The Rocky Mount Herald
——
Published Every Friday at Rocky Mount,
North Carolina, by the Rocky Mount
Herald Publishing Company.
Publication Office Second Floor Danieb'
Building, Rocky Mount, Edgecombe
County, North Carolina
iSiw—
J. GREEN ....News Editor and Manager
Subscription Rates: One Year, $1.00; Six Months,
60c; Three Months, 35c
'Altered as second-class matter January 19, 1934, at
the post office at Rocky Mount, North Carolina,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
Advertising rated reasonable flnd furnished to
prospective advertisers on request
City Court Salaries
Since the campaign for Judge of the Mu
nicipal Court and the City Solicitor is in
progress, requests have come to the Herald
•as to what these jobs pay, and also what pay
the City Attorney receives.
We have made an investigation and find,
as follows: The Judge of the City Court
formerly received $l5O per month, which has
been reduced to the present salary of $135.00
per month. The City Solicitor formerly re
ceived $125.00 per month, which has been
reduced to $105.00 per month. These posi
tions certainly do not receive too much for
their services.
The City attorney, whose supposed duties
are to advise the Board of Aldermen, has
heretofore received $2,400 per year, or S2OO
per month. The salaried position was cre
ated about 1927, and Messrs. Thorpe and
Thorpd" received this appointment and. they
have been drawing S2OO per month since
.that time, until recently when the salary was
reduced to\slso.oo per month. In addition
thereto, they receive fees in all tax matters.
They have probably received since 1927, be
tween twelve and fifteen thousand dollars.
While we have no breach fbr lawyers, we
are constrained to believe that this salary is
clearly out of line and we venture to say
that it is probably the highest paid in the
state for a town of this size. ,
Now, it may be said that they are sup
posed to take care of the court cases of the
city. The Herald made an investigation as
to this and found in the late Hamilton case,
in which Mrs. Charlie Hamilton was injured
by the city, that Messrs. Spruill & Spruill
were paid $450; Messrs. Battle and Wins
low $450 for services in connection with legal
motions which were heard in the Superior
Court.
We further find that Messrs. J. P.- Bunn
and T. T. Thorne were alsA retained to try
the case before the jury, should it reach the
jury, and Mr. Bunn was paid S2OO retainer
and Mr. T. T. Thorne was paid $125.00 re
tainer, making a total of $1,225 paid in addi
tion to the salary paid Messrs. Thorpe and
Thorpe. This case was settled out of court
without trial before a jury, the city paying
the damages for this injury.
There are many able law films in Rocky
Mount and certainly as capable as the firm
who at present holds this position, and it is
nothing but common justice and fairness
that other firms should be recognized in this
position rather than giving a life-time job to
the present holders. There is a rotation in
the bank departments of the city, why not
there be some rotation among the lawyers,
all citizens and tax payers of the city of
Rocky Mount?
Now is the Time to Make Repairs
There has been some discussion in Rocky
Mount, through views expressed by the citi
zens of the town and through the press, on
the housing situation of the city.
Rocky Mount at one time built more houses
of the four and five room type than was
necessary, as the property owners of the city
were led to believe that this was necessary
as the railroad was contemplating a coach
shop. A great number of houses were built
and for a time there was a surplus of houses
of this class. There has never been a sur
plus of the better class of houses. The city
has grown and this surplus has been' taken
into use. During the four years under Mr.
Hoover's administration the annual improve
ments and repairs have not taken
much of our property is now in serious need
of repairs, painting and renovating.
We feel nothing could help Rocky Mount
more than having every property owner who
is able to immediately go forward with the
needed painting, repairs and renovations,
which will make the property more rentable,
protect it from decay and will be a money
saver in the long run.
While we realize that much of our prop
erty has been rented for very low rents and
we hope that the day is not far distant when
those who rent may receive better wages
and be in better position to pay a reasonable
rental, according to the cost of the property.
