Newspapers / The Roxboro Courier (Roxboro, … / Sept. 3, 1939, edition 1 / Page 3
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fPERSON COUNTY TIMES A PAPER FOR ALL THE PEOPLE 1.8. MERRITT, Editor ' M. C. CLAYTON, Manager E. J. HAMLIN City Editor. * Published Every Sunday tad Thursday* Entered As Second Dans Matter At The Postoffice At Roxboro, N. C., Under Ike Act Os March 3rd., 1879* —SUBSCRIPTION RATES— Am Year $1.50 Hx Months .75 Advertising Cut Service At Disposal of Advertisers at ail times, Rates furnished upon request. flews from our correspondents should reach this office not Irter than Monday to insure publication for Thursday edition Mad Thursday P. M. for Sunday edition. SUNDAY, SEPT. 3, 1939 I Big-Time Taxpayer It has become something of a political sport to a buse and denounce the chain store industry—but all branches of government would find themselves search ing hard for new sources of revenue if the taxes the stores pay were lost to them. A survey Was recently made of 138 leading chain companies, representing all sizes and types, to find out just what they contribute to government in taxes. And it was discovered that in a typical year, their taxes came • to 2.94 per cent of their total sales—and more than 60 percent of their earned profits. It was also found that the chains on the average, pay $215 in taxes for every employe, and $3,108 for ev ery store. As evidence that the chains pay every conceiv able type of tax that can be levied against retail busi ness, the fact is cited that one typical company had on its books records of payments of 200 different kinds of taxes. All of this illustrates the folly of any law or move ment designed to destroy a legitimate business. The in evitable result is loss of taxes, loss of employment, a de cline in property values, and a reduced national income. What this country needs today is more business, not less, if we are to have better times—and more competi tion, not less, if the consumer is to get a decent break— and more retail outlets, not less, if the farmer and manu facturer are to extend their markets. The public seems to be slowly awakening to the fact that business-baiting laws destroy employment and raise prices. The thinking people of America, after ob • serving a policy of destruction, want a new policy of construction. * —o —o o “Tonight, At Midnight . “We hand over our Tennessee Electric properties and a $2,800,000 tax problem” tonight at midnight, said Wendell L. Willkie, President of the Commonwealth and Southern Corporation, in a page advertisement, August 15, 1939, in the Chattanooga and Nashville pa pers. Mr. Willkie then reviewed in a clear and forceful manner the outcome of a federal power program that has eliminated a great private electric industry in Tennessee, and $2,800,000 in taxes which this private enterprise paid annually. He said: “All of our facilities in Tennessee have been built With the money of many private investors. The com munities never had to increase their debts to build plants and distributing systems; they never had to pay out interest on bonds issued for electric service. The savings of thousands of citizens were brought, and would have continued to be brought, into this ter ritory to help produce more industry, more local wealth and more steady jobs. “We have to sell our electric properties and turn over a splendid organization to the Tennessee Valley Authority and other governmental agencies because we could not stay in business and compete with virtual ly tax-free and heavily-subsidized plants. We now turn over to government agencies for about four-fifths of its real value, one of the finest public utility services in this or any other country—one representing private investments of about C hundred million dollars.” In concluding his statement, Mr. Willkie said of friends and associates in Tennessee, “Our hope is they Will never be required to defend a business of their own against government subsidized competition.” Mr. Willkie’s company, owned by thousands of citi zens, has been eliminated. It was the first to go under the federal power program that has been spread across the nation. The most important sentence in his statement was the last, in which he expressed the hope that his friends would never be required to defend a business of their own against government subsidized competi tion. The force that has been set in motion to absorb the rights and interests of private citizens in power production will seek to enlarge its hold over the rights and interests of citizens in other lines of business. The Tennessee Electric Company has been a martyr to the cause of private enterprise. Midnight, August 15, 1939, will have marked the . end of democracy and private enterprise as we have known it for 150 years, unless the policy and the tac tics that eliminated this company as a private institu tion, are reversed. o d —o“ Venturesome “Venturesome Capital” . . . ... ii ‘lt is essential that we direct our energies toward every move that will encourage our people to invest in enterprises which will put them back to work.” That is the view, not of some “Wall Street finan cier,” but of John W. Hanes, Under Secretary of the Treasury, as expressed in an address before the In diana Bankers Association. And he said, in addition: “We are confronted today with a great surplus of Capi tal which does not desire to take a change, and a dis* scorl i ° Ay trict shortage of that which does. Venturesome capital is needed to induce the investment of cautious capital. New enterprises can be started and old ones that are subject to rapid change can be continued only with capital willing to take a chance. Morever, even our most stable industries need a margin of enterprising capital willing to absorb the shock of the risks to which even those‘industries are subject . . . The employment of a dollar of venturesome capital may permit the em ployment of several dollars of senior capital, but if no one is willing to take a chance, projects may be aban doned even if the earnings prospects are promising . . “There are a number of places where sympathetic action by government might help restore courage and willingness to launch out in new enterprises.” Risk capital doesn’t go “into hiding” because it wants to, but because it is forced to. It is forced there by killing regulatory policies, by taxing policies which take the profit out of successful speculative ventures, while leaving the investor with the losses in case of failure, and by the general political drive against pri vate enterprise* as we have known it in the past. Our planned discouragement of investment over a period