Newspapers / Everything (Greensboro, N.C.) / Sept. 12, 1914, edition 1 / Page 1
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SOCIETY OWES PROTEC TION TO YOUTH AND JAILS WERE NOT BUILT FOR INFANTS. WHY DO WE TAKE SIDES WHEN ALL SOLDIERS ARE INNOCENT AND NOT TO BLAME? JL BY AL FAIRBROTHER SUBSCRIPTION ll.M A YEAR SINGLE COPY S CENTS SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1914. ON SALE AT THE NEWS STANDS AND ON TRAINS ESTABLISHED MAY 190a. DISCRIMINATION THE IDOL SMASHERS COMMISSION WANTED IT IS THE ONLY WAY BLUE SKY IS OFF Hard Cider Given Good Character Now. HERE arc some men in this ill-assorted world who will never "stop foolin' " about things that have been long settled. There arc men who want to prove, even after all the unsuccessful attempts in that direction, that Bacon wrote Shakespeare or that Shakespeare didn't write it. There arc men who want to prove that the divine Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence wasn't signed on Trade street in Charlotte on May 20th and there are other men who believe that a bull mooser is a repub lican. These, though, were by-plays compar ed to the following letter sent us through the mail. We print the letter but withhold the name of the writer and we go a little ways, but not far, to enlighten him. His letter reads: Editor Everything: I want to ask you a question that I think is of interest to the public as well as to myself. If our prohibition law is to be regarded as an economic measure passed for the purpose of protecting North Carolina enterprises against outside competition, I can understand why a North Carolinian is allowed to sell cider of his own production containing from 7 per cent to 8 per cent of alcohol, while the seller of beer containing from 3 per cent to 4 per cent of alcohol is put on the county roads. But if we passed the prohibition law for the sole purpose of protecting public morals, this is a distinction that I do not understand. It looks to me as if we were trying to "praise God from .Whom all blessings flow while we cash the checks of mammon." What do you think about it? " i- '. Our prohibition law is an economic meas ure, passed for the purpose of protecting the citizenship that is to keep a man sober six days in the week, and thus save expenses of idleness and booze. Perhaps it is the greatest economic measure ever adopted in North Car olina and it also is a moral measure pro tecting the public and private morals. The gentleman asks us what we think about it and we presume that if a gentleman in good faith asks you what you think, you should answer him in good faith. We think that hard cider containing from 7 to 8 per cent alcohol is more dangerous to the system that ni-beer or far beer and we know that hard cider will make "drunk come" as the African expresses it, in very short order, and that a man drunk on hard cider is just as crazy as though he were drunk on corn likker. We know that hard cider has sent many a man out on the drunkard walks and that it has caused as much sorrow, in its circumscribed field, as John Barleycorn, Esq., could have caused if he ad done his best. A drunk is a drunk and there is no use to say that because one is 'cider and one is whiskey the cider drunk doesn't count. There is no reason why the man who offers hard cider for sale or the man who sells it should not be arrested for violat ing the prohibition law. The community ob jected to near beer, and properly, we thought, and we would like to see the hard cider.traffic stopped but we won't see it. Beer and Whiskey are two names that cause immediate action. They are the old sinners. Their pic tures are in the rogue's gallery and while they have done their murders and other ogre crimes under a dozen aliases, their real names are the ones that cause the shudder and sug gest to the prohibitionist that he get hi9 gun. For a man to say that he took a drink of hard cfder, notwithstanding the fatt that he drank enough to make him gloriously and forgetfully drunk would mean nothing. But to say he took a drink of whiskey that ends it. That is why cider can be sold that contains enough alcohol to make a man decently and respect ably drunk in thirty minutes ; that is why such traffic isn't stopped. But that is no reason why it shouldn't be stopped. The law is very plain on this subject, and the officers of the law are not doing their duty when they allow a drink containing from 7 to & per cent alcohol to be publicly peddled on the streets. Our correspondent gives people something to think about. . . .. The Impossible. '. The Wilmington Star dreams of heaven. It dreams of an ideal world a world where pie and glory and boodle are unknown; a world peopled with contented and happy people a ; world without sin. It proves this by -writing: : "Wanted a man who will fight to free the people and see that the free people have a free : ballot and a fair count.", ;; : .',;'. ' Where in wind-swept space would you' look for such a man? vWhat sort of a pipe dream was on when you saw such a possibility? The other world may- hold such joy but not here below. - ' Again The Declaration Is As sailed By Ashe. AST SUNDAY the state papers broke out again concerning the Mecklenburg Declaration of In dependence. Captain S. A. Ashe came to the front with a f( two column article answering Mr. Harris who had just prov en beyond doubt that the date was correct- -and then others followed and wc arc again all at sea concerning this important matter. The idea seems to be a contention that amounts to nothing. Santa Claus is sacred to the child who loves him, and yet there be stern