A Pap*r with a Preitiga of a Half Century. A a Com* maafty Paper ESTABLISHED SEPTEMBER 19, 1878. New Appraisals to Begin Jan- Ist VV. H. Ferguson Appointed Supervisor of Revaluation of | Lands at Salary of $5.00 a | Day— Township Appraisers, or Listers, Appointed. / — The law provides that new ap praisments of property, real and personal, shall be made each fourth ve ar, and provides that the com missioners shall appoint a county supervisor at a per diem of $4 to netner all three of the township m Chatham Vote A Criterion ✓ The Record is in receipt of a questionaire from Senator Nye’s election committee and has replied that not one cent was spent for ad vertising by either Senator Simmons, J. W. Bailey, or Geo. Pritchard in the Chatham Record. Furthermore, iwe reply that very little was spent ifor either candidate in the county in any way. Bailey didn’t need it, and it would have done either | Simmons or Pritchard very litt e good. Moreover, Chatham is the one ' county in the state that has out ! lawed absentee voting in the pri mary, consequently was no froud along that line in Chatham. Hence, the vote in Chatham, both in the primary and in the general election, may be accepted as a criterion of the sentiment ot tne state, particularly in the contest be tween Bailey and Simmons. Senator Nye is persistent, and there are places in the state where signs of fraud are in evidence, but such fraud as was perpetrater was affected results very little. It was the work of those rouges who would steal even when there is no necessity for it. And the likely consequense of such rottenness Is the placing of congressional elections under the supervision of National authorities. Such a bill has already been intro duced by Senator Patterson, a mem ber of Senator Nye’s committee. When that happens, the election rouges in North Carolina may sim ! ply thank themselves for tne na | tional interference. $ Goldston—Knox I Mr. and Mrs. John J. Knox of !Wi mington announce the engage ment of their daughter, Mary Etnel to Eugene F. Goldston. The Knox family is one of the most promi nent of Brunswick county. They live just across the Cape Fear river from Wilmington. "Mr. Gold- I ston is the son of Mr. and Mrs. R. iL. Goldston, now of Wake Forest but recently of Chatham county. ;He is a graduate of State College of class 1929. j "" "" > - —the per diem will be as low as the law allows, for the, board is clearly on the watch for the op portunity to save every dollar pos sible. PITTS2ORO, N. C., CHATHAM COUNTY, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1930 Photos from Wide World Photos UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT POSES FOR OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH This is the approved official photograph of the United States Supreme Court as it is now constituted, the first group photograph made under Chiel Justice Charles E. Hughes. Standing left to right: Justices, Stone, Sutherland, Butler and Roberts. Seated, left to right: Justices Mcßey nolds, Holmes, Chief Justice Hughes, Justices Van Devanter and Brandels. The official photograph was made exclusively iby Harris & Ewing. Gant Draws Ten Years in the Pen —* — I Former Clerk of Guilford Court Pleads Guilty to Va rious Crimes Attending Rob bery of Confederate Pen sioners and Orphans. Responsible for the loss to the state and to Confederate pensioners of nearly SIOO,OOO. and charged with a shortage of SIOO,OOO in his management of trust funds, much of which was held in trust for or phans, Mason W. Gant, former clerk of Gufford Superior Court, througn counsel last Monday, pleaded guilty to certain charges and entered pleas of nolo contendere in numerous oth ers, thus considerably shortening the time expected to be required in dis posing of the scores of cases against the man. Counsel attempted to make some plea for mercy, but reports indi cate that it was faint-hearted. It is generally admitted that Gant’s health is very bad and that he will probably not live to serve the ten years in the penitentiary to which he was sentenced by Judge Devin, but even that condition and the sad plight of his family can not arouse any great degree of sym pathy for a wretch so heartless as to stea 1 the pension of a hundred year old man splurge on it while the poor old soldier is snendine- th° 101st year of his