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SUNDAY, JULY 1. 1#23
TOP O' THE MORNING
There was nothin* soft about the
early church. It was a brave ven
ture to eomve to church. It lived
danrerously. It dW not seek to live
on comfortable terms with the
worlds l't challenged It. It did not
aeek to curry favor with the powers
that were; It spoke boldly M them
about sin and Judgment. The result
was the chnrch had a hard time. It
was a chnrch In the furnace and un
der the cross, but It was a mighty
church, and It Inherited the klng
dom.—Rev. J, D. Jones, D. D.
THE REBOUND FOR WIL
MINGTON.
j Local events chronicled in The Star ]
during the -last six months, show a1
very distinct rebound for Wilming
ton all along the line, including indus
trial activities, the location of new in
dustries, the expansion of business,
the increase of commerce, growth or
the banking interests,, increased retail
business of all kinds, increased dry
goods and grocery jobbing business,
Industrial betterments, etc, etc.
Just half the year is gone today, but
Wilmington’s industrial group has
been Increased by seven newcomer
manufacturing establishments, some
already operating and all to be in full
' - operation by fall. They will give em
polyment to more than 1,000 opera
tives, and the payroll acquisition is
. $1,000,000 or more, while the city’s
new industrial output for another year
will approximate $10,000,000. Many
new articles not heretofore “made In
, Wilmington” will come from Wilming
ton’s new 1923 factories. That is just
_ only one of the significant Items of
industrial progress here, the signs of
- which have been read in The' Star dur
ing the last 90 days.
The Star has previously named
- some of our neW industrial and com
'[ merclal’ newcomers, but It Is well
enough to note again such outstand
ing acquisitions as the Nitrate Agen
cies, Inc., the International Agricul
tural Chemical company, and Grace
and company, ship operators, import
ers and exporters, who have joined
Wilmington’s growing commercial
group.' Those large newcomers will
increase Wilmington’s volume of fac
tory output by many millions, and the
commercial business ahead for the
port, will swell the city’s commerce
by the millions of dollars.
' - One of the especially significant fea
tures of the gathering wave of progress
here has been the impressively in
creased traffic done by the Atlantic
: Coast Line, the Seaboard Air Line,
the Wilmington, Brunswick and
Southern railroad, the branch roads
of the Coast Line, and the ocean and
waterways steamship and steamboat
lifies. That movement is a true in
. dex of the steadily improving indus
trial, commercial and business ex
pansion here during the first six
months of 1923. The very material in
' crease in bank clearings and. the op
timism radiated by3 the bankers of the
city is a strong supplementary exhibit
exemplifying the aphorism that
'“money talks.”
The commerce of year of the port
ended yesterday with an estimated
60 per cent increase of the commerce
of the port, and we believe the final
report from Washington will show a
larger percentage than even that con
servative official estimate. The cus
toms collections for the fiscal year
have exceeded $5,600,000, and ithey_
• may go up a peg further towards $6,
000,000 on the final tabulation of the
United States treasury department.
. That revenue for the government
shows a large increase of import bus
' iness for-the port of Wilmington and
v -. the sub-ports of Winston-Salem and
Durham. The government’s own re
ceipts at Wilmington during the past
two years are largely in excess of all
the money spent on the port of Wil
mington by the federal government in
all.the history of the port; including
the sum spent on the harbor improve
ment project which ended recently in
the engineering'* achievement of a 26
foot channel on from Wilmington out
. to sea. It enables cargo vessels draw
ing 28 feet or more to come up to
' Wilmington on flood tide.
One of the particularly notable
items in Industrial expansion at Wil
mington during the first six months of
the year is solved in the construction,
expansion and betterment program of
the Tide Water Power company, ag
| gregating an outlay of $652,000. Bei
sides the expenditure of about $25,000
on betterments at Wrightsvllle Beach,
the significant striking Item In the
poWr company’s program has been
the development of more power and
the extension of Its power and light
ing lines in and out of the city, in
cluding the transmission line to OVfti
ton, Wallace, Warsaw end Burgaw.
The home building record of Wil
mington shows a ismarkable growtn.
and as we write Wilmingcou has
greatly Increased her rank as a city
of beautiful homes. At no time re
cently has Wilmington’s realtor* let
any gfass grow under their feet.
Agricultural expansion has gou* on
apace in the New Hanover county and
in the Wilmington territory. Crops
for. the six months up to this first
day of June have brought millions of
dollars to our farm producers, and
they will add many more millions by
the time the crop season of 1923 ends.
