now konws. They would doubtless have preferred to re tain a big standing army and navy when peace was made. The old Style military leaders would still Urge armament, if they saw any hope of getting away' with it. But it is dawning on the German people as a whole ? that what appeared to them at first an intolerable imposition is really a blessing. Accordingly, they even express sympathy for the military burdens with which the other powers *re voluntarily struggling. If things keep on as they are, with the allied and associated powers wast ing their substance in competitive armament on Germany's part may prove to be a German victory in dis guise. Germany may finish on top, in' peaceful development and eompe ititioh, because of her enemies' self imposed handicap. THE MODEL WILL. The .late Chief Justice White cer tainly ought to have known how to make a will, if anybody in America did.. It may. be of general interest, therefore, to learn what kind of will he ? made." The document has just been ? made public. Th* most notable thing about it is brevity. .It contains only 51 . words, and reads as follows: "This is my last will. 1 give, be queath and devise to my wife. Leita (M: White, in complete and perfect ownership, all my rights and property of any kind and nature, whether real, personal or mixed, wherever sit uated, appointing her executrix of - my estate without bond and giving Jier seizin thereof." Contrast this straightforward state mint with the elaborate legal fiud dub that messes up the average will. The form used by Justice White, in spite of its simplicity, is presumably proof against wilj attack. It may serve as a convenient model for any man who wants "to make his wife his sole heir, as most men do, and may also ser*re as a stimulus for more men to perform the sensible duty of making their wills while they have time, thereby avoiding the danger of confusion and difficulty after death. It is necessary, of course, to have document signed by three witnesses, and is no doubt, better, whether state law requires it or not. to have it wit nessed by a notary public. THE FOURTH DEGREE. Everybody is familiar with what 'police call the "third degree." As * applied to prisoners, it means a pro longed and incessant bombardment of ft a . suspected criminal with questions intended to break down his guard or his endurance an*1 lead to a confes sion. A plan precisely opposite, which might be called the "fourth degree," is being applied to a prisoner in the I Middlesex county jail at Haddam, Conn. - A man suspected of murdering iour people is held on a technical charge of felonious assault, which merely involved pursuing his wife with -a- revolver and had nothing whatever to do with the murders. S^rom the beginning nobody has said -a word to him about those muruers. v/3?he police ignore his questions, and his guards are under instructions to avoid the subject. The members of his family never come to see him. There is nobody that he can talk to. . He is left alone* .vith his thoughts, and will be until the grand jury meets in. September, unless guilty and tor turous memories drive him sooner to ? confession of the crimes of which he is suspected. He may be prepar ing such a confession now. He is said to have grown very nervous, as a re sult of the continued isolation and mystery, and to be writing very busi ly in his cell. If he is the murderer he is thought to be, quite possibly he is writing the story of his crime. This is described as "a fascinating experiment in psychology." It is that, and it is a horrible one. The psychol ogy of it, however, is probably sound. A guilty man can stand almost any thing better than the torture of his own thoughts. If there is a hell, pos sibly it is like that?a place where the guilty soul has no companionship or communication forever. LABOR CONTRACT HELD SACRED At a time.when organized labor is subjected to widespread opposition and criticism?some of it unquestion ably deserved?it is a duty a: d a pleasure to call public attention to an act of the Brotherhood of Loco motive Engineers. Last summer 2,400 members of that body joined in an "outlaw strike." They were immediately suspended by Grand Chief Warren S. Stone. His prompt and decisive action was warmly commended at the time by the press and public generally, but there were some rumblings of dis content among the railroad men. The matter naturally came up at the trien nial convention of B. of L. E., which has just been held. To the great satisfaction of the officers of the Brotherhood, the 405 delegates voted unanimously upholding the action of Chief Stone in suspending the strik ing members. This approval was based entirely on the ground that by striking as they did, those 2,400 railroad engineers had violated the contract existing be tween their union andtherali mb tween their union and the railrbads. It was the most impressive recogni tion of the sacredness of contract that has yet been given by an Ameri can labor uinon. American unionism needed just such a demonstration of its essential good faith in this vital matter of keeping contracts. The precedent es tablished by the B. of L. E. should have a fine effect in stiffening the average union's sense of responsibility as regards the keeping of business agreements. It is one of the best things that ever happened for the promotion of the welfare of union labor. NEW JAPANESE POLICY. Japan has promised several times to restore Shantung to China, and has not yet done so. It does not follow that Japan is bluffing now when she says that