?Till? iMnFPFNDFNT KOU HUMAN BEINGS ? |"*| |ij B I 1 JLil ljllLrll/1 1 X THIS WEEK _ =^==~==. ... , ? ELIZABETH CI II, ^T FmDAYTFEBRirAln'lFmS. ?? ?Jg- SINGLE COPY 5 CENTS vffl XXIV.: NO. 1.313. .? m?b?a. cia. a. c. 1 . A School Man's Comment Cn Mencken's Attack on High Cost of Public Education 7>v> possible ways of cutting the cost of public, ,,/iiruii"i> are presented by Prof. Earl H. Hartsell, I yim-eiiiUndent of Elizabeth City Graded Schools, in\ ana ti<>" to the recent broadside of H. L. Mencken ,yprinted if The Independent. We could eliminate //<( heavy b>ad of uneducables or we could separate I tin school populations into doers and drifters and de~ ?iJ. 'i cheaper methods of handling the drifters. But, ? (!/?,/ '<> Prof. Hartsell, we can't turn the uneducables 0,ici" if a world not prepared to absorb them into in (l>istr>r for can progress be made in separating the lht>rs iuive been expected of suchj t era to tuiminator. For the? u-t decade this rage's essays for? oninihtmen: c." sophomores have? been predicated upon the assump-? lion tha: 'the Republic'' is a more* c: les ncble experiment tha: has? t'.cpixi. I: was inevitable that the! tot? -rhools. a prominent feature! el the Atner.can scene, should even-? ?.tally ccme in for their share of the? ?cath.ttg ridicule which has been? neaped so generously upon thj? iharches. civic clubs, chambers o. crmmerce. patriotic societies, anc otner "Americana." One has the privilege of agreeing o: disagreeing with Mr. Mencken's ma,.r premue: iha? most typicatty American institutions are ludicrous I: is only too true that many peopls who have never even heard of thf American Mercury or its emmen editor have been driven by the cur :\n depression to a partial accept race of his point of view. This ac '.r e -pin: cf criticism is directed at .hi governmental and public service aeencics. So long as it remains vr.:-'. s;ra.gh:-:hinking criticism, ma dees net degenerate into blind .v.! , prejudice. :: is a wholesome ijree. and schoolmen certainly will respect it as such. The t'e.c: tha: this new army cf -?Scptics a-?, for the most part, pro : :h ? -ublic school system is ::-rh an answer to the frequent ly-heard assertion that the schools y the capacity for independent '.r.mkmg. It ls tiue they did not ? v..:-.* -.v.::: mature judgment while I -jmaturity cannot b? fore- . cd 0:1 youngsters in thei 1 teens. I Obvious Limitations I r.tc v'.v^is do not pretend to give' I cm!,)/:" education: they merely I cone1.in themselves with the begin I 01 a life-long process. Their I ftm-trm > o clear away as many I ol the obstructions as possible, to I valuable adult time later on I hid such elementary j I kill and tool- as his immaturity and h> individual mentality will al- : I l\i*.v hU to acquire. To make a fare I the products of I "hooh yesterday and the scaoois ( .he prime of life adopts' I ;i ;w.r ui.zitvr a titude toward a high i I i" ' gradu ?te of seventeen, he I * v. 11 to a sic himself these I H .-.v would ycu. as a boy 1 I have compared with! I '-at bv. m .-.elf-assurance, and j I abihty to convince your elders that 1 I ??: at eid.-t normal intelli I v.iv-f Hew much valuable time c:gv. which might have beenj productive work, have you I 'Vi.'i -i lim.uu vour mature years I it tneutary skills and - which this boy takes as a < ? course? How many cost I " _:?e'ak?;>. long since corrected I lorg it ten. might this boy's .. h,- ., saved you? Bearing 11 the t-nlold increase in the ' T ' ? .ad competitiveness of 11 unic |K'uation over ?v ? ? prevailed m your own would you be willing for a y- ' i t- to face the struggle '0I vxiui-avo m the world today uu* ? l> paration than this boy lUv' tviirjp si hccls Have Failed * lie public schools tailed? they have tailed u> ac .ic miracles that some of '?r:ru ci on Page Five) SUNDAY BASE BALL GAMES THIS SUMMER Sunday baseball for Kliz abelli City every Sunday after noon during the coining base ball season was virtually assured last week when the committee representing the Elizabeth City Cardinals, local independent athletic organ ization, decided to convert Cardinal Field from a grid iron into a diamond and to organize a baseball team as a part of their sports program. Previous effotts to have Sunday baseball in Elizabeth City have fail ed because the only baseball dia mond in the city was controlled by the Board of Graded School [Trustees, which frowned upon Sab bath sport 011 Hunsucker Field. The [cardinal Field, leased last Fall and [used