'm MUmingtfltt burning i*tar Published by THE WILMINGTON STAR '■ COMPANY, Inc., 109 Chestnut Street, < ■ P. H. BATTE. Managing Director. fe: Telephones „ Business Office ....No. 61 3 Editorial iRooms.. hi ■ Entered at the Postoffice at Wilming Ston, N. Cl, as Second Class Matter. i One Year .*, 1 Six Months ... ?•; Three Months .. ••• • • • • *7.00 60 76 No weekly mail subscriptions. a, CITY DELIVERY—Papers are sched uled to be delivered before 7:30 o cloi-k f on week days and 8:30 o’clftck on Sun : days. Complaints regarding late Scr ; vice or non-delivery should be mado before 9:00 a. m. to Circulation Depart i.ment. Phone 61. . % CHANGE OF ADDRESS—Whe a or : dering your paper changed fioiB. one aering your payei as address to another please give oiu as well as new aldress. COMMUNICATIONS must be accom ■ panied by the true name sod adrtress , of the writer m order to receive atten tion. Rejected manuscripts wiL not returned. EXPIRATIONS—Look at tne jointed label on the. paper. The date tnereto •hows when the subscription exp ALL DRAFTS, checks, express money orders and postal money orders hr tne paper should- be made payable to order of the Wilmington fttar Co. MEMBER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS , The Associated Press ls JX entitled to the use for P^/^fherwise all news credited to it, or not otherwise c. edited, in this paper and also the local news published herein. All righ of re-publication of special dispatcnes herein are also reserved. _ V THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 1923 The Legislature’s Work is Done. --o The record of the 1923 general as sembly was completed at the final session Tuesday night when that body adjourned sine die. The record of the legislature will have to be mea sured by the maximum of its acts for North -Carolina’s progress, and, in that , respect it deserves more praise than criticism. What it has done by com mission overbalances its otnissions, those things, which it must be ad mitted, the legislators had no assur ances of popular demand. About some things not done, we need not grieve, for a legislative body com posed of members from 100 counties was not sure of its grounds from the standpoint of public sentiment. The passage of the general educa tional, bills the appropriation of $15, 000,000 to permanent improvement and maintenance of the state’s public in stitutions and a $15,000,0000 bond is sud for continuing the state’s high way projects, show that the legislature has interpreted chystalized sentiment in the state on the fundamental lines of progress. In those respects it ought to be a source of gratification for the J people to believe the legislators re garded themselves as commissioned to do those great things for North Caro . lina and her people. Added to that was passage of the general revenue bill and its supplementary. machin ery act which many of the leading legislators pronounces one of the great est tax acts ever placed on the statute books. If it accomplishes the aims for Which it is intended, it will prove to be a reform of distinct value to the state. Altogether, however, the general assembly passed nearly a thousand general and local bills, a circumstance showing that the legislators had plenty to do in the way of acting up on the matter for which the people themselves >were pressing. We may nave aKierencs ana aispuie aoout me . value of some of the lgislation enacted but we may as well admit that the odds ini judgement are in'favor of the legislators who were conscious of , tjieir responsibility to the people, not to mention the party responsible for tfieir acts. While some of us may have had our hearty upon certain legislation which was left over, we have td accept the legislative view that the legislature was not prepared to act at this time.., For, instance, there was Governor Morrison’s ship iping bill which the legislature could not see its tfay to pass, but it did the next best thing by establishing a commission to investigate the feasi bility of state operation of ships and the Btate development of port ter minals. The Giles farm loan act, aimed at providing farm owning op portunities for the- landless man, was another proposal in that class, but while this bill failed at this session its merit was recognized and it will come up without prejudice at (the next session when it may be clearer that it is a popular demand. The legislature passed the Bowie • “Lost Province!” railroad ; bill, once again "putting the state in the rail road building business. It -provides for a tentative Survey, for a main line and several branch lines if four or five isolated mountain:!.counties, and one of its conditional provisions -ig av $10,000,000 bond issue for the purpose of putting- the state in the railroad building-business, condition •ed, of course, upon ^he eventualities involved. ^Passage of the bill does not mean that a railroad is to be built . but that one may be built by means of state promotion. That act was clearly .based upon popular f sent! < ment but popular sentiment does not always build a railroad. If it should happen t,o do so, North Carolina sure ly will be the gainer. That act of the general assembly can be indorsed “in principle,” and it should happen that the “Lost Provinces” railroad ever is built as a result of the Bowie bill, it will be sufficient alone to stamp the .19923 general assembly as a progressive legislature. , The general assembly really hasi done more than, we expected it would do, and that largely compensates for what it could not see its way to do at this time. Among the omissions might be mentioned Governor Morri i eon’s recommendation of the establish [ment a department of banking and a department of industries and com ) merce. Such departments will some day be established, but doubtless the legislature could not see its way at this time to substitute those for state bodies supposed to be functioning in both particulars. For some reason or other, the legislature failed to give serious consideration to the state auditor’s recommendation of legisla tion co-ordinating the machinery of government on lines believed to be of advantage to the state government. The legislature probably couldn’t see it the auditor’s way. The legislature could not see its way to pass legislation regulating the Ku Klux Klan, unwilling probably to indict any order as a whole when of ! fenders belonging to any order or ‘society in North Carolina can be reached under state laws when one or more are guilty of violating the law. Failure to pass a workmen’s com pensation act was a regretable omis sion on the part of the general as sembly but it Is more than likely that it was due to failure to agree on all its provisions. Under legislation for which this legislature is responsible, stocks of outside corporations, when 1 such stocks are owned by citizens of this state, are exempted from tax ation. The legislature will be sever ly centured for that. The motive of that body was to encourage and influx of capital into the state, and it is possible that development within the states will more than compensate for exempted taxes. We doi^t know whether it will or not. That remains to be seen. One referendum act was passed at the session, that submitting to a vote of the people a bond issue of $2, 500,000 for the purpose of providing i a fund from which loans can be made to our World war veterans for the purpose of purchasing farms or homes. It is safe to say that act will be approved by the people iwhen they go to the polls in next year’s elec tion. Three constitutional amendments were submitted to a vote of the peo ple—one limiting the state debt to 7 1-2 percent of the assessed valua tion of the property in the state; an other making it mandatory to keep sinking funds to. retire the state debt and making such sinking funds inviol able; and a third to exempt from tax ation mortgages on farms and" residen tial properties already taxed, provided the mortgage does not exceed $8,000. Probably the legislature will not expect to get approval for all it has done, but it ■ is apparent that it was trying to serve ,the best interest of the state. -o— Never Touched Us. J In a communication which The Star i gladly prints this morning, our good friend Mr. C. C., Chadboura misin terprets an editorial ■which appeared in this paper Tuesday and he inflic ted upon us the penalty of having to re-read our own article with a view to ascertaining whether the editorial said what we riever intended to say. j Mr. Chadboura seems to 'have either inferred or assailed that our editorial I captioned “Idle Gold and! Idle Ships” was in advocacy of the government operation of ships because the United States treasury contains an immense accumulation of the world’s gold. In that respect, Mr. Chadboura clearly misread the editorial in question. Mr. Chadboura has answered sev jeral things that were not even men tioned in the editorial. He raises is sues that had no connection whatso ever with the ideas sought to be con veyed by our article. The editorial speaks for itself and no portion of it justified Mr. Chadbourn’e conclusion" that “you advocate the operation of j ships because We have idle gold in the treasury." In the first place, the gold in the treasury could not be used for government operation of ships, for congress would have to make whatever provision would be necessary for the