®l}p §>l)tlhy Saily §tar (FOUNDED 1891) Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday Entered as Second Clas Matter at the U. S Post Office. Shelby. N. C„ By STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY 217-219 East Warren Street. Shelby. N. C. LEE B. WEATHERS. President and Publisher HOLT McPherson Mng. Editor — H. L. WEATHERS. Secy-Treas. SUBSCRIPTION RATES (Payable On Order) By Carrier By Ma One Year _$10.40 $7.0 Six Months _ 5,20 3.7 Three Months_- 2.60 2.0 Pour Weeks_— -80 .7 One Week _... -20 -2 ALL TELEPHONES - 1100 " WARD-GK1HT111 lO., l.M.—National Advertising Representatives MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Tire Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to tie purpose lor publication of all the news dispatches credited to it published herein. All rights o( publication oi •pcciai or not otherwise In this paper and aiso the local news dispatches herein a,so are reserved. ____ * WEDNESD'Y, FEB. 28, 1945_ THE KILOWATT-HOUR TAX The kilowatt-hour tax on electricity, proposed by Johr W. Clark, Franklinville manufacturer, as a means of sup porting the University of North Carolina has all sorts o complications, some of which we hesitate to mention foi fear of being accused of being a part of the power trust, ii there is such a thing. Nevertheless, before this proposa is either laughed off or accepted, it deserves to have sorrn questions asked about it. Although Mr. Clark says this idea is just something hi conjured up on his own hook without discussing it witl others, there is nothing new about the suggestion. A kilo watt hour tax has been proposed ma-nv times before. Bill have been introduced in the North Carolina legislature carry ing this feature but thus far they have not gotten very far Of all forms of taxation, according to our understand ing. this levy on the production of power plants is regardei as the most vicious by industry generally and would bi feared the most if anybody had an idea that it would b given serious cuiisiueiciuun. This kind of tax is regarded as dangerous by business and industry because it is a direct levy on one of the es sential requirements of their operation. Those who wouk levy such a tax might think they were levying it against s natural resource of the state, namely its water power, whicl they would point out should ever remain a vested interes of the people. The taxers might be right about the state's inherent majesty with respect to these great natural asset: but they would be blunderingly wrong if they thought th< tax load would be borne by them. The tax would be a direel levy against the production of our industries, a pretty bis one at that, for ki’owatts mount up fast—as anyone whc gives the matter a second thought can see. So many millions of kilowatts are required to process s< much cloth, yarn or what-have-you. The seemingly trifling and insignificant tenth of a cent which the state would levj against each one of these kilowatts would have to be charg ed in with the cost of the goods and there you have the trend towards inflation again. If we consider the million: upon millions of kilowatt hours of electricity consumed b\ our factories, homes. 'Vu dues sand otherwise in North Caro lina, then we get an idea of what a charge such a tax would be against our output. How much chance do you think this sthte would have of attracting new enterprise to this state by flanging thi sledge hammed over their heads? \ Another V mg, too. What would be the policy of the state with respect to the great power production of TVA government plants? We hardly see how the state, as sov ereign as it might be. coubi lay a taxing hand on such a one of Uncle Sam’s pet chiilun. No, we don't think Manufacturer Clark’s taxing project will be adopted without some argument, even if it is for sc worthy an end as maintaining the University of North Caro lina. All in all, it just reminds us that there are very few new things under the sun when it comes to taxation and most of them have their weaknesses. -v IN THE BOX SCORE A few days ago reference was made to the low death rate from pellagra in North Carolina as being a cause for gratification. Now it comes time to congratulate ourselves on the low general death rate. Vita! statistics released by the state board of health show a death rate of 7.9 in 1944, two tenths of a point be low the all-time low of 8.1 for 194". Our birth rate was the highest for any year since 1929 with one exception. In short, our children are being born faster and we are dying slower which seems to speak well for the preservation of the race. But there is one thing we would not forget while we are rejoicing over this manifestation of the liveliness of our people. That is the fearfully high proportion of our men who were turned down for the draft on account of physical defects. We cannot