PAGE TWO
THE
CHATHAM RECORD
o. J. PETERSON
Editor and Publisher
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE:
One Year $1.50
Six Months 75
THURSDAY, MAY 30, 1929.
When the farmers of this
section received something
over SBOO one day last week
for chickens, it seemed fine.
But what do you think of
SIOOO a day being paid out
in Clinton for huckleberries
even before the real Sampson
blues begin to get ripe? The
crop is a boomer this year.
When the improved berries
are cultivated in sufficient
quantities Sampson will have
the banner market berry of
the whole country. Let the
writer pick and pack a crate
of Sampson blues and he
would wager he could ship
them to San Francisco by ex
press and that they would
arrive in good condition. If
they dried on the way, they
would be as good as the dried
currants of commerce. Fortu
nately, Sampson’s huckleber
ries are not like Chatham’s
rabbits—decline in number in
proportion to the marketing.
Those carloads of rabbits
could not be shipped from
Chatham in other years with
out diminishing the breeding
stock, with the result that the
former rabbit county cannot
now boast of its precedence in
that varmint.
i* G>
The government pays $240,-
000 for a post office site in
Greensboro which, according
to the Greensboro News, was
a part of a 100-acre tract that
sold for a dollar an acre in
1800. Here is example of what
is discussed in our long edi
torial this week. The Sloans
who get the money have had
no more to do with the en
hancement of the value of the
lot than thousands of other
people in North Carolina. If
the North Carolina railroad
had come through Pittsboro
as it should, no such value
would attach to that lot. $239,-
999 of the price is unearned
increment, and properly be
longs to the state which
brought about the enchance
ment in value.
Senator Norris of Nebraska
spoke “all day Monday’’ on
the subject of power company
control of the press, and the
impression made upon The
Greensboro News by his talk
was that it had some virtue
for it kept Tom Hefflin quiet, ■
i — f -■ ■—— ’ :
If you’re meeting your ob
ligations to yourself and your ,
creditors you’re doing more
tfcas people? *mm\ __
Every man Is sure of death ,
and taxes and that he’ll have
to shave when he wakes up !
in the morning.
<s> i
Next to receiving a present
from her husband nothing
pleases a woman more than
to boast of it to her friends.
If the shoes hurt the face
shows it.
■ <s>
PRINT SHOP CALLERS
VES.SIR, MR EDITOR.,-'* Tooiotwe^
! WVPER FROM FIRST ISSUE *
RAISED *T PROA A PVJP, VMKSWTJ*
, SAV* MAU/ AVID ME COUUOUT Wf
3 keep mouse vurruour -tw* ott m,
\ J WOME PAPER *■ WE ALVWAVS BECUV
l L RAIOrMTY PROOO OP IT, AUO OP
*-7 OUR EDITOR. -tOO*M«S.SIR
T ** as vl
; t
jj THE LOVAL*OLO
• SUBSCRIBER-
CONSIDERATION OF THE EXTENT
AND CAUSES OF MONOPOLIZATION
®
In the three preceding arti
cles have been discussed the
menace of profits, the present
urge of capitalists and pro
moters to gobble up the re
maining properties of perma
nent income character, and
the effects of the proximate
control of all such properties
by a very small percentage of
the people. But there is still
much to say on those subjects.
From the former considera
tions, it is clear that the con
trol of the sources of wealth
has already largely passed
from the masses, and that to
day only, a small fraction of
the people control the means
of their livelihood. Asked as
to what proportion of the peo
ple of Durham, for instance,
own or control their means of
livelihood, a banker guessed
five per cent, or one in twenty.
