PAGE FOUR ! > --JLE i ‘ " .SS THE CONCORD TIMES PUBLISHED MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS Entered as second .cJ&Bs mail matter at the post offiee at Concord, N. C., under the Act of March 8, 1879. - n ‘ "« ' J. B. SHERRILL, Editor and Publisher W. M. SHERRILL, Associate Editor . g. « Special Representative: FROST, LANDIS & KOHN : Net* York, Atlanta, St. Louis, Kansas City, —■ ~ ’’San Francisco, Loe Angeles and Seattle •gins' —' —i' I.—f— GOVENOR VIC DONAHEY. will get the Democratic presi dential nomination? £ .There is no political question of more Sjj* ittterest to members of the Democratic A party. Too, there is .only one question j of more interest to Republicans, top, and that iS the President’s attitude toward a third term. : * ; - Governor Smith, William G. McAdoo, Governor Ritchie, Senator Glass and Governor Donahey all have been men tioned as possible candidates for the * Democratic nomination, and followers of each think there is a chance for their candidates. Little is heard in the South of Gov . emor Donahey except that hejs too pow erful-for the Republicans in Ohio. Six times has he been elected Governor of that State and several times he was elect ed when all other Democrats were de feated. , Wherein lies his power? What makes the people of Ohio support him ? Raymond Loneyan, of the staff of La bor, writing.to his paper from Cleveland, Ohio, says if one wants to know what America is thinking he must get away from Washington, adding*“One trouble with the men who run the Nation is that they spend too much of their time east of the Alleghanies.” He thinks the real heart of America is the great area drain ' -T& by the “Father of Waters” and its Tributaries. f: Because Governor Donahey is a presi dential possibility we quote the follpwing p¥v£f\tten by*Mr. f Loneyan after he had feetj the Governor riding at the head of > a procession of Christian Endeavorers at Cleveland: - £ome thought Governor Donahey’s address was a big for the Presidency. Speech making is not Donahey’s forte. His most ardent admirer will not contend he is an orator. After listening to him one wonders what is the, secret of his hold on the vot ers. I put the question to a Cleveland news paper man and here is his reply: “No one owns Vic. All the corpora tions and the professional politicians in both parties dislike him. The plain peo ple trust him. They believe he is hon est and sincerely on their side. He is not a radical, but he insists on giving labor a square deal.’ On two occasions he ran on the same ticket with Atlee Pomerene, who was seeking to get back to the Sen- All the “interests” favored Pome- Wrene and opposed Donahey, but Donahey triumphed both times, while Pomerene was slaughtered. In this connection a politician told me - this story of the 1926 election : “The moneyed crowd were so anxious to elect Pomerene that they raised a ‘jackpot’ of generous proportions and turned it over to a certain newspaper owner who is generally supposed to be friendly to the Republicans. “He used it in Cincinnati (Hamilton County.) He bought up the local Repub lican bosses and they went down the line/ 51 -lor Pomerene. In order to get results they told their followers to vote the straight Democratic ticket, which meant, Cjpi course, that they should support Dona ney, the man the ‘big fellow’ didn’t want. “Pomerene lost, but the majority Don . _<4hey got in Hamilton County made him governor,” •"• Donahey is prepared to steal Mr. Cool lidge’s “economy” issue, j According to the latest census report, Ohio citizens paid a smaller average State tax last year than the citizens of any oth er State. Ohio’s average was $7.18 per citizen. In Indiana, next door to Ohio, where “Jim” Watson and bis band of political guerillas rule the commonwealth, the av erage is $13.57. Machine rule is expen sive rule! ABOUT TAX REDUCTION. • * ! - • ’ • - I • •• t■' ' 1 ,! While official figures are still lacking and will be so until property owners have had opportunity to confer with the Board of Equalization and Review, it is known from reliable sources that taxable prop erty in Cabarrus has been considerably increased as a result of the recent reval uation. {his leads to the belief thqt a refdufction in the/pounty tax rate/will -be •possible forthe 1 ensuing year. s ■ • «i# I l ,.sji ■ r If the county has been able to operate at the present rate under the old valua tion, and we understand