as a gridiron during the foot ball season, lies just inside of the city limits, but local authorities are disinclined to interfere with Sunday I sports. The Cardinals played foot ball on many Sunday afternoons, land they will likewise play Sunday ; baseball. . The field is now being plowed up and sowed in carpet grass. The in- 1 'field will be laid out at a later date' (The Cardinals expect to begin prac-1 ! tice in about eight weeks, j The Cardinals had several reasons I j for their decision to play baseball. | In the first place, the Cardinals is (net just a football team but is an' ' ar.hletic organization which hopes, j eventually to take part in a year-! ' rcund sports program. Since a foot-; | ball field can be converted into a; 1 baseball diamond without consider- ; I able expense, baseball is the logical; sport for them to engage in next. .Also, the Cardinals have leased their Afield fcr some time and must pay the rent whether they use it or not; so they think it best to use it. An other reason is the fact that nearly every one of the fellows who has been playing on the local summer { baseball league team in recent years 1 is a member of the Cardinals organ- ( ization. Last, but not least, is thej hope that baseball, particularly! Sunday baseball, will enable the | Cardinals to make some money. This j [decision of the Cardinals automa-' tically knocks in the head plans of j The Elizabeth City Baseball Club( for a town of this size simply can- J net support two baseball clubs.1 However, the Cardinals hope to join i Virginia-Carolina League con sisting of three teams from towns! II this section, such as Edenton.! Hertford and this city, and teams! rom three Tidewater Virginia cities iuch as Norfolk, Portsmouth and' ruflclk. This is the plan the E. ? Continued on Page Four> ? 1 g. > W 11 e/he?BANK CICQK THE SODA dCGKtB WHEN THE SODA JERKER WAS A FARMER "Things are looking pretty quiet j i in Elizabeth City these days." said;: the Bank Clerk to the Soda Jerker. ji "There are times when you can look,. down Mam Street and not see a} I soul in sight except such fixtures : as A. B. Walston. Pool White andji Herscy Williams." |l "But you ought to get out in the 1 country these days." said the Soda Jerke:; "there you'll sec business j ^ gcing cn just as if there was no ( depression; the roads lined with) trucks hauling fertilizer, seed peas. and potatoes to the farms; and the; (farmers busy putting their lands in j crder just as if they expected a big i1 ; year. The farmer aint laying down." j "That's the trouble with him," 11 said the Bank Clerk; "in the face! of every expert opinion that pota- ' i tees will bring a lower price this i ( ; year, he goes right on filling the j ground with potatoes; he just won't j j j learn the lesson of overproduction." j "Well, what's he going to do?"!' ' asked the Soda Jerker. "All our' j farmers know is potatoes, peas, corn, < [soy beans and hogs. They do thej i best they can with what they know.>, , and that's more than you can say: [ for a lot of folks. They used to j grow a lot of cotton in this section. ? Government agents come along and i ? I tell 'em to quit planting cotton and! 'grew more peas and potatoes. And < j they tell farmers in every State the isame thing. The result is we now ? jhave an overproduction of potatoes. ' "Over in Currituck and Camden [counties the farmers used to make I a lot of money on sweet potatoes. ( Tliey got as high as $10 a barrel for . Isweets that cost them less than a|' ioliar to produce. The government sees what they are doing and gets :ut bales of bulletins and sends its farm agents all over the country to tell farmers everywhere how to make big money out of sweet pota toes; it wasn't many years before they had the country flooded with Sweets and a sweet potato grower is lucky if he can get the cost of his fertilizer and barrels out of his! crop. "If the government had devotedj half as much effort to organizing the farmer and helping him with his marketing problem, as it has in teaching him how to destroy himself with overproduct'on, the fanner might be sitting pretty to-day; as it j is he is becoming a threat to the j government itself." "You talk like a farmer," said the Bank Clerk. "I was born on the farm," replied the Soda Jerker. "So was I." said the Bank Clerk, "but my folks moved to town when I was five years old and I never got any farming experience." "Well, I did." said the Soda Jerk er; "I worked on the farm before I was a year old." "Hooey!" said the Bank Clerk; 'what could a year old baby do on a farm "I milked," said the Soda Jerk er. "And you might add, spread manure," taunted the Bank Clerk. 