iconoclasts who might come in and prove to childhood that Santa Claus is a myth. But what good would that do and why should a North Carolinian want to knock down our idol even if it is of rotten clay? Why not let North Carolina dream that she was first that the Declaration was really signed on May 20th, as is alleged who cares for history of that sort if the written and oral traditions will sustain us, why not take all In sight? The calendar makers one time found they had run behind, and they set the world up full fifteen days and according to that our notes are al ready due yet according to the written in struments they do not mature for fifteen days yet. v . We don't know how many years old the earth is some say one thing and some an other. There is doubt in some minds about the whale swallowing Jonah, and some bold knockers have maintained that Noah never ran a personally conducted flood. But what difference does it make except Except the tradition that North Carolina was the first to sign the Declaration of Independ ence that made free the Western World. That North Carolina which sat on her seven hills and from her throne of beauty ruled the world instead of Rome, was first to see that there ran in the veins of those early settlers blood that went high leaping when honor called? Why should we upset the milk pail? Why throw into the fire the love letter written fifty years ago? Why step upon the lock of hair of her who sleeps in eternal night? What's the use for Captain Sam Ashe to be talking about something he knows nothing about, in fact, or for any other man to be telling what did or did not happen when the old folk who were there are there no longer. Of course the Declaration of Independence was signed at Charlotte on May 20th and if it wasn't, it was only because there wasn't a fountain pen in the crowd of patriots who pre sented it for signatures. 0 $100,000,000.00. Uncle Sam will be shy one hundred million dollars because of the war. That is to say his export trade and his import trade is all shot to pieces and revenues that ordinarily were ex pected will not be on right now, and of course it wouldn't do for the treasury to be empty at this time, and to raise money is now the task. How to raise it is the question. A thousand ways have been suggested and out of the thou sand a few men decide. A few men will say whether they will tax gasoline two cents a gal lon; whether the burden will fall on this in terest or that and a hundred million dollars will be raised, These wise men will not figure that they should take all the articles that really should be taxed and tax them all. They announce what will be taxed and the interest that is to feel the blow gets busy and very soon the wise men change their mind. Not that there is anything venal in the transaction, far from that but because certain interests have more friends at .court ; because certain interests can present a better showing they escape while others receive their medicine.. Such a system is not good. There should be a written pro gramme a law, tellingus how to raise taxes in times of emergency, and not wait until the moment and then put hardships and burdens on one line and let the other which shoul'' have helped pay the bill escape. We all know this is true but suppose we do? '. - v o, 1 . 11 : - . . Teddy In Louisiana. Teddy has been making speeches in New Orleans and is going to stump the Third Con gressional district. He is after the democrats for cutting the tariff off sugar and he feels that the Bull Moose people may elect a Congress man in the Solid South. Teddy is reported as saying that "there are little crooks as well as big, crooks," and then insists that the Pro gressive party is after all of them. Sublime spectacle to see Teddy thus-ill action. How ever, when November comes those old war horses of democracy will walk up like little men and swallow the regular dose. It is an in born principle and there is no way to radi cate it. But1 it is noticed that even Roosevelt can't get a front page audience in these stir ring times of war. . . ; : ' , '. '.A- t ". - -" - . ( ' h .MImt.jijU.M nmnimniwj A GAIN we print a picture of Walter Mur 4X phy, because Walter comes to the front with a proposition worth while, as he sees it. We are opposed to all these different com missions proposed, but Mr. Murphy wants a Tax Commision and doubtless if we are to make any change at all his scheme is good. We insist that the present system of taxa tion is all right provided all people obey the law. There is a way to make all people obey the law. The fact that a poor woman now must pay about two fifty a hundred on her money in a Savings Bank leaving her less than two per cent, is not the fault of the law it is the fault of those who list property. If all the property were listed the tax rate would be so low that it wouldn't be necessary to take all the interest paid on money. Men with land and valuables escape taxation. If they are dishonest they will escape under any system. We have the system now and all the listers need do is to appraise property honestly and then cut down the tax rate. That is the way we view it, but having great considera tion for Mr. Murphy's! general level headed ness we are glad he has made a suggestion. "Pete" generally knows what he is talking about. ' ' . 