PAGE TWO
CHATHAM RECORD
O. J. PETERS9N
Editor and Publisher
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE:
One Year $1.50
Six Months 75
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1930
“Voluntary” Cut
—*
Under the above caption
the Greensboro News of Fri
day last publishes the arti
cle* below. Our own editorial
about the generous Union
County Janitor should have
reached the News before its
own print was dry, and shown
the News man that voluntary
cuts are suggested closer at
home, and by one who can
apparently least afford the
cut. But that is a pretty big
“if” when it comes to the folk
who are concerned chiefly with
the size of their salaries. How
ever, so long as it is only “if,”
and not “if and when,” we
accept it. Here is the article:
• “Employes of the munici
pality of Kansas City have re
ceived ‘suggestion’ from the
city manager that each and
all of them assign to the city
one week’s pay each month
until May 1 next, to avoid a
municipal deficit. The offer
of three weeks’ pay for a
month’s work is probably in
lieu of direct reduction in
salaries or the number of em
ployes. The suggestion that
employes reduce their own and
contribute the saving to the
city treasury amounts to the
same thing in the end but the
camouflage of voluntary action
on the part of the employe
would come under the guise
of patriotism, whereas direct
reduction in pay and the num
ber of employes by the city
would present the situation in
a different light. !
“If the suggestion is accepted
it will probably be prompted
by the fear of direct action, !
which might be worse. The
plan is passed to the consider
ation of O. J. of the Chatham
Record. He might be able to
put it over as a substitute for
the general salary cut for all
public officials for which he
so earnestly clamoring. A
pledge might be passed
around in official circles and
if the signing once got under i
way—note the if—the plan '
might go through of its own
momentum. Those indisposed
to contribute one week’s pay
out of four for the public
welfare might be afraid to
refuse; whereas they might,
on the quiet, be able to resist
a direct and general salary
cut.” !
But let us add that w r e
prefer Mussolini’s brand of
cutting, who at one stroke
cut ..all public salaries from
the .Vgaurdsman up, clipping
off as high as 35 per cent
from the larger-salary officials.
A part of the folk out of
their littles cannot pay salar
ies of the other part upon
the 1919 basis. It is easy
enough to save millions in
taxes by cutting salaries. And
when public salaries are cut,
the clipping of big salaries
and incomes in industrial and
professional spheres should
follow. Moreover, if wagers
of the argriculture and cotton
mill workers, and others of
the under dogs, cannot be
raised, as they cannot, the cut
should extend to the high
priced wages in the favored
industries. A country cannot
prosper with a part of the
r. ■ 1 —1 1 ——■n
KEEP YOUR RADIO
IN REPAIR
It doesn’t cost much to keep a radio in good condi
tion, and one out of condition is a continual aggravation.
I have with me now Mr. A. L. Bray, a capable and
experienced radio service man, and he will do the work
in quick order.
R. C. A. & ATWATER KENT RADIOS
We sell them. Either will give you good service. And
we’ll take your old radio in part payment.
THOS. A. THOMPSON
Pittsboro, N. C.
I consumers on a dollar-a-day
’ basis, and a part on a $7-a
day basis. There is no fair ex
change of products possible,
and business becomes stale
mated. The same thing is
I true of nations whose per
; capita income is based upon,
■ the one a luxury basis and
, the other a price basis.
We thank the News and Observer
for producing part of our editorial
entitled “Let Luck Be Eliminated.”
Editor Daniels should be able as
. few others to realize the truthful
ness of Mr. Rosenwald’s asser
tion that his good fortune is large
-1 ly due to luck, or to the “breaks”
’ he got. There is only one capital
’ city in North Carolina, and that
l city can support only one morn
-1 ing paper. Mr. Daniels happened to
! be the man out of all the North
* Carolinians capable of making a
L real paper in the capital city to
’ get the “break” at the right time.
' The consequence is, Mr. Daniels
L has made a great paper and his
paper has made a Great Mr. Daniels,
making it possible for him to wield
immense influence in all depart
ments of life and enabling him to
become secretary of the navy. And
what is more important it give him
the inestimable opportunity of speak
ing to at least 1000,000 North
Carolinians daily.
I Os course, Mr. Daniels, like Mr.
Rosenwald, had to have the qualities
to cash in on his “breaks”, but
many another man could have
played the part of the little oak
seedling that becomes the great oak,
overcasting all the vegetation about
it, just as many another acorn that
might have fallen where the great
oak grows would have similarly
developed. However, if “breaks” are
to determine the fortunes of men,
we are glad that Messrs. Rosen
wald and Daniels were two of the
fortunate ones, and that the latter
occasionally helps us broadcast an
idea that otherwise would be rather
limited in its area of influence,
j But, brethern, if we had his
'audience and his broadcaster we
should tell the world a few things!
But that is not saying he doesn’t,
but is only a vain cry of disap
pointment that such a “break’ for
usefulness hasn’t come to us. Yet
25 years ago we might have be
come editor of a Tennessee daily,
bue we should never have been
able to hold any job where we
could not have been free to say
even the fool thing. For what is
in us will come out if it means
financial and professional suicide.
