Newspapers / The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, … / Feb. 20, 1930, edition 1 / Page 4
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PAGE FOUR CHATHAM RECORD O. J. PETERSON Editor and Publisher SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: One Year $1.50' Six Months .75 i THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1039 The Record will stand for no chicanery in politics in Chatham county. We saw things two years ago that we never want to see again. This writer was eluded by a hand ful, scarcely that, who were seeking to hold the Center township primary secretly. The cut-and-dried program was practically completed when he found the coterie in session, and it was only through his butting in that any show at all was given to the opponents of the cut-and dried plan. Every member of the party should attend the primaries, and time aplenty should be taken fpr any citi zen who wishes to express his views. If.one desires a change in the party management, the primary is the place for him to make his seritiments known. primaries choose the township executive committee and the township committees choose the county committee men. Therefore, the township j primaries are the key to party! management. If you neglect the primaries, you have no | occasion to grumble at any . party management imposed upon yo u. No handful of . men, ftowever good or wise, can rightfully assume the con- \ trol of the Democratic party. ! —«> Principal Waters’ article last week made - interesting ; reading,-. The editor of The Record': 1 lan readily see the difficulties confronting the school management that must ' determine the standard of the : school f wlien every kind of mentality i$ to be considered. ] However*^e believe that the chief fault ’of the present-day : school not so much in in ability of the high school r pupil to- master the assigned subjects; such as algebra, but lies rather,?in the posing up ' to algebra? and Latin! pupils who do not know arithmetic and English grammar. The real test of a pupil’s ability | comes before he reaches the high school subjects. More over, there is no sense in ever letting a pupil pass - tp the high school subjects without 1 the fundamental and practical knowledge of arithmetic and 1 English grammar. We . are confident that the average : high school pupil in Chatham 1 county can not solve, with ' ipaper and pencil, or analyze ■ English sentences that the } writer when thirteen years of age could glibly solve orally, and when his whole schooling had amounted to only 24 months, and that under teach ers whose schooling scarcely, in any case, exceeded 30 months. All that would have to be done to prove it, would be to take; a Stoddard’s In tellectual Arithmetic and the larger | Reed and Kellogg’s Grammar and test the high school pupils of this era. There wasn’t a problem in Stod dard’s that the boy couldn’t solve orally, and he could analyze orally or diagram the sentences as they came in Reed and Kellogg’s grammar. The consequence was alge braic methods were familiar to him when he began study ing algebra, and he had a language basis for the study of Latin. On the other hand, today many pupils beginning Latin have to learn the sig nificance of mode and tense, and have little idea of the differences between noun, ad jective, and adverbial clauses. They have gotten only smat terings and are prepared to continue to get only such. Let the schools keep all pupils in English grammar and arith metic till they know them and the problems of the high schools will be largely elimi nated, since many will never reach Latin and algebra, and what time they do waste in school will be wasted upon something which everybody absolutely needs —a knowl edge of arithmetic and of English grammar. BEASLEY HAS TO BE TOLD * v We are surprised at Ro land Beasley, editor of The Monroe Journal. He should have had confidence enough in our judgment to accept it without our having to go into particulars. abo u t Hen r y George’s. “Progress and Pov erty.” We told him that the George scheme woh 1 d not even raise tax money enough, and that should have been sufficient to indicate to him that it couldn’t work the mar vels predicted of it by the author, if put into practice. We pointed out that the great octopuses that are suck ing the blood from the people of the whole country would not have to pay nearly so much tax as they now pay. Ford, the steel trust, the great insurance companies, the banking houses, the chain store corporations, the oil companies, the public utility companies, the tobacco com panies, General Motors, and dozens of other corporations which sit on small acreages of comparatively little rental value, are today the monopol ists whom the people have to fear. The arms of those oc topuses, or octopi, if you pre fer, reach out to every nooh of the country and extract the surplus currency. We have shown in these columns that the Ford business, for in stance, alone could buy North Carolina, lock, stock, and bar rel, with the profits of a fe\V years, probably twenty-five to fifty. They are the employers of the best paid labor in the world. They have no reason to stint their employees. Their monopolies, for they are that in effect, howsoever the power may have been derived, al low them to suck the blood from other economic entities to build up their own for tunes and to pay their labor. In fact, the chief victims of the present-day