explain these away by referring to birth find death rates. They are the final figures in the box score of living it is true. But we also want to look at the “At Bats’’ and the “Hits.” There is such a thing as hanging around on this globe of ours without much vim and vigor. In such a ease usefulness is lessened proportionately. We are pleased enough at the count in births and deaths. Now it is up to us to see to it that in the space between those two there is a maximum amount of health and hap piness. -V With the state prison department losing 27 prisoners In the course of two days, we would say that its manpower problem may be getting critical too. —-V There seems to be plenty of points to this argument that foods are becoming scarcer. CALLING ALL VOLUNTEER NURSES I A Daily Prayer In War Time FOR COMPASSION While war rages over the world. . O Lord, may our hearts remain 1 serene and steadfast, and estab- j i lished upon the firm foundation of Thy father care. Deliver us from all meanness of mind and from the » hurt of hate. Lift up our hearts to fellowship with Christ's own spirit ■ of compassion, even toward our ■ enemies. In the dreadfulness of : war. may we be delivered from all ■ ignoble passions. Make us brave in , action, but pitiful in victory. So shall we conquer our own souls, as well as our misguided loes: and be ready for a peace animated by the Spirit of Jesus. Amen. WHATOTHER PAPERS SAY MARCH (New York Times) Here comes March, and high time it is. too. March isn't Spring,! but it isn't the depth of Winter i either. March brings a break, a, I; change, a let-up in the pressure i that has been on, this year, since i early December. March brings April, i ! and violets and Spring. March is more than a month. It is a frame of mind, a state of the 1 emotions. It is traditional to re 1 gard March with suspicion, to think , of the whims of March weather, the i temperamental tantrums, the coid i rain, the wind, the soggy thaws. I the warm mornings that chill off j into raw afternoons and icy eve I nings. March is all of that, and ] more. Admit it. and still March will ! be welcome this year, i The willows will turn amber at ; , the tips, promise of the green that < ! will soon follow'. Maple buds will i i fatten, and sap will ooze from the i ! Winter's wounds. Skunk cabbage i I will open its well-sheathed bios- i I soms in the icy swampland, prim- ; i itive and purple in its fetid invi tation to the earliest insects. Wild ■ strawberries will splash their pris i tine green of new leaf where the ; j heightening sun warms the hillside. ] Mint will freshen at the edges of i little streams that creep from the ; boglands toward the lower valleys. ( And on banks that catch the full I force of the sun there may even be . j the golden' dappling of coltsfoot,; blooms before the month is over. ‘ This Winter has been a long haul with a cold load, and the creak of ! j snow, the shimmering glare of ice ! ! has long been under fopt. Janu ary gave us no customary thaw... ! February has specialized, as usual, . | in snow. But here comes March, . I the month of change, the time of . j the Spring equinox. For once. I "Welcome” seems an adequate . i greeting. leYTers McCRAWLEY SEES FREE ENTERPRISE ENDANGERED To The Editor: Free enterprise or private en terprise, which ever you please to call it, has made America great and will make her even greater if let alone. But we have people in this country, and some of them in high places, who if not checked are determined to destroy free or pri vate enterprise, and change our ' American way of living, and set up 1 in its stead a Socialistic or Com munistic form. The term, "Free enterprise”, sim- 1 ply means that every individual has 1 the right to engage in business — I large or small for themselves, and j • If Today Is Your Birthday By STELLA WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28 —Born today, you are more of a dreamer than an active doer. Quiet and reserved, you are seldom the type who demands the floor in or der to be heard. However, still water with you runs deep and you are inclined to have very decided and determined ideas. You often ■surprise those who do not know iou too well, by the fire and force of what lies beneath your calm • rxterior: Although you are deeply iffectionate, you will reserve your ove for the few to whom you arc tloselv devoted. It is likely that * ou will fall deeply in love once n your life and if this romance mlminates in marriage, you will rave a very happy home iife. On he other hand, if your love is not eciprccated. you might never narry, preferring to take no oneI ■ather than a substitute for your deal. You are fond of life in the >pc-n and will enjoy close com nunion with nature. Something jf a student and bookworm, you!' :an get a great deal of enjoyment! nit of reading and often seek the1 