But Josephus is free; he is the
whole cheese in the control of
the great News and Observer —
the greatest feature of his “break”.
j —<s>
Thanks to Rowland Beasley for
citing the fitting punishment of
some fellows in the western part
of the state who annoyed their
neighbor by barking like a dog,
or dogs. They were made to pay
dog tax by the justice trying the
case.
®
! Those who think that money can
be piled up indefinitely for loan
ing at usurious rates or as for that
matter at any rate, have, another
think coming to them. The more
folk who have money to loan, or
to deposit in banks, the fewer there
are to borrow. Also, the more com
plete becomes the monopolization of
the industries by the few who
have absorbed the wealth of the
country, the fewer there are who
have the security for loans and
who would borrow, since only a
fool will borrow except for the
purpose of an enhanced income or
because of urgent needs due to
misfortune. Just let the immense
insurance funds, the billions of en
dowments of every kind, continue
to pile up and see where the ex
pected interest is to come from.
Our contention is that the world
must live upon its annual produc
tion, using it up year by year,
and that saving by the masses for
the rainy day is an impossibility.
THE CHATHAM RECORD, PITTSBORQ, N. C.
Loaning half the wealth of the world
will be an impossible thing. Rather
it may be loaned, but getting it
•back with interest is an impossible
thing. The Record contends that
the world is upon the wrong eco
nomic routing, and like any other
wrong road the end is disappointing,
but inevitable. But the events of the
past year and those to come will
teach this fact as no writer can. Yet
the economically blind will try to
bridge the ravine upon which the
economic course of the world im
; pinges and continue to seek the de
sired end by an impossible routing.
Right now hundreds of millions of
wealth that have been absorbed by
those who didn’t need it, to the dis
-1 comfort of millions who did, are
: being dissipated. The inevitable is
undoing the work of the worldly
wise.
<s>
It is easier to cut off five mil
lions from the salaries of the var
ious public employees in the state
than to raise the full amount of
funds necessary to keep salaries
at the same level. Salaries in terms
of land, stocks and bonds, and most
manufactured goods and farm pro
ducts are at least 25 per cent
higher than they were three years
ago. The lower levels have come to
stay for a considerable period, and
it is suicidal for the state and
counties to continue mulct the tax
payers to overpay public employees.
Salary cuts in private enterprises
will naturally follow cuts by the
state and counties, and should do
so. One of the first things the leg
islature should do is to repeal the
law legally establishes the teachers’
salary schedule, and let cuts, and
heavy ones, be made in the salaries
of the higher-ups in school work,
and proportionate ones in every
rank of teachers. The school bill
is one of the biggest in the state,
and millions can be saved by re
ducing salaries to a nearer con
formity to the incomes of the par
ents of the children taught.
The Record considers that the
school authorities have judgement
enough to decide the school book
question in accord with the interest
of the people. Right now would
seem to be a good time to get a
mighty cheap contract, but almost
any cost is justifiable if an arith
metic can be secured that will
enable the children to learn some
thing about the subject. For chari
ty’s sake let’s attribute the lack of
knowledge of arithmetic to the
book. It may be all right, but some
thing is wrong. If the text book
commission cannot be trusted to
do the right thing, let the whole
bunch be ousted.
HARD TIMES A WARNING
Given the opportunity to express
himself at a Thanksgiving service
last week, the editor called attention
to the fact that it was an occasion
for giving national thanks for bless
ings received by the nation rather
than for the giving of thanks for
individual blessings. And in that
connection, he stated that the nation
should be thankful for the depres
sion that has come upon it, since
the hard times can emphasize, as
no amount of preaching and writing
can do, the fact that there is a
deeep-seated menace to the nation’s
continuous prosperity.
Pursuing the subject, he stated
that God had poured out an abun
dance upon the country. The very
frequency of the word surplus testi- j
fies to the bounteous giving, and
that God has fully done his part.
On the other hand, the people of the
nation have so little sense that they
have suffered God’s bounties to be
come a curse. What an anomaly—
eight millions of bales of cotton in
excess of prospective use, millions
of bushels of wheat and other grains,
mills stopped for fear of produc
ing more than can be used, and yet
millions hungry and inadequately
clothed!
Yet those who are supposed to do
the thinking for the country are
doing no more than looking for the
broken places in the old economic
system and trying to patch them!
This, though the facts demonstrate
that a new system is needed. The
depression is absolutely inevitable
under the age-old system or polity.
It is the bursting of the boil that
leads to a more normal state of
economic health. The poison has
wrought its evil effects and the
economic body is thrownig off some
of them that it may again function
in some degree of healthfulness.
But the old germs are not to be
entirely destroyed. They will multi
ply again, and again will the evil
time come.
