PAGE FOUR THE CONCORD TIMES PUBLISHED MONDAYS AND THURSDAYS Entered as second class mail matter at the poal‘ office at Concord, N. C., under, the Act of March 8, 1879. • _____ J. bTSHERRILL. Editor and Publisher W. M. SHERRILL, Associate Editor Special Representative: FROST. LANDIS A KOHN New York. Atlanta. St. Louis, Kansas City. San Francisco, Los Angeles xnd Seattle l" 1 -- J !Li FARM TENANCY IN NORTH CAR OLINA. The University News Letter from time to time has devoted space to the question of farm tenancv in North Carolina and in its latest issue carries'a rather compre hensive review of the subject by Paul W. Wager. We say comprehensive be cause this latest review covers a fitteen vear period, showing the trends between 1910 and 1925. The period covered in cludes vears before the \\ orld \\ ar and after the World War to register a gener al movement rather than a war fluctua tion. In this fifteen-year period North Car olina's tenant farmers'increased in num ber from 10T.28T to 128.254. an increase of 19.5 per cent. In the same period the total number of farms increased only 11.: per cent., while farms cultivated by owners increased only 8.5 per cent. Stat ed differently, the ratio of tenants to all farmers was 42.3 in 1910 and 45.2 in 1925. At this rate of increase the state will soon have more farm tenants than*owner cultivators. It will be noticed that forty-one coun f.es witnessed a reduction in the number of tenant farmers in the fifteen-year per iod and hity-nine counties had increases. Three of the counties in which tenancy decreased owe part of the reduction to loss of territory. Mitchell, Watauga and Caldwell each surrendering some, terri tory to form Avery. Since Avery did not exist in 1910 it is credited with the aver age rate of decrease of the three counties from which it was created. Henderson, rather than Mitchell, ■ is thus probably entitled to the distinction of having the most rapid reduction in farm tenancy. Buncombe follows close ly, and all of the first ten places are held by counties beyond the Blue Ridge. Os the forty-one counties which saw a de crease in tenancy only six—Brunswick, Carteret, Hyde, New Hanover, Tyrrell and Jones —are eastern counties, and they are tidewater counties which do not engage extensively in cash crop farming. Some of the piedmont counties lost tenants; others made slight gains; only Cleveland and Alamance witnessed sub stantial increases—and of these Cleve land is a big producer of cotton. In nearly all of the eastern counties there were big increases in farm tenancy. Probably no other area in the nation ex perienced such an increase in farm ten ants as eastern North Carolina. In thir ty-six counties there were increases in excess of twenty-five per cent., and in eighteen counties in excess of fifty per cent. Practically all of the counties in the cash crop belt had increases of from twenty to seventy percent. It is rather significant that the greatest increases of all were in the northeast tidewater coun-, ties —Chowan, Washington, Martin and Beaufort. Dare’s five-hundred per cent, increase loses its significance when it is observed that its tenants increased in number from one to six. Hoke county, like Averv, was not in existence in 1910. It is credited with an increase equivalent to that which took place in the parent counties, Robeson and Cumberland. Edgecombe leads with 83 ; 3 per cent, and Greene rartks second with 82.0 per cent. In thirty-seven counties more than fifty per cent, of the farmers are tenants. On the other hand, there are eight moun tain counties and two tidewater counties (Dare and Brunswick) with a farm ten ancy ratio of less than fifteen per cent. Fifty-six counties have less than the state average of 45.2 per cent, of farms operated by tenants, and forty-four coun ties are above the state average. Fifty counties had a higher tenancy ratio in 1925 than in 1910, and fifty counties had a lower ratio. EMPHASIS IN WRONG PLACE. The case of “Rabbi” Schneider, of Gas tonia, seems to us an excellent illustra tion of the often-repeated charge—that emphasis is placed in the wrong place at many colleges. Schneider is a football star and the following from the Gas tonia Gazette is relative to his case: “Rabbi” Schneider, prominent Gaston ia high athlete who was all set to enter Syracusce University this fall and had his Pullman reservation made to leave Sunday night, is at the University of North Carolina. “He was taken there Sunday morning by Coach Grady Pritchard and Harry Schwartz in their car, despite the repeat ed declaration of Schneider that he want ed to go to Syracuse. “After the announcement came out last week that Schneider was headed for Sy racuse, the coaches at the University got together and tried to prevent his going. When it was definitely announced that he was leaving Sunday night, Pritchard and Schwartz blew into Gastonia Satur day night about ten o'clock. From then until eleven or after they talked to the lc- athlete in an effort to persuade him •to reconsider. Finally one of them pick ed up his baggage, which was already packed to go Syracuse, and put it in their car, and the trio left Sunday morn ing. 1 “Schneider wanted to go on the train, but the University coaches would hear none of that. “According to word left here bv Schneider, he will leave