After all, the most important thing, and
which will mean most to our city is the fact
that it would give employment to painters,
carpenters, bricklayers and mechanics, who
are sorely in need of work at this time.
We think Rocky Mount could engage in
nothing better than to begin the movement
which would improve our real estate, for it
is the basic property and when real estate
ceases to have value, nothing else can have
value.
No matter what you do or how well you
do it there is always a friendly critic who
can tell you how tp improve.
THE ROCKY MOUNT HERALD, ROCKY MOUNT, N. C., FRIDAY, FEBRUARY "23, 1934 •
Trying to Popularize the Sales Tax
' * •
Carolina-Virginia Retailer.
The arguments employed by certain high
officials of the vState Government in then
efforts to popularize the North Carolina
Sales Tax would be ludicrous if the sales tax
were not of such vital importance to every
citizen of the State, and more especially to
that great portion of our citizenship, the
middle and poorer clagses, upon whom the
tax bears most heavily.
The latest argument of the said "high
officials" tending to show that the sales tax
is a benevolent rather than a detrimental
levy is the dubious comparison of the per
centage of increase in retail sales between
the states of North Carolina and Virginia.
The interence being that because North
Carolina showed a somewhat greater in
crease in retail sales during the year 1933
than her neighboring State that it is conclu
sive proof that the sales tax has not hurt,
but in reality has helped, business in North
Carolina. . \ N
If a 3 per cent consumption tax, one of
the heaviest ever imposed by any state or
nation, has been productive of'such fine re
sults, one may well ask why the rate was,
not fixed at 5, 10, or 25 per cent, and thus
enable North Carolina to revel in prosperity
while her sister states were groveling in the
slough of the depression.
The logic of such an argument is, of
course, absurd on its face. Economists uni
versally recognize the fact that where a tax
is imposed upon any commodity the, con
sumption of that commodity is curtailed;
and this is so even though the rate of the
tax is infinitesimal; but when the tax is as
burdensome as that inflicted in North Caro
lina it not only reduces the purchasing power
of the buying public to the extent of the tax
—in this case between eight million and nine
million dollars annually—but it retards buy
ing from absolute necessity, and also from a
desire to evade the payment of the tax, which
evasion is accomplished through interstate
transactions, thereby driving from 'the State
business which should and would remain in
the State but for the tax.
Aside from National relief measures,
which were also enjoyed by other states,
there is one outstanding reason why the per
centage of increase in retail sales in 1933 as
compared with 1932 was greater in North
Carolina than in her bordering sister states,
and that is because the value of our crops
was nearly ninety millions of dollars in ex
cess of the 19J52 values.
In 1933 North Carolina sold approximately
five hundred million pounds of tobacco at an
average price of $16.11 per hundred pounds,
compared with sales totaling two hundred
and sixty-eight million pounds at $12.21 per
hundred in 1932. An increase to North
Carolina farmers (and but for the sales tax
to North Carolina merchants) of approxi
mately forty-eight millions of .dollars from
tobacco alone. To this figure must be added
the increased prices obtained from our other
principal crops, and it will be seen that 1933
crop values jumped nearly ninety millions
of dollars over crop values of the preceding
year and, incidentally, placed North Caro
lina within the category of one of the first
four crop-producing states of the country.
Instead of employing spurious and mis
leading arguments in an endeavor to popu
larize an oppressive and indefensible tax—a
tax which is taking its unholy toll from the
poorest of the poor and which is enriching
other states at the expense of their own
State—officials of our State Government
would render their constituents a real serv
ice if they would give more thought to ways
and means of reducing the high cost of gov
ernment and devising plans to immediately
erase from the taxing system of this State
what is properly denominated "North Caro
lina's Biggest Social and Economic Blunder."
