North Carolina Newspapers

PAGE FOUR THE CONCORD TIMES PUBLISHED MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS Entered as second class njail matter at the, post office at Concord, N. C., under the Act of March 3, 1870. - J. B. SHERRILL, Editor and Publisher W. M. SHERRILL, Associate Editor Special Representative: FROST, LANDIS & KOHN New York, Atlanta, St. Louis, Kansas' City, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle .j. '1 ■ r- . —J !_■— I—. 1 —. -1~P 1 L* WHERE ARE WE GOING? | Qne of the most thought-provoking ed itorials we have read in recent months * appeared in The Charlotte Observer sev eral days ago, dealing with modern con ditions, habits and customs. The editor ial dealt with conditions that confront the young man and young woman of to day, and at the same time discussed abl}' Jj&nd sensibly the obligations that face the parents because of the conditions which the young people must meet. The editorial is so worth-while that we give it in full to our readers, with the hope ethat parents will read it to their The greatest menace to the American Nation today is not any sort of “yellow peril” or possible war. It is not the pos sibility of the repeal of the Volstead law' or an amendment to prohibit the manu facture and use of tobacco. It is not the possibility of a “wet” President or a Catholic President, nor even the power of the Ku Klux Klan. The greatest menace to the Nation, to its institutions and to the freedom of a liberty-yoving people is the growing dis respect for all that our fathers held sa cred or regarded with veneration—la,ck of respect for all authority,and law. The Bible, the Constitutions of the Nation and the States, the moral code and the princi ples of good citizenship, including hon *esty and clean personal habits, taught the children by the fathers and mothers a generation ago —all are being not only but even sneered at by an ever-growing element of our people. u It has already reached the point that a man who had a pious mother who taught him as a child the fundamentals of Christianity and good citizenship and instilled in his young mind the highest moral code would be ridiculed in many quarters today were he to admit that he still believed in the principles she taught him. lie would be regarded by many in same same class with grown-ups. who still believed literally in the child’s inter pretation of the story of Santa Claus. And those who w'ould point the finger of ridicule at him would not be those alone who are regarded as criminal or ‘low _-brows” or “rough necks,” but also and —more particularly a large section of the —perfectly respeatable element of the population—those who have enjoyed ed ucational advantages, had plenty of books, magazines and newspapers to read and been reared within the sound of many church bells. There is abroad in the land something of a mania, for tearing down the land marks, for wiping the halo fro'm about the heads of the heroes of the past and for ridiculing all that men of former years and decades venerated and held sacred. There are those w r ho stand ready to ap plaud those w'ho undertake to cast re proach upon the name of George Wash ington and other patriots who laid the foundations of the peace and freedom and prosperity we enjoy today. There are those who are ever ready to enjoy a good laugh when some one will ridicule any thing that men for generations have re vered. With an ever-increasing multi tude of respectable people even the in stitution of marriage is a funny joke and conspicuous violators of the marriage re lation are regarded as deserving of honor for the courage they display in smashing the conventions. Let some intellectual pervert write a book portraying a libertine as a hero or a harlot as a heroine and an ever-increas ing number of perfectly respectable peo ple will rush to spend their own money • and that of their creditors to swell the royalties of the author. Let some blas phemer write a book making a vicious attack upon the Bible or the Church, or portraying the ministry as entirely com posed of hypocrites, adulterers and mon ey grabbers, and it becomes immedeiately a “best seller.” Let a minister speak an unfavorable word about such a book and immediately there goes up a chorus of denunciation of him. Suppose the number of those who have no respect for the Bible, the Church, the Constitution, the law or any constituted authority continues to grow until they constitute a decisive majority of our pop ulation, ds a large element of the respect able people seem to desire. Suppose the tribe of the. worshippers and followers of the Sinclair Lewises and the Rupert Hughes- and the Earl Carrolls should continue to increase as it has during the last five or ten years until they become powerful enough to do away with the Constitutions and laws, churches, minis- ters and Bibles? What then? What have they to offer to take the places of ■ these civilizing influences? Nothing. 