jothpanionship of a book rather, han another person. Don’t per- ' nit yourself to become a recluse. LEAP YEAR S FEBRlARY 29 -If your birthday comes once; 'very four years, then you will have : our characteristic talents which j fill cr>f vnn onorf fi-nm thnefi Knm I 'n either February 28 or March 1. fou will have a charming person ility; will be a natural leader of, wn way and manner so long as hey do not interfere with the ights of others. The term has been io battered and blasted by the foes )f business, that its meaning has timost been distorted. But I think 1 very good definition for the term s contained in the following lines: rhe pow:er to choose the work I do, ro grow and have the larger view,! ro feel and know that I am free, Co stand erect, not bow the knee. ro be no chattel of the state, 3ut be the master of my fate, ro dare, to risk, to lose, to win, ro make my own career begin. ro serve the world in my own way, ro gain in knowledge day by day, ■Vith hope and zeal to climb, to rise, rhat’s what I call Free Enterprise. S. C. CRAWLEY, itoute 4, Shelby, N. C. Pfc. Jack Champion Is Cited In Italy Pfc. Jack E. Champion of 903 South LaFayette street, has been ■ited by the 350th •‘Battle Moun ain” regiment of the 88th "Blue Devil” division and awarded the Jombat Infantryman badge for ac- ! ual participation in combat a jainst the enemy with the Fifth 3rmy in Italy. Literary GUIDEPOST By W. G. ROGERS • WARSAW GHETTO”, by Mary Berg tL. B. Fischer; $2.75); "NO TRAVELER RETURNS," by Henry Shoskes. edited by Curt Reiss iDoubleday, Doran; $3.50). "No Traveler Return*'* is sub titled "The story of ^Hitler's great est crime,” and so it promises to be hair-raising, breath-taking, skin prickling. "Warsaw Ghetto” is sub titled "a diary,” without one super lative, unpretentious; might be in teresting, might not be. The^ are about exactly the same thing: the r.ine-miie-square ghetto which the German government bru tally forced upoiTJews in Poland's capital in November, 1940, and ob literated, even more brutally, in April, 1943 . The principal differences are in dicated substantially in the titles. Shoskes bedecks his account with what might be called the maga zine touch, makes his villainous Nazis blacker than black, spills more blood than a body can con tain, kills his victims not just once but maybe once and a half . . . like Dryden’s rampaging hero who slew his enemies thrice. Where Shoskes overstates, Miss Berg understates. Some readers may welcome the spice in Shoskes, but I found myself more persuad ed by Miss Berg. Actually, both books assert that one of the great riddles of our time is the democratic peoples’ he sitancy about telling Hitler, in words he would understand, to stop siaugntenng Jews. There are many areas of agree ment, and even of similar If not identical observation. Both writere tell of Gestapo agents who pulled out Jews’ beards by the roots; of mercenary Latvians and Lithuan ians who shot down Jews for fun; of theaters, cafes, schools, make shift rikshas, the horse-drawn trolley and that unsavory pair, Cohn tor Kohnt and Heller; of girls obliged to strip and dance for the Germans; of children shot to death; of janitors mopping up the blood spilled in the streets by the Nazi masters; of the suicide of ghetto mayor Adam Cserniakow. Shoskes . . . and Reiss . , . are more diplomatic, Miss Berg more blunt. She recalls frankly the num ber of Poles who were anti-Sem itic. She praises the Russians. Shoskes offers, however, a fuller account of the last battle in the ghetto . . . which Miss Berg had already left on her way to America. Prepare For Action On Nurse Draft Bill WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 —d bankers see probability of the most extensive home purchasing this 1 country has seen. Lowery Austell, of the Shelby Building and Loan, handed me the | other day a pamphlet of questions and answers on the subject that j showk the loaning agencies right on their toes to assist the returning I GI's in the dreams of home ownership. In fact, that field offers perhaps the most likely development of ; immediate residential construction here, although some hardship cases ‘have won approval in recent days. There is, of course, the possibility that war work expansion may require provision of some housing on a considerable scale, but the GI's seem to offer best prospects of home , construction at the present time. Tonight s presentation should bring information that will be continuingly helpful in that direction. I GOT A TREMENDOUS THRILL THE OTHER DAY OUT of the announcement that m.v old friend and fraternity brother, Norwood Carroll. who was taken prisoner by the Japanese at Manila in early 1942 when he was unable to get his family away because a third youngster had Just been born, had been released from the Santo Tomas internment camp. Now it develop* that