PAGE FOUR
CHATHAMRECORD
O. J. PETERSON
Editor and Publisher
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE:
One Year $1.50
Six Months -75
THURSDAY, APR. 28, 1927
It is noticeable that the people
west of Pittsboro are concerned
that the new road toward Raleigh
shall follow the short Jenks route
and go into highway 50 near Cary,;
instead of Apex. Those folk think
the people of Pittsboro deserve the
shortest possible route to Raleigh.
There seems no question that
the logical routing of the proposed
P. and N. extension is across coun
try from Charlotte through Ran
dolph and } Chatham. That route
would develop a great area and in
the long run would give a more
adequate support to the P. and N.
than a route parallel to the South
ern would. But, unfortunately, it
is not Pittsboro’s to decide the mat
ter.
If an American gunboat was jus
tified in turning its guns upon
Nanking when one American was
killed by a Chinaman while the
city was being occupied by a con
quering army, what would China
be justified in doing to Wadesboro,
if it were so situated as to bring
its guns to bear upon the town,
when the whole Chinese population
of that little city was butchered
Saturday by one of its citizens? 1
Insurance Commissioner Stacey
Wade has sent out a letter insisting
upon extreme caution on the part
of teachers and school officials
during the commencement season,
when the fire hazard is the most
theatrening in its consequences. He
makes ten recommendations, in
cluding having building clean,
aisles open, all ways of egress iij
working order, allowing no smok
ing in building, use of no inflam
able decorations, etc.
The soy bean seed secured by
County Agent Shiver for distribu
tion will be taken up before long
by the owners and sold in other
sections where there is a great de
mand if the Chatham folk don’t
hasten their buying. They are on
deposit with C. C. Brewer at Bon
lee and G. W. Brewer, Pittsboro.
\ ou will have to pay more for seed
beans if you fail to get some of
'these, and you cannot afford not to
plant soy beans.
The big problem with country
weeklies is to know how to balance
county and general news to suit
those who take dailies and those
who do not. It would be easy to
make a newsy paper for all if no
body took a daily. But when hun
dreds of ones subscribers take dai
lies to fill the paper with general
news is to make it a rehash for
them; while to confine the contents
of the paper to county matters
leaves the non-daily readers with
out adequate state and world news.
Making a readable county paper
now is a much more difficult task
than before the situation indicated
arose.
That t man Marshall came back
with a more difficult problem for
Al. SmLh to solve than that first
presented. He accepts Smith’s dis
claimer that his allegiance to the
Catholic church does not in any de
gree conflict with his allegiance to
the U. S. Constitution; but quotes
extended ly from a text book used
jn Catholic schools and published
only last year, which shows that
the right of the pope to nullify
state laws is still taught to the
children of American Catholics.
Smith had objected to quotations
from remote of the days of
the illiberality of all churches, and
Marshall has accepted the chal
lenge and comes down to this very
year. If the matter could have
ended with Smith’s reply to the
first series of questions, the inci
dent would have been favorable to
the Catholic governor; but the
aigument has apparently only be
gun, and Marshall has maintained
so dignified and generous an atti
tude to the Governor and his church
that Smith could not in the begin
ning decline to make public reply
and cannot now, without greater
injury to his cause, refrain from
further elucidation of the Catholic
attitude. Doctrines that are being
.taught today in the parochial
schools to American children can
not be passed over lightly as dead
fetter. . ,
THE
This writer’s impression gained
from \ sin eight-years residence in
Louisiana was, and is, that, what
ever the theoretical teachers of the
Catholic hierarchy as to the rela
tion of church and state, Louisiana
Catholics had no notion that they
were in anywise under restraint in
matters political, and he has said
time and time again that it is his
opinion that if the pope desired a
revolt of the native-born Catholics
of that state he would probably be
gratified by undertaking to dictate
their political action. And Ai
answer is in line with that
‘dpirfibft definitely formed years
cannot successfully ex
plain away the vast volume of
1 teachings and decrees that suggest
the supremacy of the church over
the state, but his statement of his
own attitude does approximate the
actual, as contrasted with the
theoretical, attitude of the average
Catholic citizen. “I rcognize no
power in the institution of my
church,” says the Governor, “to in
terfere with the operation of the
constitution of the United States
or the enforcement of the law of
the land.” There you are. Let the
theory and the letter be what it
may, American Catholics are true
Americans, and so far as they are
concerned, unless it be doctrinaries,
they recognize no impediment to
that political freedom. And if they
recognize none, there is none. The
Presbyterian creed still contains
the dogma of infant damnation, but
it would be hard to find a Presby
terian in North Carolina who will
profess belief in the dogma. Credo
means I Belive, but the Presbyte
rians do not believe their Credo.