1 Back to barbarism and anarchy and chaos —eVery man a law unto himself. Such would be the logical result. That is why thoughtful people—peo ple who look ahead and think of the fu ture and are concerned about the wel fare of their children and grand-childrep ; —sometimes are distressed by the ten dency of the times. / It is encouraging, however, to believe that the pendulum has about reached its extreme and that it is about to swing back the other way. Far-seeing ones already claim to discern a tendency to halt the reckless drift. Possibly the present sit uation is but the afterw r ath of the World disrupting War. It must get better—or 1 worst. MUNICIPAL BUDGET INCREASES. How municipal budgets are advancing in America is revealed in a survey made recently by the National Municipal League which tells us that there was an increasee in the tax rate in 1926 over 1925 of 54 cents on the thousand dollars which may not seem very much but in a city like New York that insignificant increase would amount to $7,000,000. In Charlotte it. would amount to $54,000. In the ten-year period from 1904 to 1913, the average bond issues of State and local governments amounted to 302 million dollars, whereas from 1913 to 1920, the same bond issues aggregated 507 million dollars. In the last seven years such borrowings as are represented by bond issues have to taled $7,455,000,000, an annual average of around $1,260,000,000. The gross bonded debt of State and lo cal governments at the end of 1925 was $13,462,000,000, which 1-ess the cash ap plied to sinking funds, would net a debt of $11,443,000,000 and this costs the tax payers of these governments in interest charges alone annually $500,000,000. Hubert Malkus writing on this theme in the Business Magazine says that at present, allowing for the new borrowings in 1926 and the comparatively small amount of bonds retired during the year, the total net debt is something more than twelve billion dollars, and the interest charges this year will be more than $525,- 000,000. At the end of 1923 the net debt of State and local governments was SB,- 689,740,000, and bonds floated in 1924 and 1924 increased this amount by $2,- 753,260,000. These figures do not take into account short term loans and special assessment bonds, which also are a bur den oh the taxpayers and a drain on the public treasuries. In 1923, when the total net bonded debt was more than eight billion, State and local governments spent, in interest and retirement of bonds as they came due, $1,072,000,000. By 1925 the net debt had increasede to nearly eleven and a half billion dollars, an accumulation of 32 per cent. Presumably, the outlaw on the debt account increased proportion ately and in 1923 was slightly under a million and a half, the estimated amount that will be necessary to maintain our credit this year. NEW ROUTE FOR P. & N. Increase in land values, or rather an increase in prices demanded for land ly ing between Charlotte and Winston- Salem, is said to have caused the Pied mont and Northern Railway officials to withdraw from the Interstate Commerce Commission their request to continue the lines of the company from Charlotte to Winston-Salem. Several weeks ago officials of the inter urban line made inquiry from the com mission about the extension, being in doubt as to whether permission had to be secured from the commission before the extension could be made. Before the federal body had opportunity to rule in the matter the interurban officials with drew the request, explaining that rights of way were costing so much along the proposed line that a new route might be chosen, going'from Charlotte to Durham, via Stanly county. No doubt a cheaper right of way can be secured along that route for that not built up like that from Charlotte to Winston-Salem. Property owners along the proposed new route should offer their land cheaper because it would bring less at sale than land on the upper route, extending through Con cord, Salisbury and Lexington. Too, the Piedmont and Northern could not get half as much business along the j lower route. Part of the section is with ;! out rail facilities, it is true, but no doubt : this is due to the fact that there is no ; urgent need for such facilities. If that i country had been rich in resources or : manufacturing plants some rail line : would have traversed it long ago. We do not think the P. & N. should be • “held up” by land owners, but at the same time these officials should under stand local conditions when they com pare the prices asked for land on the two proposed routes. The difference in ac cessible business along the two routes easily explains in one way, at least, the difference in the land values. Representative men from Concord, Salisbury, Lexington and'Winston-Salem are to meet early next week to go into the matter, in the hope that a satisfactory scale of land values can be reached where by the upper route can be followed. It should be borne in mind by the land owners that their property will mater ially increase in value with the coming of the railroad and that while they are not affered as much as they would like to have, the property purchased by the in terurban will make their other land so valuable that in the long run they will be benefitted.