The Carolina Watchman
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY MORNING BY
The Carolina Watchman Publishing Co.
SALISBURY, NORTH CAROLINA
Established in 1832 100th Year of Publication
E. W. G. Huffman_Editor
S. Holmes Plexico_Business Manager
PHONES:
News and editorials-695
Advertising and circulation-532
Business_ 532 J
Locals and Personals-2610-J
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Entered as second-class mail matter at the postoffice at Salis
bury, N. C., under the act of March 3, 1879.
"If the choice were left to me whether to have a
free press or a free government, I would choose a
free press.”—Thomas Jefferson.
FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 5, 1932
<UNt^|j|jkABEC>
POPULATION DATA
CITIES AND TOWNS
Salisbury _ 16,9SI Gold Hill - 156
Spencer _ 3,129 Granite Quarry _ 507
E. Spencer _ 2,098 Rockwell _ 696
China Grove_ 1,258 Faith - 431
Landis_ 1,388 Kannapolis_ 13,912
TOWNSHIPS
Atwell _ 2,619 Morgan - 1,327
China Grove_ 8,990 Mt. Ulla _ 1,389
Cleveland _ 1,445 Providence- 2,589
Franklin_ 2,246 Salisbury - 25,153
Gold Hill _ 2,642 S. Irish_ 1,251
Litaker_ 2,562 Steele - 1,142
Locke_ 1,904 Unity- 1,406
ROWAN COUNTY_56,665
LOW WAGES AND PROSPERITY
One of the arguments of wage reduction ad
vocates is the claim that lower wages will stim
ulate business recovery and hasten the return
of prosperity by enabling manufacturers to
reduce their production costs and consequent
ly the prices for the articles which their em
ployes produce.
This contention received a heavy blow by
the report of the U. S. Bureau of Agriculture
Economics on wages of farm laborers. The
Bureau said that wages on United States farms
have dropped below the 1931 level. Lowest
wages are paid in the South Central and South
Atlantic States, at 72 to 74 cents a day with
board and 96 cents to $1.02 a day without
board. Highest wages are paid in the North
Atlantic States, where the average rate is $1.70
per day with board and $2.37 without board.
Monthly rates, the Bureau found, range
from $14.43 with board in the South Atlantic
States to $32.39 with board in the Far West
ern Sates; and without board, from $21.80 in
the South Atlantic States to $31.45 in the Far
Western States.
The Bureau also found numerous instances,
particularly in the North Central States, of
laborers driven to the point of working for
their food and lodging alone, which is the diet
the farmers furnish to their horses.
If the wage reducers’ contention that low
..wages and the following low production costs
contribute to business revival and prosperity,
the farmers should be in the foremost ranks of
prosperity.
But the truth is that millions or tnem are
on the verge of bankruptcy despite the fact
that in addition to low wages they are assist
ed by the Federal Land Banks to loan them
hundreds of millions of Government furnish
ed money at reasonable rates and backed up
by the Federal Farm Board subsidized with
$500,000,000 supplied by the Government to
stabilize the prices of farm products at reas
onable figures.
Their condition is so desperate that Con
gress has appropriated an additional $125,
000,000 for the use of the Federal Land Banks
to assist them with new loans.
The situation in which the American farm
ers are placed should put a definite quietus on
the activities of low-wage propagandists.
Low wages, with the consequent small buy
ing power of the workers, are’ our greatest
handicap to the revival of normal business ac
tivity and the return of prosperity.
It is regrettable that some of our reading
business men have not the clearness of vision
to see this elemental economic truth.
WHITE AND NEGRO TENANCY IN
NORTH CAROLINA
When one thinks of farm tenancy in North
Carolina he usually thinks of it as a negro
problem and dismisses it as such, but figures
and facts given in the University News Letter
by S. H. Hobbs, Jr., show the fact is that 59
per cent, of all farm tenants in North Caro
lina are white farmers. Ten years ago only fif
ty-four per cent, of all tenants in the State
were white farmers. Thus during the last ten
years the farm tenant problem has become
more largely a white problem. This is merely
a continuation of the trend for several decades,
accentuated during the last decade, and espe
cially the last five years.
A study of the trend of tenancy by races
during the last decade gives some very inter
esting and significant results.
For instance, the negro population increas
ed slightly above twenty per cent., but farms
operated by negroes increased less than one per
cent.
Farms operated by negro tenants increased
by 3,222. During the last five years there has
been a decrease in farms operated by negro
tenants.
Farms operated by white tenants increased
almost exactly seventeen thousand, eleven
thousand of which is the product of the last
five years.
During the last five years farms operated by
white farm owners have decreased nearly six
teen thousand, while farms operated by negro
owners have decreased just a fraction over two
thousand.