that it has.; 1 then every effort should be made by county . officials to operate at the same cost next year, so that the increase in taxable prop erty will result in a tax rate reduction. One report, arid it seems to be found ed on facts, indicates that the increase in real and personal property may amount to as much as 25 per cent. This total may be a little high, but conservatively the increase no doubt will amount to as much as 21) per cent. If this is found to be true, then there* should be ft corre sponding decrease in the tax rate. We do not argue, of course, that the county officials should do anything to re tard progress~along any line, but We do argue that where a tax rate cut is' possi ble the people should have it. The tax payers want to have gbod roads, good schools and a progressive administration but at the same time they want those things at the least possible cost. The revaluation has brought a general increase in valuation of property through out the county, we understand, but for the most part the increase results from new found sources of taxation.- That is, property heretofore listed for taxes. Hundreds of aer.es of land, it is said, have been placed on the books for the first time this year. notes and oth er items of personal property .also have been listed for the first time, it is siad, and these items Will result in additional revenue without regard to any increase in the valuation of property heretofore listed. The tax assessors, as we understand its have sought to equalize valuations more than to increase valuations, This. has resulted in increases in some instances and decreases in others, but when the tax payers are shown that everybody is paying on an equal basis there will be little complaint. We repeat that county officials should exert every means at hand to lower the tax rate, and once this is done, we feel certain that additional property, not now listed, will be listed next year. GEQRGIA IMPROVING. ’ ’ “ * p 1 t Georgia people apparently are tired of cowardly assaults by robed and masked figures in that State. The conviction of the man Acree, prin cipal of a high school and teacher in a Sunday School, of assault and battery in connection with the flogging of. a wo man and her son, ought to prove an in centive to that element determined to break up such practices. The convic tion of this man at least gives the law abiding element an opportunity to rear its head and show the world that every body in Georgia does not belong to that class which is too cowardly to do its dastardlyl work except behind a sheet. However, the floggjng was not done by one man. The courts still have the im portant task of determining and punish ing others. Acree sought to establish an alibi but when he elected to make a statement in preference to testifying un der oath (and the Georgia law allows either) he weakened his case. The jury must have felt that the statements of a man are not to be carefully noted when the man prefers to merely make a state ment in preference to testifying under oath. The man who tells the truth, The Statesville Daily says, doesn't mind tes tifying on a “stack of Bibles.” That’s the truth, too. “The school man was one of a party of five indicted for the whipping,” says The News and Observer, “Four of them are yet to be tried. It is probable that at least some of the others, maybe all, will be convicted. Acree could not have done the flogging alone. “In him the crime was peculiarly ob noxious. Here was a man who, if any one ought, should have personified good citizenship. Instead, he was all that good citizenship ought not to have'been. The penalty might well /take into considera tion this fact in justification of greater severity. “Every conviction of this sort is a mat ter for public rejoicing. It is a fine thing for Georgia that the tide lias turned against this epidemic of outlawry. It is no justification that* good'men’ thought that they were promoting law and or der. The law is jealous. There must be no moral authority above it. Good men recognize this. “Georgia is vindicating her honor.” ——: uL FORD’S APOLOGY. . ——a. ■ - 5 *" Henry Ford as a newspaper man prov ed himself an excellent manufacturer. Now that* law suits have 4 sprung up from various sources as the result of the Dearborn Independent’s attack on the Jews, Mr. Ford ccftnes forward with an apology, the gist of which is that hel did !not know; what was