— OUR PRISONS GROWING IN NUM BER. From February Ist to March 31st, 1927 —two months—the state’s prison receiv ed 141 prisoners, 52 of these were ne groes, 86 white, and 3* Indians. All these were males except 3. Women are in the majority at church, but the prisons tell another story. Os these 141 prisoners, 38 whites and 13 negroes were under 20 years of age and all of them except 32 were under 30 years of age. Among the crimes for which these prisoners were sentenced there' were 16 for second de gree murder, 13 for manslaughter, 14 house-breaking, 55 larceny and receiving, and 13 highway robbery. These five crimes include 111 of the 141. The two months brought a 5 per cent, gain in the State’s prison population and we may safely assume that there was a like gain in the prison population of the County jails and chaingangs. These figures which have been gathered from The Prison News present a serious if not alarming state of affairs. White boys and young men under 30 years of age number 70, practically one-half of the entire group. The negroes seem to be do ing better while the whites grow worse. This appears to be true of the boys es pecially when we recall that of the 52 boys under 20 years of age 39 were white boys and 13 colored boys, a ratio of three to one. These figures indicate that a crime wave of youth, and of white boys ip particular is mort than a product of the imagination. It is a reality.—N. C. Christian Advocate. Surely this is one of the perplexing problems confronting not only North Carolina but all other States as well. Vis it any court house during trial of crimi nal cases and no doubt you will be struck by the number of white prisoners. Time was, and it has not been so long ago, when most of the prisoners at the bar were negroes. Times have changed. Es pecially is this true with certain cases, such as larceny, store-breaking and auto stealing. It is a rare thing that a negro is arrested in North Carolina charged with the theft of a car, yet every day scores of white persons are arrested on supcli a charge. Most of the persons guilty of this crime are young white men, many of them too lazy to work and many of them bootleggers who find it more profitable to transport their contraband in someone else’s car. During the last session of the General Assembly the proposal was made that the State purchase more land for a State Farm. Many raised objection, declaring the State needed no more land. Then it was pointed out that the number of prisoners was increasing so rapidly that the State has to have somewhere to put them. That plea more than anything else was responsible for the passage of the bill giving the State money and authority to purchase more ~ lands for additional Prison Farms. INDUSTRY TO SMALL TOWNS, v Industry is now looking to the small town says Public Service, commenting on the modern advantages offered by the small town as compared with a few years ago. “There was a utne,” says that paper, “when industry flocked to the centers oi population. That was because power, transportation and telephonic communi cation, facilities were available only in such centers. Now power, transportation and communication are at hand in the small places and in the outskirts of the large centers, and better living condi tions and lower cost of living are gener ally found outside the big cities. “Long-distance telephone lines and transmission wires stretch for hundreds of miles to small towns and farffis far distant. “The electric utilities have perfected so-called 'super-power systems’ thtoiigh 1 I inter-connection or transmission line l*e- ! (Sources and development of great hydro j electric and steam plants. The “back to the farm’/ movement hasHjecqme a real ity autj small towns can now look to the THE CONCORD TIMES time when they will have thriving indus ’ tries.” Governor McLean is a robust man and has enjoyed excellent health most of his life. Yet he finds it necessary to get away from the ‘grind” at the capital. He had an attack of influenza several weeks ago and because he did not surrender to. it at the time, has been forced to fight re currences of the disease. Now fie is go ing to the woods of the northwest in an effort to get rid of the malady and build up his reserve. This thing of being Gov ernor is not an easy job. It’s the kind of job that