That fully warrants Ihe forecast for
increasing business activities for
Wilmington.
Wilmingtons seaside resorts are
receiving more patronage than ever,
and the prospects for the balance of
the summer are brighter than any re
cent season. Jetties costing $30,000
are being built at Wrightsville1 Beach ,
and at all our ocean playgrounds the
improvements will approximate-$100,
000.
What’s the matter with Wilming
ton? What's the matter with the chick
en-hearted?
BIG INTERESTS FOR STATE
PORT TERMINALS.
—°T
The great cotton exporting firm of
Alexander Sprunt and Son, Inc., has
informed the state ship and water
transportation commission that they
favor state port terminal development
or any other movement tending to de
velopment of the pojt. The fact is,
the’Messrs. Sprunt have said that be
fore, and it is quite natural ^hat they!
should favor development of the Cape
Fear ocean gateway in any particular
that would be in the interest of Wil
mington and which would enable the
state to avail itself of ocean trans
portatidn on a scale that would re
dound to development of North Car
olina. There has never been any
doubt in our mind that any great in
terest in Wilmington or any other
North Carolina city would deny to
the whole state the broadest possible
opportunities in its pwn ocean gate
way.
Practically all .the foi-elgn commerce
| of the port of Wilmington for the last
50 years has been due mainly to Al
exander Sprunt and Son, and the ag
gregate of their cotton export trade
certainly can not be short of $500,
! 000,000. They built the bridge over
which Wilmington has passed to its
present magnitude as a'South Atlantic
| port. More than a half century ago
they saw their own great opportunity
in the port of Wilmington, and it is
not unreasonable to suppose that their
own utilization of the state’s major
ocean gateway surely will be an il
luminating example to North Caro
lina itself. The commercial achieve
ments of the largest single exporting
firm on the South Atlantic are suffi
cient to open the eyes of the state to
its own commercial opportunities in
the Cape Fear ocean gateway. We
have not the slightest doubt that the
intelligence of North Carolina has the
vision which will enable the state to
visualize the -yvorld beyond the Cape
Fear bar.
Along with the Sprttht approval of
anything that will develop the port'
of Wilmington or prove to be a fac
tor in making a greater city of the
headquarters of the Atlantic Coast
Line, there comes the reasonably ex
pected approval of state port terminal
development by Mr. Lyman Delano,
executive head of that greatest of
southern railway systems. When the
Seaboard Air Line is heard from there
will be the same enlightened view of
port terminal development. Public!
terminal facilities cities years ago
would have saved the railroads the
expense of maintaining harbor term
inals which have been worth more to
the commerce of the port than they
have been as traffic assets to the rail
roads. There need hardly be any
misapprehension that rail traffic men
are fully aware of the great value
of ports to them. There can be no
ocean traffic that does not pass to and
fro by rail from all quarters of the
continent and across the continent
from ocean to ocean.
EFFECTS OF CONSOLIDA
ft TI0N* '
, The first fundamental law of busi
ness is to bring the expenditures for
a given period within the income and
the second is to so curtail the over
head expenses so as to have a margin
■of profit at the end of the fiscal year
without decreasing the efficiency of
the plant or organization. Wilming
ton, as a city, took the first of these
steps in 1920 when the councilmanic
form of government was replaced by
the more modern commission form.
The second is now proposed through
the merger of the city and county ad
ministrations into one central govern
IT IS SUNDAY MORNING
^BY W. A. STANBURY
......V ■"—
A FOURTH OF JULY DEBT
"The land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee for an inherit
ance.”—Dent. 26:1.
In a few days the voice of the
Fourth of July ’orator will be
heard in the land. Aijfd we shall '
all be joyously celebrating the an
niversary of our national. ind<v
pendence. Most fitting it will be.
For the people who cannot and do
not remember a national birthday,
who acknowledge no heritage
from the past, to whom “history
is all bunk,” to whom deeds of
sacrifice* and heroism wrought by
the fathers mean nothing—the
people without love of country
and a sense of history is nearing
alike the end of power and of life.
July 4 is one day in the year set
apart by all Americans for the
remembrance of these things, and
for a nation-wide commemoration
,of a great and significant event.