being put .in hjs ■. pa •per. / -■ ii'y •? * ' Newspaper men do not wonder/ tliery/ !that he got in trouble. The same thing would happen to other publishersrif they turned somebody lbose on theiri editorial pages. It ! seems peculiar at least,, that '* * ""* . ‘ £:4 ' ‘ : Mr. Ford, who stresses organization so ■ much, would be willing to head a busi ness enterprise which received none of his attention. Os course, he could not have missed the articles criticising the Jews if Hfe hacj read his paper. They appeared regular ly over a long period of time, and there was no cessation until and after the law suits were entered. If Mr. Ford had given no more atten tion to his manufacturing plant than he did to his newspaper he would not be paying the biggest income tax in the world today. And if he didn’t intend to give a reasonable amount of time to the project, he should never have entered the newspaper field. Runriitig a newspaper is something more than owning a physi cal plant, and the editor must have some thing besides money. This has been proved conclusively, it seems td ris, in the Ford case. Mr. Ford didn’t complete his apologies when he retracted the statement of his newspaper about the Jews. He owes something to the newspaper profession. REFUTES OLD BELIEF,y. t , // >;*<' j Many times have we heard the warrir ing that coffee is dangerous. Too much coffee says the old warning, is deadly, yet we find from a prominent coffee im porter who has been talking to The New York Herald-Tribune that the American people consume each year spjme 121,000,- "000,000 cups, or at the,rate of 75,000 cups a second. V-.;; ,r / The Charlotte.> News . figures this amounts to an ; average <■>! about 1,000 cups a year for every American and says despite the warning “the span of life in the Republic is steadily lengthening,” “only the Cuban and Scandinavian drink more, and both are a healthy people.” Last year we imported nearly a bil lion and a half pounds of the green ber ries. About 70 per cent, of all this came from the red uplands of Brazil and most of the rest from Colombia and other lands about the Carribeart. ’ Very little from Arabian Mocha, the classic home of the tree that is still known as Coffee Ara bia. But little more comes from Java. Most of the coffee we drink is a blend of “Santos,” with the “milds” of Northern Spanish America. In 1926 we paid the rest of the world over $32,000,000 for coffee. Only our rub ber and silk cos( us more. None of the hundreds of millions of our imports trade is better spent. The Herald-Tribune contends. “Nope brings more real satisfaction to the American home or contributes more to the smooth working of American life. More truly than the sunrise, it starts our day. And, quaffed from tin cups or sip ped from gilded demitasses, it tempers the day’s esperities and adds to its ameni ties throughout the land.” IT DIDN’T GO OVER SO WELL. Some time ago Secretary of the Treas ury Mellon announced plans to retire sl,- 687,000,000 in Second Liberty Bonds bearing 4 and 4 1-2 per cent, interest by exchanging these for. a new series at 3 3-8 per cent. This plap caused great rejoicing in ad ministration newspapers. The Secretary was warmly praised and his plan sent to all sections of the nation. The proposal was called an achieve ment “beyond the grasp of most laymen,” a “well-matured plan,” and “a monument to the wise and conservative administra tion” of the “greatest Secretary of the Treasury fsinCte Alexander Hamilton.” One of the Secretary’s most ardent ad mirer predicted “a still more brilliant op eration next year.” 'But the administration and its newspa pers did their acclaiming too soon. Since the first outbreak of enthusiasm what have you seen about the plan? Nothing, for the “well-matured plan” has failed. Despite the eloquent pleas of Under Secretary Mills over the radio, and de spite an extension of time for an ex change of old bonds for new, only $243,- 000,000 of the Libertys were offered for conversion. In addition, there were cash subscriptiorfs for the new issue to the amount of $250,000,000. This leaves sl,- 204,000,000 in bbnds maturing in Novem ber which are yet to be provided for. When the case charging several Wake County men with flogging another man was called in court something was said about postponing action because of the i cost. Judge Sinclair declared that lie : didn’t care anything about the cosf aqd : he was right. North