PAGE TWO
CHATHAM RECORD
O. J. PETERSON
Editor and Publisher
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE:
One Year $1.50
Six Months
Thursday, September 11, 1930
There is no sense in a man’s
giving checks when they are
no good. Better not pretend
to pay the debt at all. The ban
kers are put to extra work
and the payee may himself be
embarrassed by checking upon
an account based partly upon
a bad check. But a few folks
have been allowed to give
them with impunity and never
to pav them. There is a peck
of bad checks in Chatham
county, we suspect, against a
man now dead and gone, and
more people are apparently
starting out on a similar
course. It would be a good
idea for the merchants of
the county to publish a list
of the names of the persons
who are making a practice of
giving worthless checks. The
Record will give space at a
low rate for such publication.
If a man is poor let hkn do
like the editor of the Record
live like a poor man, and work
at something, whether he
makes anything or not.
®
Joe Peele, who has been
associated with his
Herbert in the publication of
the Elizabeth City Advance,
becomes publisher of the daily
at Edenton. It is hard to im
agine Joe, whom we have
known only as a big, chuffy
baby, being editor of a paper.
The Elizabeth City Advance
is authority for the statement
that certain newspapers in
the eastern part of the state
which have been prosperous
have been losing at the rate
of a thousand dollars a month.
The Record might at that rate
last a week. However, the
word “loss” is likely akin to
the word “profit”, as defined
in modern times and so often
commented upon in these col
umns. So long as everybody
connected with a business is
geting 1919 wages the business
is probably doing its part, but
the income is being improperly
shared. While the Chatham
Record, as such, has lost no
money, the editor has lived
on what was left after paying
expenses of publication and
necessary payments upon the
fire debts. If we had counted
in S3OO a month as the ed
itor’s salary the Record would
be losing money too.
—•
Since the editorial concern
ing the pension matter in Guil
ford county was given to the
printer, State .Auditor Dur
ham has discovered that there
were two Guilford pensioners
by the same name and that
the wrong name was cut off
when one of the men died.
The survivor is supposed to
have moved to Virginia six
months ago. It is gratifying to
know that there is an explana
tion. However, publicity is
the preventative and remedy
for all such troubles. If the
list of pensioners receiving
checks had been regularly
published, there is little doubt
that the son of the dead pen
sioner in this case would have
had this matter straightened
out years ago, especially if the
number of the pensioner’s
company had been published
with the name. Economy in
the use of printer’s ink is one
of the false economies of the
counties, cities, and other sub
divisions. The law is fre
quently disregarded, certainly
right here in Chatham coun
ty, where the school board,
the town governments, and
other subdivisions fail to pub
lish legally required reports
of receipts and expenditures.
The clerk of the court has
been about the only official
meeting the requirements of
the law in that respect and he
failed last year.
®
A. J. Maxwell correctly says
that a hundred millions of
of dollars is more tax than the
people of North Carolina can
pay. But the way to reduce
it is not to cut down the ser
vice purchased by the State,
but to put the public hirelings
upon an equality with their
paymasters. Cutting salaries,
in plain words, is the only
feasible means of reducing
the cost, of government. The
interest charges and the sink
ing funds are, unfortunately,
unavoidable.
ANOTHER PENSION
FRAUD?
Developments in Guilford
county indicate a stealing of
pension money similar to that
for which a former Sampson
county clerk of the the court
suffered imprisonment. Just as
in the Sampson case, the de
velopment has begun with one
dead pensioner’s ch e c ks.
When D. R. Lee of upper
Sampson reported to this writ
er, then editor of the Samp
son Democrat, the fact that
the sons of two veterans in
his township were receiving
pensions for their dead fath
ers, the editor thought it
must be an unintentional lapse,
but to see how many such
frauds existed on the part of
sons, he got from the state
auditor a list of the pensioners
and began to count the dead
men on it and was startled
to see the number go to a
score or more. Inquiry of the
sons of some of these dead
pensioners revealed the fact
that no checks had been re
ceived by the relatives of the
dead men since their death.
That put the matter in its
proper light.
If it had not been for the
fact that the clerk of court,
through friendship for the
two or three Mingo sons of
dead pensioners, had contin
ued to turn over the checks
to them, it would have been
almost impossible under the
circumstances to discover the
fraud, though we were sur
prised that the state auditor
did not become suspicious over
the fact that no pensioners in
Sampson county died.
The guilty clerk was not
backward in saying that he
was not the only clerk in the
state who did not return such
checks to the state auditor,
and the developments at
Greensboro indicate that he
was correct in that statement,
since already checks for one
dead man have been found
running back to 1922. How
ever, it is not safe yet to lay
the fraud to the clerk of the
Guilford clerk, since he claims
that a man professing the
name of the dead man had
been receiving the checks.
Yet it is clear that no 75 or
80-year old man endorsed the
check of which a picture was
published in Sunday’s Daily
News.
It was further discovered in
the Sampson case that the
fraud extended to witness
funds and trust funds, and
that the solicitor had been
slack in his examination of the
clerk’s books, as the required
securities for trust funds did
not exist and the fact should
have been discovered by the
solicitor, who at that time
got S2O for examining the
books of the clerk. It also de
veloped that the law which
required that the clerk pub
lish a list of all funds in his
hands and the security which
he held for them, if any, had
not been complied with.