monopolists are land owners, and it would be the height of folly to hope to stop the concentration of wealth into* the hands of an significant number of the peo ple by imposing upon the lands of the chief sufferers the burden of the whole tax of the country. It is true that one occassionally grows rich through the unearned incre ment of land values, but not excessively rich, except in case of the discovery of oil upon a large area. Land -is - just -about the least wanted commodity, if we may so characterize it, in the whole country. It is tak ing less and less to produce the same amount, and less produce is needed as the number of horses and mules decreases, not to take into consideration the opening of millions of acres of new lands in Australia, South America, New Zealand, etc., etc., to the world markets |by the modern means of shipping. It is also true that people went land speculation mad a few years ago as they did in stock speculation last fall; but peo ple were not then buying land to hold, though many of them are holding the bag yet, to use the snipe-hunter’s phrase ology. Land is a drug upon the market, though, of course, the time will, presumably, come when every acre will be needed, but it is a long way off—further off than Tip pearary e%,er was. The only Georgian concep tion which would, if applied today, materially decrease the tendency to monopoly of pro duction and to concentration of wealth is the abandonment of the protective tariff upon the inauguration of his “sin gle tax.” In brief, land plays a small part in the concen tration of wealth these days, when the majority of the people live otherwise than di rectly from farming. The trouble with Friend is that he did not see all that was implied in our hastily written article, as he did not see all that is in the George scheme, for he seems not to have seen any of the holes in it, especially those shot through both the diagnosis and the prescription by Tem pus Fugiens. The emphasis of monopoly has'changed these fifty odd years since George formulated his scheme. Land is no longer so profitably [monopolized. ’ On the other THE CHATHAM RECORD, PITTSBORO, N. C. hand, the wealth-seekrs are aiming at the control of nat ural monopolies and govern ment created ones. The own ership of a waterpower is of little importance without the field of operation, which is a governmental assignment. No city is so foolish as to give franchises to two power com nanies, for instance. It would be economically wasteful and mischievous. The same is true of telephones. Even newspapers become, virtually, monopolies in cities where two can no.t operate profitably and the one has become so strong as not to ■be readily supplanted. As noted last summer, nobody would have offered $600,000 for an Asheville newspaper if a new paper could have been established and operated profitably in competition. If Ford should give Brother Beasley a hundred millions of dollars and free use of his patents, Beasley could never make a car in competition with the parent plant—the thing has simply reached a stage where its very perfec tion of strength makes it a monopoly. No; we did not lose sight! of the purpose George had in mind. We were on the * watch for, and ready to wel come, the panacea Brother Beasley thought he had found. But we might retort that even that devoted dis ciple of George has appar ently failed to comprehend the George doctrine, since Beasley defines the “single tax” theory as a “theory ' that all unearned increments of land values should betaken [ by the public as a social prod net.” The suggestion of tak ing the unearned increment belongs l to Mills, who much antedated Henry George. 1 George’s doctrine is that the land is public property, and that*all rental values should be applied to public purposes, and become the single tax, which he deems would be sufficient to meet the obliga tions of all forms of govern ment, and work marvels in social betterment. In fact, the unearned increment, often sold by the chief beneficiary, becomes one of the prime obstacles to the just inaugura tion of the George scheme, which would collect the rent based upon the enhanced price from the present owner, while the profiteer who has ■ sold the land would escape 1 all penalty. You would bet- ! ter read your book again, Brother Beaslev. Cllso, we suggest that you temper your statement that a knowledge of the single tax theory is as important to the student of economics as is Darwin or Huxley to the student of biology. Why, Henry George himself had never read “Progress and Poverty” when he began to “try to lead people through the subtleties of political econ omy.” And you mention Her bert Spencer. Did you ever read that he steadily declined , to obfuscate his mind by read- , ing the various treatises on psychology then existing? He had .under his own hat the field of study, and applied himself to that. Similarly, the economic world lies out be fore one today, differing mightily in many of its phases from the economic world of the seventies, and all an eco nomic Spencer would have to do is to study what he sees. George, in his day, saw the monopolization of land as the cause of the existence, side by side, of dire poverty and the greatest affluence. We see monopoly as the cause, but a monopoly based upon something else than land values. Therefore,George would benefit one very lit tle in diagnosing or prescrib ing in the field of economic