It is obvious to any man that looks
with half an eye that a system based
upon exorbitant profits and even
moderate interest must have its
cataclysms. Let half the wealth pro
duce a mere two-percent of profit
and half the money be loaned at
2 per cent interest and , not to con
sider the effects of compounding,
j the other half would be transferred
to the holders of the first half with
, in fifty years. Yet the country is
attempting to operate its enter
prises upon a high-profit basis and
billions are* loaned at rates of four
to 20 percent. It simply cannot be
done without an occasional collapse
which serves to destroy many sup
posed accumulations of money or
wealth, to cancel many debts, and
to redistribute , in large measure,
the actual resources of the country.
The boil has burst.
If these things are true, and
it is true that the country has
produced more than apparently will
be used, and could produce as much
more again, isn’t is obvious that the
hard times should serve to call at
tention of every man of half-sense
to the fact that it is not God’s
fault, nor nature’s, that millions
are hungry today, but simply man’s
own blindness?
For a million years the apparently
obvious fact that the blood circulates
was not definitely discovered till
Harvey’s day. Man was indifferent
to the matter, not comprehending
the immense consequences to the
bodily health of that circulation.
Similarly, exchange of products has
been going on for tens of thou
sands of years, and the same in
difference to the consequences of
vitiated channels of exchange has
existed.
The economic system of the coun
try andof the world is practically
the same as it was when our ances
tors first began to use tools. Under
it , for thousands of years, the
few have rolled in luxury and the
many have groveled in poverty. Yet
the nations of the world look upon
it as something hallowed, something
sacro-sanct. Only the radical has
dared to question its efficacy.
Russia is the only country in the
world that has deliberately planned
an economic system. Yet the op
pression of the many had gone so
far in that country and the Christian
church was so involved in that op
pression that the experiment in
Russia is so sadly complicated with
the introduction of atheism and
other godless policies that the result,
however happy from the material
standpoint,will be far from ideal.
But such a far swing of the pen
dulum is all that could be expected
under the circumstances. Hence, the
importance of this nation’s recogniz
ing the true significance of the
deadly depression while our religious
institutions and our ideals are still
intact and in good repute. For
that reason, I thank God for the
despression which should serve to
awaken our people to the inevitable
tendencies of the existing system,
and can only hope that the nation
will have sense enough to recognize
the significance of the seeming evil
times. God has done his part in
giving his bounties and now has
warned us of our own folly in not
generally profiting by them.
And thus ended that expression on
the recent Thanksgiving occasion.
<§>
Mr. W. T. Brooks made a good
commissioner. Doubtless, he could
have been elected again if he had
sought the position. His place was
taken Monday by Mr. Hester of
Goldston, who won in the election
by one of the very largest majorities
given on that occasion.
<§>
If the forty magistrates elected
all aqualify Chtaham will have no
scarcity of dispensers of justice—if
that is what they actually dispense.
1100 BARRELS FLOUR j
BEST GRADE OF TWO MILLS |
$5.00 A BARREL |
Differential off to Wholesale Buyers Hi
ALL KINDS OF FRUITS, NUTS, CANDIES jjj
AFTER DECEMBER 15-WHOLESALE jjj
AND RETAIL I
jfi
High-Grade Laying Mash, Feed Oats, Red Dog, Chops, jjj
- Three Kinds of Dairy Feed, etc. jfi
IE 9
9j \ WE BUY TO SELL &
I |
1 POE & MOORE I
IS PITTSBORO, N. C. \
A period of unrest usuall comes
when too many men are getting
a rest. *
O
Would You Know One
* It You Saw it? v
If you ever came face to face with a
germ, would you recognize it? Os
course it is not likely that you ever
will see a germ, unless you own a
tremendously powerful microscope, for
you would have to magnify one over
a thousand times to make it as big as
a pin head. But you should recognize
> the fact that these tiny germs can get
1 into your blood streams through the
. smallest cut, and give you typhoid
fever, tuberculosis, lockjaw, blood
poisoning, and many more dangerous
and perhaps fatal diseases. There is
one . sure safeguard against«these
dangers washing every cut, no
matter how small, thoroughly with
Liquid Borozone, the. safe antisep
tic. You can get liquid Borozone at
Pittsboro Drug Co. Adv.
(l ■
Remember we have a big reduction on all
Men’s and Boys’ Suits!
\
$35.00 to 45. Suits Now
Jtejx $27.00
8f 530.00 SUITS NOW
$24.50
Brj $25.00 SUITS NOW
li $17.50
■y! $20.00 SUITS NOW
JUg $14.50
Our stock is complete with many new
patterns in good Worsteds, Cheviots and
Serges as well as the Extra Values in Not
tingham Fabrics for the younger men.
Buying Griffon Suits at these prices is
something to be truly Thankful for.
And too there are many other items re
duced, among them is a lot of $2.00, $2.25
and $2.50 Shirts, now $1.50
These are good full cut Broadcloth and
Madras Shirts.
Dalrvmple, Marks & Brooks
Wicker Street, Sanford, N. C.
THURSDAY. DECEMBER 4 ...
Make Your
CHRISTMAS
SHOPPING
a Pleasure.
Make Your List Early
and Visit
THE GIFT SHOP
SANFORD, N. C.
Next Door to Lee Durg
Company
Popular Prices