she intends to make the restoration as soon as it can be ar ranged, and also to evacuate Siberia. The Japanese government may not have experienced a change of heart, ?but it does appear to have changed its plan. It still wants to dominate eastern Asia, but it is growing sensi tive to world opinion. It appre ciates, too. the fact that a rebellious and resentful Chinese and Siberian population can be of little use to it, for purposes of either commercial or military exploitation. Japan, therefore, seems disposed to follow the example of the United States, not presuming to govern any of her neighbors, but asserting a sort of oriential Monroe Doctrine and gaining her ends by cultivating the friendship of her neighbors. That is a wiser course, and one to which Americans can offer no criticism. BANDIT CHASE IN TENNESSEE Knoxville. Tenn.. June 2.?Tom Chritmas and Harry Wilson, who are being sought for alleged participa tion in the killing of George Lewis and the attempted rol>ery of the Oak dale bank, are said to have eluded their pursuers. An agumented posse is on their trail. J, E. Jones Ends Life Abbeville. June I.?J. E. Jones, treasurer of Abeville county, killed himself at his home today about i o'clock, using a pistol to tak<- his lif<'. Ill health is assigned >is tin- cause of the act. Mr. Jones was appointed treasurer of Abbeville county t<? fill out the unexpired term of .Mr. Chalmers, who in turn was appointed to till out the unexpired term of j. E. Bradley. Mr. Jones leaves a wife and six chil dren. Columbia. June 2.?The Sumter Bake-Rite Bakery, of Sumter. was chartered by the secretary of state Wednesday, with capital stock of $5. ooo. F. L. Conway is president. H. A. Bultman is vice president, and G. E. Bruner. Jr.. is secretary and treasurer. According to the Antwerp new'pa pers, accommodation has now been reserved in that port for German shipping. The shipbuilding output in Great Britain during 1920 was the highest ever recorded, amounting to 16S ves sels of 2,055,624 tons, according to Lloyds. a Negro Killed at Pumping Station Ishedrick Johnson is Crushed To Death When Clothing Catches in Cogs of Pump Shed rick Johnson, a negro employee of the city, was found dead Thursday morning at ahout f> o'clock in the pumping station by Superintendent A. Schilling, with his body entangled in the machinery of one of the 2T?0 gallon water pumps. Mr. Schilling stated that he had gone over to the station about fi:10 this morning as was his usual custom. The first thing out of the ordinary that he noticed was smoke coming from one of the pump motors. - He stated that he went over to the switch board and saw that the switch was off. ire then looked around for Johnson, who was on the night shift, to ask him what the trouble was Upon go ing over to the smoking motor he then found the body of the negro jammed tightly into the pump ma chinery. Mr. Schilling then telephoned to the police headquarters and also to the city manager. With the aid of {outside help Mr. SchiPmg loosened the shaft of the pump and removed [the dfad body of the negio. As near as it is possible to surmis^ and ftcm all traces of evidence that was obtain able, the negro was killed instaneous ly by being crushed to death in the pump, after the cogs of the machinery had caught the negro's right arm and forcibly jammed him into the pump machinery. The negro's body was so tightly wedged in the pump that the motor driving this pump was stalled. This motor was burned out by the current after being stalled and before the automatic switch opened to cut off the current. Some of the clothing of the negro and also his body was burned by the flame caus ed by the burning out of the motor. The body of the negro was badly crushed and there was one cut on his head. When found in the pump his feet were clear of the floor and his body doubled over the pump shaft with his head downward in a small space between the mechanism of the pump. The watch found in the ne gro's pocket was stopped. It record ed the time of the fatal accident as being 5:38. The electrica! chart which shows the current demands of the motor also showed this as being about the time when the power went off from the motor. The verdict of the coroner's jury,1 reached after inquest, which was held at the pumping station this morning at 10:30 was "that Shed rick Johnson came to his death in the city of Sum ter, June 2. 1921, by his own careless ness, when wiping or oiling machinery while in motion at the pumping sta tion, contrary to the strict and stand ing orders of the engineer in charge." Johnson was about KT> years old, and had been in the employ of the "tfty of Sumter interrnittantly for a period of nearly Ufi years. lie has been working at the city pumping station steadily for the last four years and was always found to be a very faithful workman. The Road Bonds Question Sentiment of People Opposed to Immediate Sale of Bonds Editor Daily Item: In regard to the good loads bond issue I want to say that I not only agree with Mr. E. W. Dabbs in prefer ring to risk the combined good judg ment of the commission, except Mr. Jennings, as against the .judgment of Mr. Jennings himself, but I am. in deed, glad that they differ with Mr. | Jennings in their judgment! in the j matter. We are laboring under dif- ! ?ficulties. serious problems are con i fronting us. and not tlo> least of these with most of us is making a living (just ordinary at that) and having enough left to pay taxes, much less having something to pay on the very heavy obligations due to our friends from last year on account of the slump in cotton prices. I cannot say that I would like the matter of the bond is sue referred to the people again, for in my judgtnent it would be defeated overwhelmingly under the present times, but I do believe and I am con fident 9" per cent of our people arc not only willing for the sale of the bonds to lie over for a while, but are real glad that the commission are holding off the sales. 