0 Cut It Out. Don't let the war bother you. Feel sorry for the poor devils who are giving up their lives, and let it go at that. You can't figure on what will happen. There is much to do in peaceful pursuits. If the war becomes universal re member that you can't help that. But don't forget that you must die sometime. Suppose you got that idea uppermost in your mind and went around brooding over the fact. Suppose every man you meet would tell you "Yes, I'd like to buy this or that, but you know I will have to die sometime." How would we feel as a world of mourners and each man wonder ing if he would die this afternoon. We all must die. There is no question about it but we go along and give our notes and make our contracts and don't think about that or worry about it. Yet that is the inevitable. The war may not come and yet men are worrying more over what "might happen" than they do over what must happen. Get it out of your system. Talk business ; boom the town ; keep cool and let whatever comes come and then we'll try to take care of it. 0 ,- V Winston Increases Taxes. To meet increasing expenses Winston in creases her taxes from $1 to $1.20 and the council thought it necessary. Necessary un der the present plan of allowing property to be put in at low rates. If all the property list ed in Winston was listed at a fair rate say at fifty cents on the dollar the tax rate could be cut to seventy-five cents. We make this as a general proposition. We know that in this town such would be the result and we assume it to be about the same all over the state. Real estate isn't assessed for one fifth its real value in many instances. Labor Day. Monday was labor day. Labor Day is a day when labor doesn't labor but all days are labor days with us. The wage earner takes a day off each year the first Monday in Sep tember, and instead of laboring he loafs and calls it Labor Day. Just why he doesn't call it Loafing Day we do not understand. All over America the day was observed. Being a legal holiday the banks closed and the public build ings shut down and the inference is that all felt better because of a day off. .No Use Now. . The republicans say they do not expect to do much this year in the state, but their hope is to get ready for 1916. Nineteen sixteen is not far off here it is almost '15 -and with the war on and with all his policies yet to prove the American people will hardly dismiss Presi dent Wilson. It is a safe bet that Wilson will be the; "next president" -because . Teddy is sure to insist and that will end all hope of real opposition. . n v Privately Owned Utilities The Proper Thing. T FLEASF.S us to l,c able most every week to how 1 y iL absolute facts and incontrover f I til'le testimony the "show II me" testimony of Missouri brand, that privately owned un 1 public utilities are u far ahead of government owned utilities that there is no comparison. The general pub lie wants service and it wants it now. The post office closes on legal holidays but thu telephone and telegraph offices do not. The post-office, the one great public utility owned in this country by the government docs just about as it pleases because it takes so many spools of red tape to get anywhere or any thing. If you want a letter you must wait until the hours made by politicians come around and you may get it then but there is no chance to compel anybody to do anything, nor is there opportunity to complain if what you don't get needs a complaint. With a private corporation the people serv ing you must walk the chalk line because off go their heads if they are not polite if they fail to do all that an exacting public demands. But apart from service, think what private corporations do for the employes. Take the Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Co. operating in the South and see what that great concern does. Just now the Wilmington exchange is being overhauled thousands of dollars are going into an enlarged switch board; into rest rooms for the operators; into substantial improve ments the one idea being service. In Charlotte much money is being spent in the same way. Read what the Observer said the other day: "At a cost of $2,300 the Southern Bell Tele phone Company has completed elaborate ar rangements for the comfort and welfare of the 86 young women employed at the Charlotte station. In addition to a spacious and com fortably furnished rest room, and a hospital ward for use in cases of sudden illness, a pleas ant lunch room has been provided where ex cellent repasts are supplied at cost, with the addition of a small percentage which is devot ed to purchasing furniture for the rest room and library. "The sum of $700 has been invested in mod ern kitchen equipment by which, under the skilled direction of Mrs. J. F. Johnson, assist ed by two colored servants, lunch is prepar ed and served, Baltimore style, from 1 1 to 2.30 o'clock each day. Ice cream, coffee and tea can be obtained for five cents each at practi cally all hours. A typical menu which is serv ed for a dime consists of creamed potatoes, rice pudding, bread and butter, coffee, iced tea or sweet milk- with ice cream, three kinds of pie and buttermilk available for five cents extra each.-'' "The object of installing this system is to enable the young women to obtain substantial lunches without the necessity of returning to their homes either in the hot weather of sum mer or the inclement weather of winter. The time saved is spent in resting or reading in the recreation room. The extent to which it is be ing patronized is evidence of the appreciation felt." Think of Uncle Sam furnishing such things for people who toil. Think of Uncle Sam anti cipating a larger town and getting ready for it. He always waits until he is forced to build a bigger building; always waits until people hold mass meetings and send delegations to Washington to urge something. We write of ten about these things. Wre want the people to think it ovr and be ready to register their solemn protests against government owned utilities. Someday the question will be up. It may be for years or it may be in a short time. Whenever it comes up we want every man who wants service; every man who wants to see the best development in public utilities to insist that they are properly curbed that they do not in any way becorne oppressive is pro per. But keep the responsibility of furnishing service on the individual and then you get what you want. 0 :' . . Regardless.....'