And the writer, in last week’s
article, suggested that in the
average city no more than one
in ten has such control. Fig
ures are not available, if they
exist, to indicate such per
centage, but these articles are
written with an appeal to the
common sense and observation
of the reader, and we leave
it to him to judge of the con
servativeness of such an esti
mate. On the other hand, the
proportionate number of ten
ant farmers in North Caro
lina is known to be increas
ing, and it is a just inference
that a similar condition pre
vails in other sections of the
country. Then too, must be
reckoned the number of nom
inal farm owners who are
paying tribute through land
mortgages. But scarcely more
than a third of the population
of the country now live upon
the farms. Yet among the
farmers we must look for a
large part of the number who
actually own their own means
of livelihood.
But credits in the form of
government bonds have not
been touched, and when Unit
ed States bonds, bonds of the
States, the counties, the towns
and cities, the townships, the
school districts, levee and
drainage districts, etc., are
totaled the sum runs into
many billions. Yet it is con
ceded that such bonds do not
furnish an immediate hold
upon the properties of the
country, but they do lay trib
ute upon the incomes of the
people for years to come, and
are of such nature that they
may be readily used in the
actual purchase of property,
through sale or security for
loans. However, there is one
pleasing feature about this
class of securities—they levy
their tribute largely upon the
capitalist class, that is, the
monopolists must, in a great
measure, refund their brethren
the bond-owners, so? it is to
be emphasized that these
bends represent the winnings
of the capitalist classes, and
must be reckoned as a part of
the holdings of the few.
Accordingly, when the bil
lions represented in the vari
ous kinds of government bonds
are added to the actual pos
sessions of the capitalist class,
their mortgage holds upon
other properties, and the ac
tual cash in bank, the values
represented by the masses feink
into comparative insignificance.
The bank quoted above opines
that if the property of Ghat
ham county were sold v at a
fair price it would little, if
any, more than pay its pro
portional part of the various
forms of government credits,
and clear off the mortgages
actually existing against the
properties of the county. The
county itself owes considera
bly over a million dollars; the
State owes nearly two hundred
millions, the United States
government several billions,
while probably half the farms
in the county are mortgaged
up to the hilt. But in such
case of foreclosure, w|hat
should happen to remain over
full payment would belong to
only a handful of the citizens
of the county.
Now it can not be gainsaid
that every one of these cred
its, including government
bonds of all forms, belongs to
probably not more than one
twentieth of the people of the
country. Perhaps, you helped
sell Liberty bonds. Wouldn’t
you have been glad to have
been able to sell even one
small bond to every twentieth
head of a family in your coun
ty? And in that case there
was the strong patriotic ap
peal, as well as the invest
ment feature, to induce the
citizen to invest; moreover, it
was a time of easy money.
But in addition to govern
ment bonds, many institutions
have been bonded in recent
days. Suffice it to refer to
the million dollars issued in
bonds to rebuild Meredith Col
lege, which has become a lia
bility upon the Baptists of
North Carolina. .Capitalists
hold those bonds. And one
can get an adequate concep
tion of the accumulation of
the wealth of the country into
the hands of the tenth, twen
tieth, or thirtieth of the pop
ulation only by considering all
these forms of credit which
are a virtual mortgage upon
the assets of the country and
are constantly levying tribute
upon its resources, and through
interest accumulations making
further investment by pur
chase, mortgage, or govern
ment security possible, and
thus bringing closer the day
when the actual possessions
and the mortgage and bond
securities of the few shall
overtop the actual values of
the country. Yes, sir; the
trend makes it possible for
independent holdings of capi
talists, together with their
mortgage and bond securities,
to surpass even the total sum
of the wealth of the country;
just as an unfortunate investor
has found that the mortgaged
property will not bring at
public sale the amount of his
note.
Necessarily, such a condi
tion argues a concentration of
wealth in the hands of a few
to the disadvantage of the
many through a long period.
The evil is not one of recent
origin. And yet it is not all
an evil. Accumulations have
made possible developments
for which there would have
been no other adequate means.
But if the race had sufficient
ly advanced in wisdom two
hundred years ago to discover
and adopt some meahs of
making the requisite develop
ments as the advances of sci
ence pointed the way, without
suffering huge accumulations
of wealth and power in the
hands of the exceptional man,
the present condition could
have been prevented.
