Newspapers / The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.) / Feb. 13, 1940, edition 1 / Page 2
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The Enterprise Published Every Tuesday and Friday by the ENTERPRISE PI BUSHING (X). WILLJAMSTON. NORTH CAROLINA Editor ? 1M* 1831 ?. C. MANNING SUBSCRIPTION RATES (Strictly Cash in Advance) IN MARTIN COUNTY One year $173 Six months 1 00 OUTSIDE MARTIN COUNTY One year $2 2.') Six months 1 25 No Subscription Received Under 6 Months Advertising Rate Card Furnished Upon Request Entered at the post office in Williamston, N C.. as second-class matter under the act of Con gress of March 3, 1879 Address all communications to The Enterprise and not individual members of the firm Tuexday, February 13, 19-W. The II eak S/utl In The Syntem Some iimi'ly advice is offered continually by many m tbe propel' marketing of farm products. The extreme has been almost reached in fancy packaging and kid-glove handling, but there's precious little that Has been done .to narrow the price margin between producer and con sumer. Sweet potatoes sell for around 1.6 cents a pound in Martin County. The sumo potatoes or ones similar in quality and grade are sold across llif rt'tail counter in New York at the 19 cents for three pounds. The farmer is told in so many words that he can take the 1.6 cents or let his old potatoes rot; the consumer is told in so many words to pay six and one-third cents a pound for sweet potatoes or go sweet-potato hungry. The in-between man is not being accused of robbery, for there are costs to be incurred in handling, shipping and trucking But when compared with the returns the farmer gets and the amount the consumer pays, those costs are entirely out of line Transporters often get more for hauling an article than the producer artual lv receives for it There is no willingness on the part of the transporter to accept a rate in keep ing with the price the producer receives And vet in another section of the country, the trans porter will haul another article at a lower rate to meet competition Such a proposal to har monize prices and costs has received no atten tion. We merely shut our eyes, put something in the ground here and open our Vyes when it comes out there ready for the consumer. The marginal price has a peculiar way of act ing Observed since 1913, the spread has had a tendency to increase through normal periods, depression periods, war periods and periods marked by uncertainty The only break in the trend is noticed in the early thirties. Back in 1919 the farmer received $267 for a given amount of food, the consumer paying $407, a price spread of $203 In 1929, the spread had reached $220. About ten years later the spread had dropped to $185 Price margins are necessary in the handling of manufactured goods, but there is reason to believe that labor, as a whole, is receiving hard ly a subsistence wage while the final purchaser of the manufactured article is at the end of a wide price spread. In recent years the farmer has taken progress ive steps to place a better food on the retail counter. But as fast as he moves in that direc tion, the price spread follows in his track to gobble up any price advantage that better mar keting may have provided The Martin County farmer can wish his sweet potatoes, wrap them individually in wax pa per, pack them in cushioned containers and place them on the retail counter, and any price advantage he may gam will be eventually eat en up. The weak spot in the farming business is get ting the food from the farm to the consumer. Kernel rm I m ttrrerleti The problem surrounding the listing and col lection of the intangible tax is far from solv ed even after the efficient State Revenue De partment took it over virtually lock, stock and barrel several years ago. It would appear now that the Raleigh boys were more anxious to get their bills in the in tangible pie than they were to effect a fair list ing of intangible properties and a reasonable collection of the particular tax. At one time the successful application of the tax rested upon the honesty apd fairness of the people. That the system was a miserable failure is not disputed. But observations these past few year* indicate that the State Revenue Department has only muddled a bad situation, grabbed part of the bag contents and returned to its den in Raleigh to give struggling towns counties the horw If the 1941 legislature will render the coun ties and towns a service, the lawmakers will look into the system and take action. At the peasant time the system is not at all convenient for the holders of mortgages, notes and other falling in ths intangible property list.. "Six times I have tried to list a small note, and 1 can't find anyone to receive it," an aged wo man who holds an interest in the little revenue bearing paper, said a few days ago Accept the new tax schedule for intangibles if you will, but the big problem of listing re mains unsolved. It is quite apparent that the issue will be placed fairly and squarely before the- property owner when he lists his real and personal holdings, than it is under the present svstem IHn/M-lUnf The Fug We learn from the "Washington-Merrv-Go Round" that the famous Glenn Frank Platform Committee, after three years