If the sales tax remains upon the statute
books of North Carolina for any appreciable
length of time it will impoverish the State
and make it one of the most backward and
reactionary commonwealths in the country;
and if any government official thinks he is
fooling the people with his dhatter about its
popularity, just let him seek reelection upon
a platform advocating the tax. We predict
that any such candidate will be buried under
an avalanche of ballots from which there
will be no political resurrection.
Dennis G. Brummit Speaks
Before a gathering of people in Lenoir
county last week, Attorney-General Dennis
G. Brummit had the following to say about
the schools of our state:
"We do have the base upon which to build
schools," he declared, "but nothing is yet
to be done. All of our schools have been
kept open largely by the sacrifice of school
teachers who are working for the wages of
unskilled labor. They ought not to be ex
pected to continue to make so large a con
tribution to the education of our children.
Adoption of the idea that conditions are well
enough as they are is pure defeatism."
Personally, the extra price for gold hasn't
worried us.
Religious views, accepted under any form
of social pressure, are not worth anything.
The man who can save his money will get
ahead of the man who can only earn it.'
It's about the season to revive what ( is
described as the old community spirit.
No one takes a speech as serious as fhe
person behind the voice.
Business is picking up; why don't some of
the do the same.
Children and Guns.
and liquor will not mix, neither
will children T and firearms, and parent:*
should wake up to this latter fact and keep
all kinds of shooting irons out of the reach
of the children. Children, and especially
boys, have it in their nature to want to shoot
something and nothing pleases a child better
than to give him a minifiture gun or cap
pistSl at Christmas time. 1
Every week there is recorded the acciden
tal death of some child at the hands of an
other by the Use of a gun or pistol in im
mature hands. And sometimes it is an el
derly person that receives the fatal load of
shot. But every one of these disasters can
be prevented if the gun or pistol is placed
out of reach. In many instances it is the
supposedly "unloaded" gun that kills. The
weapon is brought in the house from the
hunt, the cartridge is supposed to be ex
tracted, which it was not, the gun is placed
in a corner, in comes a youngster, picks it
up, points it at his little sister or brother,-
perhaps his mother, and presto, the weapon
is discharged and another life is needlessly
sacrificed.'
Not only does every child have an inalien
able right to be well born, as the saying
goes, but he has the right to be protected
in his home from the possibility of a gun
tragedy. Even infants sometimes find guns
under pillows.
It is the duty of parents, if it is necessary
INSTRUCTING MIDWIVES
During the summer 0 f 1932 six
stat£ Iburses, engaged m school
health supervision work during
the school months of the year,
were sent into a large number of
counties having no organized
health departments, for the pur
pose of holding classes for mid
wife instruction. They made per
sonal and group contacts with a
large number of midwives in a
■number of counties where such
work had never been undertaken
before. * \
During the last summer these
nurses have gone back to the same
counties that they worked in last
year, for the purpose of doing a
little more intensive work along
the same lifte. Their work has
Been a kind of followup work to
their efforts last summer. Almost
without exception the reports of
the nurses indicate a gratifying
improvement in the class of mid
wife service in many of the com
munities of such counties. Natur
ally the improvement has been in
VAGABOND VERSES
By J. Gaskill McDaniel -»
FINALE
This is the end, and yet you too must know,
That you'll live on among my souvenirs;
I'll wear a smile, where ever I may go,
And I'll be gay, to banish unshed tears.
, Life is a play, and mine a young fo6l's part,
Fate draws the curtain on my happiness;
And no one knows the sorrows in my heart,
Nor senses tragedy in each new jest.
This is the end, and yet, when shadows fall,
I'll see your image in a wind swept sky;
And though, perhaps, it isn't right at all,
I still will love you, as the years go by.
Editor's Note: You may secure a personally autographed copy of
Vagabond Verses by sending fifteen cents in stamps to the author, in
care of the Herald. This pocket sized edition contains McDaniel's
best liked poems of the past five years, as well as a photograph of
the Vagabond Poet.
|| AMAZE A M INUTE
J SCIENTIFACTS BY ARNOLD
rs LECTRIC CHAIR CLAIMED PAINLESs/ *
| THE DEADLY ELECTRICAL CURRENT TRAVELS ABOUT SIXTY TIMES
J PASTER THAN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM WHICH REGISTERS THE SHOCK.