government to oper ate ships. In the second place, the government operation of ships by the United States shipping board has been such a lamentable failure, that we wouldn’t be caught advocating govern ment operation of ships so long as our government does not propose to engage in the shipping business and all along has handled - the shipping. business in keeping with itfe policy of "taking the government out of bus inedb”-r-especinlly: the shipping bus iness.'' ' - -V ' • ■ . . ' Although Mir.. Chadbourn says we “advocate the (government) operation of ships because we have idle gold-iOr the treasury,” the contrary fact is that we have never gotten our consent to government building of ships', govern? ment ownership of ships and govern ment operation of ships. We are moved to say that because both political par time business. / Mr. Chadbourn’s motive in dissent ing from our editorial was to say a good word for the ship subsidy which President Harding earnestly and hon estly advocated but. which his own party has been largely instrumental in killing. Our allusion in Tuesday’s editorial, to the §hip subsidy was merely a recitation about its fate-*t the hands nf a Republican congress. Congress does not seem ro be in favor of government operation of ships or in favor of subsidizing private opera tion. Mr. Chadbourn stands by the President in his subsidy fight and he. believes as honestly as Mr. Harding that is what this country shall have to do before it can ever have a mer chant marine (privately operated.) In our editorial we never tried to explain the breakdown of American shipping, for that was not one of our remotest aims, although Mr. Chad bourn goes on to explain very correc ly but only partially the reasons this country’s merchant marine has not been creditable to the country at any time during the last fifty years. We would have to go into politics were we to go into the history of the de cline of American shiping, but we can trying to revive a great American in ties have made botch of the mari Harding that he is austry wmcn aecnnea wnne me gov ernment was administered by the party to which he belongs. Mr. Chadbourn may be right in claiming that a subsidy may have to be depended upon to redeem American shipping, but in one particular 'he is not right wherein he says: “You state that there can be no inter change of commerce with the United States and other foreign nations un der the Fordney-McCumber act.” That is what we did not state at all. Here is what we did state: The only way for Uncle Sam to unload his hoard of gold is to bring about an interchange of commerce with all nations. That can never be done so long as Uncle Sam does business under the Fordney-Mc Cumber tariff act. We shall have to stick to that, and it will be noticed that “to bring about an interchange of commerce between all nations” is not at all like saying that government operations of ships is the way to do it. Finally, Mr*..Chadbourn attributes a political motive to the editorial which he set out to answer. On the contrary, the motive was to impress the econo mic truth that idle gold, or idle ships, or idle resources, or idle any thing can mean only staganation and ruin,, whether it be of the merchant marine or not. When resources are as i<ye as Uncle Sam’s idle gold and idle ships, there is nothing doing. Idle re sources in the port of Wilmington do not mean anything for the upbuilding of Wilmington. We know Mr. Chad bourn wants our idle port resources utilized, but the question is how all of us can bring that about. —-o Governor Morrison is Happy. ■o Governor Morrison deserves the rest that he is to take at Charlotte, following the strenuous life he has led during the session of the general assembly, which adjourned Tuesday night. Probably no man is better prepared "to interpret the work of the legislature than the governor., He regards the record of the general as sembly as altogether satisfactory, al though in some respects it failed to. do everything some of ns- expected 'it to put through. “Upon the whole,” the governor de clares, “I ami greatly pleased at the record of the general assembly. It has only one rival in the history of southern general assemblies, and that is its great predecessor of 1921.” “It will come back again, in my opinion,” he added, “and add to its great record the necessary legislation to establish water-carried commerce upon our wonderful navigation waters.” When the general assembly finish ed its work on Tuesday night, the governor’s friends at Raleigh boasted that Governor Morrison is now strong er than at any time during his ad ministration. Certainly, the gover nor has grown stronger, and the state has every reasonvto thank pro gress for the legislatures of the Mor rison administration. Governor Mor rison’s whole aim has ben to be of constructive servifce to the state, and the legislatures of both 1921 and 1922 haVe helped him to^ put North Carolina on the map. .