gets next to any reasonable man and the Chief Executive is wise to take time off to recuperate from the rigors of the work. WHAT HAVE THEY TO CONCEAL? The Associated Press reported Friday that counsel for the United States gov ernment, Owen Robjerts and Atlee Pom erene, had sought and obtained from the District of Columbia supreme court a continuance until May 23 of the trial of the case charging criminal conspiracy against Harry F. Sinclair and Albert B. Fall in connection with the lease of the Teapot Dome oil reserve. The reason given was that the government wanted to continue its search for twp important witnesses. The missing witnesses are James E. O’Neil and H. M. Blackmer and their cases are among the most startling in connection with the oil scandals. O’Neil is*or was, president of the Prairie Oil and Gas Company while Blackmer is or was chairman of the board of directors of the Midwest Refining Company. They ure men of wealth, influence and promi nence in the oil industry. In fact at one time they were considered among the leaders of the oil business. But here we find them missing for several years, ap parently in an effort to hide something. What has happened to them is sum marized by the New .York World: “Both left the United States for Eu rope suddenly in January, 1924, soon af ter the disclosure of the Contineiltal Trading company deal, out which the gov ernment alleges Fall ’ received $230,000. These two men were wanted by the gov ernment as witnesses at the time of the Cheyenne suit for recovery of Teapot Dome in 1925. They refused to return from Europe. In 1926 Congress adopted the Walsh acts, giving the courts author ity to summon Americans home from for eign lands through the agency of the Am erican consuls. To this authority Con gress attached a penalty.of confiscation of property up to a maximum estimated value of SIOO,OOO for those who failed to answer to subpoenas. American consuls in Europe set out at once to serve sub poenaes on Blackmer and O’Neil. The two merv fled. No consular officer in Eu rope has been able to discover w'here they are hiding. Now counsel for the govern ment in Washington throw's up its hands * * and decides to ask for postponement.” The action of government counsel in dicates that they hope to have these wit nesses by the latter part of May. They do not disclose the information on which they base this hope and the chances are that the trial will have to be held with out them. These men have been given opportunity aplenty to come forward vol untarily and since they have refused to do this and have concealed themselves so well that their arrests have not fiecn made, there seems little likelihood that they will be on hand when the trial be gins. Concerning their action The Greensboro News says: “It is a curious spectacle which in thfe minds of those who view it can be inter preted in only one manner. Here are wealthy, prominent, successful, respected and nationally (e/ven internationally) known leaders in the oil industry appar ently abandoning their country to seek cover in foreign countries rather than tes tify in the Teapot Dome conspiracy case. They have been away, so far as the gov ernment knows, three years and four months. They will remain away, so far as anybody else can tell, as long as there is any danger Jfiat they will have to tes tify, even at the risk of a heavy fine, pro vided the subpoenas are served.” The government . might successfully begin the trial without the men on the assumption that their absence will strengthen the case. Most any juror could be made to believe that something was radically wrong when men like these leave the United States and refuse to come back or allow their movements to be known. That fact alone, . it seems to us, is enough to convict Sinclair and Fall. They have something to hide apparently, or ■ they would want the missing witnesses as badly] ais does the government. After the decision in the;D,oheny case j'we imagine O’Neil and Blackmer will stay where they are. No doubt they would have beeif home before this had the Doheny case been favorable to the defendants. But with the Suprtme . Court ruling in no uncertain manner in this case the missing men no doubt feel they had better stay.where they aie, and 1 let Sinclair and Fall get along as best » they can. MUST LIVE WITHIN INCOME. j Dr. E. C.. Brooks is telling the county * commissioners just what isy expected of them under the terms of the new county government act. They must either cur ij tail expenses and live within their in come, levy a higher tax, or increase the r valuation. ' ( ft is f>lain that one of the three things must be done and it is easy to say which : one ought to be done in most counties.