of pondering, is making a report No, it is not a Republican plat form jusi a survey of conditions for the use of the Republican National Convention. Its first great discovery is that it was not the New Deal that halted the depression, but Her bert Hoover He had the depression licked in 1932 It was the wicked Democrats who disrupt ed his program by electing Franklin D. Roose velt. It should be noted that during the eight months following after Mr. Hoover had the panic down for the count, and before his suc cessor took office, there were among the evi dences of returning prosperity these happen ings: A thousand banks closed their doors. There were 20,000 business failures Unemployment went to fifteen million the all-time high. The National income dropped to forty billion dollars for the year. In the first eight months of Roosevelt, after the banking moratorium: There were 154 bank failures?all or nearly all those that were not deemed sound enough to reopen. Eight thousand fewer commercial failures than in the Hoover period. Two uiid a half million of the unemployed back at work. The national income had jumped two and a half billion dollars?it reached nearly seventy billions last year ? -? Likewise it was Mr. Hoover who first ac kllim leilged tin nhliglltinn of faivernment to relieve those in need. It is curious that nobody ?least of all, the needy?knew anything about this We are forced to the conclusion that there were nearly 211,(100,000 chuckleheads in the Unit ed States in 1932 who did not realize that the depression was licked and that they were con demnmg themselves to diabolical ruin ? and fewer than sixteen million wise enough to un derstand that their salvation lav in re-electing Mr. Hoover. For the rest of it, the suggested platform ? which is not a platform?is as straddley as any thing Senator Vandenberg could think of in his highest moments. The New Deal's relief measures are "extrava gant, politics-ridden, unsound and discrimina tory." They are not even new?being based on obsolete theories of the "least enlightened lead rship of Big Business" forty years ago. However, agriculture must be protected. In the crystal clear language of the alleged re port, though the A.A.A. is bitterly bureaucratic, "until the basic policies here suggested (only they .failed to suggest the basic policies) begin to register their effect, the necessity of some form of direct subsidy to agriculture to secure effective parity and control the impact of sur pluses on farm prices must be recognized." And so it goes on. Business must be regulat ed, security issues must be carefully guarded but business should be given ample freedom to take risks. Everybody ought to be happy about the question of Secretary Hull's reciprocity treaties, because nobody can tell whether the Glenn Frankers are for them or against the})* On taxes they are quite clear. They want to reduce the higher individual surtaxes, and put them on people in the middle brackets. Ev erybody must sympathize with the distressed multi-millionaires. A pathetic case was recited recently when one of these panting refugees complained that after the Government had tak en its toll, he had a bare $800,000 a year to live on. The columnists credit many of the ideas of the survey to the advice and influence of ex President Hoover. Tp that extent the survey is rather fitting, for what the G.O.P. would like to see is a return to the good old days, before any of this li<m?icnse nf pnhlic arliiw epnaid eration to the underprivileged came along to clutter up the convenient processes under which the great fortunes of America directed the Government, and pretty much everything else. However, it is perhaps not quite fair to jeer too much at the bombastic side-stepping of this extraordinary group. Their output cannot be frankly Conservative, without kissing goodbye to the Liberal Middle West. They dare not be Liberal because that would check the flow of the river of fat checks they must have to float them during the com ing campaign; They have to do something, so they are forc ed to the rather sad expedient of telling how bad the Democrats have been doing and throw in a lot of words that mean only: "Let us have the Government and the delayed millennium will be on us in a rush."?Charles Michelson, Di rector of Publicity, Democratic National Com mittee. Neglected headlamps will lose as much as one-third of their lighting efficiency during the first year. Belk-Tyler ?Ladies' Spring Dresses \ >|iriiif; has eome lo Kclk-Tylrr'a! A lur^c scliTtion of new I spring ilrcM-a in all sizes ami styles ami all the eolorfnl patterns to / make Ili?? a happier season. Mouthful flare*, ami all the other lat " est models. Sep them today. $4.95 and $5.95 !Setv Arrivals la Ladies* SpringJJresses ^ on ritn'l nffortl In ini>? llii'M- uiiUlaml n? value* in *ilk ami novelty weave*. 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We lave lhe?l lo fil e\ery fig ire ami in tlir moil becom ng ami newest styles. Start 'our spring outfit right ?ith a coat from BELK IVI.KKS. $5-95 $7-95 and $9.95 Belk - Tyler Company WILLIAMSTON, N. C.
The Enterprise (Williamston, N.C.)
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Feb. 13, 1940, edition 1
2
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