North Carolina Newspapers

Patronize Our Advertisers, For Te" !?* Merchant Yon tsawHia VOL, TWENTY-TWO PARMVTLLB. PITT COltWTT, NORTH CAROUSA, FRIDAY, JULY 17, 1931 ^ NUMBER IBM Pitt County Gives Big Party to Le Politics Submerged in Gathering in Honor of County"s Senator and Representatives Greenville, July 15.?Three men who came back from the long legis lature even stronger in the hearts of their people than when they left, Ed Flannagan, Marvin Blount ana John Holmes, were honored by the people of Pitt county, as hosts, and many of th people of Eastern North Carolina, as guests, at the Greenville Country Club today. The party had much more than lo cal significance. Among the seven or eight hundred assembled at the barbe cue were people from 22 different counties. They, or most of them, came to show their appreciation for a good legislative fight, even though it was not a complete victory. Their , presence indicated that the people in , this section of the state at least do i not believe that the fight is over yet. They believe that the next legislature j will do what the last couldn't quite do, take the entire constitutional school burden off land and put it on " the state. Though there had been predictions ; in some quarters of great political sig- j nificance to the meeting here today, it had none. Candidates a plenty were here but the party was not theirs and nobody was boosted for governor j or for any other office. Land tax ^ relief was the subject of the only po litieal talk when Senator John Hins dale and others urged that in the next . election care be taken to discover the legislative candidates' ideas on ad va lorem and sales taxation before the : election. ! The speaking went on all day while some listened and others didn't. The audience shifted and the barbecue ta bles, the drinki and even the golf course were competitive attractions. It was one of those parties at which ev- ! erybody did what they pleased and a ( lot of different things were found to be most pleasing to different people. Ton.ght the affair ended with a dance 1 at the club which brought out the women. The day's activities were al- j' most wholly stag. P. C. Harding was master of to _ day's. , ceremonies. He first intro- j duced Mayor R. C. Flannagan, who 1 greeted the guests on behalf of Greenville, and then Raymond Turn age, of Ayden, who extended the of ficial welcome of Pitt county. Congressman Lindsay Warren had much to do with keeping factional or ' sctional democratic fights out of the j day's program when he said that it ^ was time for members of the party to get together and act for the state _ as a whole. "North Carolina is paying tfte price ^ of a spending spree that has made us the talk of the civilized world," said ] the* congressman. "In this time there arose in the county of Beaufort a man ' whose name is now high in the annals of state history. Public education never had a better friend. In the most terrific legislative battle ever staged he won an 80 per cent victory and he and his followers secured the most substantial tax reduction ever given at one time in the histoiy of North Carolina." The congressman's remarks about Representative Angus D. MacLean drew prolonged applause as did the introduction of Mr. MacLean by Mr. Harding, who called him the "best known and most beloved citizen of Eastern North Carolina." Mr. MacLean criticized the present system of capital and business which . he said, "leaves makers of manufac tured products rich and makers of crops poor." "The present system has put too much money in too few hands," said Mr. MacLean, and the resulting prob lem necessitates the* best and most . honest thinking for the good of the state. Mr. Harding told the audience that Josephus Daniels, editor of The News and Observer, was to have been pres ent, but had found it impossible and sent a message to be read. Before reading the message Mr. Harding was most complimentary to the "fighting editor" and later .the assembly passed a resolution requesting the paper to print the message in fulL Judge Francis D. Winston, the man who made Bertie famous, put the au dience through its paces of laughter and then made it think. His was a "headline act." ' Senator Rivers Johnson talked about the legislature and reminded the people at the barbecue that the last assembly had: the most difficult of problems before it, and, if it (fid not succeed completely as all had wished, the partial failure was not due to any lack o# effort. = ?? Lieutenant Governor Fountain also praised the industry of the legisla ture* He touched briefly an the aeo- i norak problems, insisting that the school burden must be taken com pletely off land by the next legisla dience o fthe past session of the sen ate. He talked tax relief, MacLean law, scales, taxes and old fashioned democracy, and he was in top form. "The trouble with the world is that people won't use the common sense that the good Lord gave them," be gan one of the Wardisms. "There is no limit to man's smartness except that he can't govern himself. When people are starving, while warehous es are full of food that can't be soWf there's something wrong;" Almost all of the speakers had praised the guests of honor and Sen ator Ward added a special tribute to Mr. Holmes. "I knew Ed Flannagan and Marvin Blount were good repre sentatives before I went to Raleigh," he said, "but my admiration