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JL J I J 1 Jl si
VOL- XXII
CFRIDAY
NO. 67
1 1 ii i 1 1 ii i r
$1.30 A YEAR
A 8:EMI-WBBKtY NEWSPAPTO OBBOTON AND WARREN COUNTY
3c. A COPY
BfjOHN PAUL LUCAS,
,ffvutive Secretary of North Caro
lina Food Conservation Commis
sion) -Trow your own food and feed crop
hungry." In less a?1 Phr&s
r ghut in language just as easily un
m TJ the is what the rest of the
jSf if saying to the South this
' south has been depending upon
J North and Central West for food
a feed and f eedsuff s to the value of
I roximately $700 000 000 a year--f
Drecnt prices the figures would
doufct pass the billion dollar mark.
Worth Carolina's part of this tremen
L ao-cregate of imports has been
nJUdg numbers $80,000 000 For
the fiscal vear beginning July 1, 1916
and ending June 31, 1917, because of
the combination of high prices and
noo- crops in seme section, our impor
tations will no doubt reach the stag
ing figure of $100,000,00
This State in common with all or
the South has received solemn warn-.
ine fi-om officials cf uie National Gov
ernment, including Secretary and As
secretary of the Department
of Agriculture, that the food and feed- j
stuffs we have been importing win not
be available this year -cc3S thy
will be required iui ,
the armies of our allies. The Gov- !
emor, agricultural leaders and far- ,
. t-x.j fv,flre and business men oi y
SlgnitJU
the South have sounded the warning
also. So grave is the situation that
President Wilson himself has made a
special appeal to the farmers of the
South.
The State of North Carolina has
been early to take steps to meet the
situation. Even before war was de
clared Governor Eickett took time by
the forelock and issued a proclama
tion urging upon the people of our
cities and towns as well as those on
farms the importance of planting
ample home vegetable gardens. Fol
lowing the entry of this Nation into
the war Governor Bickett appointed a
State Food Conservative Cimmission
which promptly met and has planned
and is putting into execution under
the direction of its executive Secre
tary a vigorous campaign for greater
food and feed production. A sub com
mission is being appointed in each
county in the State, to have represen
tation from every school district. .The
newspapers of the State, the commer
cial organizations, ministers, mayors
of towns and cities, bankers and other
persons and agencies will be called
upon to assist in this campaign, in ad
dition to the State Department o
Apricult ire. the Farm Extension Ser
vice, the boys' and girls' corn, pig and
tomato clubs and other organization?..
In short every possible agency is be
ing mobilized to meet the situation.
There are several means of increas
ing production. Where Earners can
see their way clear, they are urged to
duce slightly their acreage of cotton
fmd tobacco, especially the latter, giv
ing more acreage to corn, soy beans.
paas, potatoes, hay and other fee I (
,lrops. Even where they do not re-"
ctuce their acreage of cotton and to
bacco they are urged to try to take
care of a slight additional acreage, if
they can do so without neglecting their
accustomed crops. Increased amounts
of fertilizers may be used to advan
tage where wisely applied. County
commissioners are urged to use con
victs and their work stock on tenant'
less farms for the cultivation of corn
sna hay especially, even to the tem
porary neglect of road work. The
People of our cities and towns are
urged to utilize vncant lots and lands
close by for the growing of stable
food and feed crops.
When
I meat, flour, corn, oats, hay, pota
toes, etc., $80,000,000 or $100,000,000
J . 1 bu' he begins to realize what a
pgantic task the farmers of the State
ave imposed upon them, and what a
ideally important work the mobilized
I orces wirking through and in co-op-pation
with the Food Conservation
remission have to preform in get-
Vhe farmers and others to feel the
f wiousneas of the situation and to
t promptly in meeting it.
iin a farmers of North Carolina are
W Upn t0 erow food and feed
fOps not only Kufficient tQ gupply aW
Uedf UU needs' but to PP1 the
i ot 0Ur cities and towns and mill
UTunities as elL If hey should
ment a surplus above these require
C;! is beyond the range of
i -unities this
1 TaiA..
m;
I."? hf'inr. 1 1 . -
taneo upon to teed not
ct f, DUt to a considerable
We civilian pomilatio of our
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE
tiKADUATION EXER
CISES OF NORLINA .