■lt must be remembered,
don’t lose sight of it, that all
the wealth of the country, and
all that shall be created, have
been produced from the na
tive resources of the country
and by the brain and brawn
of the people. An Astor, a
Rockefeller, a Ford, each and
all of them, would have been
unable, apart from the re
sources which were the prop
erty of the whole country and
of the labor of their under
lings, to achieve their won
derful careers. Their accom
plishments have undoubtedly
been blessings, but the same
accomplishments without the
menace of financial control of
industry would have been
greater blessings, £lqr is it
reasonable to. say that any
body else had the same priv
ilege of attaining financial
dominance. It is as simple as
saying that anybody could be
president, when only about
a score and a half have at
tained that honor within 140
years. But the farmers of our
constitution were wise enough
to put curbs upon the ambi
tion of any president whose
ambition should suggest the
grasp of sovereign power. And
those limitations have by no
means hindered the full
achievement of the presidents
in behalf of their country. On
the contrary, the limitations,
the hedges upon their power,
have necessitated the concen
tration of their energies upon
activities making, as they con
ceived, for the welfare of the
people, and not upon their
own aggrandizement. A presi
dent can become great only
by great and unselfish service.
There will be one, and only
one, master cock of the walk,
but his spurs may be blunted.
Financial dominancy proba
bly had its first basis in fortu—
nate purchase of land. Aster
accumulated basic funds in the
fur trade, and such accumula
tions were more due to his
own initiative and enterprise
than to all other things. But*
THE CHATHAM RECORD, PITTSBORO, N. C.
when he invested those funds
in New York City real estate
at the comparatively nominal
figures of those days, he se
cured as an effective post for
exploiting the wealth of the
country as the boldest robber
baron ever possessed. No man
can alone add greater value to
an acre of land than the
equivalent of his labor and
funds invested upon it. Yet
our government, which would
not suffer a robber baron to
seize and fortify a spot from
which he could lay tribute
upon the people, has suffered
the fortunate possessors of
land areas which nature and
the activities of the people
have made as strategic in a
business way as the robber
baron’s castle at the entrance
of the mountain pass for rob
bery, to hold the unearned in
crement upon the property.
The Astor lands in New York
City would function today to
their full capacity if the value
of the naked land had never
surpassed the price Astor paid
for it.
Unearned increments in land
values have created the foun
dations of hundreds of for
tunes, and in many cases the
good fortune of the possessor
was not even due to his own
good judgment. It merely
happened that he was in the
right spot. We need go no
further to illustrate than to
Chapel Hill, seventeen miles
from theis office. The pour
ing out of milliions of dollars
there the past fifteen years in
the development of the Uni
versity has trebled land val
ues at Chapel Hill is a direct
or an indirect tax upon every
patron of the University. Land
values in a measure determine
the price of room rent and
of food in a cafeteria. Would
n’t it be a bonanza if one
could purchase a site for a
cafeteria on Main street, at
the doors of the University,
at the price at which it could
have been purchased fifteen
years ago? Every student who
buys a meal in one of the
Chapel Hill cafeterias is help
ing pay an income upon val
ues created by the contribu
tions of the State in behalf
of that same student.
It was possible at one time
for the government to pre
vent such unearned acquisi
tions. Land values could have
been held by law at similar
soil values in a whole county,
say, and the advantage in in
come of the possessor have
been equalized by an income
tax upon that portion of his
income accruing from advan
tage of position. Or prices
might have been allowed to
9
Just another good
■*!
thing added to the £
other good things
of life * ;
Camel
CIGARETTE S
L— ih x
WHY CAMELS
ARE THE BETTER CIGARETTE
f Camels contain such tobaccos and such
blending as have never been offered in
any other cigarette.
They are made of the choicest Turkish and
American tobaccos grown.
Camels are always smooth and mild.