was won by this man Holmes." Highway Commissioner E. B. Jef frss made a short talk as did Reve nue Commissioner A. J. Maxwell, the latter talking about tax problems but diplomatically "laying off" the sales tax. His speech was another remind er of the activities among the crowds of certain friends of Senator W. G. Clark who want him to run for Com missioner of Revenue. But the sena tor announced that he was too busy enjoying the barbecue to be talking about politics. He would talk about everything else but the possibility that he might run. Senator John Hinsdale went right to the 3ales tax fight. The present plus the impending deficit means, he said, "that there must be a general sales tax, a socalled luxury tax or an increase of ad valorem taxes." Al ready, he declared, the opponents of, the luxury and the sales tax are pre-* paring for the next legislature. Those who oppose an increase in the ad va lorem tax must do the same thing, he stated. Senator Baggett, Tom McNeill, 0. B. Moss, R. B. Davis, Senator Rod well, the "Bishop of Warren," and others made short talks while the crowds around the platform- and the barbecue tables swapped places. Fi nally the three men in whose honor the party had been given expressed their appreciation of the honor and the compliments that had been paid them and one of the most enjoyable gatherings of the year came to an end. If the governor had been forced to call a special session of the legisla ture yesterday, he could have found almost a quorum of both houses pres ent and even the "third house" was ready to transact business. It looked bice a reunion of the veterans of the five months' war. * _ , Notables Invited to Bridge Openiag $350,000 Structure a t Elizabeth City Will Be Opened Soon Elizabeth City, July 15.?Governor 0. Max Gardner, Chairman E. B. Jef fress of the State Highway Commis sion, and other notables will be invited to be present at the formal opening of the new Pasquotank river bridge some time the early part of August. A baseball game and boxing-matches held under auspices of Seth E. Perry Post of the American Legion are plan ned as part of the celebration. The new $350,000 bridge is being fast brought to completion by the At lantic Bridge Company of Greens boro, and it is expected that it will be far enough advanced to admit traf fic by the latter part of July. The bridge is of concrete construction with double leaf bascule spans across a 100 foot channel. It was at the in sistence of the United States War De partment that the draw was made 100 feet instead of 80, as at first planned by the State Highway Commission, the contention being that the bridge was constructed to serve for many years and crossing a section of the In land Waterway system, all possible requirements of future1 waterborne traffic milst be provided for. The new bridge is located about 150 yards upstream from the present jne-way traffic-bridge built about 20 years ago as a toll bridge by private interests and later taken over by the highway department. Contract for instruction of the new bridge calls for the removal of the old. The world'* latest heroes were caught the moniing after they finished circling the globe in eight and two-third days. Left to right are H old Gatty and his wife, and Mrs. Wiley Pos.t and her famous hus band At top are shown Florence G riall. backer of the flight, and the Winnie Mae. , ? ? J ! L This Week In Washington Washington, D. C., July 16.?jOne fallacy that datis back to the found ing of the Republic has been exploded ?the idea that American diplomats are no match for European sttaesmen. The world has been treated to the spectacle of Secretary of the Treasury Mellon, a Pittsburgh banker and iron magnate, handling, on more than even terms, the delicate negotiations in volved in the debt holiday. Practically every other country but France was won over to the plan be fore Mellon left this country. France alone proved obdurate and entrenched itself behind its Chamber of Deputies, which Premier Laval asserted, had au thorized him to agree only within cer tain limitations. Mellon's success in threading his way past these defences has strengthened the administration's hold, politically, as it is known that he was guided throughout by Presi dent Hoover's personal advice. The negotiations have been conducted more skilfully, perhaps, than any deal made with a foreign government, since the days when Benjamin Frank lin . was Minister to the Court of France and enlisted its aid for the American colonies. Led by Vice President Curtis and Senator Capper, the two leading pol iticians from the wheat belt, an at tack is being made on the Federal Farm Board's announced policy of unloading its wheat at the rate of five million bushels a month, if found practicable without breaking the price. Many observers here see in their activity only a political gesture, designed to bring the two men more into the limelight. These critics point out that the Farm Board is committed against any action that would result in material ly lowering the price of wheat. It has the problem of selling its holdings at an average price of 92 cents and the present price is less than half that on the Chicago Board of Trade. The effect of an appeal to Mr. Hoover to stop the Board from unloading its holdings cannot amount to much, it is said here, as wheat will have toj approximate $1 a bushel before the