Carolina can’t af ford flogging cases no matter what the cost. If the State is not ready that’s a different matter,, ljut there Should Bejrm ! - money for promotion fiiay join with oth er churches in the community in a united newspaper appeal, .using liberal effective ; display the church will jifcy fqr live newspaper advertising will pay the church.” ABOUT TAXES. Few families in North Carolina, ac cording to k tax review by Paul W. Wag er in The University, News Letter, have househould property worth more thaiuthe S3OO allowed by tile State. Few families, says Mr. Wager, “ever feel that they have more than thfee hun dred dollars of this sort of property.” 'l'he excess for whole state in 1925 was $26,645,269, or about $47 jper fkmily. Mr. ; Wager says people take this atti tude perhaps, because this form of .prop erty does not aid directly in producing in come. : “Nevertheless,” he asks, “is it quite fair to exempt the library* ofa teacher and the tools of a plumber and then tax the team and plow' of the farm er?” As might be expected, the urban coun ties have more personalty per inhabitant on the tax books than the rural counties, eight of the ten leading counties being urban. The people in these ten counties have on tjie average five and one-hqlf tim£s as much taxable property as the people in the ten poorest counties, the two averages being $398.70 and $73.10 respectively. Forsyth county leads with $852 per inhabitant or $4,260 of taxable personalty for a family of five. This is a thousand dollars a family more than in Durham county, its nearest rival, and $2,625 a family more than in Durham County, its nearest rival, and $2,625 more than its neighbor, Guilford. Are Forsyth people so much richer than the rest of the people of the state, or does the coun ty’s low tax rate offer a partial explana tion? As already pointed out, Durham holds place with $649 of personalty per capita. This is almost double the amount per cap ita in Mecklenburg, Gaston, or Guilford. The state average is s2ll and there are only twenty-two counties above this average. Eighteen counties have less than SIOO of taxable personalty per in habitant. None of these counties had in 1920 a census-size town. The excessive ly rural counties have= little to tax except land and buildings, or real estate. ✓Con sequently the tax rate is usually high in these counties. SAME OLD STUFF. Senator Heflin made a speech in Ashe ville the other night and because he was not allowed to speak at the radio station and broadcast his charges and criticisms to all parts of the State, he charged that the station is owned and controlled by Catholics. That’s old stuff.] Whenever men in public life haven’t got anything really to Lay they just switch off on this Catholic charge, hoping thereby to gain popular ity through religious hatred. The Asheville Citizen paid its respects to Mr. Heflin in no uncertain terms, and then it offered this explanation about the radio station: “The broadcasting station in Asheville is owned by the chamber of commerce. It is supervised by a board, not a member of which is a Catholic. Its manager was formerly in charge of the great Method ist assembly at Lake Junaluska. The sole basis for Mr. Heflin’s preposterous charge is that, quite properly, the manager would not turn the station’s facilities ov er to be used for the broadcasting of a political speech.” The Senator is one of those misinform ed and warped people who think every thing that can’t control is controlled by the Catholics. Or at least, they try to make the people believe this. The Senator is one of those people who has intimated that in his opinion ,the the hati6|H^control|pt}^ r • olios. Nothing c ' • . • makes stirring up class hatred his chief mission, in life. The Senator from Ala bama apparently hasn’t reached the point where he can tell that you can’t scare the people with the Catholic cry anv more. That old cry has been worn out, and worn out by people who have gained a niche in public life and don’t know what to do with their new position. MUST BE HIDING SOMETHING.’ Republicans in Delaware county, Penn sylvania, are determined to keep certain billot boxes from the Senate Investigat ing Committee. The committee resorted to the law but failed and now the Repubr lican bosses announce that the ballots will be destroyed under law by Septem . her 20th unless some law can be found to aid the committee \> v The law giyds the Republicans the ; right to destroy the ballots but under the circumstances it does seem that they would hesitate to do this. Certainly the whole matter has brought up a question of law violation and if the Republicans have nothing to hide wonder why are they so determined to keep the ballots from the commi.tt.ee. * 1 : ' >■ : If everything in the election,' which de termined a Senatorial ' seat/ waS honest and square why are the’Republicans op posing the committee? ’ Why , should they want to keep the from being counted? Their very action leads to the conclus ion that they are trying'to hide some thing, and that .something ,no doubt would be beneficial to the Democrats. People of Cabarrus county realize that it takes money to run a county govern ment. They do not want Cabarrus coun ty to gain the reputation of, being a back ward county, but at the same time they want to see economy and business prin ciples in the management of affairs* They want to have progress and are willing to pay for it, but at the same time they want this progress along economical lines. Die amount of taxable property in Cabarrus has been increased and it is to be hoped that the county officials can find a suita ble way to reduce the lax r ite for the new' .year. This can be done, we believe, without sacrifice. We have managed to get along during the past several years without going into debt and we should be able to do this hereafter even if the rate is cut. The increase in the total val ue* of property put on the bocks is rot an nounced, but it reasonably can be esti mated at 20 per cent. That is rather a handsome increase and should result in a lower rate next year. That it is possible to cross the State of North Carolina in an automobile from dawn to dusk has been demonstrated. There are few, of course who want to make the trip, but the experiment dem onstrates the value of hard-surfaced and otherwise improved roads. It’s more than 500 miles from Morehead City to the Georgia line near Murphy, but the distance was covered from dawn to dusk wdth 20 minutes to spare, and the man making the test said he did not violate the speed law of 45 miles an hour. JUDGE JAMES WEBB SUFFERS ATTACK OF MORAL. NAUSEA. Raleigh Times. W hatever may he thought of his action in prin ciple and on a strict construction of judicial duty, there will be general sympathy for Judge James Webb in the exercise of an arbitrary power to save himself the gripe of nausea in hearing another “sensational” vice case. '-- - : Mecklenburg court recently spent days on days hearing the disgusting details connected with the alleged wrongs done an amateur prostitute by a combination of "prominent” business men and doc tors. There was a perfect array of legal* thlent, intense .excitement, detailed reporting of gutter in trigue in the press. The court room was packed and the community, supposedly one of the busiest as well as most pious in the South) apparently ceased its activities to follow a performance that was from the beginning to end suggestive of th6 bagnio. When Judge Webb found defendant, prosecutrix, witnesses and legal lights all wound up and panting to trail a similar spoor, he balked. As the Associated Press has it, he “said the case was too dirty to hear so soon after another no toriously odorous case of like nature heard at the last term of court.” As said above, the action of the court may be criticized, but it is in all respects humanly under standable. When it comes to the pass that a com munity is so fed up with ennui that it can be lost in interest over the collapse of sL love affair be tween the proprietor of a boot-black and shoe-shine shop and his “lady cashier,” it* is high time that it have its mouth washed with bar soap. Just . how far a judge duly engaged in hearing indict ments ready for trial should go in attempting to deprive the people of their favorite dish is an open question. * The truth is that these, disgusting trials have be come so numerous that the courts are increasingly resorted to for purposes of blackmail, and the processes of justice prostituted to ends of slander ana revenge. Even more serious is the education in \ ice that these packed court-room matinees and e reports of the experts in sex crjmes afford to a youth whose chief peculiarity is that it sees in these sordid tragedies nothing of warning but everything of incentive, to an imitation its conceit counsels can be so modified as to avoid disaster. The more serious truth is that in our zeal for ■ statutory morafity we have elevated mere examples i cv grossness of fern duct in the individual to a false < of .imflocfihnee as?crimes against the I Maybe some cornborer > expert will i ni away to get the worms?inad,at weeds instead of corn.