HOD
A PENDULUM CLOCK CORRECTLY JIA-JST
SeT AT THE EQUATOR WFHILO GAIN T_
ONE-HAL* HOUR PER WHFT AT THE LONDON MANLUFJIT
NORTH POLE, BEINC IS MILES NEARER
THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. ° ,MCH LONG HO * HY «*«TB.
. JFTM TIL «YW4l—«. | MJ •
••£ v %" ' ' . n /' : V- ''•
to have weapons in the house for protection,
and most homes have them whether they are
needed or not, .to see that their precocious
youngster is not allowed to express his tribal
instinct with a gun, whether it is loaded or
not. So mten they "are notV but they are.
Even the air rifles are dangerous and should
not be allowed in the hands of a red-Wooded
boy under twelve. y
As long as parents leave guns of an£ de
scription unguarded, just so long will child
ren find and use them—although it may be
on father, mother or little brother or sister.
Every time you read of one of these deplor
able accidents, some one killed by a gun at
the hands of a child, you may be reasonably
sifse that some grown person is to blame.
Friend, let no» one be able to say that about
you.
Wrong Use of Highway Patrol
R. R. Clark, in Greensboro Daily News.
"As governor of North Carolina I desire
no greater privilege than is accorded the
humblest citizen," says the governor to the
Albemarle judge, asking that the trial go en
as scheduled. That's what we would expect
of the governor, any governor big enough
for the job.. Now if Governor Ehringhaus
will send the patterrollers to work at the
business to which they were appointed, and
£ell Cap'n Farmer if he doesn't keep 'em
away from him the patrol may get a new
head, thfe danger of traffic violations by car
No. 1 will be about over.
spots. Some of the midwife
groups who made the worst show
ing last summer have revealed a
remarkable improvement in their
personal qualifications and in
their equipment for the work/ The
classes this summer have been at
tended by a much larger number
of midlives and also many phy
sicians, and all of them have mani
fested a great deal pf interest in
the work. «
1 Many of the people in the state
;do riot realize the importance of
j this character of work. We may
again repeat that the infant and
maternal death rate in North Caro
lina is entirely too high. The im
portance of midwife service is
plainly revealed in the fact that
slightly more than one-third of the
mothers giving birth to babies in
1932 were attended solely by mid
wives. The following table shows
the births attended by physicians
and midwives in 1932:
Attended by Physicains
45,540 white
6,082 Negro
219 Indian
Attended by Midwives
8,121 white
17,514 Negro
404 Indian 1
A glance at the above figures
should serve to convince anyone
that unless the midwife service is
fairly competent the price that
will be paid is a very high rate
among infants, particularly dur
ing the first few days of life, snd
among mothers. Practically > all
such deaths are preventable.
The primary objective in the
nurse work among midwives is to
try to make their services safer
for the class of people who are
forced by circumstances to depend
entirely on midwife attention, al
though the aid of a competent
physician would be much mora de
sirable. —Ihe Health Bulletin.
Good Government
It is *no idore possible to halve
good government without continu
ing citizen support than it is to
have bad government without con
tinuing citizen support. The dif
ference, of course, is that the citi
zens who support bad government
profit financially therefrom and
are more likely, to be on the job
guarding their private interests
than are citizens who are working
for good government which all too
frequently is but a vague deal in
their own minds. It is necessary,
if we are to have efficient and
effective government, to substitute
something in place of the privilege,
or job or patronage reward which
the party politician gets for sup
porting bad government that the
average citizen does not get for
supporting gcfod government.—H.