government can start selling. The Farm Board's selling cam paign is definitely hooked up with a plan to purchase fresh wheat to the amount of its sales. All transactions will be handled so as not to depress the market price unless the world price should rise, and none will be made without consulting representa tives of the farmers. It is generally conceded here that the board's state ment is an ultimatum to all wheat farmers, warning them that unless they reduce their wheat acreage. ' It is also taken as a warning tc private grain traders that the board will not allow itself to be "smoked out" into a definite announcement regarding prices, which would permit traders to jockey the market for their own self ish purposes. Tammany may be condemned for a thousand sins but it never has been accused of pussy-footing. Republi can politicians here are trying to puz zle out whether Claude G. Bowers, the keynote orator at the Democratic National Convention in 1928, has not again sounded the call to battle in his Fourth of Jqly speech at the Tam many ~ Wigwam in New York City. That his speech actually represented the best thought of his party Is be ing considered here as more than likely. It is to be rioted that Governor Franklin IX "fcoosevelt, now the roost likely candidate against Mr. Hoover, studiously refrained from attending the rally. His action leaves him free to accept or. reflect the Bowers dic tum, which if that the coming cam paign will be fought out strictly on the tariff issue. v Ever since ^this country became a great manafaeturing nation, some 75 years ago,-the tariff question has -- . ^ last really sharp tariff battle was in Cleveland's victory in 1892, which was followed by some lean years. ? Bowers chose as his text the claims put out by the Hoover man agers in 1928 that a high tariff meant prosperity. He said that vot ers had enjoyed plenty of time, be tween customers, sinde then to medi- ( tate upon, the success of the tariff, charging that the high tariff has put a Chinese Wall around the country right at a time when it desperately needed foreign markets. Not a word was said about the pro hibition issue or superpower. If Bowers' speech is accepted by the Democratic party as a competent ex pression of its aims it means that the farmers of the country are to be askecfto vote for the Democratic ticket on the appeal that the high tar iff has raised the price of everything they buy while it has not added a cent to his purchasing power. Russian wheat and cotton are Cell ing below the price American farm ers can raise them and the Democrats are expected to make this, point their main bid for votes when the cam pai;ja_starts. Bowers' speechvbefore tWrl'exas convention three years ago remembered as one of the greatest keynote orations .ever made, rivaling in its dramatic power Byr an's "cross of *o*d and irf thbfnsH spteech at CMdago ii? im Unless his; recent speech had been ap : . N.H. Whitfield Buried Sunday ? Former Greenville Man Dies at Home of His Daughter in Farmville ? ?' i ? . i,. . ? . N. H. Whitfield, 70, died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. B. O. Tur nage, in Farmville, Ikst Saturday aft ernoon at 2 o'clock, following long , illness. . ' ^ Funeral services were conducted from the home yesterday afternoon at 4 o'clock and burial was made in the Farmville cemetery. Rev. H. L. Hendricks, pastor of Farmville Meth odist church, officiated. Mr. Whitfield lived in Greenville severalj years and had a host of friends there who received news of his death with sorrow. He hqd been in business at Ontario, Va., the last several years, but his health became impaired and he moved to Farmville where he had been mak ing his home with his daughter for the last several months. He was a native of Franklin county but lived in maav parts of the coun try during his jgifttme. 'He married Miss Ruth HayJ^jjf Chase City, who preceded him to the grave by a number of years. He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. George Buchan, of Henderson, and Mrs. B. 0. Turnage, of Farmville; three sisters, Mrs. B. W. Chavis and Mrs. J. W. Hester, of Waco, Texas, and Mrs. J. R. Townsend, of Ontario, Va. He is also survived by several grandchildren. Active pall bearers were: George Buchanan, New York; B. 0. Turnage, Farmville, grandsons; G. A. Rouse, J. T. Thorne, A. W. Bobbitt, R. A. Fields. Honorary, G. M. Holden, F. M. Diavis, T. C. Turnage, W. J. Tur nage, J. Y. Monk, W. J. Rasberry, Plato Monk, W. Leslie Smith, B. S. Smith, E. C. Beaman, Dr. C. & Joy ner, M. V. Jones. MRS. MARTHA L. MORGAN p ' 1 Mrs. Martha L. Morgan, wife of Elbert Morgan of Seven Pines and Farmville, died July 15, at the age of 53. Mrs. Morgan is survived by her husband and one son, D. Hathaway, and several step-children. She was highly esteemed and much loved by a wide circle of acquaintances and 'her death is a great loss to the commun ity in which she lived. 