One of the most alarming facts is the large
increase in the cropper type of tenants, the
lowest form of tenancy. During the last five
years farms operated by white cropper tenants
have increased by more than twelve thousand,
and farms operated by negro croppers have in
creased by four thousand five hundred. Thus
the five-year increase in cropper tenants has
been approximately seventeen thousand.
Farms operated by white part-owners, who
are part-owners-part-tenants, have increased
by nearly four thousand in five years, while
farms operated by negro part-owners have
actuall decreased.
Thus it every turn it is evident that the trend
has been in the direction of increased tenancy
on the part of white farmers. The ratio of
farms operated by white tenants has increased;
the number of white tenants has increased
much more rapidly than negro tenants; the
number of white owners have decreased much
more rapidly than the number of negro own
ers; the number of white croppers has increas
ed much more rapidly than negro croppers,
and so on. It seems to be very definitely estab
lished that white farmers have fared worse
than negro farmers, though both have lost
ground in the struggle to move out of tenancy
into ownership.
Ten years ago 32.8 per cent, of all white
farmers were tenants. Now 39.7 per cent, of
all white farmers are full tenants while a con
sderable per cent, are only part-owners.
A decade ago 70.7 per cent, of all negroes
were full tenants. No. 73._6 per cent, of all
negro farmers are tenants, while a consder
able additional per cent, are part-tenants. Thus
again, the trends are against the white opera
tors.
There are twenty-two counties where more
than half of the white farmers are tenants. All
are important cotton or tobacco counties, or
boh. Twenty-three other counties have from
forty to fifty per cent, of their white farmers
classed as tenants.
In sixty-six counties more than half the ne
gro farmers are tenants. In twenty-one coun
ties more than eighty per cent, of all negro
farmers or tenants. Every county that has a
high white tenant rate also has a high negro
tenant rate. Most counties that have low white
tenant rates have fairly low negro tenant
rates. Inhere are a few counties that do not
conform to this rule, such as Davidson, Ca
tawa, Allamance, Rowan and Stanly that have
high negro tenant rates.
There are sixteen counties where the per
cent, of negro tenancy is lower than the per
cent, of white tenancy. All such counties have
relatively few negro farmers.
The theorists can call it what they please but
the majority of Americans, including the peo
ple of Salisbury, subscribe to the doctrine that
every citizen should have the opportunity to
earn the necessities £fclife, at least.
The power of money, in national and in
ternational affairs, is entirely too great. Our
financial system exists for the benefit of our
people, not for their mulcting.
Learn a word a day and by the time you
are ten years older you will have added 3,653
new words to your vocabulary; that’s prob
ably more than you have now.
No man is bigger than Salisbury. Every
individual should co-operate in the task of
making it a better place for children to live,
to grow and to develop in.
The other day a Salisbury lady declared she
could not wear her new hat because she had
no dress or shoes to match it. You can see
where this leads.
Will the Groundhog Stay Out? — By Albert T. Reid
•►♦♦♦♦♦•I1 +
| The !
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I Watchman !
! Tower |
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To All Motorists:
According to a brief article in The
Safe Driver, a publication of the Na
tional Safety Council, about 90 per
cent of all motor vehicle accidents
can be charged to three things: Bad
judgment, carelessness and stupidity.
In a recent study of over a million
motor accidents, it was found that the
entire share of fatal accidents attri
butable to defects in the car amount
ed to only about 11 per cent, while
for non-fatal accidents the car was
defective in but 5 per cent of the
cases.
In other words, 9 accidents out of
10 are the fault of the man who drives
the car, and not the car itself. As Dr.
Miller McClintock, of Harvard, has
phrased it, the remedy is to convince
man that he must live up to his car.
When he reaches as high a degree of
perfection in his driving as the modern
automobile represents, deaths on
streets and highways will be due for
a 90 per cent drop.
The modern highway is often con
gested. Traffic moves fast. There is
no time for absent-mindedness, for a
single instant of distraction from the
job at hand. Everyone who drives an
automobile should keep in the front
of his mind the trinity of destruction:
Bad judgment, carelessness, stupidity.
Governor Matthew Rowan.
To the Farmers of
Rowan County:
In a recent radio address, David
Lawrence, the well-known political
journalist and editor of the United
States Daily, said that the present
transition of agriculture from an un
organized basis, constitutes the most
hopeful feature of the present agri
cultural situation.
The cooperative movement is grow
ing to a remarkable degree, not only
in scope but in strength. There are
now about 12,000 cooperative associa
tions in the country, with a total
membership of about 2,000,000 farm
ers. They did a business totaling $2,
’400,000,000 last year—an increase of
$100,000,000 over 1930.