85 j>er cent of all people have de fective vision. Are you one of these? Have your eyes examined today. DR. J .D. HATHAWAY, Carolina Building. _ ^ r4v. ' Auditor Gets' 2 Salaries and) Outside Help That Pasquotank County is now paying County Auditor C. C. Pritchard more |>cr annum than the law allows him and. furthermore, that the County is paying hun dreds of dollars annually to certified public accountants to perform duties which the County Auditor is supposed to perform is the interesting in formation gleened from the recent ly-published report of Auditor Prit chard for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 1932. Eighteen years ago last Friday, or on February 3, 1915, to be exact, the General Assembly enacted a law abolishing the ofTice of County Treasurer of Pasquotank County and created the office of County Au ditor. The Auditor's salary was set at $1,600 per year among his sub scrbied duties were: examining and endorsing accounts super-.) vising tax listing and super vising the tax books, report viola tions of the law on the part of other county officers, to inquire in to and investigate and file a detail ed and itemized account of the con dition of all county finances, the accounts cf all public officers, and I to make a true report thereof, and to "act as accountant for the Coun* | ty of Pasquotank in making settle- j ment with the sheriff and treasure*; to supervise, scrutinize and examine] all books, accounts, receipts and vouchers, and all other public re^. cords of the County to the end that it may be seen whether the various public offices are being kept in the! condition provided by law." There have been no acts passed since 1915 which repeal or amend in any way the sections establishing the office of County Auditor in this county, enumerating sard AudVWfc duties and setting his salary." Auditor Pritchard's report for the year ending June 30th, 1932, lists among disbursements the following items: "C. C. Pritchard ? Auditor?1 month at $133.33; C. C. Pritchard? Auditor?11 months at $120.00; C. I C. Pritchard?County Accountant? 1 month at $33.33; C. C. Pritchard? County Accountant?11 months at $30.00." The salaries of county officers, were cut 10 pef cent in 1931, and this explains why Mr. Pritchard re-! ceived a month's salary at one rat? and 11 months' salary at another. Not explained, tho. is the fact that County Auditor Pritchard receives $30.00 a month for serving as County Accountant when the law creating the office of County Audi tor states specifically that "It shall b? the duty of the said Auditor to act as accountant for the County of Pasquotank ," and does not allow him any extra compensation for this. If Auditor Pritchard were paid according ts the provisions oi the law creating his office (and that law has not been repealed, modified or amended*, he today would be receiv-1 ing $120.00 a month instead of $150. 00 a month. He is supposed to re ceive the $1,600 allowed him by law, less the 10 per cent cut, or a total of $1,440. He actually receives this $1,440. plus $360 as County Ac countant. making a total of $1,800. which is $200 per annum more than the law allows him. Tax payers are interested to know how this comes about. Another disbursement listed on Auditor Pritchard's last report reads "Bundy & Moran, making County Audit year 1930-1931?$800.00." "Why should eight hundred dol lars of the tax payers' money be paid to an auditing firm to make an audit of the county's books when we are paying a County Audi- J tor to do that very thing?" asked a tax payer of a member of the Board of County Commissioners. The commissioner explained thatj the $800 expenditure had been justi fied, since it had resulted in the discovery of shortages and dis crepancies in the accounts of some of the county officers totalling more I than that amount of money. "All, right, then," argued the tax, payer. "If an auditing firm can go into our courthouse and find that j more than $800 is owed the County j by some of its public officers, it | looks like we might be in need of a housecleaning. At least, we need a more competent auditor,?we are either paying an auditor too much or not paying enought to command the services of a real auditor." A proposal to allow the operation of the Aydlett filling statoin at the corner