the University and go on to Syracuse if he does not like it at Chapel Hill.” Suppose Schneider had been only a star student. Would this have happen ed? We have been expecting a denial of the whole thing but this can’t be denied — he went to Chapel Hill for some reason when he had signed up for Syracuse. He may have gone there anyway, but we doubt it. Would an excellent student have had the same experience? LIKE TO WORRY. The Kansas City Star finds that “a lot of people find consolation if not a certain brand of happiness in worry.” This statement came on the heets of a declaration by a New York health au thority that worry never gets any one anywhere and that the chief things we worry over are health, position, wealth and pride. * That is so and we have not yet been able to see where worry helps in any of these problems. The Salisbury Post says “if all this rs true why worry over worrying?” and goes on to offer this sug gestion from the Star: “Perhaps worry shortens life. But where is the proof? Most of the bright, cheerful people we have known have died young, while the grouches survived. This helps to account for the fact that worrying is extremely common today. “Obviously, we need a new slant on the worrying business. Perhaps if it is de sirable to stop worrying the best thing to do would be to create the impression that it is a valuable habit .which ought to be cultivated, and to devise a law Com pelling its practice. Then people would take a particular delight in breaking the law and in freeing themselves from wor ry altogether. Otherwise it would be well enough to let matters stand as they are. For the chap who worries probably does it because he likes it. So why should other people worry about that?” A REAL VACATION. Governor McLean is back from a vaca tion spent in the north woods and we are ready to believe he was reallv^benefitted. We call this a vacation because, ap parently the Governor did things there he was not accustomed to. He spent the time profitably. He built up his body by physical exercise and in so doing made it possible .for him to better carry on the tedious tasks that confront him in Ral eigh. The Greenville, S. C., News recently commented on the Governor’s vacation, stressing the point that the Governor did not spend his time idly sitting. The ex cellent editorial reads: “Governor McLean, of North Carolina, returns from his vacation in Wisconsin with the news that he put in eight hours each day doing outdoor work. He left a monument to his pick—an excavation eight feet deep and 18 by 24 feet wide. ‘lt was a long time since I did that sort of work,’ he said, ‘but I found it came back pretty easy.’ “Vacations would be a good thing for men of sedentary occupation if they fol lowed the precedent of the Tar Heef Gov ernor. But unfortunately many of them get the habit of sitting so much that they sit out their vacation too—in an automo bile or on a resort porch. Sitting is an insidious habit. * If more men would break themselves of it periodically, there would be an increase in the gubernatorial timber. One can literally sit one’s self to death.” REIDSVILLE’S MURDER MYSTERY North Carolina has on its hands a mur der mystery that may take rank with the most interesting and most baffling in his tory. Mrs. Gatlin, pretty young bride, is charged with slaying her father, R. Smith Petty, and burying his body in the base ment of a house the family formerly oc cupied. She is in jail, but emphatically denies that she had any part in the slay ing. There is another interesting and unus ual angle to the case—the manner in which the evidence was submitted. Fra tricides are not unknown in the State, but it is unusual for arrests in murder cases to follow alleged confessions to ministers. In this case an evangelist told police officers Mrs. Gatlin came to him at the close of a service and confess ed that she had killed her father, then missing for several weeks. Police officers must have put little con fidence in the minister’s statement for at first they refused to make an investiga tion. Petty, it seems, was in the habit of wandering around and they just took it for granted that he had gone again. Later developments confirmed the minis ter’s statement, or at least he was par tially confirmed by the finding of the body. Mrs. Gatlin denies that she told the minister anything but she has this dam aging evidence to break down—the dead body was found and death was said to have been caused by blows on the head, The minister having declared the girl told him she struck her father on the head with an axe. And then there’s another angle to the case—just how far should a minister go in making public confessions of crime? Is it right for a preacher to tell anything told to him in the confidence of a confes sion ? This question will never be solved, for there are hundreds who think it is wrong for a minister even to uncover a murder when he got his information through a confession, and there are just as many who feel a minister should have done as this evangelist did. The public is following closely every development in the case, and the Petty case may give to North Carolina the same interest the Willis case has given to South Carolina. There’s mystery and a woman involved in the case and these al ways touch the imagination of the pub