- In many counties the revaluation is not go ing to show much of an increase and it 1 is out of the question to raise taxes. The ; only logical thing to do is to try to cut down expenses somewhere. j “There are many counties in the state •: that for years have been expending more “ for general county expenses than they 1 have received in revenue from the 15 1 cents tax,” explained Dr. Brooks. “In fact, they have been evading the consti •< tution, by borrowing from time to time to : meet current expenses,'and then when 1 they have piled up a big debt, have au -1 thorized bond issues in liquidating it. : Thus they have really voted an addi tional tax for purposes which the consti ■ tution says the rate must not exceed cents for each SIOO valuation. 1 “Nor has this been confined to the 1 counties alone. The same condition has [ existed in the special school tax districts. 1 Os course there is no limit to the tax ! rate which may be levied to support the ! six months school term. But in" those counties where there are special school ! tax districts, where an additional tax has been levied to provide for two or three months additional school besides the six months term, the tax rate is fixed by a vote of the people jyid cannot be changed except by popular vote. Yet, in many of these districts, much has been spent that is derived from the special tax, and in order to make up the deficit, the districts have borrowed, just as the counties have done—and then asked for a bond issue to wipe out the debt. This also, technically speaking, was unconsti tutional, since it in reality imposed a heavier tax than the law allowed.” County authorities should readily fall in line with the terms of this act. Once the plan gets underway the business of government can be more easily managed and counties at least will- know how they stand financially. Like it has been under the old law money w r as borrowed whenever needed without thought to the future, no one cared about the county debt, and business was run in a slip-shod manner. W ith the new' law r there will be a .system under which county officials can tell at all times just what they have on hand. The Cantonese refuse to accept re sponsibility for the Nanking outrages. They insist that the British and Ameri can ships bombarded the city, and for this reason no reparations are to be made exceept for damage to the American con sulate. Eugene Chen, the Cantonese for eign minister, lays all of the blame either on the foreigners or on the defeated sol diers, indicating that his own men did nothing unlawful. There will be another note from the foreign governments, no doubt, and an effort will be made to im press upon the Cantonese the feeling that they are responsible for the deaths of the American and British subjects in the city. LICENSE TO FISH. Statesville Daily. i isherman will take notice that beginning April 1 and this is no April fool—fishermen must have authority from the State to tish. A summary of the law contained in a press dispatch says that as a perliminary to fishing in “any public fresh water streams, ponds, lakes, with reel, jointed rod, or both, or by cashing with rod of any description,” a resident county license fee of $1 must be paid Two dollars will obtain a permit to tish in any county. Non-residents of the State must pay Fishermen “must wear a button showing license number.” In the language of Uncle Remus, we “giu it” as it was giu” to us. 'Fishermen must make their own interpretations. The editor of the Greensboro News, who is a fisherman of class, deposes and th ** th J* law draws a distinction between fishing aud “angling,” although he is not sure j the Supreme court will draw the distinction. But i as the News man understands it, one can drop a!' sinkered hook and worm strainght down into the ‘ water for cats] and the like, without paying tribute i to Caesar aud being labeled. But he mst beware the machinery equipment of the modern fisherman and confine himselFto the straingt up and down business if he would play safe. One mav be reas onably safe, it is assumed, until wardens are ap- . pointed who will -go about lookiug for labels on fishermen. M hat will be premissible without the < lable is for the fisherman to find out if he would avoid conflict with the law. As yet, not having seen a copy of the act, this paper can t advise with < Southern Baptist Convention will meet in i Ky " on Wednesday, Mav < 4 192 i, beginning at 9 a. m., and is expected to' j adjourn on the following Sunday evening. The ( preacher of the convention sermon will be Rev. !< D A D /L 0f TeXas ’ ° r his alternate, ! < Rex .T. Iw Jester,>D. D., of Winetomßalem, North 1 Carolina. Rail road -rates will be on the basis i X au<l . for the round trip.