That illustrates the writer’s con
ception of the attitude of the Cath
olics to the mooted doctrine of the
supremacy of the church, and it is
a fine thing for Al Smith to make
that attitude vocal. As some one
suggests, Smith’s letter is a de
claration of independence of Ameri
can Catholics. As the writer got
used to voting for Catholics in
Louisiana, having voted for Senat
ors Ransdell and Broussard, he
will have little difficulty in voting
for Smith if he is nominated. The
writer knows the spirit of Catholics
better than he does their doctrines,
and he learned to trust the former
I’egardless of the apparently dead
letter of the latter.
Governor McLean refuses to par
don Tom Cooper, and that former
prominent banker and politician
has to serve his eight years on the
roads after serving a term in the
Federal penitentiary. But there
have been worse offenders than
Tom Cooper who have not had even
one severe dose of punishment.
Cooper will have to wait the com
ing governor who is not a banker
as is Governor McLean, who nat
urally looks upon sinning against
a bank and its depositors as parti
cularly heinous.
Prohibitionists in Washington
have organized the “Church Ser
vice Association” for the purpose
of aiding properly constituted offi
cers in enforcing the prohibition
laws of the country. The view is
taken that prohibition enforcement
will never be what it should unless
the public in general back up the
officers of the law.
Readjustment and readaptation
are necessary consequences of pro
gress. Ever since the invention of
the spinning jenny sent the first
spasm of growing pains through
the old economics system, similar
spasms have been recurrent. In
vention, discovery, the opening of
new lands, or, in short, practically
every step in the world’s march of
progress the past two hundred
years has been attended by dis
tress among the groups whose
means of livelihood have been sup
planted by more efficient processes
or whose products have been under
sold by those of virgin fields.
* The spinning jenny and the pow
er loom took the bread from the
mouths of thousands who could
not immediately readjust them
selves to the new regime. The
steam engine, the steam boat, and
the locomotive left trails of suf
fering among those whose former
trades were superseded. The au
tomobile crimped the business of
the wagon and carriage makers
and the mule breeders. The de
velopment of the great grain fields
of the west brought the prices of
grain, pork, and beef to such low
levels as to forbid successful com
petition by the people of the older
sections of America and all Euro
pean countries. The waning turp
entine industry of easterp - North
Carolina was given its 'finishing
blow by the development of the
virgin forests of Geqfgisu,!
In every case, a group suffered
till readaption could be effected.
Eastern North Carolina, for in
stance, never saw a harder time
than in the transition period from
turpentine forests to broad fields
of cotton and corn where the pines
once furnished the cash crop. Now
the very section which prospered
for years growing cotton on the
great flats formerly occupied by
pines, see the dry belt of Texas,
Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona,
and California superseding it in
the production of the fleecy staple.
Competition is becoming as impos
sible as in the days of the waning
forests of Robeson, Bladen, Samp
son, Harnett and other eastern
counties and the virgin forests of
Georgia.
There is no use in whining. Re
adjustment, readaptation, is neces
sary. Attempt at competition in
the grades of cotton which those
dry areas produce so easily is as
futile as an attempt of the old
home loom to compete with the
modern factory. But the period
of readjustment is bound to be a
hard one. Yet no sensible person
can deny that it is a step in world
progress if the formerly practical
ly useless arid areas of the south
west can produce the world’s sup
ply of cotton. The fertile soils of
the old cotton belt are freed for the
production of other products, for
timber if nothing else. But read
aptation will come. New wants
will arise. Blacksmiths were prac
tically put out of business by the
prevalence of the automobile, but
in their place a ten-fold crop of
garage men has sprung up. Grow
ing pains are real pains, but growth
is beneficient. Government oint
ments cannot cure transition pains.
The market necessarily belongs to
those who can produce at lowest
cost, and rightfully so. Others
must readjust themselves to the
actual conditions. And it would be
well if the same necessity was
world-wide instead of being con
fined to the boundaries of this
country by the tariff walls, for the
sooner every section of the world,
under modern production and
transportation methods, has found
that which it can produce and mar
ket cheaper than any other section,
has been given free access to the
world’s markets, and those sections
which have uneconomically com
peted with it have been allowed to
work out the readjustments which
will enable them to make the larg
est possible contribution to the
world’s welfare, the better for hu
manity in the large.