In this county, since our
coming six years ago, such a
report has been published
till last winter, when if it
was published, we did not
publish it nor see it in the
Siler City paper. Moreover,
the laws require Reports of
funds received by all publip
officials of towns and counties,
and of their disposition. But
it is an obvious fact that the
law is being generally dis
regarded. The publication of
such reports will protect the
people. Suppose » that the
Sampson clerk had reported
certain trust funds loaned to
himself or to a fictitious bor
rower, it is evident that the
interested parties would have
discovered the frauds. As it
was, the funds of orphans
were taken with impunity, un
til the almost accidental dis
covery of the pension frauds
revealed the rascality of the
clerk. But that did not save
the funds, and one of the very
men who was rather bitter
against the editor for his in
sistence % upon frauds in that
connection before the revela
tions of the pension frauds
was a considerable loser as
a ‘bondsman of the default
ing clerk.
If this Guilford matter
shall serve to bring about an
observance of the laws re
specting publications of re
ceipts and disbursements of
funds by officials, it will have
been of value to the state, j
We thought the Sampson case
had had such an effect, but
memories #re short.
THE CHATHAM RECORD, PITTSBORO, N. C.
| When prices vary largely
with quality of the product,
it is a wise man who strives
for quality products. If you
read the reports from the to
bacco markets last week, you
should have noted that Ben
Herring of Pender county sold
a load of tobacco in Goldsboro
for 75 cents a pound. A thous
sand pounds of such tobacco
along with the food and feed
crops would make Ben and
family independent for the
;year. In fact, the writer has
known Ben’s farm all his
life, as he has visited it ever
since he was born, it being
jthe farm upon which his
| mother was reared, and the
| little place had made a com
fortable living for three gen
erations' of Herrings, though
many a year no such sum of
money has been derived from
a thousand pounds of 75-cent
tobacco. The editor of the
Record feels a pride in seeing
this youngest grandson of the
old home selling the finest
tobacco in the state on the
opening day of the markets.
VHP: , v : :- m W
PfE ... mrff *
- jiH
* ' &L>
/ 1 Just as natural loveliness is pleasing to your eyes, the natural mildness
of Camel Cigarettes is pleasing to your taste.
Camel is an amazingly mild smoke. Yet it is never flat—never taste
less. All the mellow aroma of the choice tobaccos in the Camel blend is
preserved and enhanced through every step of manufacture. There’s no
over-processing with its resultant insipidity no doctoring, for none is
needed.
Modern smokers have recognized the difference between mildness
and flatness. They’re swinging to Camels—choosing a cigarette that’s
naturally mild—enjoying the real luxury of smoking. -
“EASY TO LISTEN TO”—CAMEL PLBASVRE HOUR
Wednesday evenings on N. B. C. network, WJZ and © 1930, R. J. Reynolds
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We have always thought
grandmother Herring’s place
one of the best in the world,
and the price of that tobacco
goes far to confirm our opinion
and to establish the fact that
Ben has inherited his father’s
skill as a farmer.
®
Probably as a result of the
atsmopheric disturbances ac
companying the terrific storm
which wrought such havoc in
San Domingo, America’s old
est city inhabited by whites,
killing about 5,000 and des
troying many millions worth
of property, this section has
received gracious rains. But
if there is the supposed con
nection between the bezom of
destruction in San Domingo
and the delightful rains here,
it would be difficult to con
sent to our Brown’s Chapel
correspondent’s accounting for
the latter. It is hard to con
ceive of a good God destroy
ing a city to answer the prayer
of a Sapling Ridge preacher.
There is a vast difference be
tween post hoc and propter
hoc, or after and because of.
“PROFITS GUILTY.”
Last year we wrote a con
siderable series of articles on
economic situation, in which
the key to the evils existing
was found in the word“profit”
as now defined, or rather in
the application of the defi
nition. When any number of
concerns have the power to
collect from the public a
greater sum than 1 hat cover
ing a fair rate of interest on
investments,' coverage of de
terioration in plants, insurance
and the actual cost of labor
and superintendence, then it
becomes possible for such con
cerns in the long run to drain
the country of its wealth.
For instance, under the
Franklin price-list used by com
mercial printers, every possible
item of cost is covered and
then 20 per cent added for
“profit.” Necessarily if every
business should collect 20 per
cent above every cost, inclu
ding interest, insurance, and
deterioration and liberal al
lowance for labor and superin
tendence, it would be only a
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER i, 1
matter of a few years when
those people like farm,
who cannot fix prices
be drained of their last cent
We showed, 18 months a 5
m the series of articles men
tioned, what was happeni":
and what has happen"!
is entirely in accord with w W
Predicted as inevitable
The Atlantic ocean coulr) k
sopped up with sponge"
enough, and there is ro |5„,
of “profit” sponges so p £
the wealth of the world. g
The four great tobacco
companies have sopped un n,
wealth of both the growers
and the consumers. The prof
its, clear money above legiti'
mate costs, doubtful costs'
calculated, too, upon a most
liberal basis, of the four com
panies almost equal the total
sum paid farmers for the to
bacco crop. But we must stop
the subject is inexhaustible. ’
$ —.
Aunt Lucy Jackson, one of our
oldest colored women and mo<t
respectable, has returned from an
extended visit to her daughter in
Boston.