- t Charily aud Children. j, great f ‘™ uble * ith all th « auto shows was j ypa mi'd a “ tißtactoiT " arkm M Monday, cointv l^ Charlotte Observer. ] Recently The (i bs Wager, m The r- 111V(M Couut.v Fiscal C„„ !r()] ! ty ' formation to countv b f > a ,, «. laxv known as the c OHm , ■ W of which is equally im/J h| ‘< In the last issue () f undertakes explanation < law, which is designed t ' h S going too deeply in ( , ‘° J** of borrowing. Under \v h law, a county may borrow/ * in anticipation of taxes f,,r % amount of uncollected Ui? I revenue for the current h • 4 < loan is repaid not later expiration-of such fiscal tt *1 borrow for the purpose 1 or interest of bonds or months, and not otherwise !?* % and' such loan shall he nnJSH end of the next succeed^^ A county may borrow the receipts of the proceed“'J l *' to an amount not exeeedi Ue 1 ized amount of the bond j be paid not later than three L 1 the order authorizing the bond!?? maturing in less than six n iT,r* , of b y public or private 51 of public notice. Notes ; months from date of issue shd/? • manner as bonds, that is !, 1 | after the sale has been advert days. ' 'a tax sufficient to pay the i*i • j of the bonds when due shall S and collected. Bonds shall urt ** time of the improvement forS sued. The act establishes *hat2 the maximum life of each tw*3S each type of roads which'J! The present floating indebted!i may he funded if such fundinr J v J>efore July 1, 1927: otherwise J become an item in next year’s biab bonds must mature within ITS funding bonds xxithin 20 .tears stallment become payable within tn! After the introduction, and ki before the final passage of as issuance of bonds for school pjJ statement shall be prepared by a ! for the purpose, showing the* exist* and xvhat percentage of the constitutes. The total school drip shall not exceed five i»er cent j valuation of such county: provi,W if auy county shall assume all ou! ness for school purposes of even, limit of the net debt of such m purposes shall be eight per cent, school pyrposes there is also e>tabiia cent limitation, with the provision fi debt in excess of four per cent at as much as two per cent. These fi* apply when funding or refunding templated,- for such bonds do mi debt. They merely substitute one jJ tion for another. issued for other than n«c must be submitted to a vote of the pi of a clause to that effect in the Cow issued for necessary purposes do i sanctioned by popular vote imlw instances the Legislature *0 enacts, for necessary purpose under the pn act must be submitted to the m a petition to that effort, signed bj the voters,'"iW filed within bl) dip publication 6f the order. If a a x*otes case iu the election are oppod issue the order must be regaled. 5 is necessary in order to issue fuming bonds. The act also contains a detailedg processes to be followed in floating safeguards against the lnlsapimp proceeds, and’ many other pints. VETERANS LOAN ACT LEGAL THEM GET HO.Mfii Raleigh Times. The decision of the Supremo Ck holds the constitutionality of the ft Act, under the provisions of which a issue bonds whose proceeds will * making long term loans on first* soldiers of the World War,who a? quire homes, was in the nature of a resulted from a test case design** ,definitely certain technical doubtsm of the act in contemplation of ti*l State’s credit. The chief of these that the act might be considered A and that it was paternalistic. How the loan fund will work a question open to some doubt. I|i suggestive of a bonus. Its l>rovi«* a real effort on the part of all ** selx'es of it to become bona tide** has been unqualifiedly endorsed ry ! people. It is thus clearly designee3 policy. The sounder construction of cia* to do with discrimination hi class and not with extending law to certain individuals xvh« IKJ f its special forms. We might a> *. sions for Confederate \ eteraus e As well as legislating for a X'eterans, with the approval "f t doubtless be competent and w ( policy to vote a benefit to one ■ of his service. As for jiaterint hour for that t<> be urged when the principle has been cair the whole people. Boon it will fie up| to th‘ * to show finally whether the- 1 -" taken. It will .be shown the loans from the fund j actually in accordance with J - moling homesteading. JUDGE LINDSEYS MIS Christian Advocate. Dr. J. M. Rowland. ~^l Christian Adx'oeate. hits the folloxving and w 1 < sa j) “Judge Lindsey ha' •< j has brought about h:> what many specialists arc m they get so absorbed in ,lM , rt \to their, pet hobbies !<> tlm has played the fool. Ib* the belief that religion 11 of virtue and home arc He became half crazed ul 1 which could he thought i ” ‘ did not go by the cross maudmeuts. He props'" 1 the redemption of ih p '-.j» a as men do the animal'- ? . our standards <>f mar] 1 * preaching free love ami - de old standard foundation* 4 our bulwark. The ' ak*. other man xvill lose Im- ■ things of life who fo no refonus-r-no social 1 e j w thut can work the red'' l " we leave out religi"! l ,l " j t tbeH No man who does judge ou the bench or & to the people as a e tiou.