life in the Guilford county home. j Gant’s rogueries have been going jon for years and were not even slightly checked by the discovery and punishment of similar crimes by the clerk of the Sampson county court six or seven years ago. In deed, the pension checks have proved much better pickings since that date, as the checks now are very much larger than tho-e which Clerk Sessoms and Gant had to satisfy themselves with in the earlier days of their thievery. But equally indifferent to the le sons of the Sessoms case was State Auditor • Baxter Durham, who by the discovery of Sessoms’ defalca tions shou’d have been thoroughly put on guard against similar defal cation. Yet it seems clear that the state auditor not only did not guard against future thievery by the same means but veen failed to check up the Guilford pension warrants with the vital statistics records, and pre sumably neglected to do the same in other counties. Thus Clerk Gant was given carte blanche to continue his stealings. DEATH OF DR. CAIN After living 83 years and serv ing efficiently in many capaci ties. Prof. William Cain, so long teacher of mathmatics at the Uni versity, was the victim Saturday evening of an automobile. The old teacher, the last time the writer saw him was as straight and trim as an Indian. He was an o’d time gentleman and a wonderful mathematician. But the modern nemesis got him. Dr. Cain was a native of Hillsboro and was bur ied in that old town Monday. — JOHN G. CLARK A CANDIDIATE Mr. John G. Clark, a Chathamite, we believe, by birth, but living ' just across the line in Alamance, ■ is a candidate for sergeant at arms in the senate. Mr. Clark has served ; one or two terms, we believe, as an assistant, but now seeks promotion. ! Well, here’s hoping Mr. Clark gets the job. He is sure one Democrat, if not one and a half, and those s senators who wish to reward party >- loyalty would as well get ready ■ to vote for John G. Clark. He doubt less has a friend in Mr. Fountain who will preside over the senate. New Office Room Planned for C-H* I • — Girl Uses Knife I —<§> — Gurtha Cotten, a colored girl, got on the war path with a knife last Thursday. She and other girls were picking cotton for Marin Scur lock when the fuss began. Ollie Crutchfield, a buxom damsel, got a three-inch slice in a cheek and Beulah Green a cut on the nose and one on an arm. O lie chased her assailant home, unmindful of the clash in her cheek. Dr. Chapin did the patching, and Judge Lysander Johnson the binding over to court. He bound over all to the court ex cept me, said Ollie. ! L. C. ELLIS WRITES —— The Record is in receipt of a nice letter and check from Mr. L. C. Ellis, one of the Chatham county ex-service boys, who spent several years at Oteen Hospital but a year or so ago. was transferred to the hospital at Fort Bavnard, New Mexico. We had supposedly been contributing the Record to this brave ex-soldier as our part to ward making his exile more pleas ant, but the gallant young fell ow sent us a three dollar check and called for a statement for the who’e time. But he may count himself up to Jan. 1,’32 or as much longer as he pleases, i Continuing his letter, Mr. Ellis says: “Being exiled . from Old Chatham, I enjoy the news the Record gives of the affairs of the county and the news items from the state at large. Your editorials are also read with interest, and they would do 'credit to any news paper. It would be appreciated if you would announce the name of the publisher of the First Volume of Dr. George Paschal’s History of the Baptists of North Carolina when it is issued. Yours very trulv, Leßoy C. Ellis.” ; ® j EXECUTOR’S NOTICE Having qualified as executrix of the last will and testament of the ; late James L. Griffin, of Chat , ham County, I hereby warn all per . sons holding claims against the . estate to persent them duly prov s en on. or before the Bth day of , December 1931 or this notice will i be pleaded in bar of their recov ■ ery. All persons owing the estate r will please make early payment. This the Bth day of December i 1930. Mrs. Hettie Griffin, Executrix. Low Farm Income Dooms Tenant System! The* antiquated cropper system of farming, as practised in North Caro lina and the South, is doomed. “This is no new revelation,” says R. H. Rogers, farm manage ment economist at State College. “The system! has