HIGH SCHOOL
The first annual commencement
of theNorlina High School
Will Begin on Sunday, May 6.
The program is as follows:
SUNDAY, MAY 6TH.
11:00 a. m Baccalaureate Sermon by
Rev. P. H. Fleming, D. D., pastor of
the First Christian Church, Greens
boro, N. C.
.MONDAY, MAY 7TH. .
Class Exercises 8:00 p. m.
Address of Welcome
Class Song
Class His tory
Class Prophecy
Class Poem
Class Oration
Essay on Class
Colors
Burial of Horrors
Last Will and
Testament
v.iass Song
Julius Banzette
Class
Alice Hardy
Gordon C. Hall
Isabelle Fleming
Woodley Merritt
Mollie Divine
Class
Pearl J-oyd
Class
TUESDAY, APRIL8TII
Graduating Exercises 8:00 p. m.
Salutatory Gordon Hall
Literary Address
Presentation of Grad
uating Class to
School Board
Presentation of
Diplomas
Presentation of
Medals
Report of Principal
Valedictory Julius Banzette
The primary and grammar school
will present a program on Friday
evening, May 4th, at 8:00 p. m. The
public is cordially invited to attend all
cf these exercises. No admission
charges!
by Principal
by Sec. of
School Board
GRAVTDOUBT
OF LEGALITY OF LOCAL LAWS.
ATTORNEY GENERAL RULES AMENDMENTS
EFFECTIVE NOVEMBER SEVENTH
CREEK ITEMS
PATRIOTIC APPEALS
New York, April SOth By com
bining appeals for alistaaeit in the
U. S. Marin Corps with their com
mercial dvertisiitf ; the American To
bacco Company, through Ulatrley Advertising-Company,
of this city, is the
pioneer in devoting part of its con
tract advertising space to patriotic
appeals, as advocated at a recent
luncheon of the Bureau of the Amer
ican Newspaper Publishers' Associa
tion at the Waldorf Astoria.
In a huge advertising campaign
just launched for "U. S. Marine" to
bacco, three-quarters of the contract
space is devoted to an appeal for incn
join the Marine Corps and be "First
to Fight."
The Methodist Sunday School in
Macon will celebrate children's Day
next Sunday morning at 11 o'clock.
An 'interesting program is being pre
pared, and a cordial invitation is ex
tended to the public.
re , ' year, xnere win ce
,'? 'nkGt for it because this
Hy the
5a
Allies, whose producers by the mil
lions have been taken from their fields
to fight in the trenches
All authorities are agreed that un
precendented .m prices may be looked
f oi4 this year for meat products, corn,
wheat, oats, hay, Irish and sweet po
tatoes, soy beans, velvet beans, cow
peas, canned and dried vegetables and
fruits and in fact all non-perishable
food and feed crops.- The farmer is
not being called upon to make a sac
rifice, because it is not necessary. Cot
ton and tobacco are the lowest priced
farm products we have, even at thfcr
present prices, and farmers who raise
these crops to the neglect oi suinoen.
"hn firm hominv" and feed for their
own use are going to be in the calam-
this fall.. Cotton and
X V Jf .iWfl
tobacco will no doubt command some-
tit 11 1 ' L
thing like present prices next tan, Dut
there is some danger of an over pro
duction of these crops while there; is
i.o danger of the South raising top
much food and feedstuff s.