1 understand thot there will be near two thousand executions for taxes issued in Sumter. Isn't that an awful state of affairs Only today a widow lady from another commun ity in our county appealed to me for help in the matter of paying her :a>es and the probailities are, had this not occured you'd not have been bothered tor space in publishing this, but it. is h fact that we should have some regard for the people who barely can.eke out a living by hard work and economy and not burden them any more with additional taxes j in order that a few of us might have pleasure riding *>u hard surfaced roads in our automobiles and also save expense lulls in their upkeep. Our county will be nearer to normal conditions sometime and we feel sure the good roads commission is acting wisely and weil in waiting until con ditions appear to he such thai our people could bear the burden of ad ditional taxes oi- if prosperity is with held until the cost of labor and ma terial are much cheaper which will undoubtedly happen unless prosperity returns. Thanking you for your kindness in publishing this and promising you h is toy last on the subject and with best wishes for you and your publi cation, I am respectfully, \V. W. Green. Oeala. Fla.. June 2 -The county American Lesion post has telegraphed Carpehtier the hope that he would heat Dempsey in. "the world cham pionship tight. TRADE ACCEPTANCES By J. L. O'Nei] There are two kinds of acceptances -?Trade Acceptances and Bank Ac ceptances. In Groat Britain and in many coun tries of Continental Europe prac*ically every commercial transaction is finan ced by means of a time draft, or bill of exchange. The draft is drawn by Lhe seller of the merchandise and pre sented to buyer, who. if rie rinds it satisfactory, writes across irs face the word "Accepted." signs his name, and returns tho draft to the seller, it then becomes a trade acceptance?a sound circulating medium of finance which ordinarily comands a low rate of in terest and which the seller, if he de sires, may discount at his bank. The use of the trade acceptance in . this county prior to the civil war was more or less general, but after that1 conflict the increasing financial disor-| ganization and the risk attending the, granting of long credits created a de- ] maud for cash which made cash dis-j count system so popular that if has! since continued in favor. This led to the open book account. While the trade acceptance today is being used to a much greater extent than a few' years ago, goods ar_? sti?i bought and I Isold largely on open account. A very active and aggressive propa-! ganda is being carried on throught the I 'principal commercial centres of thej [country in favor of trade acceptances] and their use has considerably in- j creased. .Many of the leading com-1 mercial and industrial concerns have j adopted this new system of credit and most banks arc inclined to purchase such two-name paper arising from ac tual commercial transactions between che drawer and the acceptor. A trade acceptance is a time draft j or a bill of exchange, drawn by the I seller of goods on the buyer for thej purchase price, and accepted by thc; buyer, payable on a certain date at a place designated on 'he faci of the in strument A trade acce ptance amounts i to a negotiable guarantee by the pur chaser of goods that at a specified | time and. place he will pay the pur chase price. An acceptance being a j negotiable instrument, the seller, by means of it. may obtain the use of the! outlay it represents for further enter-{ prises by selling it to his bank. A note is ordinarily used to borrow; money or to settle overdue obligations.! A trade acceptance shows on its face thai it is drawn by\he seller on the. purchaser of merchandise for the! price of the goods. When accepted, it becomes a valid promise to pay on a. specified dale, a negotiable instru ment equally as binding upon the per son accepting it as his promissory I note would be. As a trade acceptance is ??)? obligation of the buyer indorsed by tbe seller, the bank discounting it is secured by two-name instead of by one-name paper, as is the case with J most promissory notes. Trade and bank acceptances arc in struments of credit which should be employed in the financing of business and industry, in tbe moving of crops, and in numerous other ways, and American merchants should make use <>f them as the best method of carry ihg on both their foreign and domes tic trade. The seller desiring to use the ac-i ceptance method, in making out an i'n-j voice for a sale of goods, forwards with the invoice a time bill or draft! drawn on the purchaser for the pur chase price, payable at a specified! da.te: or where tin- buyer makes sev-l eraj purchases of small amounts dur ing the month, tin- seile]- in making up 'he monthly statement forwards with it a draft or hill made out for the t<>-: ta! amount due. When the purchaser of goods receives the draft or hill lie may pay if at once, having deducted! whatever is allowed as a discount for prompt payment in cash, or im may I write across tie- face thereof the date and tin- words, for example, "Ac cepted?payable at Guaranty Trust. Company of Xew York." The buyer then signs his name and returns the instrument to the seller. Tin- latter either keeps it until a few days be fore it matures, when lie sends it to his bank, which makes collection i from the bank at which the instru ment is payable, or if the seller desiresj funds, he may discount it. at his bank! or sell i( in the open market through an acceptanee dealer. The place '*r payment is at the office of the buyer of the goods, namely, the acceptor, if no other place is desig nated. To facilitate the collection of trade acceptances the paper should be made payable at the acceptor's ban's, and the banker and acceptor should make arrangements so that maturing] acceptances are charged to the ac ceptor's account on the date of ma turity. In mos! st.