of Main and Road Streets, subject to a vote of the people in the May primary, was not acted up on by the City Council Monday night. _ , Orville Wright Wants Congress Keep Hands Off i I Why Xorlli Carolina nicm ibers of Congress do nothing about gelling the original Wright airplane returned from the British Science Mu seum, to America, is explain ed by Congressman Lindsay I Warren in a letter to Louis (iraves, editor of The Chapel Hill Weekly. Congressman Warren says: "./'bout four years ago, Congress man McSwain of South Carolina secured the passage in the House of a resolution authorizing an investi gation of the controversy. He was strongly in favor of the Wright side. When the resolution got to the Sen ate Mr. Orville Wright asked that it not be passed, and cf course that ended the matter. "I have talked with Mr. Wright once or twice about the subject and on two occasions I have made speeches when he was on the plat form. In each of them I made a delicate insinuation that the plane ought to be brought back and placed in the Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawk. In view of the foregoing. I doubt the propriety of taking any steps at this time. There are seme who very well un derstand Mr. Wright's attitude. Back in 1925 W. O. Saunders vis ited Dayton. O.. to interview Mr. Wright on the subject. It was Mr. Wright's attitude then that he and his brother had been done a grave Injustice by the Smithsonian Insti tution and only the Smithsonian I Institution could correct tha-t injus tice by voluntarily setting history (Continued cn Page Fcuri EASIER LOANS IFOR FARMERS THRO RJL C. C. Business farmers who are I in need of loans for carrying ion their operations can get | better accommodations thru | the Regional Agricultural [Credit Corporation at Ral jeigh, than thru the govern iment seed loan plan ,accord ling to Brooks Parham, repre senting the R. A. C. C. who was in Elizabeth City vester i day. I Loans ranging from $200 to many , thousands of dollars are obtainable jfiom the R. A. C. C. at 5Vt% in Iterest, for live stock, dairying, poul I try or other farm activities. The ! farmer makes his application thru jhis County Farm Demonstration! ! Agent and loans are generally quick-1 ' ly aproved; the R. A. C. C. taking ! a chattel mortgage as security. ? "If I had known this a few weeks ago I could have saved a lot of mon jey this year," said one Pasquotank I farmer this week. This farmer 'bought many tons of fertilizer on j time at a time price of $28.00 a ton, which he says he could have bought for $17 a ton cash. But he didn't know about the Regional Agricul tural Corporation with offices at Raleigh, N. C., or know that his , Farm Demonstration Agent could ' get such a loan for him. , ?A young man by. the name of ? Willie Hughey was arrested in Ral eigh charged with passing counter J feit ten-dollar bills. Hughey was : sentenced in 1927 to serve a term , in State's prison for larceny of an automobile. .j. 11 Ij'^j I Yes, Let's Think of Our Children I By W. 0. SAUNDERS I ?: children are entitled to something besides ail I education; they are entitled to a reasonable I degree of economic freedom when they come |j ! to manhood's and womanhood's estate. If we do not li I reduce our educational tax bill we shall not only im- I |)overish ourselves, hut leave an appalling heritage of jj II debt for these children and their grand-children to I stagger under for decades to come. We have already bonded this State for more than .100 million dollars and spread the debt over a period I; I of forty years that will not expire until the year 1007. li j| The interest on this bonded indebtedness as of Dec. 31, I I 1030 is 383 million dollars. Our children and grand- II II children will he paying on a grand total of 880 million li i| dollars debt principal and interest up into the year 1007, || and beyond that. And yet so unreasonable are the demands of our 11 educational die-hards that they would increase rather I than diminish this staggering tax burden, to give every | child an education that will not enable the rank and file of them to command jobs above soda jerking or i| pulling a gasoline pump. But the people are thinking. A Main St. business man said to me yesterday; "I am in favor of educa tion; I want to see the teachers in our schools well | paid; these teachers are my best patrons; they spend | | their lnoney in my store. But when they weep at the | suggestion of a 15 per cent pay cut, I think of