The farmers of the State, together
with - business men, and others who
can help, are called upon to perform
a patriotic duty. But that is not as
far as it goes. They are being given
by unusual conditions, such an oppor
tunity to profit ai they have never had
before. The war. is going to bring
prosperity to a marked degree to those
farmers who are fore-sighted and
wise enough to produce abundantly of
those crops for wh:ch there is certain
to be the heaviest demand at the best
prices. - : ;
Boards of Education Not Effected. Magistrates May Be. AH
New Magistrates Failed to Qualify Wit !Un Sixty Days. These
Must Be Re-appointed B) Governor.
(Editorial);
"A Pretty Kettle of Fish" has been tmcovcred by Attorney Gen
eral Manning in an opinion that the Amendrnents to the Constitu
tion were adopted on November 7th and became immediately ef
fective,: If this opinion is upheld' by the Supreme Court in a test
case which may be brought at once, all Counties will be effected.
It will bo recalled by our readers that the members of the Legis
lature were much hurried in getting in their local bills because of
the fact that the preceding Legislature had fixed the "second
Wednesday after the first Monday in January, 1917" as the date
at which the amendments went into effect, and therefore they had
only about ten days to get their respective local bills enacted.
'Judge Manning, as. the-Attorney General, is o" the opinion that the
Amendment voted -should have v-arrlf.d the, date as the day upon
which it was effective and that a failure to carry the date fixed the
date as the day upon which the elector adopted the amendment,
towit, November 7th. , ; ;
The question is (for every-day folks) what is an amendment ? To
amend is to alter formally in any way. Therefore when the electors
voted on the 7th of November for an amendment to the Constitu
tion, they voted (in Palimentary language) to formally alter the
Constitution. Now who prescribes -the f orm in which this shall
be done? The Legislature of the State by a three-fifths vote of
the Senate and of the House of Represenatives, They prescribed
the form, stated when the question should be voted upon, the
questions to be submitted and the machinery to put in effect the
will of the electors, as expressed at the Polls. There were four
amendments submitted to the electors ; but our purpose in this ar
ticle is to only discuss amendment "NUMBER I." This amend
ment prtyposed to restrict local, private and special legislation in
respect to a number of matters of local nature which had hereto
fore been performed by the Legislature, but now proposed to be
delegated to the Counties. The Legislature when they enacted
Jie machinery for the expression of the public choice also in the
same Act fixed the time at which the amendments should become
effective. This date was fixed at January ioth, 1917. Our undei -standing
from the public press is that Judge Manning has-ruled
that the amendments became effective oh the 7th of November
when- the ballot box- was closed 'aaMuMequeit 'eount showed
that on November 7th "a majority of votes east" were in favor of
adopting amendment Number 1 and' NOT on January 10th. This
opinion, if sustained by th Siijirama Court; invalidating much
local lela-aimt lt laws. These
"shaft nots" ar eet out in section Oae of the Act authorizing the
vote upon the amendment; but the same section also carries a
"SHALL" the "General Assembly SHALL have power to pass
general laws regulating matters set out in this section," There
fore until the1 General Assembly acta under authority of the
amendment to the Constitution and makes "General Laws" regu
lating the matters voted upon; until the General Assembly pro
vides machinery for shifting the authority from the Legislature
to the County then the amendments are not in effect; because the
action on November 7th was just one of the steps in the complete
whole; just a sanction by the people for the completion of a trans
fer of power. Otherwise the old maxim that "A trust shall not
fail for lack of a Trustee" would . cease to apply. If the amend
ment taking . away from .the Legislature all power named in Sec
tion One of Chapter 99 of the Laws of 1915 was in effect on No
vember 8th and was automatically on that date made a part of the
Constitution of the State,, the Counties have no machinery to put
in effect local laws and the "trust fails." The subsequent Leg
islature of 1917 under authority of Section 29, Article II of the
Constitution could "repeal all local, private and special laws" and
not complete the engrafting to the amendment of section 29 and
deprive the people of machinery to enact their own local laws.