—lndianapolis News. Detroit now boasts a bod, of, water that's wet on one side and dr, on the other,—Detroit News. Monfyjl -NO EXPENSE lhe Question of I remarked J lu] „ p * ■ cussed i„ \ V ,' kc Hi The remark foll„ tor that he l lac| convictions at tlfo ,SSB the l ? l - i htv the trial was enter,,] tkt ">h9 of costs shouid not Ni should be wele„ m „ | t b *»'>l,Ji whatever the, ..'SS ahoul the most neeSHa faced in years tp r ? mJB flogging is what X* 1 *>3 trouble. i„ enconJ* of mob sp irit< if f^.SB taken eoon., mv if , energy and intelli en *1 with the searchlight AwSl criminals who ever W @ disrepute. ' « . t°Ught E. A (Dolly) .J on I taken from his home L\S| spirited away and moS,**! of anarchists who knowledge and synipih??** James H. P„„ o’&Sl perjury >„ the creation HI in the case of raen whn N| express community pr( J?4 difficulty of prosecution *4 but that fact should on! will undoubtedly come rape of penal authority W 4! a precedent „ W| „ l quenees. If the ly nc h m 7r4 discovered and convicted \v!?| more easily; if they are Jjjjl to whisper and sneer at HI have a long succession of shed and murder. Exne r « : of such a problem. *1 As to costs, the County (wB case strangely quiescent parison with the liberality Z| other occasions. Did not thrj expenditures made by Solicit.,3 to track down bootleggers instance including a crook ujJ If such an expense in th*q3 demeanor can be justified, fe,,, 3 ant even greater tenacity and 3 of a high crime bringing the 3 disrepute and subjecting it aj/3 to continuing peril: 1 No. it is not time in this ca« 3 the expense.” I - Rather, the chief bother bility of surrendering to tk g 3 too much to fight it: 1 DEPEW’S PHILO^J High Point Enterprise. I Usually the advice of the aj lot of drivvel. neither intemtd those marching along the mi J Chauncey Depew's ninety-thiii fl is interesting and should be he conquered an hereditary dhpi and has lived long and pWmS termined early in life that living that worry and pessimism nai Depew says his grandfather iij of the “blues ” They wridt early graves. That's literally tnd ands. Many of us are frarfiif fortune which we think are inp courageous enough under the aerai In a North Carolina doctor's i many repair who think they a organic condition is a wall ip something like the following:, “I am an old man and havemi most of which never happened" Many of the troubles wkid* never occur but their tragic efeci because of their unreality. Depew tells the world on his a day anniversary that contentmutti habit. Think of the pleasant > challenge the unpleasant to do ft ’optimism was not natural. HeU people - complain, fear and wrrjj did to them and wlmt they expert he resolved to look for the oi picture. Soon happy thinking» him. This is not pollyannah® k a high-hearted adventurer, fa blows, but they did not defeat» on his will until it gave him JJ environment. He did not happy incident but decided 9 courageously of all life held of reitsed to sH Statesville Daily. One Acree, principal of of Stephens county, and * off the religious denominate' 5 member, has been convict* «• hooded and robed gang that home and lashed her io' l ' defendant school teacher and attempted to establish an that when he went on the $ an “unsworn statement, courts permit a defendant " sworn, if he so elects. ness in such eases is !l ‘- cross-examination. »> llt he takes the chance of |pio jury that by avoiding l ** says isn’t worthy o didn't believe Acrees y was helping a neighh'> the woman was wb,l J^ e j, fa who broke into ber '0 cover of darkness. may believe he would lw Bibles. A HO Durham Herald. . The verdict of by 'the Georgia jury of the return of law " , that has been seen assaults sprang up ■ Georgia jury a wearer of Diask < , M it is time to feel e«<'" yd that because thf tion of Georgia- t- wtili g<£, conviction, and \£, verdict of a suffirise. and the is to have o' l -^ appreciation "1 to society r<» g'-’ j r^eU" s, y off without t-roP*’ r . ten the fault flf th^.j in niiie out;"f f , . leadings part 111 tb ‘ , results. Cutting the probably attrat 8 j drop in the price of a Press.