myself. I My income has been cut 75 per cent; this year I will | be lucky to make a nickel clear of knots and limbs." People arc begining to think. W. 0. Etheridgc | chairman of the Board of Commissioner of Pasquo tank County, is a thinking citizen. He says to me: "I |j || appreciate the splendid editorial you wrote and pub lished last week on the front page of your pajjer. I am II not opposed to education I believe in it, vote for it; but 11 I am opposed to pauperizing the parent of to-day to j| make a prince of his child; I am opposed to an educa- jj tional tax burden that sells a plain citizen from under 11 his roof to make a finer roof for a public school system." It would be a great tiling for North Carolina if we | could lop off two months of the school term for a period | of two years to give us time to catch up with past due || p bills. With a shorter school term we could increase | the work of those pupils who are eager to learn and | who have an educational objective. There is nothing taught in an eight months term that a bright boy or | girl can't master in six months. As for the others, | the only effect of a two months curtailment of theif education would be to take them out of school wlierd* Jj 11 they won't learn but just so much anyway. || j| As a matter of fact we are forcing the education |j 11 of our children. We run them thru our public schools |i '| and into college by the time they are 17-ycars-old, too j| young to know what it's all about, too young and un- I | settled to take a college education seriously or seriously | apply themselves to it. Our educational mills are grind- | | ing out half-baked graduates faster than industry can |j make room for them. Let's think of our children?of Jtlie debts we are |j piling up for them and their cliildren to pay. Says Mr. Mencken If the South had forty editors like W. 0. Saun ders it would be ride of most of its troubles in five years. ?II. L. Mencken. To Save $2,000 ! A Year or More In Jury Fees i As results of a motion made by W. T. Love, Sr., and | passed by the Board of C0111 i missioners of Pasquotank County Monday afternoon, Pasquotank County will be better oft' by from $2,000 to $2,500 a year financially ami tlie^it|5"op\ibtf diifir'of serving on a jury in the Superior Court will henceforth be even less popular. Mi-. Love made a motion that the board reduce the salaries of all regular Jurors from $3.00 to $2.00 and slash the pay of pick-up jurors or talismen from $3.00 to $1.50. The [motion passed unanimously. I I [ One unacquainted with the judi cial system might think the saving) 'to be effected by lopping $1.00 off the pay of a juror would be incon sequential, but N> Elton Aydiett, Clerk of Superior Court for this County, estimates tnat the annaul saving to be gained by this rut will amount to more than $2,000. There are 14 weeks of Superior j Court in Pasquotank county in the) course of a year. The average num ber of jurors used during a court ?term is apprdximately 30. Fifty regular jurors are drawn for each weeks of criminal court and 30 arc drawn for the civil court. There al ways are some who have to be ex cused, however, so the average num ber of jurors to serve is at least 30. These jurors usually serve five days during the week. Thirty jurors serv-1 ing five days a week for fourteen weehs would draw $6,300 in the course of a year at the rate of $3.00 a day. The pay cut imposed by the county board will thus save the county one-third of this amount, or I $2,100. The extra fifty cents that will be saved on the daily pay of each pick-up juror will increase this amount slightly. The Commissioners also voted to cut of 25 per cent in the pay of diem to $3.75, this making a 'otel cut of 25 per centt in the pay of | Commissioners in the past two years. There was some objection to this cut and that imposed on jurors, Chairman W. O. Btheridge and Commissioner Grover Jennings con tending that the board should notj discriminate against the "common ; man" and the "little fellow" but should cut the salaries of everyone over whom they had jurisdiction. Commissioners Love and Hathaway assured the board that these were j just a small beginning or an "open- { ing wedge" leading up to more and bigger cuts. "We are going to cut all along the line," they said, "but we might .want to make bigger cuts on some of the others, so we don't want to ri&h into a commitment to a set reduction in the salaries of all coun ty employes. This is just a begin- j ning. We are not through yet." \ i Dr. I. A. Ward, in his monthly re port to the City Council Monday night, reported a slight epidemic of venereal diseases in the City at the present time. Dr. Ward said he has been called upon to treat a number of these cases at the expense of the city, but has declined to do so. 