ills today, when half the peo ple can make enough for all the people, and those who have the material advantage to start with can naturally make goods ’ cheaper than those who start handicapped, and therefore possess the market. Machinery, rather than land, is the basis of monopoly today. Ford, with his ideas and his machinery, turned the fields of Dearborn into a vast plant whose output encircles : “THAT'. DEADLY^^g ! Xo w** X X*' WW%Ft SN JfifU J *il|tf§|fp' the globe, He could have done it on the barest sand hills of Moore county, which from the Georgian viewpoint are of practically no rental value. The monopoly of skill and machinery tends to monopol ize the market, and to im poverish those not fitted to compete. Monopoly of lands tended to lessen production; monopolization of skill arid machinery tends to increase production but to limit the number of sharers in th;e. product. And the problem be comes one of maintaining a full consumption rate, and thereby more nearly the full production fate. And Mr. George will help the student very little there. ■ —— <§> —j — Some folk seem to be wor rying about the illiterates, those who can not read. We should be satisfied if those who can read would actually read. When one hears a grown man say that the local column of The Record is all he reads in the paper it is an indication that he reads little of anything that re quires the least bit of thought. We were impressed by a speech of Prof. Erskine of Co lumbia University last week. Prof. Erskine said that think ing is not natural, but is an acquired habit, that the nat ural man does not enjoy thinking and that it is only the exceptional one who culti vates the habit and enjoys it. Judging by the character of the reading that the average man does, it is quite evident that he w T ould be just about as well off if he didn’t know how to read at all. ■■■ —■ ■■ ■■ Messrs. Horton, Johnson, and Walden have announced their candidacies. They are three capable men. The wa ter seems fine; so let the boys come along. Just as well have some politics while we can. <♦> A CLEAN FIGHT WILL HELP —— (From Hamlet News-Messenger) A story in the Sunday edi tion of the Charlotte News says that a group of well known politicians about that city has evolved a plan to run former governor A. W. McLean as the unopposed candidate for the United States senate on the Demo cratic ticket. This plan would call for the coming down of both Simmons and Bailey as candidates in the primary and the nomination of McLean by certification. No names are mentioned, other than those of the three chief characters, and the State is left to guess at the force behind the movement. The same story, however, went on to-say that Simmons supporters had lost much of their earlier cocksureness, and they saw ahead a real fight. From that fact it may be deducted that the plan is originating among those who would like to see Simmons returned, but are afraid he can not be nominated, aiid therefore are trying to get a recognized Simmons adherent in his place; Whether this movement was inaugurated to offset another scheme promulgated from Ch&rlßtte a few weeks ago of running Simmons and Jonas on a coalition tieket, thus clearly identifying the senior senator > with the Re publican party ! organization, is left to : the guess of the State. • As yet there has developed no bitterness in the Bailey- Simmons campaign and there , is no reason to predict that any will develop. That the ; contest will be hard fought :is evident. That it will be a close race may be granted, on present showing. Not since the gubernatorial cam paign of 1920 has the Dem ocratic party in North Caro lina had any real action. Too ROOFS NEED j NEVER LOOK DULL j - Every house-top can be pretty now. j There is no reason why any at all should have a dull, drab-looking appearance. ? Color shingles can be had for just about the same .price you would pay for a roof- c ing material not nearly so durable or | beautiful. £ j The next time you have a roofing or 1 re-roofing job to do, call on Budd-Piper Y to show you the different kinds* of roofing suitable for your particular type of home. 5 You can add lots of beauty by using the I proper roofing effect. We gladly sub- 6 mit samples and estimates of cost. | THE BUDD-PIPER [ ) ROOFING CO. f i 1 i DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA THURSDAY, FEBRUARY much inaction will make for stagnation. Discord is always unpleasant, but the harmony of silence and inaction may grow monotonous. In our opinion the best thing that can happen to the Democratic party in this State will be a hard, but clean, campaign; one without bitterness or recrimination, but a fight that will make .every Democrat ex ert himself to the utmost for what he conceives to be the good of his party -and his State. Governor McLean would make a splendid senator. How he would fare as a candidate is another matter. If he wants to. enter the race file field is open. But at this time we- can not sympathize with the plan to stack the cards and deal out the other play ers. The voter is entitled to a chance to express his will. ® Hskpr. whose husb. is emp. to do apt. hse. wk. in exch. for apt. German or Scandanav.* —Adv. inLos Angeles-Herald. Got any rfrncs.? The. New Yorker.
The Chatham Record (Pittsboro, N.C.)
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Feb. 20, 1930, edition 1
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