--—o CONTEMPORARY VIEWS. '-0-• N SHUFFLING THE POLITICAL CARDS I>' ENGLAND --The .impassioned appeal for unity* which Mr. Lloyd George In his speech in ^Edinburgh made to the Liberals who still follow Mr. Asquith has not met with a very, cordial response. The Asquithian Liberals might say . that they 'arc doing very well as they are. They have just defeated a member of Mr. Bonar Law's' Ministry who had to. submit himself to his constituents | in seeking again af seat in the Com ' mons which waa supposed to be safe ' for the Conservatives. Moreover, Sir John Simon, Who is thought to speak for Mr. Asquith, has just made an address in which" he "pointed out the folly of a forced reu£io,n of the Lib erals without a qomimm program and a leadership" whk;h would command their confidence. This last slap at Mr. Lloyd George indicates that his virtu ous declaration that he would not aspire to the leadership of a reunited Liberal Party did not' exactly com mand confidence. While the Liberals are talking of getting together, the Conservatives are actually doing it. Early last month a j report vame from Gibraltar, where ■ Lord Birkenhead was spending, his holiday'—just -Across the bay from Lloyd George at Algeciras—that he was thinking of ". joining the National Liberal Party, at- least long-enough to hel,p turn out Mr. Bonar Law and form a new Coalition Government. But the noble and indignant lord sent a j telegram to the press denying the story and calling it “ a foolish invention. Such it may have been, but it did not surprise some who have followed the erratic course which "Galloper Smith! has traversed from Ulster to the wool sack. Indeed, the sarcastic Morning Port of London dwelt upon the possi bility of his founding a party of his own, with "Smith, ' Minor,” as its leader. But Birkenhead has now re turned to England, and was said on Sunday to have met Lord Derby and heartily shaken hands with him. This rencounter may have reminded some of the bystanders of the famous re conciliation between Lord John Rus sell, and Palmers/ton, when, it was said, “they embraced and hatqd each other more than before." The incident suggests that a move ment to bring back the dissident Con servatives into the Bonnar Law fold is well under way. It was regarded as probable, one may say inevitable, from the day of the last general elec tion. Members who have followed Austen Chamberlain and Lord" Bal four and Chancellor Birkenhead could not be expected forever to stay in the wilderness. They could not patch up a union with the Liberals; they would not think of working with the Labor Party; and the only thing left was to go back and be uncompromising Con servatives once more. That process hgs apparently begun. Doubtless Borne of the members of this die-easy faction of the Conservative Party will before long be givpn places in the Govern ment.—New York Times. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR -o ■THE SHIP SUBSIDY Editor of The Star: Now that Wilmington is beginning to recognize her polentiality as a great port of entry and gateway to the rapidly growing state of North Carolina it seems a proper time to elucidate, so far ps possible, some of the problems of shipping in order that our own people may understand why the American merchant marine is in its present condition and what motive actuated the president in his laudable desire to promote this great business by means of a subsidy, in jny opinion, the only possible way in which we can have a merchant marine worthy of the name. ■ Before the war about 14 percent of our imports and about 8 percent of our exports were carried In American ves sels. It goes without saying Uiat it is poor economics and might lead to disaster from the standpoint of na tional defense to permit so large a preponderance .of foreign shipping. For instance in the Spanish war It was necessary for u^-^toi temploy foreign ships to carry coal td'vessels of our own navy and -it is not inconceivable that a situation might arise when we could not do this. First, as a matter of personal privi lege. I desire to disclaim any political reason or sympathy for‘this explana tion or-any reason at all other than that, as we are all waking up to the realization, which for years I have endeavored to stress at every possible opportunity, that our port is out best, asset and the sooner we take advan tage of it, the sooner will Wilmington come into its own. Therefore, any in formation bearing on