1 Tax Burden On Properly ; Much Reduced School and Road Legis lation by Late General Assembly Helps Some Raleigh, July 15.?A net reduction of $12,167,849 frort the 19S0 property tax levies for the six months school term and county roads will be real ized by North Carolina taxpayers as a result of the school and road legis lation of the 1931 General Assembly. Figures compiled and just released by the State Tax Commission indi cate that a saving of nearly twelve and a quarter million dollars from the actual 1930 levies will accrue to the owners of property" from the passage of the administration road law under which the state takes over the entire maintenance of county roads, and the MacLean school law under which the state takes over the entire mainten ance of the six months .school term and reduces the levies on property for school support to 15 cents. The net reduction from the 1930 Ifeyy for t^g six months school term is $9,652,491, and for roads $2,515,358. The average reduction in rate for schools is 32 cents, and for roads, 9 cents. The actual levy for county and township road maintenance in 1930 was $5,252,113, none of which is to be levied in 1931. The counties will have to assume additional responsibility this year, however, in the amount of $2,736,755 for the payment of county road debt service which last year jvas paid out of state aid appropriated to the counties. This leaves a net re duction from the 1930 actual levy of two and one-half millions. While the twelve and one-quarter million dollar decrease from the actu al levy in 1930 is the biggest total re duction in property taxes ever effec tuated at one time in the historv of North Carolina, a reduction of more, than twenty per cent of the total tax es levied on property, county, muni cipal and district, for all purposes, the reduction itself would be $600,000 bigger if every county had levied, in 1930, as much as it actually spent for road maintenance that year. A number of counties have been spending a great deal more for road maintenance than they have been levying. For example, . Buncombe county spent $327,000 in the year ending June 30, 1930; but in 1930 Buncombe county levied a rate of only five hundredths of one cent, or $819, for roads. If Buncombe county had raised its road maintenance funds from taxes it would have had to levy 20 cents. In the same year uraven coumy spent $81,257, and levied a rate of three-tenths of one cent which produc ed $807. It spent nearly $80,000 more than it levied, and would have found it necessary to levy a rate of 30 cents for roads if it had met its road expen ditures out of its road tax levies. The same condition existed in many other counties. Currituck county, which spent $18,486 for the year end ing June 30, 1930, did not levy any tax for road maintenance in 1930. The average statewide reduction for roads and schools combined is 41 cents. The twelve counties receiving the greatest reduction are lead by Biitherford with an even $1.00, fol lowed by Dare with 77 cents, Colum bus 69 cents, Vance 68 cents, Nash 67 cents, Currituck 64 cents, Pitt 64 cents, Scotland 64 cents, Union 62 ?7 , ? cents, Davidson 61 cents, Greene _.0 cents, and Camden 60 cents. The county receiving the lowest re duction -from the 1980 levy for schools and roads is Clay, which could not receive a large reduction from last year's rate, because it levied only $10,600 for roadB and schools combined. When it again assumes the payment of its road debt service charges, for Which .it received last year $10,000 of state aid, its tax rate Will actually be Increased icents. Tide county levied only $8,877 fur roads last year, but it actually spent Mmh Man CI I me i\ew lu ensures invoKen To End Economic Panic Authorities Resort to Use ofFirearmsin Pre serving Order Berlin, July 15.?To the accompan iment of news of Communist rioting in many sections of Germany, Chan cellor BrueningJ8 government tonight broadcast by radio a series of decrees opening the banks and clamping down drastic regulations on traffic in for eign currencies. The news that riots had broken oat in a number of cities where quiet has reigned throughout the day began to arrive in Berlin by telegraph ait the same time Finance Minister Dietrich was vigorously appealing by radio to the people to keep their nerve, to "use common sense," and to stand behind the country's leaders in their task of restoring financial and industrial equilibrium. Although police were forced to re sort to the use of firearms in Dres den, Leipzig and Karlsrhufe, reports received up to midnight indicated they were unable to control the situation everywhere. All banks in the country will be re opened tomorrow, the government de creed, but at least for the rest of this week they will take care of only such essential items as payrolls, tax obliga tions and the unemployment dole. It was made clear that Chancellor Bruening was determined not to per mit a new run on foreign currencies or the resumption of raids on sav ings banks. Finance Minister Dietrich also asked the people not to forget that "It is not the government, but pri vate industry which is pressed for cash." The Hoover plan, he> said, with Chancellor Bruening's drastic economy program, hr.8 put the Ger man exchequer "on its feet," and even enabled the government to begin re paying some of its floating debt. Al ready, he said, several hundred mil lions have been returned to industry. New. financial relief measures were announced to the country over the ra dio by a government broadcaster, who appealed to those who had been dis commoded by the bank closure to show "a sporting spirit and get along somehow for a few days more." The government's action came a few hours later the Reichsbank had lowered the 40 per cent coverage on currency required by law, thereby re leasing millions of marks to ease the credit situation