Therefore, as a part of the completion of the engrafting of section
29, to Article II of the Constitution, the subsequent Legislature of
1917 had to enact the machinery for transfer of power from Leg
islature to the Counties, and until that was done, and without, ex
press provision as to date of said transfer, the final process of
engrafting must await the exercise of a power delegated to the
Legislature by the amendment itself, towit : "power to pass general
laws regulating matters set out in this section." Therefore it is
the opinion of a layman that the Legislature was clearly within
its privilege when it enacted local laws prior to the enactment of
the necessary machinery to incorporate the amendment into Ar
ticle II of the Constitution. Especially are we lead to this con
clusion because the amendment gives the Legislature power to
subsequently repeal local, private or special laws enacted by it
MAGISTRATES
The Legislature. in previous sessions passed the bill' nam ng the
Magistrates at the close of the session; but the Legislature of 1917
believing that all local legislation should be enacted within the
first ten days named the Magistrates for all the Counties in the
first few days of the session and the ACT was ratified on the 9th
of January. The first section was in the usual form, which gave
only SIXTY days for those appointed to qualify, with the usuai
proviso that those . re-appointed would ' have sixty days from the
expiration of their respective terms in which to qualify. The
names of the magistrates were not certified by the Secretary of
States to the Clerks of the Counties before the expiration of the
sixty days, and henee those Magistrates qualifying on the first
-Mwla.i,:AiwiI:ai-iio -$l.otitie$:Ur act; It ses to have
Miss . Frances Wright closed here
eight months school here last Friday
; and left Saturday for her home in the
i mountains. .
Mr. Arthur Pridgen came home from
i Richmond last week to his people,
'bringing with him his friend, Mr.
Lane.-They went back to their work
with the Wester Electrie Co, on Mon
day. Rev. Mr.- Strowell sptnt last Sat
urday night in the home of Mr. W. It.
Pridgen. ...
Misses Mattie and Jimmie Clark
were pleasant callers here last Sun
day afternoon.
Mr. Brown, who lives near here, has
quite a curiosity in the way of a calf
which has no eyes. It seems to be al
right in every other way and gets
a: ound pretty well without them.
Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Davis made sev
eral calls in the Marmaduke commun
ity Sunday afternoon.
Mrs. Mettie Haithcock is visiting
her daughter, Mrs. Geoghegan, this
week, at Shady Grove.
Farm W)rk is getting on pretty
well around here, and we are going to
do our best in making "food stuff."
RUTH.
MEETING OF RED CROSS
Themembers of the Warrenton Di
vision of the Red Crosa will meet in
the auditorium of the High School on
Thursday afternoon at 3:30 o'clock.
Everybody is earnestly invited to be
present.
EPWORTH LEAGUE ORGAN
IZED AT WARREN
PLAINS
In Warren Plains Methodist church
last Sunday the pastor installed the
officers of the new Epworth League.
Much interest , was shown in the ex
ercises; and this league with more
than twenty members starts off with
encouraging prospects. Jerman Walk
er is President and Miss Essie Wilson
is vice-president. V -
IN MEMORIAM. .
Mary Fitts William Thrower, the
youngeet grandchild of Henry Fitts,
was born in Wkrren County, N. C,
May 24th, 1853 baptized in infancy by
Rev. T. B.: Reeks of the M. E. Church,
South, and. was educated by Turner
M. Jones, D. D., at the Louisburg Fe
male College. She was married Dec.
13th, 1871, to George Rogers Scoggin,
who preceeded her to the grave sev
eral years ago. She died at the res
idence of her nephew, Capt. O. D.
Fitts, of Clio, South Carolina on the
tilth of April, 1917, and the next day
was tenderly laid to rest by the side
of her husband in the. old Fitt's Cem
etery, near Oakville, Warren County,
N. C. A large number of her rela
tives and friends were present at her
funeral, and her burial was conducted
by her pastor, Rev. R. H. Broom. The
song service was beautiful, and so
were the flowers covering1 the grave.