lic. Mrs. Gatlin may continue to maintain her innocence but we would not be'sur prised to see alienists in the case. Maybe she will follow the old defense of tempor ary insanity. And if she does there will be alienists aplenty for both sides. GEE, IT’S GREAT TO BE AN EDI TOR. You who often think, perhaps, that the life of an editor is an easy one should read carefully the following: An editor is just naturally up against it. If he publishes cigarette advertise ments he is accused of debauching the youth of the land. If he doesn’t like Coca-Cola he is liable to lose an advertising contract. If he savs it is a fine drink he is suspected of being subsidized. If he denounces liquor and advocates prohibition people say he is a fanatic and a reformer. If he keeps silent on the sub ject they say he is afraid to talk out and intimate that he is a likker-head. If he contends for what he thinks is right and his ideas don’t happen to coin cide with the opinion of those in high places, he is denounced for showing dis respect to constituted authority. If he doesn’t have anything at all to say on his editorial page the other papers won’t exchange with him. If he proposes public movements some body on the outskirts casually suggests that the editor is after some graft. If he endorses one man for public of fice he makes all the other candidates mad. v If he doesn’t indorse anybody he is told he hasn’t any backbone. If he doesn’t pay his bills when they are presented his credit rating goes down to zero in five minutes. If he tries to col lect the money owing him, he is told to come back next week. If he stops the paper of a subscriber who owes him for five years back, he makes an enemy. If he doesn’t stop it he loses that much every week. If Si Perkins comes to town to sell two and a half dozen'eggs and the paper doesn’t say that Mr. Perkins made a bus iness trip to the city last week the editor is charged with being “stuck up.” If the town needs improvements and the editor says so he makes big taxpay ers mad. If he sleeps over the subject his subscribers say he is afraid to tell the truth. If he doesn’t do cheaper job printing than the out-of-town printer he loses the order. If he does charge less and gets the order he fails To make any profit. If he calls names he is liable to get all beat up. If he doesn’t they say he is a coward. If he lives at all he is lucky. If he doesn’t they say it served him right. Gee, it’s great to be an editor. JUDGE BOWIE EXPLAINS. Judge Tam Bowie hastens to explain that he resigned from the Superior Court bench because the people of his district did not support him when the question of a successor to Judge Parker came up, and because he wanted to be home more. The resignation came immediately af ter Governor McLean had appointed Judge Deal, of Winston-Salem, and was taken \)y many as an indication of Judge Bowie s displeasure. That was not the case, the judge says. He found that the people of his district did not offer con certed support for him and hp does not want to serve under such circumstances. That will satisfy some people but not all of them. That will stop Some of the political gossip but not all of it. There are many who will maintain right along that Judge Bowie would have accepted the place and kept it had Governor Mc- Lean offered it to him. What the people of his district thought would not have entered into the question so much then. Judge Bowie is one of the most popu lar men in North Carolina, and this too added fuel to the fire. There were those who saw in his resignation a warning that he would be the political foe of Governor McLean hereafter, and such opposition would amount to something. We are ready to accept Judge Bowie’s explanation, but just the same we are go ing to watch for the reaction. We are anxious to see just what will happen should he and Governor McLean have to fight it out on some important public, THE CONCORD TIMES question. ANOTHER SCHOOL YEAR. Concord youngsters have entered up on another school year. School officials are confident the term will be one of the most successful in the city’s history due to the excellent faculties secured, and an nounce that the work has started with less confusion and with more confidence on the part of all than ever before. It is to be hoped that the year will not be wasted and this wish is directed es pecially toward the high school students. Children in the lower grades are not so prone to waste their time and time wast ed there is not so important. The older student should realize the importance of exerting all of his power toward master ing the subjects presented to him. He is at the stage where a careless, indiffer ent attitude may effect his whole’life. Parents, should co-operate with the teachers and officials, should try to in still within their children the importance of an education and see to it that the children go at least half-way in solving difficulties that naturally will arise. IT IS AN INVESTMENT. According to the Bureau of Advertis ing of the American Newspaper Publish ers Association, fifty-one cities and five State groups of the United States are in vesting $4,703,333 in community adver tising this year. Os this amount the cit ies are spending $4,350,000 and the State or regional associations the balance. Os the fifty-one cities