'K x \ Want A $5,000 Auditorium In Which to Stage A Billy Sunday Revival In This City One Pastor Would Like To See the City Build It?Mr. Sunday Wants Entertainment for Himself and Three Assistants, and a Substantial Guarantee for His Assistants ?Would Trust to the Lord to Get His To use a Billy Sunday revival as a means of ob taining for Elizabeth City a municipal auditorium or convention hall which will enable the city to utilize to the fullest advantage its unusual hotel facilities and other attractions is the suggestion made this week by Rev. J. L. Carrick, pastor of Blackwell Memoiial Baptist Church. itev. t;aincic ana omer memoers of the Elizabeth City Ministerial Association are anxious to bring Billy Sunday to Elizabeth City for a religious revival or campaign next Fall. Dr. Sunday is now around 71 years of age and still carries on the whirlwind, dynamic type of revivals which have made him world-famous, but the strain of conducting cam paigns in the larger cities has been too much for him recently; he has ceased to be a novelty in the big cities, and he is now confining him self to the small towns. The local Ministerial Association has cora i municated with him, and he has I informed them that he will come I here next Fall provided they will 'erect for him an auditorium that j will seat in excess of 2,000 persons and will guarantee the entertain ment of himself and three assist ants and two-thirds of the salaries of these assistants while in the city. He asks no guarantee for himself, but will take whatever contribution j the sponsors of the campaign care to I give him. The first item of expense incident to staging a Billy Sunday revival here, then, Is that of a suitable tab to hold . This plan is objected to oft the grounds that it will entail a large expenditure of money for tent rental, platform and benches and there will be nothing left to show for this expenditure when the re vival is over. The only alternative, in view of the fact that there is not a building in the city which could be converted into an auditorium suitable for a Billy Sunday religious campaign, is the erection of a tab ' ernacle. Rev. Carrick does not think a lot of money should be put into a large wcoden building which would be I used for a few weeks and then torn down. It is his idea to erect a sub stantial wooden structure on a brick foundation and to use it for ten or more years afterwards as a con vention hall and munici;,_ . iditor ium where conventions, revivals, con erts, automobile shows, food shows, indoor circuses and similar events [could be held. j "What I would like to see done," rays Rev. Carrick. "would be the erection of a building by the city, this building to be used first for the Billy Sunday campaign and later for various municipal purposes. What I have'in mind is a wooden building, built on a brick foundation, with a sawdust floor. The build ing would accommodate from 2,000 to 2,500 persons. It would be built [ os as to provide good acoustics and would be made substantial enough that it would last for a period of ten years or more. The total cost of such a building, accordirig to estimates I have secured, will prob 'ably amount to five or six thousand j dollars. Perhaps the city would be willing to pay such a price fo ra convention hallf. If not, it might be possible to ra; e this amount thru public subscription, and rentals coming from the building in later years could be distributed in some manner agreeable to all. "Elizabeth City has much to at tract conventions. The splendid hotel facilities, the general reputa tion of the town and the townspeople (Continued on Page Eight; NOW J1.00 Until we know just which corn er to look around for elusive Prosperity, The Independent will be issued to subscribers in the Elizabeth City trade territory only at the low price of $1.00 a year or 50 cts. for 0 months. Counties embraced in the Elizabeth City trade territory are Camden, Cur rituck, Chowan, Dare, Gates. Hyde.. Pasquotank, Perquimans and Tyrrell. Elsewhere the sub icription price will be $1.50 a year. $1.00 for 0 months, 50 cts. for 3 months. The Independent js the best depression tonic you can buy.