this subject should be of Interest to us all. Of course, I am fully aware that thoa question has developed into a partisan and sectionar measure, but as I see It, it is a matter far too vital to the country' at large to be considered from the narrow view, of party aggrandize ment of executive humiliation. Party lovalty is all right. It is necessary and desirable for .progress and safety, until it reaches the point where it is so blind that no .consideration of ultN mate good to the country will cause It to devite from its fixed purpose, Uft fortunately our politicians, and they are hacked by that part of the press, of similar affiliations, are too prone to consider all maters of national import in the light of political and personal interest rather than as; measures for the weal or woe, the good or evil, of the country as a whole. -And when the day arrives that - the men whom we send, to Washington to Represent our interests will forget themselves and safeguard those interests on that day will.the words politician and .patriot be synonymous. Your leading editorial this mornipg was incorrect both as to1 facts and de ductions. There are several main causes of the failure of tfce merchant marine, none of which were touched upon by you. Probably the chief rea son is the .seaman’s net which was passed some vears ago, sponsored by Senator LaFollette, always erratic and a disturbing element in his own (Re publican) party, of Wisconsin, a state which is about 1,500 miles from either ocean, although it is bounded on the north and east by two great lakes. Under this act wages and working conditions of seamen, while essential to enable them to confront to the American standard of living, are such that we can not possibly compete with countries whose laboring class lives on a much more simple diet and has practically no standard of living at all. It is my recollection that shortly after the ratification of this law one large steam ship company on the west coast went out of business altogether' anc others placed their vessels under for eign .flags in order that they might employ Lascars, Chinese and other low class types of seame... , Another reason is that foreign ships ! are Usjiilt at less cost than ours be I cause our scale of wages is much j higher. German ships built since-thf i war have been paid for in marks and j the crew is paid in mark3. rfio give ar i idea of What this means, it recently be came necessary for a Germa^ ship tc | employ an American fireman.'He prop ! erly demanded and received his paj j in dollars. As a consequence his com ! pensation iri purchasing power exceed ! ed that of the entire balance of the (-crew including the captain, all oi | whom were paid in marks. I The subsidy, in addition to devised tc 1 meet the necessary difference in opera ting costs and while there might be an honest difference ef opinion as to : application I have hea)rd little opposi i tion to the general principle. As a matter of fact X have been informed that the predecessor of the present ' executive, who. was- of the opposite political party, was himself in favor of some kind of extra compensation to American ships and your own sug gestion of governmental operation is, in effect, a subsidy with this difference that your system would entail far more cost on the people because in its final analysis the government is the people and can pay nothing except it first receives it from the people. You are of course aware that England, the g I taicoi iiiaiuuic uaviuu 111 me v» iv»i has subsidized its ships for years, i You advocate the operation of ships | because we have idle gold in the treas ury. „I fail to see the connection. That theirS is too much gold in the treasury is a temporary condition. I have known the reverse to be the case. Some 25 or 30 years ago we had to sell- sev eral issues of bonds of one hundred million dollars each to keep the legal reserve of gold in the treasury. This present condition will soon be partial ly relieved by reason that some of this gold will be needed to pay freight to owners of foreign bottons. The opera tion of ships by the government, tak ing past experience as a 'precedent which is fair, Involves an annual loss of $50,000,000. Uncle Sam Vfas not, as you say, giving his idle gold away but was attempting to dispose of ships. Ships which an emergeny demanded, which another angle of the same em ergency plus some other conditions which are so notorious as not to need mentioning made them cost far beyond their real or normal value. That was all right. At the time and under the conditions it was the proper thing to do but the emergency has ceased to exist. We spent three billion dollars for ships. Of these 