Camel quality is jealously maintained. . .
by the world ’s largest organization of
expert tobacco men ... it never varies.
Smoke Camels as liberally as you choose ...
they will never tire your taste.
\ Nor do they ever leave an unpleasant
© 1929, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco
' , Company, Winston-Salem, N. C.
v
i range as circumstances di
rected, as has been the case,
and the government have
levied upon the unearned in
crement. Consider two men
in a community. A railroad
1 comes and the depot is lo
cated upon the one’s farm,
and a town springs up im
: mediately, multiplying the val
ue of that one’s land, while
; the other with as fair an area
has no sale for his except as
i farm land. The railroads were
justified in their practice of
anticipating such gains by
buying the town site before
the location of the depot. But
while the gain was due to the
builders of the railroad rather
than to the fortuitous owner
of the land, in the end values
; were made by the people who
. patronized the railroad and
. the new town.
But it is too late now to
forestall the financial advan
tages that have come, in this
way, to the few to the dis
advantage of the many. Every
unearned increase in land
values has laid tribute upon
a portion of the people. But
even yet, there is time for
an alleviation of this condi
tion. No further enrichment
of the fortunate few at the
expense of the people should
be permitted through allow
ing the retention of unearned
increments of land values by
those who happen to be pos
sessors of land enhanced in
value by the agency of the
State or the activities of the
people, by whatever means
determined in any direction.
This is merely starting the
discussion of the causes that
have produced a result so un
propitious as that of the pass
ing of the control of the coun
try’s wealth, and industries,
and the economic independ
ence of the multitude of citi
zens into the hands of a small
coterie of the population. But
the year is before us, and
the discussion is discontinued
till the next issue of The
Record.
<*>
THURSDAY, MAY SB
THE VISION OF ST. AMBROSE
In his cloistered cell good q*
brose lay, bt * A*.
And prayed to his Heavenly
on high, y attl er
To guide his feet to some sa „ ,
spot,—
Where the blessed Christ-man Woi]l , 1
pass by. UUJ d
He Cl °“£ ]ls h ; is eyes on hi * darkens
To dream of martyrs and saint,
glory; ln
And a specter crowned with n i,
of light, a hal »
Spoke to this holy man, as run.
this story. XI? -
“Tomorrow eve, when the vesr*,
shades appear,
And curtain the dim light of fading
In yon wood go stand near the be?
gar’s hut,
For the Christ-man will come that
way.” 1
Next eve beheld that good saintlv
man, x
Watching with a soul that could
never tire; ,
But none saw he save a beggar old'
and bent,
Gathering fagets to light his evening
To his lonely cell St. Ambrose wends
his way,
With a heart that was crushed with
sorrow;
But the angel returned and spoke as
before,
“Thou shalt see the Christ-man on
the morrow.”
Next sun was slowly passing out of
sight,
Scattering golden beams o’er sea and
glade;
But none passed near where the
hermit stood,
’Cept the ragged beggar plying his
evening trade.
Joy forsook the soul of that godly
man,
As he lay that night on his hermit
cot, —
Till the vision stood by and spoke
again,
“O, blind man art thou! Last eve
and today,
You saw the Christ-man and knew:
Him not.”
C. O. SMALL.
Siler City, N. C.
Note—After reading the story of
the prayer of St. Ambrose to be al
lowed to see Christ in person, this
poem suggested itself to my mind.
—C. 0. s.
®
A CARD OF THANKS
We wish to expend our sincere
thanks to the people who were so
kind in rendering their services and
sympathy during the illness and
death of our husband and father.
Mrs. J. R. Bright and family.
<S>
YES, HE TRAVELED.
What has become of the Scotch
man who had his name changed ba
court order to “Pullman” so that w
would correspond with the name on
his towels?
666
is a Prescription for
Colds, Grippe, Flu, Dengue,
Bilious Fever and Malaria
It is the most speedy remedy known.