But it is well to remember that
our independence did not actually
begin on July 4, 1776. It proper
ly began some hundreds, or even a
thousand years before that. Free
dom is no suddenly achieved thing. •
R is first a state of mind, a spir
itual thing, living as a dream or a
passion in some heart, then slowly
accomplished, generally, with
much suffering and sacrifice. Gen
erally also, it is not much enjoyed
by those who win it. They them
selves do not live long enough,
perhaps they purchase it with
their lives. It is their children and
grandchildren who benefit from
their heroism and pain.
Thus freedom grows, “broaden
ing down from precedent to prec- *
edent,” bought and sanctified by
the blood of heroes. Blessing the
sons of heroes, who if they be
worthy their boon, will be them
selves heroic, too. It is a herit
age, passed on, like tradition,
from father to son, with addition
and refinement, as it is handed
down from one generation to an
other.
Furthermore, it is worth point
ing out that the century-old free
dom of the English-speaking peo
ples, as we know it now, was not
achieved at the writing of the^l
declaration of Independence. Six
years of hardship and yffrr ensued
before that declaration ' jecame an
acknowledged fact. I jEi’ollowing
upon that were y^rsi of uncer
tainty and disunion. . Wien came'
the decades of Ifonfliet |jind clash
ing opinion and contending inter
est, when only the viaiSn and un
selfish statesmanship! of the
founding fathers savedsithe repub
lic from disruption, m ,
During these years [if struggle,
and under the inspiration of the
Dutcli and English rs||5s, our in
stitutions were carvedfiout of the
rough and raw materit) of a new
continent and a pioneer civiliza
| tion. At length, after Mialf a cen
| tury, came the great \plcanic up
heaval of the Civil w^> in which
[ every shred of the fabric of our
• national life was testeR to the ut
jnoSt, and in which hjillian slavery
died and+it was dete^jkined that
the nation is an indivisible union
of free states. FinallyLthe union
politically inseparable ®ecame one
in spirit and reality i!| the great
and heart-searching d|j|s of 1917
1918. . |
All of which is by lay of say
ing that we did not oipselves pro
duce or even wii^sfromsjsome other
people the country wjjich we in
habit, nor the things j^hich made
it dear to us and wort^sj something
to the world. It is be hoped
that each of us may§ contribute
something to the tota]J»uin which
coming generations fjaay enjoy.
„ But so far as we an^concerned,
we have received it af| as an in
heritance, which we Ighd nothing
to do with producing, ^nd almost
nothing to ‘do with sl&ping.
, And what America^ is there,
with balanced mind discern
ing heart, who will nonsense this
patriotic season thdjf gracious
work and hand of God |h this her
itage received by us?-!: And who
that is a true man, w||h the fear
of God in his heart, «idill fail to
praise God for giving-ffc this land,
or to be stirred with ayjeslre that
he may enhance by soie small ad
dition, at least, the joyland worth
of freedom in this land;’which, the
» Lord our God hath gif)n us?
ing body, functioning with greater e^-l
flciency and at a lo'wer per capita cost
to taxpayers of both city and rural
districts.
Let us consider for an instant the
situation as it now exists regarding
taxation and the burden of expense
for the two governments as at pres
ent constituted. First we havfe the
city taxpayer contributing to the mu
nicipal revenue 95 cents on the $100
valuation, and in addition support
ing his share of approximately four
fifths of the cost of the county govern
ment machinery. His suburban and
rural neighbor is relieved of the city
taxes, but pays his assessment to the
county.
Next fte have two independent tax
gathering agencies, two sets of law
enforcement departments, two Juvenile
courts, and a complicated legal system
that retains several attorneys in va
rious capacities. Each performs al
most the same task as the city or
county prototype and bach works to
ward a common goal. What is the
result? Financially there is seldom
an occasion demanding concerted con
tributions from both city and county
that does not precipitate some tedious
unwinding of red tape to determine
just how much the city will pay, and
how much of the burden the county
will pay. And all the while the man
who lives within the corporate limits
is paying taxes twice for the support
of two institutions when one could
function more economically and more
efficiently.
Next arises the question in the
minds of the /ural taxpayer as to how
such a change will effect his assess
ment. It will lessen it. Why? Be
cause the city tax' rate will not be
forced upon the county by consolida
tion. The remedy will be found by
zoning the entire county, the nearer
the center of population and improve
ments a property is located determin
ing the rate of taxation. Greensboro
has recently .adopted this plan, fol
lowing the extension of its corporate
limits. The Guilford capital has
thereby increased . its standing as aj
city, given its rural neighbors the ad-j
vantages of city life, and has saved j
them from the increased cost' of city
taxes.