Individuals may suffer while the
transition takes place, but the
world profits. But in the instance
of the readjustment necessary in
the upper cotton belt, the transi
tion should not be any more pain
ful than that of the supplanting
of blacksmiths by garage men. The
cotton grower, unlike the turpen
tine man, does not have to clear
his lands anew, supply hyms/tl)f
outright with teams and imple
ments and gain experience in the
general principles of farming. His
readjustment is easy. The world’s
demand are multiplying and every
day becoming more varied, and
every acre of his land that cannot
be made to produce field crops pro
fitably can be reconverted into pro
fit-producing forests much more
easily than the primeval forests
could be converted into profitable
fields.
But a period of readjustment is
a period demanding thought as
well as work. The thinker in the
south is he who will first work out
his salvation.
THE SITUATION IN CHINA
It would be difficult for any
one to state definitely the status
of affairs in China even if he knew
it. The nations concerned have
received a reply from the Canton
ese government to their demand
for apologies and reparation for
the killing of citizens of America,
Britain, and Japan at Nanking.The
apology was given, but it was sug
gested that an international com
mission be appointed to place the
blame and the suggestion made
that the commission also inquire
into the bombardment of Nanking
by the foreign war vessels. Since
the delivery of the demand of the
foreign nations, there has been a
backset to the formerly victorious
Cantonese army and the northern
ers have driven them back across
the Yangste Kiang River; while a
disruption in the Cantonese gov
ernment has also occurred The
outcome of the whole business is
problematical.
The cream station recently or
ganized |n Anson county by H. M.
Baucom is soiling about S6OO worth
of cream each month, i W j 1 ?
THE CHATHAM RECORD
THE SCHOOL ELECTION
The Record is perfectly willing
for the people to decide for them
selves whether they want the
county-wide eight-months school
term. But a few of the facts may
be useful to them.
At present the law requires that
every child in the county be given
an opportunity to secure a high
school education. Certain com
munities have established high
schools, have gone to great expense
for buildings and equipments, and
to extend the school term two
months above the required six
months term. Other communities
have not shared in those expenses,
but are sending their children to
those schools, getting the benefit
of the house, seats, heat, and the
two months extra term at the cost
of the communities who are footing
the bill. That is not just. And
that is the chief argument, as we
see it, for a county-wide plan. And
if such a plan is not adopted, it is
certain that children outside the
special tax districts will have to
pay tuition for the extra two
terms, and that the tuition fees
will have to be high enough to pay
the children’s share of the building
taxes as well as their part of the
cost of teachers.
On the other hand, the Record
sympathizes with those who think
a six-months term long enough for
country chaildren, whose help is
needed on the farm and who get in
that work a discipline that is of
as much value as that attained
though a longer school term, if
not of greater value. Besides, it
is more important to improve the
quality of the school than to length
en the term, and to do both will
require more funds than estimated
to be necessary by the proponents
of the county-wide plan.
Moreover, while the tax limit
for the purpose of equalizing the
country opportunities is
50 cents, it should be understood
that this is additional to the 40
cents to be levied for the support
of the six-months term, making the
two extra months of school cost
those not in special tax districts
more than the six months’ term
costs them. Everybody, in other
words, will have to pay a ninety
cent tax, but this takes care of the
building fund, so that if a coun
fry district needs a new building
it should get it without any addi
tional tax.
The high school districts, as now
constituted, will pay a lower total
tax than now, but the people
whose total school tax is now less
than 90 cents on the hundred dol
lars will have to pay more tax than
now. On the other hand, if they
do not help pay the county-wide, it
is certain that they will have to
pay tution fees if they take ad
vantage of the eight months terms
in the town schools.
Nothing else would be fair,
though hundreds of pupils have
been getting by at the expense of
the town districts. At present, for
instance, the tax in the Pittsboro
district is $1.15 on the hundred dol
lars; yet scores of pupils have been
coming to this school from terri
tory that does not pay any special
school tax at all, thus getting ev
ery advantage for 40 cents on the
hundred dollars that the people of
this district get from their $1.15,
or that the people of Goldston and
£>iler City get from even a consider
able rate. But it is not safe for
those folks to count on sponging
longer on the town districts. The
towns will have to vote even higher
taxes than they now pay if the
present condition continues. But
instead of doing that, it is prac
tically certain that a tution charge
would be made for those coming
to the town schools from territory
that is paying only the 40 cents on
the hundred dollars, that is, for the
two extra months.
That is the situation. If the
country folks want only a six
months term, the 40 cents and the
county’s share of the state equali
zation fund will give it to them.