Mrs. Scoggin joined the Church at
old Hebron, her ancestral church, in
early life, and was aft accepted mem
ber all her life.
She broke up house-keeping at the
death of her, husband, and lived with
the "children of her sister. For sev
eral years prior to her death she spent
;with her nephew, Capt. O. D. Fitts,
who with his good wife Mary, gave
her the most effectionate and tender
care till the last summon came. What
was written by her mother, Mrs. Har
riet Thrower, by Malveron Hill Palm
er, may be said of Willie (as we all
called herewith entire truth.
"Beloved by all, she had no enemies,
and it is no wonder that men, women
and children of ail ages and sexes
and color, grappled her to their heart
with hooks of steel." "Peace to her
asheV
ONE WHO LOVED HER.
MissuLucy Boyd, -of 'Af ton,- is -visit j
mg.-in the ko f Mr. H- A, JUy .'
Los Angeles farmer has equipped
a specially prized mule with an elec
tric tail lamp to prevent accidents
from automobile traffic at night Hen
derson Daily Dispatch. '
It's not so hard to love yourn neigh
b7.fanless he 'is learning on the cor
.nsL Henderson Daily Dispatch. "
been an oversight by everybody coBaeeted with the Legislature
including the Secretory of State.
-The following Magistrates, in Watren County, have no legal
right, under the Act, to hold the position :
G. G. Egerton, Shocco township; W. J. Cole, Nutbush; J. T. Ays
cue, Fork; Edward Petar, Warrenton; H. J. Ellis, Hawtrce; J. J.
Myrick, River; George Robinson, Sixpotuvd; J. G. Gupton, Fishing
Creek; J. D. Palmer, Warrenton; H. L. Salmon, River; J. O. Hardy,
Fishing Creek; T. D. King, River; t, L. Ryder, Judkins; J. L.
Skinner, J udkins ; IL D. Fleming, River.
BOARD OF EDUCATION
s . ... - -
The ruling of the Attorney General does not effect the appoint
ment of the Boards of Education of the Counties (Warren includ
ed.) The members of the various 'boards, of all the counties were
named in one bill, and ratified as one State-wide measure. There
was no "special act" in respect to Warren county (the Headlight to
the contrary notwithstanding) in the appointment of the mem
bers of the Board. Mr. Davis' appointment to "a vacancy" only
holding until the "next Legislature meets and acts." The Legis
lature met and acted on the 7th of March, when it named all of the
members of the different Boards whose terms expired on the first
Monday in July, 1917 or their successors, and filled all vacancies 'on
the. Boards; in some instances putting on three men, and in many
instances two. The Magistrates are effected because they failed
to qualify, and may be effected because.the adoption of Section 29 N
as an amendment to Article II of the Constitution prohibited all
action by the Legislature "Relating to the appointment of Justices
of the Peace."
If the Attorney General's Ruling holds good, the action by the
Legislature would have been null and void in appointment of Mag
istrates, BECAUSE that power is PROHIBITED by the amend
ment referred to.
We have, discussed this matter fully in order that our readers
may be informed of the At'torney General's Ruling, and in order
that its effects on our County may be known. So far as we can
see, (with the exception of the appointment of Magistrates, and
possibly the Highway Commission) there is nothing in Section 29
adopted at the Polls as an amendment to the Constitution which
effects any local law in Warren and it is possible that this may
not be effected by, reason of the following power jrranted to the
Legislature by the same amendmnt which prohibited legislation:
ine ieneral Assembjyvshall have power to pass general laws reg-
ulating matters set out in this section." Therefore the Legis
lature, reserves unto itself that power, and exercised it by naming
January 10th as the date at which the amendments went into ef
fect. Hence it was that all legislation was hurried in the first few
days of the Session. If the Surpreme Court takes this view, none
of the local laws passed previous-to January 10th (and Mr. Daniel
passed all our local laws before that date) will be effected by the
j