600 wooden ships were absolutely worthless and were sold for junk, in some cases eevn contractors being paid to destroy them. The con crete ships were of no value. We have practically 1,400 steel ships of which about 400 are in operation the remaining 1,000 are tied up in various ports not only carrying w-horfage care taking and other charges but rapidly deteriotaing in value. Now the ques tion arises what is the best thing to do. As Grover Cleveland asid "We are con fronted with a condition, not a theory.” We can scrap all these ships, we which on the face of it seems a cruel sacri fice and probably would be just that. We can continue to operate jtart of them by allocation' as at present, at a minimum loss of 50 million dollars annually. We can sell them to one or two American companies at a tremendous loss and without control of their final destination. It would hardly be prac ticable to sell so many to individual bidders. - - . We can sell ‘them abroad thus mak ing competition easier for them than ever. This Would be following the line of least resistance which is usual ly an economic blunder and in this case would serve to drive Us from the ocean. Or at,a cost of about 25 million dol lars anually we can subsidize them thus making disposition of- them to Americans possible .and also establish ing an American merchant marine which, in my opinion, can be done in no other maner. In order to keep the record straight I call your attention to another error and still disclaim any political mo tive or sympathy as above. You state that there can be no interehance if commerce with the United States and other nations under the Fordney-Mc Cumber act. Contrary to your many prophecies in the past and in con travention pf this statement., the rec ords show that if you wish, we will say not because of but in spite of this act, both ■ exports and imports have materially increased in value and volume since its’ pasage. It seems to , me that no sense of party fealty should blind, us to the palpable facts./"It lhv too important. It is too far reaching/1 in its effects. It is too serious^-—©f'course nothing can be done in the way of a subsidy until the 6Sth| congress assembles which will not be until December, but why not utilize the intervening time in an effort to ascertain the facts and to look at them from the broad view of the country at large and the resultant benefits rather than to its effect on the fortunes of either political party. - C. C. SHADBOURN. City, March 7, 1923. may be followed by serious cold troubles; use nightly— Over l7 Million Jan Uted Yearlu .COUGH Try PlSCyS Astonishingly quick relief. A syrup— different from all others—* pleasant—no up set stomach—no opiates. 35c and 60c everywhere. PREVENTIVE MEASURES You should be concerned about keeping your resistive*! vitality at high mark. Prevention is often easier ■than cure. Keep the blood, pure and the body well nourished—it’s your fortification against germ infection* Thousands are proving the power of' to fortify foe body. For children or adults, Scott’s is fthe tonic that builds up strength and enrichea foe blood through nourishment. As a preventive measure, fortify your\ vitality—use Scott’s Emulsion often* Better mpit-Now! If yournose issorefromblow irig-*rf your head is stuffed up and chest congested-now is the time for this syrup. For half a century, Dr. King s New Discovery Has Drougnt quicic relief to children and grown-ups alike. It has certainly earned its reputation for dependability and safe family use. Your druggist carries it. Try it today. Statement of Condition of The Murchison National Bank * of Wilmington, N. C. - At the Close of . Business December 29, 1922 . > " -- RESOURCES Loans and discounts........$ 9,252,952.19 Customers’ liability acceptances ....- 190,000.00 U. S. bonds ..• • • • • • • 800,650,00 Bank building...• •. • 375,000.00 Bonds and other securities ...............^ 94,000.00 Cash and due by banks ..,.. ................ 3,977,703.79 TOTAL .... ./$14,690,305.98 LIABILITIES Capital stock . .t %.. .5. . . . ...$ 1,000,000.00 Surplus and net profits.... 1,138,267.69 Reserved for taxes... 65,293.11 Circulation .. . ... 615,000.00 Acceptances .." 190,000.00 Rediscounts with federal reserve bank... 675,773.65 Deposits \ .;..... 11,005,971.63 TOTAL , $14,690,305.98 Hilmmatmt fUamtog £fetr Bible Distribution —COUPON Two distinct styles of this wonderful Book of Books hare been adopted for^this great newspaper Bible distribution. One is the far-famed Red Letter Bible (Christ’s sayings printed in red for immediate identification), and the Plain Print Bible for those who can spare but a nominal sum. 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