Thus, in spite of present depressed
conditions, agriculture should be op
timistic for the future. The day the
first cooperative started was a red let
ter day in the history of farming. And
the day the last group of unorganized
farmers join together for mutual ben
efit, the farmer will have reached the
goal for which the more progressive
members of his industry are working.
The time when a man could stand
alone in his business dealings is past.
He must join with his fellows in the
same endeavor, so that all may pros
per and find a sound market for what
they have to sell.
Governor Matthew Rowan.
,
COMMENTS
BACKYARD SCENES
To the Editor:
Four little autos all in a row,
All shined up and no place to go;
No engine trouble nor repairs to be
done—
Only just a little tag marked 1931!
Martha Opie Hodges.
CATERWAULING OVER THE
RADIO
To the Editor:
Cardinal O’Connell has of late paid
his respects to these "crooners.” We
don’t blame him. That caterwauling
is enough to make anybody sick. There
is entirely too much of this crooning
and blue spooning. Once in a blue
moon ought to be enough.
Fred Vetter.
IN SAD SFIAPE INDEED
To the Editor:
I recently read with a great deal of
amusement a dispatch from Monck
Corners, S. C., telling of two young
men of the town who, upon learning
of the failure of the local bank in
which they had $2,000, procured guns
and proceeded to hold up the bank and
take their own money. They later hid
the money in a field and surrendered.
The incident itself is of minor im
portance, but the affairs of this coun
try are in sad shape indeed when two
law-abiding citizens have to turn bank
robbers in order to secure money that
is rightfully theirs.
Gordon D. Jones.
CROONING OMNIA VINCIT
To the Editor:
I would like to know what a true
love song is in the opinion of Cardinal
O’Connell, of Boston.
He said that no true American man
would practice the base art of croon
ing such immoral, imbecile slush that
is to be heard over the radio.
How can any one who is supposed
to be a leader of Christianity call love
a "base art”? And that songs that
appeal to sex emotion are not sung by
real men? What is his definition of
real men?
Omnia vincit amor. O. M. F.
A CURE FOR THE DEPRESSION
WHICH NOBOD ELSE SEEMS
TO HAVE THOUGHT OF
To the Editor:
“Courage, brother! Get honest, and
(JO£ <q/SH
TREE AIR
Tirst Thing some
foLKS ask when
THEY DO GET A JoB IS
WHEN can THEY TAKE
A VACATION.
I
FAITH
By Frances Anne Kemble
Better trust all and be deceived,
And weep that trust and that deceiving
Than doubt one heart that, if believed,
.Had blessed one*s life -with true be
lieving.
Oh, in this mocking world, too fast
The doubting fiend o’ertakes our
youth;
Better be cheated to the last
Than lose the blessed hope of truth.
times will mend.”
I wonder if, by chance, this has oc
curred to anyone? Business Girl.
INJUSTICE TO RAILROADS
To the Editor:
One might say that the United
States was born through the injustice
of "taxation without representation.”
In this day there is another body suf
fering from just such treatment—the
railroads. They are taxed by munici
pality, by State and Federal Govern
ment to no end; they are also regu
lated by these same bodies in all their
operations. On the other hand, we
have the bus lines—passenger and
freight—acting as common carriers
with no such regulations as to rates
to be charged, schedules to be main
tamed, safety regulations to be com
plied with, reports to be filed with
various governmental bodies and
various other obligations, all of these
being very costly. And as to right of
way —the bus lines have it free. The
public highways practically belong to>
them. By right of size they take what
they want of the roads and it is a
foolish individual who will attempt to>
clash with them in his pleasure car
for the rights on the road. Additional1
to this flagrant inequality, we have:
the governmental authorities behind;
numerous waterway projects which
compete with the railroads. But the:
most unjust part of it is that in the:
main these waterway systems are:
maintained through Government aidv
possibly to a great extent from taxes
paid by the railroads.
Thus it is explained that the en
ormous outlay which the railroads arc
compelled to make for meeting ex
penses, plus the fact that they are
compelled to charge what a tariff calls
for (rebating being unlawful), places
them on an unfair basis with their
competitors; and :this, in effect, is
"taxation without representation,”'
inasmuch as they cannot possibly
match their competitors while burden
ed with the obligations stated.
Accordingly, as we believe our fore
fathers were right in the stand they
took in 1776, we as a fair-minded
people should see that the wrong be
ing perpetrated by the bus lines and
waterways system should be rectified
not forgetting that the railroads as
quasi-public institutions are the wards
of the public and that our public
welfare is infinitely dependent upon
their successful operation.
Charles P. McEvoy.