-ites. however, thei banker may automatically charge! maturing acceptances to his customer's! account. i In countries abroad where bills of exchange and acceptances have reached their highest development as credit instruments and circulating: mediums, ir has been the custom that they should be issued for commercial purposes or against actual business' transactions. They should represent! current merchandise transactions con nected with the purchase .and sale of p;<>ods. and should not be given fori overdue accounts or borrowed money. The custom in this country follows tlie rulings of the Federal Reserve! Board rcspectinig eligibility for dis count and pruchasc by Federal Reserve] ba nks. The trade aceptance releases funds! tied up in outstanding accounts, and. invested capital acquires more liquid ity tinder a system which offers nego-j liable paper in place of non-negot ia blej open book accounts. Relations be tween buyer and seller are vastly im-j proved by paper which clearly defines their respective rights and obligations, and extravagance is checked by the constant reminder to the debtor that: his credit is apt to be tested at any ' time. The buyer derives certain advan tages from the use of the fade ac ceptance. It develops in him the hah-' it of careful buying. Enables him to ! judge how he stands financially and what lie can do witli his capital, and it strengthens Iiis credit. He is able! definitely to fix the dates of his pay ments, thus developing a habit ofj promptness in fufilling obligations. The small buyer is better able to compete with larger firms, since the trade acceptance gives him a better credit rating and places his business on a definite financial basis, which cannot be the case when his debts arc the form of "pen accounts with no means of ascertaining when they will be liquidated. Seilers or manufacturers with limit ed capital, by the adaption of the trade acceptance method, avoid the necessity of heavy borrowing, and the tying Mi? of ih' ir capital and borrowed money in ??j.?? 11 accounts, and. as their operating expenses are reduced, their profits are accordingly increased. Moreover, the merchant can estimate with a considerable degree of cer tainty what his income will be from month to month, for. with its fixed dale of maturity, payment of a trade acceptance can usually be counted upon. A merchant rec iving trade acceptances may discount them at his bank and thus obtain the immedi ate use of funds required for his busi ness. The practical effect of the ordinary book account is to burden the seller wiili the financing of the customer's business. This not only ties up the capital of the seller, 'bus narrowing the scope of his business, but also weakens bis financial statement be cause of the character ? . his accounts. By demanding trade aggeptances, the seller is able to overcoHie these diffi culties, since eligible acceptances are considered an excellent investment for banks, and may be !"eadil> negoti ated. Marriage License Record. A marriage license has been issued to i). M. '.'arter of Sumter and Mrs. Mattie Rhoden of Columbia. Colored: I. D. Pinson. Philadelphia and Bessie A. Bucknor >f Sumter. Clyses McFadden and. Henrianna Kennedy of Sardinia. Commencement Program. The following is the program for commencement week: Monday evening at 8:K>, "The Lit tle Princess." Tuesday afternoon ar 6:15. Bat talion Dress Parade and Retreat. Wednesday evening at 8:00, First night of commencement. Thursday evening ;it 8:00. Second night of commencement. The public schools of the city will (dose on Friday, the 10th. You Will Save Money by Purchasing YOUR TOBACCO FLUES At The Sumter Roofing & Sheet Metal Works Office and Works 11 Council St. Phone 1074 June Sale of Oxfords An opportunity to supply your needs in Summer foot wear at attractive prices. 3 Special Lots of Ladies' Pumps and Oxfords Lot No. 1. 75 pairs Godman & Co/s Pumps and Ox fords, regular $3.50 values. Special June Sale price.$1.98 Lot No. 2. 100 pairs Krippendorf-Dittman Pumps and Oxfords, black and brown kid, regular $5.00 values, j Special June Sale price.$3.98 j Lot No. 3. 100 pairs E. P. Reed & Co., Pumps and Ox fords, black and brown kid regular $7.50 and $9 values. Special June Sale price.$4.98 2 Special Lots of Craddock-Terry Men's Oxfords. Lot No. 1. 36 pairs Gun Metal English, a shoe that is guaranteed to g-ive satisfaction. Special June Sale price.,.$4.25 Lot No. 2. 24 pairs kid, combination last, very com fortable, a splendid number for Summer wear, sold for merly as high as $10.00. Very special June Sale price ... . $4.65 This is an unusual opportunity to buy standard foot wear at a very small outlay of money. Don't miss it, THE O DONNELL DRY GOODS CO