P. Jones,-in Public Management.
f~\ THOROUGHBRED
/ BABY
CHICKS
ROCKS AND REDS
Shipments twice weekly.- I
WE CARRY A FULL |
* C ~ - * L LINE OF BROODERS, 1
FEEDERS, FOUNTAINS, FEEDS, AND REMEDIES, fj
OUR PRICES PLEASE. TRY OUR STARTING 1 1
MASH—IT HAS EVERYTHING BESTFOR CHICKS. I
H. H. WEEKS SEED JSTOREIJ
OPPOSITE POST OFFICE, ROCKY MOUNT, N. C. ||
ROCKYMOUNTJ
DRUG CO. 11
SUCCESSOR TO H
WIGGINS DRUG CO. 1
178 N. MAIN ST. IB
NEXT DOOR TO CAMEO THEATRE * SB
II
FULL LINE OF STANDARD DRUGS AND 11
PHARMACUTICALS | S
"WE APPRECIATE YOUR BUSINESS" 15
R. E. FLEMING, Manager ; ,J 3
. jfl
IN THE RACE
0
Judge Frank ,A. Daniels, of
Goldsboro, hav»* decided to re
tire on a pensioifcandidates for the
Democratic nomination for judge
are popping up all over the fourth
judicial district Those so far
tentatively in the race are David
H. Bland, of Goldsboro;- Clawdon
Williams, of Sanford, at present
solicitor; Walter D. Siler, of Pitts
boro; F. H. Brooks, of Smithfield;
J. R. Baggett, of Lillington, and
perhaps others. The entry of
Clawson Williams, into the judg
ship leaves a free-for-all in
the race for solicitor and already
J. R. Young, of Dunn; N. McK.
of Lillington; C. C. Can.
ady, of Benson; Norman Shepard,
of Sipithfield, and others are get
ting ready to make the race.
o
J. CiypSLEY SEDBERRY
THROWS HAT IN RIHG
' J. Chesley Sedberry, of Rocking'
ham, Richmond county, has an
nounced himself a candidate for
the Democratic nomination for ae>
licitor of the 13th judicial district
to succeed Solicitor Don Philips
who i&.attempting to unhorse Judge
A. M. Stack, of Monroe. Sedberry
in the repeal election last Novem
ber guessed wrong and was the wsfc
candidate for the convention from
Richmond county and was over-,
whelmingly defeated. There are
now three candidates for the nomi- v
nation for solicitor in that district
—Sedberry, Lane Brown, of Albe
marle, and R. S. Pruette, of Wades
bo ro.
—0 i -
B. M. SLEDGE
Spring Hope.—Bunnie M. Sledgt, ,
prominent farmer of Nash County, "
died Tuesday morning at the hone
of his father-in-law, J. W. Matth
ews at Momeyer. He was fS
! years old and was born ' n Frank
lin County. The funeral will be
held at Momeyer Baptist Church J
Wednesday at 1 p. m., the service* v J
to be conducted by Rev. J. W.
Nobles, of Bailey. Interment wilt jj
be in the Matthews burying
ground. Mr. Sledge is survived by
his wife, before marriage, Mius |
Louise Matthews, and one, son r
James. He is also survived by hia
mother, Mrs. John Sledge, of- 1
Franklin County, and
brothers and sisters. H a
DEACONS INSTALLED AT J
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 1
Ten deacons, W. N. Clark, W. G- [
Weeks, Jr., A. ~F. Harrell, W. S. j
Wilkinson, E. G. Johnston, Jr., 1
Geo. A. Wilkinson, R. C. Brake, T-
L. Simmons, E. C. Smith, and Roy T
C. Mayo were ordained last
day and were installed along
N. H. Edgerton, who had
ly been ordained, - v in the
Presbyterian Church here. > M
These'ceremonies were followed a
by a sermon, "the Ideal Deacon,* 1
preached by the pastor, Rev. Nort ' I
man Johnson. - ajMHtll