It was his young son of the same name, the child's sister and mother, but Norwood’s own name hasn't shown up. It may do so yet. I trust. The last message to come through was In September—earlier there had come a message from Norwood that the family was together in Santo Tomas—when a cablegram to his mother through the Red Gross bore the baby's name which was con* strurd as designed to let his folks know the child was living. It Is a fearsome thing, and yet one can’t help hoping that somehow friends and loved ones, with help of the Red Cross buoying them, will come through the ordeal safely. service rous; sain mcy preaorm j nated in veterans’ hospitals. Ran ; kin went on to hurl the personal j charge against Celler that he was ; a major cause of nnti-semitism in i this country. Three times during Rankin's harangue, Celler arose to term the Mississippian's words "false,'’ ’'un fair,'’ and ’outrageous.” But in the house lobby, shortly after the speech, Rankin began biue-penciling the transcript, cut ting out not only his words, but al so Celler's. "Don't you cut my remarks out of there,” protested Celler. “I want iny remarks to stay in." "Keep away from me,” grawled Rankin. “This is my business, not yours. You act right on the floor and wp won't have any trouble.” Celler started to protest again, but Rankin shouted: "Now you stop looking over my shoulder,” and arose from his chair threat eningly. Celler warned that he would lectify anything Rankin cut from the Record, and stalked off. NOTE—When Representative Michael Edplsteirf of New York replied to one of Rankin's out NORTH CAROLINA. CLEVELAND COUNTY. Under ajid by virtue of an order of the Superior Court of Cleveland County, made in a civil action therein pending entitled ‘County of Cleveland. North Carolina, versus C. E Crow, et al”, the undersigned, who was by said order ap pointed a commissioner to sell the lands described in the Complaint, will on the 9th day of March, 1945. at twelve o’ clock. noon, at the door of the Court house In Shelby, N. C., offer for sale to the highest bidder for cash, but sub ject to confirmation by the Court, a certain tract or parcel of land lying and being In No. 10 Township, Cleveland County, North Carolina, and more par ticularly described as follows: That said three (3) acres of land located in the County and Township aforesaid, adjoining the lands of Tom Webb estate, W. C. Edwards, Lorel Hoyle and Lester Bradshaw. The said lands being the same as that left by Lum Crow, deceased, and owned by and in the possession of the said Lum Crow for a long number of years prior to his death.* This the 6th day of February, 1945. HENRY B. EDWARDS. Commissioner. 4t Wed. Feb. 7 1945 c i bursts lour years ago, he be came so excited he died of heart attack as soon as he left the house chamber. — One-Legged RAF Man Is Death To Nazis LONDON —(&)— A one-legged night-fighter observer who "ar gued his way into the R. A. F." has helped to shoot .down two— probably three — German planes over the Continent since D-day. Flt.-Lt. 8. H. J. Elliot, of Rad lett, Hertfordshire, had a leg am putation when a boy, but wa* determined to fly. He was eventu ally accepted after many medical Jk boards, and when the invasion of ^ France came was flying with the County of Middlesex Squadron, one of the R.A.F.'s most famous night-fighter outfits. "Elliot is a mgn of whom we all have tremendous admiration,” said a colleague. "He got himself into the air by sheer persistence. ’ commissioners re-sale or REAL ESTATE Pursuant to an order of RE-BALE in Special Proceedings No. 2743 and entit led D C. ELLIOTT, and others vs. LEONA WHITWORTH WRIGHT. and others." the undersigned Commissioner I will oiler at public sale at the Ceurt | House in Shelby, N. C, on MONDAY MARCH 12, 1945 at 12 o clock M., or within legal hours, the lollowing described real estate: Situated In the northern part of the City ol Shelby and situated just east ol the Shelby Hospital property, and boun ded as follows: BEGINNING on a stake on the East Side of First Street where It Intersects with the North side of Highland Avenue, and runs North 67 3-4 East 200 feet to a stake, cornor lot No. 139; thence North 22 1-4 West 160 feet to a stake; thence South 67 3-4 East 200 feet to a stake on the East side of First Street; thence South 22 1-4 East 160 feet to the BEGINNING. No Part of this property Is to be con veyed to any member of the colored race. The bidding will begin at 61260.00. TERMS OF BALE: CASH. Purchaser to pay all 1945 taxee. Thle 24th day of February, 1945. L. T. HAMRICK. Commissioner, HORACE KENNEDY, Atty. Feb. 26—March I TiUyytliJ PITTEB DR. D. M. MORRISON OPTOMETRIST — EYE SPECIALIST Royster Building SIIELBY. N. C. — OFFICE DAYS — Monday. Wednesday and Saturday—8 A M. to 5 P.M. Tuesday and Friday—8 A. M. to 12 Noon GLASSES REPAIRED LENSES DUPLICATED 4