been doomed since its inception, as it is not logical to expect a year’s living from a half year’s work. Neither is it likely that slip-shod operations and manage ment in any business will long sup port one family let alone two or more.” The day *of reckoning will be 1 hastened, says Mr. Rogers, by six - things and these are the expansion i of cotton growing towards the west, 1 the increased use of rayon and other < cotton substitutes, the continued heavy boll weevil infestation, mount- < ing cash expenses including taxes, ' the expansion of tobacco acerage ’ which has resulted in over-produc- 1 tion, and more recently a curtailed < domestic buying power. ' Mr. Rogers says the unprofitable- i ness of the tenant system is not < new. However, in former days it : would provide the landowner with ; enough cash to pay his taxes and to arrange for the next season’s produc tion. At the same time it would give the tenant some kind of living. Now the tenant gets a living and there is nothing left for the landowner. This makes it imperative that a change be brought about. The live-at-home program must be intensified. This will release ten ants who must find other farms or go into the overcrowded ranks of labor. At any rate, the landowner cannot continue to feed and care for tenants who return his no profit. Alert farmers are now changing, says Mr. Rogers, and others will soon be forced to change through bankruptcy or curtailment of credit. In the future more work must be done with modern machinery causing small farms to be thrown together for ‘ economical operations and extra labor needed wi 1 be hired on a cash basis, says the eco nomist. Mrs. Johnson Dead — Mrs. Joanna Johnson, widow of Peter Johnson, who lived in the extreme northwestern part of the county, died Sunday morning, Nov. 30, at the age of 78. She had long been suffering from the effects of a stroke of paralysis. The burial was at Big Meadows Primitive Bap tist church. Mrs. Johnson was the mother of Messrs. H. W., Cicero, S. Y., and Seymour Johnson, and Mrs. Martha J. Smith, all of Siler City R. F. D., and Mrs. Julia Marley of Pittsboro, RFD. She has one brother, Mr. Sey mour Lewis of Saxapahaw. There are 39 grandchildren and 30 great grandchildren. Mrs. Johnson was most highly esteemed in her com munity. FARMERS’ UNION TO MEET AT ASHEBORO ■ Notice comes from J. C. Cox sec.-treas. of the N. C. Farmers’ Union to the effect that the meet ing of the state union will be held at Asheboro next Tuesday, Dec. 16. John A. Simpson of Oklahoma, president of the national union, will address the meeting. All interested in co-operation among farmers are urged to at tend, and all local and county un ions to have delegates present. —3> SON SUCCEEDS LEE McIVER AS MANAGER (Sanford Express) At a meeting of the board of directors of the Lee Furniture Company recently held in the office of the company, Mr. Wilbur Mc lver was elected secretary-treasurer and business manager of the com pany, to succeed his father, the late Lee G. Mclver. Mr. Mclver has taken charge and is now managing the business. He has assisted his father in handling the business for sev eral years and is familiar with the details of the work. In fact he grew up with the business and is well qualified to handle it. He is assisted in handling it by Mr. J. R. Tally, who has been with the com pany several years. €> McBANE-COLTRANE Dr. T. W. Mcßane and Miss Berta Coltrane were married last Friday at Trinity, the home of the bride- They left after the ceremony for a bridal trip through the north ern states. Dr. Mcßane is the well known Pittsboro physican, a native of the county, and known by a large pro portion of Record readers. The bride is a cultured young lady of one of the best known families in the state. She was conductor of the teacher-training class in the Pitts boro school for several years. Her coming to Pittsboro is a real ac quisition to the town The happy couple wil lmake their home with Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Horton. The Record extends heartiest con gratulations. ® Did you ever come home disgust ed with the squawking picture you paid half a dollar to endure. I Postoffic* and All R. F. D. Rout** ia Croat I County of Chatham. VOLUME 52—NUMBER j W. B. Straughan Accident Victim Killed Monday Evening at Lib erty by Car Driven by