appropriating $4,- 350,000 for advertising, the South shows twenty-six cities, or more than half of the total, with appropriations amounting in the aggregate to $1,985,000. These ap propriations are for the year* 1927. The list of Southern cities with the amount ap propriated by each is published by Editor and Publisher as follows: Asheville, N. C. SIOO,OOO Atlanta, Ga. i 250,000 Biloxi, Miss., 15,000 Birmingham, Ala. 10,000 Chattanooga, Tenn. 65,000 Charleston, S. C. 25,000 Daytona Beach, Fla. 20,000 El Paso, Tex. 35,000 Fort Worth, Tex. 10,000 Greenville, N. C. 30,000 Jacksonville, Fla. 135,000 Kansas City, Mo. 150,000 Key West, Fla. 23,000 Miami, Fla. 250,000 Memphis __ 50,000 New Orleans 20,000 Norfolk, Va. : 100,000 Orlando, Fla. 50,000 Palm Beach, Fla. 50,000 Sapulpa, Okla. 2,500 Savannah, Ga. 50,000 St. Petersburg, Fla. 250,000 St. Augustine, Fla. 100,000 Tampa, Fla.. 145,000 Tulsa. Okla. 25,000 Wilmington, N. C. 25,000 The Manufacturers Record is certain that this list does not include all of the Southern cities that are spending money for advertising during the present year. It is sure that there are others that are advertising rather heavily, but it gives no names. As to the probable extent of commun ity advertising, Editor and Publisher quotes a California authority on the sub ject as follows: “A survey of the community pano rama at the beginning of 1927 is bewil dering. It is doubtful if anyone can say how many community advertisers there are and just how much they are spend ing. There are dozens in the national field, scores advertising on a regional basis and hundreds engaged in more or less local appeals.” To which Editor and Publisher adds: “These appropriations range from*as low as SI,OOO to as high as SIOO,OOO. California can probably still claim lead ership among the boosters. The citizen ry of two cities of the State, anxious to have Easterners go there to live and spend their money, contributed $1,100,000 this year for advertising the two proud Cali fornia cities being Los Angeles, with an advertising appropriation of $700,000, and San Francisco with $400,000. “Florida as a State is second to Cali fornia as a believer in the power of ad vertising. Some of the cities with mon ey available this year to be used to tell about themselves include Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, Key West, Miami, Palm Beach, St. Petersburg, St. Augus tine and Tampa.” Advertising as an investment, whether it is for community or private enterprise. Business concerns familiar with the suc cess of advertising include in it their bud gets just as they do rents, clerk hire and the like. It is necessary to success and every community can study with profit the figures outlined above. INCREASE IN OUR FEEBLE MINDED. Complete returns received by the De partment of Commerce from 36 States, covering 60 institutions out of a total of 75 State institutions for feeble-minded and epileptics which were in operation in 1926 show an increase in the disease. These 60 institutions had a total of 7,203 first admissions during the yeaer 1926, as compared with 6,633 in 1925, or an in crease of 8.6 per cent. These first ad missions represent patients received dur-1 ing the year, who had not previously been under treatment in any institution for feeble-minded and epileptics. For the 36 states represented, there were 7.6 first admissions per 100,000 of the general population, as compared with 7.4 first admissions per 100,000 in 1922. In other words the number of first ad missions has increased only a little more rapidly than the general population. Increase in the number of such cases treated does not necessarily mean an in crease in the State since the figures deal .with only those cases taken up for treat ment. Such an increase may mean only an increase in facilities for handling such cases. The extent to which provision has been made for the institutional care of feeble minded and epileptics is perhaps best in dicated by the number of patients in the institutions on a given date. In the 36 states covered by this statement the num ber of feeble-minded and epileptic pa tients under institutional care shows a steady increase, as indicated bv the fig ures for the dates at the beginning and the end of the two most recent years for which data are available, which are as follows: January 1, 1922, 39,596; January 1. 1923, 42,164; January 1, 1926, 49,788; and January 1, 1927, 52,043. The number of such patients under care per 100,000 of the general population increased from 47.0 on January 1, 1923, to 54.7 on Jan uary 1, 1927. For the most part the fig ures for the individual states show simi lar increases. In many of the States adequate facili ties for caring for these people have not been provided, and it is encouraging to note that from year to year we are giv ing more of them the attention they so much need. No State should boast of its wealth, culture or background ‘ until it has provided for these people who cannot help themselves. CONDITIONS IN THE SOUTH. Mr. Walter S. Case continues to see the South a region prosperous and ad vancing. Concluding a discussion of Southern Railway affairs, he says: “The various basic activities in the South have been undergoing a sound and healthy development. Agriculture has kept step with the rest of the country