-.''.'-'.'.-'--...' San Francisco insists that the gr'eat exposi tion will be pulled promptly on schedule time regardless of what happens across the pond. This is the right kind of spirit. To postpone the exposition would be good night. California will never surrender when it comes to doing things. The spirit that rebuilt Frisco is back of the exposition, and the show will be worth seeing even if foreign nations cannot partici pate to the number at first expected. Spoke To His Men. President Fairfax Harrison addressed the employes of the Southern at the Spencer shops on Labor Day. The officials of the Southern railway certainly get close to the army of men working for the company.' And that is t' 1 way to do business. m No More Convict Work For R. R. Stock- OST men will be glad to know that the Governor of the -tatc and his coun cil have decided that no more convict labor will be furnished to build railroads for private in dividual, the cornor.-i- I 11 ' . . r ' tion trivintr stock in ex change for the labor. This kind of business went on for a long time in North Carolina, and the state owns reams of blue sky beautifully lithographed stock certificates paid for by the blood and sweat of men who were restrained by Society. We are glad that Governor Craig and his council have decided that there will be no more of this sort of foolishness. There are eighteen convicts working on the railroad from North Wilkesboro to Boone, and they will remain because they have been contracted. But de spite the earnest pleas of those interested, the Governor flatly refused to enter into any furth er contracts. If the railroad companies are hard pushed and want to employ convict labor at a decent wage it would be all right to hire them out provided free labor could not be ob tained, but the State has no moral right to hunt men down and put them in stripes, and then give their labor for stock in a railroad company when the stock has no real value. The time is coming in this state when the convict will be given employment and a part of his wage will go to the innocent children he has left behind children dependent on his la bor for their bread and meat and the wife, who has been left with broken heart inno cent of all crime, will certainly be allowed to share a part of her husband's earnings. We must get back from the days of cruelty and savagery. Society must restrain its vici ous it is a price that Society must pay be cause the protection is only for itself but there is no reason whv Society can say that innocent people must suffer when the husband is still at work. If he becomes so vicious that he must be put entirely out of the way, then that is the fortune of war. But while he lives and labors there may be hope at home that he will return a better man there may be hope in prison that he will be a better man if we give him anything in God's world for which he may hope. ..... 0 Suffragists On War Path. Woman suffragists of America are not mil itant to that degree that they would burn houses or break windows or pull a man's Chin Whiskers but they are now proposing to go after all congressmen and senators who are opposed to their demands. They do not pro pose to offer any violence, but they do pro pose to carry the war to the polls, and attempt to defeat for election, any man who has had the nerve to oppose them. Dr. Anna Howard Shaw arid Mrs. Medill McCormick are the authors of the resolution and a black list has been printed giving the following names as opposed to suffrage: "The nine Senators whose defeat the wom en urge are: "Brandegee, of Connecticut; Clarke, of Arkansas; Dillingham, of Vermont; Fletcher, of Florida; Gore, of Oklahoma ; Root, of New York ; Shively, of Indiana ; Smith, of Mary land, and Lodge, of Massachusetts. "The members of the House of Representa tives named are: Underwood, of Alabama; Mann, of Illinois ; Fitzgerald, of New York ; Page, of North Carolina ; Calloway, of Texas ; Garner, of Texas; Garrett, of Tennessee; Hay, , of Virginia, and Sisson, of Mississippi" : We regret to see that Congressman Page is slated for vengeance from the Black Hand of Suffrage. Perhaps he will survive the struggle inasmuch as the suffrage movement isn't as yet very strong in North Carolina. However the women are determined and before many years we will have universal suf frage as we should have, and men will wonder why we waited so long to put on woman the responsibility she should have assumed hun dreds of years ago. While we are trying our best to remain neutral in this very much mixed bunch of un pleasantness the Wilmington Star thus crows lustily: "A battle in the air is scored for 1914. The first successful experiment to fly ' ' heavier than air machine was ma' ' Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk, N. ' Every day we get new t -Carr campaign. After fhh the boys commence a showing of Jule prise some of t"
Everything (Greensboro, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 12, 1914, edition 1
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