created by heavy withdrawals of foreign credit during recent weeks. The Reichsbank also raised its dis count rate from 7 to 10 per cent and boosted the rates on loans against col lateral from 8 to 15 per cent?both measures being taken to keep the ex pended currency down to the actual needs of the nation and to forestall in flation. In appealing to the people to show a sporting spirit, the government broadcaster pointed out that savings accounts, tied up by the bank closing order, were intended for -use in rare emergencies and not for current ex penditures. The decree affecting foreign cur rencies, also read over the radio, re stricts buying and selling to the Reichsbank and its duly appointed agents. It prohibits the quotation of any except official rates of exchange, which will be determined in Berlin. The decree also forbids publication of unofficial stock and bond quota tions as well as all trading in foreign exchange futures. The radio broadcast closed with the government's assurance that the restrictions would be removed shortly from remittances of money through banks and postoffices, and that "grad ually, but rapidly as the situation permits, the banks will be allowed to return to full normal operation." The foreign exchange decree vests the federal minister of economics with authority to inspect books and to de mand sworn statements from all per sons buying or selling foreign curren cy, and lays down drastic penalties for violations.^ ? ? ' ; ? M GLOBE GIRDLERS WILL NOT GO TO RALiUGH Raleigh, July 15.?Raleigh will not see and hear Messrs. Post and<Jatty, who girdled the globe in less than nine days, and who new plan, under the sponsorship of the National Broadcasting Company, to girdle cit ies of the United States willing to pay for the privilege of entertaining them. When Secretary H. B. Branch, of the Chamber of Commerce, heard of the proposed tour, he jumped right is and invited the fliers to include Ra leigh on their triumphal itinerary. Yesterday the answer came beck. "We will be glad to?the fee will be $1,000." Secretary Branch said that R wat a* oft \ V . Mussolini Says U.S. Can Make World Disarm The Duce Says "There Is No Other Road If Wes tern Civilization Is to Live" (By ROBERT J. BENDER) Rome, July 15.?Modern civiliza tion has reached its "last stand from which it may be plunged into "cha otic disaster" by the war or saved for peace and economic recovery through disarmament, Premier Benito Mussoli ni told me in a private interview to day. I Fresh from disarmament discussion with Secretary of State Stimson, Mussolini stressed the important posi tion of the United States in the de cision which will determine the future of the worid, "now at the parting of the ways." The United States, as the most powerful country in the world today, achieve disarmament "by pound ing with hammer blows until disarm ament is an accomplished fact," the premier said. "This has got to be," he added sol emnly. t "There is no other road, if Western civilization is to live. As we stand before 1932, we are facing a great un certainty. On our decision depends the future of the world. "If we decide for peace, we will have saved humanity. If we decide for war, we will plunge the world into chaotic disaster." The Duce earnestly declared that without the United States, the 1932 disarmament .conference would be doomed to failure, as has been t.e case with its many predecessors. But if disarmament comes, he said, the great powers will achieve much fin ancial relief. "If only from an economic view point," he printed out, "disarmament 'is a progressive necessity, and since the average nation spends about omi fourth of its revenues on its military establishments, the value of lighten ing the burden is evident "Not secondary to the immediate economic saving is the guarantee dis armament will mean for a long period of peace. Unrest and stagnation fol lowed the war and morale is low. The world is craving a sustained peace. The reestablishment of the normal flow of commerce and the resumption of industry make peace an essential part of the world program. "Resumption must take place, be cause another winter of hardship and misery will plunge Europe into des pair. Do not forget that where there is dire distress there you will fmd the way open for the germ of bolshev ism. In distressing times it is a real danger. _ twice this amount. The true net re sult of the operation of the school and road law will, therefore, leave Clay county with approximately the same rate in 1931 as in 1930. This county incidentally has a high totaT county tax rate for the reason that its debt service needs (not operating costs) for roads and schools require a levy of $1.39. Other counties that will receive small reductions as a result of the road and school laws are Maco:: 6 cents, Brunswick 7 cents, Ashe 8 cents, Randolph 17 cents, Forsyth 19 cents, Watauga 22 cents, Yadkin 23 cents, Avery1 2$ cents, Alleghany 27 cents, Yancey 27 cents, Swain 27 cents. With the exception of Forsyth which has anunusually low tax rate because of its high assessed valuation, all of these counties except two are mountain counties which have fairly meagre road facilities and which have been receiving the largest part of their six months school term revenue from the state equalizing fund. On the whole, the eastern part of the state will receive a larger reduc (Continued on page 3)