Prof. Andrews—Accident Consid ered Unavoidable. The following dispatch to the Greensboro News, dated Liberty, Dec. 8, gives the story of the death of Mr. W. B. Straughan, a well known citizen of the western part of the county: “W. B. Straughan, 57, of Siler City, route on, was instantly killed here tonight about 7:30 o’clock when struck by an automobile driven by Prof. T. G. Andrews, principal of Staley high school. Andrews was exonerated of blame by a magistrate’s court, held shortly after the acci dent, after three eye-witnesses testi fied that the tragedy was unavoid able. Straughan is-survived by his wife, three sons, Wade, of Walkertown; C. L., of Richmond, Va., and Frank, of Greenville, a member of the fac ulty at East Carolina Teachers Col lege, and three daughters, Mrs. Dal ton Harris, of Siler City, route 5; Mrs. Clarence Willett, of Siler City; and Miss Pauline Straughan, a stud ent at N. C. C. W. The accident in which Straughan was killed occurred on highway 60, in front of the Staley Lumber com pany. Straughan, according to An drews’ testimony at the hearing, which was corroborated by other wit nesses, stepped in front of Andrews’ car from behind another machine. Andrews said he did not see Straughan until his car had struck the man. Straughan, who had been to Greensboro on business, together with N. F. Barksdale, of Siler City, was standing by the roadside just prior to the accident. Barksdale had stopped a car driven by P. F. Carter, and Straughan, who had gone to the rear of Carter’s car, stepped into the highway just as the car driven by Andrews was passing. Andrews was placed under arrest immediately following the accident b.y Deputy. Sheriff .A. A. Coble. Pre liminary hearing was held before Magistrate E. R. Williams and May or J. G. Martin, of Liberty, and Mayor C. M. Staley, of Staley. Funeral arrangements for Straugh an had not been completed at a late hour tonight.” Elements of Style Gerald Johnson, speaking before the students of the Wake Forest school of journalism, said: “First of all, have something to say, and then let the writing take care of it self”. The speaker also rather dis counted fancy rhetoric. Now, it hap pens that the writer has just read Seneca’s disquisition on the style of Fabrianus, and he finds a striking similarity in the ideas of Mr. John son and of the ancient Roman. Says the latter, of the style of Fabria nus, a Roman philosopher: “And, finally, be makes it clear that he meant what he wrote. You under stand that he aimed to make you know what he was thinking and not to please you. All this makes for progress and sanity.” The two qualities stressed by the ancient and the modern, alike, are to have some thing to say and to say it in such way that it can be understood. Seneca berated also the torturing of sentences into “artistic” shape, and his own stlye is a model of clearness. Though one of tne most profound writers we ever followed, yet his meaning is almost as plain as that of tiie old blue back’s classic sentence, “She fed the old hen”. But Mr. Johnson insists that the present-day writer must analyze his characters in the light of modern psychology. But read Tactus or Seneca and you wi 1 be convinced that those worthies needed nothing of modern psychology, or possessed its essentials under another name, or no name. We wish we could find a modern author who shows the pio fundity of Seneca or wields the flashing phrases of Tacitus. Houses Burned There seems to have been an epidemic of house-burnings in tnis county recently. Two good homes were burned Wednesday of last week. Mr. B. H. O’Neill, who moved to this county from Davie county about a year ago and bought the old Ben Poe place five miles north west of Pittsboro on highway 93, lost his good residence. Fortunately, most of the household goods were saved, and he had SBOO insurance on the house, which was a good two-story house of six big rooms, built out of real lumber. Mr. O’Neill is living at the Margum Perry place recently vacated by Rev. B. L. Gup ton. Henry Rives, a worthy and pros perous colored citizen, lost his good two-story residence a mile or two west of Pittsboro on highway 90. His insurance policy had just ex pired. He lost his household goods, with the possible exception of his - piano and a few other things. Henry is a good farmer and a good carpenter.