and wider diversification has helped to bring greater profits to the farm. Mining development has been actively pursued and the rich mineral deposits of the South are utilized as industry has increased its demands for. raw materials. Manufac turing has shown the greatest rate of in crease and a new industrial region has been created in the South which is tak ing full advantage of the many opportun ities which this region offers. This well balanced progress has brought with it rapidly increasing demands for transpor tation. Railroad traffic in the South has accordingly grown at a much faster pace than in other sections of the country. Moreover, this traffic is well diversified between products of agriculture and mines and manufactures. Such diversifi cation is particularly desirable for a rail road as depression in any one line may be partially offset by continued activity in others. “The railroads of the South can confi dently s expect a continued growth in well balanced traffic for many years to come. With the establishment of satisfactory earning power and good credit these roads have been able to expand their fa cilities and to keep well ahead of the de mands made upon them for prompt and efficient service. The value of such rail* road service is becoming more generally recognized in the South and it is proba ble that good earnings will be assured to these roads as long as the South contin ues to advance along the lines which as sure a general prosperity to all.” We doubt whether the Anti-Saloon League can find a man ready to carry on the work of Wayne B. Wheeler. Men just as able can be found but it will be difficult to locate one ready to put as much enthusiasm, energy and time into the work. Many of the policies of Mr, Wheeler we did not sanction but we are ready to agree that he was honest, tire less and effective. His salary was always small'yet there has never been a hint that a dollar of the cause money was ev er misplaced; he was a fanatic in a sense on prohibition and could not see the view point of the other man, yet he was sin cere with it all; and he labored many years, with one of the finest organizations in the world, for his cause. He will be missed in prohibition circles. HOW DEBTS HAVE CLIMBED CP. The people of Craven County owe $16,000,000 and the total valuation of property according to a late estimate is $26,000,000. The debt part of the above statement is a broad one to make, but a careful analysis of the facta will bear this statement out, according to one of our leading citixens, who has taken the trouble to make -the estimate. The county owes $ 2,000,000 The city owes 1,750,000 Loans of the banks to the people ... 5[<)00!000 State debt (Craven’s part) 150,000 National debt (Craven’s part) 1,000,000 Owing investment companies .. 500,000 Owing land banks and others of the kind 50o!o00 Private debta y to others, including de ferred payments on autos, etc 2,150,000 Total * $15,000 000 The property of the people of Craven Onlnty is good for all of this $15,000,000 debt Did you, !u ar readres, ever stop and think of this thing. We admit we had naver thought of it much, bat it is so. J THE CH "*wß Albemarl* p r *~ A fen vr ar , Wi '? mon * indict H idled hi* / r nrv -*l!NBI d to V.n;i7'r ,ns i7V rMt inju «w» th * In those ,] a - R ,u w »s d^l^B r K hf , ™ ni section chil < ha ;l Wn deprived The day foll took up thr rrr *h« n to w ork chil^« chan &* is r*fW t J of children nl] 0v „ .A* in While this j« . r rn the W rpf °rm a re, K ] Pnf>v v I thing, and The , hl!d by law to work r:>B and P1 tie, rhp enp )tsc]f in idleness 0 A ,n * to h* allowed to:: tho law says it shal] The outcome : jgjj "*'V "» penon, 'o. a IK i the ro * ents are made to wo, jazzes around m amu* i S’sH No less authority th ,*" ' sa !' s ho j, , h ,„„ th ' “JJ i* .■ h.' IPrS , s' s ! "•*< be made to answer e-, rv v employment of bf , TS ' agP T On u P, is better Towns fed that nilp f; should be made to apply words, i, it is M in all. There i, no : part of town folke to frT° 8 ' may cause the bov employment from'e ar|v »>■• >t I. . little practice nf allowin, , h: , „ “»>■ no. ,n the ~n res „****■ " hen the farmer * *>■ child through the summer when harvesting and gatb*r, employment of all .vaihbuJjH ial need of , h e hour. caHs he frets over the which requires that his the same cry against of the law with what one of personal rights and libe-n ■ to its final analysis, one eyes of the law are nere«sj n measures of this kind sacrifice their own children and future prospects for »h» Hence, the best one should law itself be sensible, Tfc at does not set up another that is there is great room for labor, in spite of all that ha; MESSING IT CAPE lgß Greensboro News. Bp A dispatch from that a meeting was to be held afternoon to develop the harbor and build a railroad from tk state with connections with The ‘'necessary companies and organized. The Tidewater It i; >»fl country in hi*h u]d he Q B directing officer? tript*' 1 ' B will be a naimmu® B essential truth. —-'""'JB Workman sa.v« ■ d» v - B plant at Detroit the 8 00 B up bolt A in*tead pI B Florida TimeS ' l !i^^hilitl •u rake f ul! j will If you will rahe jtj J death, and “r"' Bath S»r» I saving you. —■ B A Childs shirks the dutlf ;' ?xp ect » !l ® oQ - B ried life, cannot e .i-.-^B H. Smtther*- B