With the tax question settled, comes
the equally if not more important
question of centralizing the govern
ment Of course we still retain the
clerk of the court, the'register of deeds
and several other officials, but at the
same time we can eliminate several
others by combining the entire govern
mental machinery under three gen
eral heads, namely, the departments
of safety, weifare and finance. Under
the first head would faft the police
department, fire department, sheriff’s
office and similar agencies. In the
second classification woi^ be aligned
the board of health, the§ street clean
ing departments, etc. Tl§e third would
naturally include those oglces charged
with the collection and |iisbursement
of city and county mottles. A city
attorney, with possibly Sne assistant,
could handle the legal bnfeiness of the
administration.
Roughly estimated, si|h a scheme
would eventually whiftlW some $100,
000 annually from our expenses.
Is it worth trying? |ij
We believe that it is. t. i
Any Unlstacian who sews pessimism
can’t expect to harvest prosperity and
progress. The Imp. Wizff-of Optimism
can’t be expected to folli iW up a trail
'.i
running through a land sown with
dragon’s teeth. |f|
CONTEMPORARY'HEWS.
Jl6 SPECIAL SEsiTOJV YET
Governor Morrison h|cs concluded
that he will not call a yiecial session
of the legislature dur(p|g the year,
which is. re-assuring to *jthe people as
It must also be comforting-to the mem
bers of that body. !;?
He. feels that it will r^jfnire at least
six months for tli© comnflssion that it
studying the shipping l|fre project to
complete its investigatiijfi and advise
the chtef executive whajj; In its opin
ion, can be done. Goveirtior Morrisoh
seems confident that the||commisslony
findings will be In line .sfith his own
theories about this project, and for
that matter, there is litpe doubt that
it will so eventuate. M;
The people, In the mjantirry*. have
had time to reflect upo.v; the scheme
and opportunity to let ^(htiment take
form since the first niention of the
matter by Governor Mq|-rlson during
the last legislature whjjj he was at
first somewhat Insistent Itor Immediate
action. He has reacheiftUhe decision
since that it was much rf-jdre expedient
to go at it jas the legislature advised,
namely, by the appointment of a com
petent commission to stuffy the project
rather than rush hastily!land without
caution thereinto.—CharlHtte News.
--L
BEATING OUR STAlfB TO IT
In a recent discussions-of reduction
of state departments andyooncentration
of executive effort ht ylEaleigh, The
Observer mentioned that? Pennsylvania
was one stai^e planning:^or the same
sort of reform in th.j*,?*direotion of
greater economy and efficiency In state
government. Pennsylvania has already
“gone and done it.” Sbrmerly that
state had as many as 12fijdepartments,
or bureaus, in its executive machin
ery. These have been ^jjsduced to 21,
an elimination of just 1 OK: The amount
of saving that will result to the tax
payers' may be imagine^]; More than
that, responsibility hasdfieen central
ized and Pennsylvania 1H.; undoubtedly
destined for more emcitificy in man
agement. As a matter : "of course, a
number of jobs were abo§fehed, but the
state will get the bettejH service, for
all that, perhaps New Tgdrk,' which is
heading in the same direction, may
beat; North Carolina to this system of
reform in state government, but this
state will be found notfi^r, behind. It
is a stroke in economy tjiat is surely
on the way.—Charlotte Observer.


' No matter how you look at it-the Fourth Vf July is the one day
of the year that tells the big American story. The day that com
memorates the clean, straight-fromrthe-shoulder character of the
men and women who gave us the Land ~pf the Free Free to do
and be the best that is in us. That is the freedom that has made
a store like ours possible. Independent, effort, cheerful service
and the united favor of our host of friends. -
OUR CLEARANCESALE
Gives You An Opportunity to Buy Your Holiday Needs
AT THE LOWEST PRICES OF THE SEASON \
iport Dresses, Jacquettes, Skirts,'Sweaters, Overblouses,
/. Coat Suits anckCoats
Jack Dempsey will lose if he does not deliver the goods.
We fight for business as hard as he does for the title.
jr '
Several cars unloaded this week for you. You cannot
beat us in delivery of the goods—if courteous treatment
and honest dealings mean anything. You cannot beat
our prices. * '
McIVER LUMBER
COMPANY
Telephone 2445
WANTED
_ r
, '
50 Salesladies. Only
t those with experience
need apply.
JULY 5th
EVERYTHING IN THE STORE
REDUCED
Futchs’ Department Store
9 North Front Street
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