But such as want eight months
should know that if this election
does not carry, they cannot longer
get an eight-months term for their
40 cents. If only a few want the
eight-months term and they are
in reach of the eight-month schools,
of course it will be cheaper for
them to pay tuition fees than for
all the folks in their territory to
be taxed an additional 50 cents on
the hundred. Take your choice. The
Record will not worry however, the
thing goes. It is your business.
But when a county-wide tax is
voted to get the benefit from the
corporations, remember that the
Carolina Power* and Light Com
pany, for instance, isf Neither white
nor black, and that it wilP waiit lo
see its money spent legally in act
j Orally all the children of
the county, black as well as white,
the full eight-moriths f! *term under
’ conditions th ett ‘CottipWfe favorably
; with those ttoW existing in the bet
ter schools of the county. All the
(children include/black ones as well
as white ones, and if this election
is carried, we shall want to see the
negroes provided with decent school
houses and given good opportuni
ties, for if a good school and a
long term is good for the state
when the whites have it, it will be
better when both races have it.
Tom Murphy is right in the
editorial quoted in this issue from
the Greensboro Patriot, when he
writes that common sense is the
prime requisite in government as
well as in other matters. Those
who sought to revolutionize county
government and put it on a “busi
ness” basis have played the mis
chief. There is no common sense
in dictating the same routine for
each of the hundred counties of
North Carolina in the matter of the
time for the payment of taxes.Chat
ham county bankers would not un
flinchingly sell all the property
'held under mortgage this year if
the terms of the note were not met
to the day. In 1920 a large part of
the property of the state would
have been sold under the hammer
if the rule laid down in the recent
ly enacted county law had prevail
ed. And if the law is really en
forced, a third of Chatham county
is likely to come under the hammer
in June. For three long years this
county has had hard luck. But
the people have made a brave fight.
Now, when it is hoped that anoth
er harvest may see them through
the difficulties of the past three
years of short crops and one of low
prices, the decree comes that ev
ery man whose taxes for 1926 is
not paid by May the first shall have
his land advertised for sale and the
sale must be made in early June.
County commissioners know the
situation in their counties. Any
year you please conditions will
vary in the 100 counties of the
state. One year some counties
can pay promptly; another year, it
may work exceeding hardships
for the taxes to be collected on
the dot. But, good or bad times,
the sheriffs cannot get the lists
ready for advertising according to
legal schedule this year.
If the Davis trial had been held
in Pittsboro it would have been
impossible for it to be reported by
telegraph, and the news sent out by
mail would have been two days old
when printed. Thousands of words
were sent by wir e from Sanford,
but it couldn’t have been sent from
Pittsboro, even at the double-toll
rate. We need a telegraph office
here, not a phone line charging
telegraph rates. Three or four
weeks ago we sent a telegram from
here at eleven o’clock to Warsaw,
making a suggestion to our printer
that would have saved us $18.75.
It arrived too late to do the work
and we lost the $18.75 and the price
of the telegram. If there had been
a real telegraph office here the
operator would not have had to
wait till he could catch the Mon
cure agent free enough to take the
message over the phone, but only
long enough for him to set a
switch,if even that should be neces
sary, which probably wouldn’t be.
Pittsboro should have a better mail
service and a telegraph service
that is a real service and that does
not collect double tolls.
State College Students
War On Immorality
Raleigh, April I—State College’s
war on immorality continues.
Student Vigiliants with the
praise of President E. C. Brooks
ringing in their ears have declared
the campus will be kept pure.
“Things are no worse than in
other days, but folks have thrown
off false modesty enough to allow
publicity to be given the facts.”
a student leader said.
“The trouble is with the old fel
lows who get terribly alarmed at
the tremendous knowledge the
younger generations have.” declar
ed Dr. Carl C. Taylor, dean of the
graduate, school.
Dr. Taylor scoffed at suggest
ions that the younger generation
was going to the devil “just because
light had been turned on something
formerly kept in the dark.”
The most wholesome generation
of wives and mothers of the world
has ever known will come from the
girls of today who have a vast
knowledge *®f the fundamentals of
life,” said, adding that “College
boys and girls are not worse than
the generations that have lived be
fore; Their s 'strongest safeguard
is their knowledge of life.”
Plan Ahead-
To Visit The
DURHAM
EXPOSITION
The Biggest Event of Its Kind
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Week of May 16 to 21st
Most extraordinary entertainment will feature every
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each number of which will be of intense inierest.
The Durham Exposition will be a combined Auto
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Better Homes show, and Retailer’s show, and each division
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On the program there will be famous speaker*
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Watch This Paper
Remember the date—May 16 to 21st
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*
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Goldston, N. C.
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Thursday, April ~