of years has been far more responsible for the mainten ance of depression and employment than most of us realize. Mr. Hanes told part of the story, but the reason capital is cautious is the point the public must begin to understand. Christian Science Monitor “Lamps are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lighted again in our time.” With stran gely compelling wistfulness these words have return ed and returned again throughout the last quarter of a century. When, looking out of a window on the gray half-light over London, Britans Foraign Secretary in 1914 spoke them, they were figurative. They meant that all that was best and brightest in human achieve ment was going into an eclipse from which “in our time” it would never wholly emerge. Once again lights have been going out over Europe. But this time the statement is literal. And one may note with more than ordinary interest that they have not yet begun to go out all over Europe. In London and Paris, yes; but not in Berlin. That city, as described just after Sir Nevile Henderson presented Britain’s reply to Reichs-fuhrer Hitler, was bright. In London, newspaper offices hid their windows under heavy curtains. In Paris the boulevardiers sat m the sidewalk cases, their faces blue and blotchy in the eerie rays of lighting that is not to be seen from the sky. Berlin, like London and Paris, were prepared against air raids. But evidently Berlin did not feel it necessary to anticipate a sudden, unannounced attack. It is clear that German officialdom, if not the Ger man people, know with whom the initiative for mass slaughter must lie. and that this rests with Germany. War guilt” is not so easily placed as this may in dicate, however. The responsibilities for the conditions that lead to war must be shared by millions upon mil- Hons of human beings in that measure which their own selfishness or selfishness determines. Charles A. Beard has well said that it is what we all do in peacetime that takes us toward war. But on the brink of war, and aware of being there, peoples would turn on the lights again and try to find a better way. If all their leaders can now join in this search for the better way instead of insisting only on those ways which satisfy selfishness, the lights all over Europe can be lighted again in our time. PERSON COUNTY TIMES ROXBORO, N. C. SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON From The Adult Student ISAIAH; A LIFE DEDICATED TO GOD While little is known of the boyhood of Isaiah, his intimate acquaintance with the ways of the king’s court would indicate that he enjoyed all the advant ages of education and social in tercourse that were open to the sons of prominent citizens of Jerusalem. He lived at a time when Judah’s political entangle ments with other nations were most serious. His position was that the nation’s safety consisted in reliance upon God and in neu trality in the quarrels of Assyria and Egypt. And when his advice was followed the issue was al ways a happy one; never was it happy when disregarded. Isaiah’s Call To Service Our scripture lesson today is one of the most important in all of the Bible. It describes in words of rare beauty the dedication of a man’s life to the service of God and his fellow man. The words are heard and spoken in a vision, but they cannot be called vis ionary in any shallow sense; and they are intensely practical for even the twentieth century. “In the year the king Uzziah died.” Isaiah may have just come from the royal chamber in which the dead king lay in state. His mind was full of the tragic ev ents that brought to an end the mighty reign of Uzziah. He saw as never, before the dangers that confronted the young and strug gling nation. His heart yearned to be of service. Out of the sense of deep need came a vision of God. And while this vision may seem somewhat unusual and extraordinary to us, yet it was in harmony with the manner in which God revealed himself to men in ancient times. The important point for us to re member is that Isaiah came face to face with God. For the first time, he saw clearly what God wanted him to do. Down through the ages the men who have accomplished great things for the world have been the men who, like Isaiah, have had great visions of God. Saul of Tarsus, on the Damascus road, saw Jesus Christ and from that vision came the power to become the greatest missionary the world has ever known. Martin Luther, in a prison cell, saw a vision of the spiritual, and out of it came the Protestant Reformation with a thousand blessings for the weak and oppressed. In modern times David Livingston saw with the eyes of faith a cleansed and re deemed Africa, and today Africa is blessed with the light of the gospel of Christ. America needs to catch a fresh vision of God. Every minister and layman in this land needs to hear anew the call of God to active service in curing the evils and righting the wrongs that oppress the people of this world. This is no time for passive or half-heart ed service to the King of kings. Where did Isaiah see the vision and hear the call of God? In the temple where he was accustom to go for worship! Does that fact have a message for us today? Surely, there is no better place for one to seek the presence of God than the church. It need not be a magnificent cathedral with all the rich adornments that money can buy; It may be a sim ple chapel in some quiet and se cluded spot; but whatever its size or style of architecture, it is God’s house where he may be found by all who seek him humbly and re verently. Isaiah’s Response To God’s Call God first showed to Isaiah the need for* a bold and fearless pro phet to carry the truth to an un clean and backslidden people. Suddenly, the terrible truth dawned upon Isaiah’s mind that he was the one to whom God was looking for help. “Here am I; send me.” Nobler words than these never fell from the lips of mortal man. And when Isaiah sought an explanation of the mes sage that God would have him deliver to the people of Judah, his heart sank within him at the terms of the divine command. God let him know that in spite of all that he could say or do the notion would disappoint him by refusing to turn from the ways of evil. But Isaiah, God said, i must keep on preaching until there was no one left to preach to. > It is impossible to think of a > more difficult task. Isaiah’s only E source of encouragement was : the hope that a small remnant of . of the people would escape the . terrible fate which was to befall . the nation and that through them : God’s will would finally triumph : in the world. God’s Call To Us What Is Our Answer? ; Isaiah’s call was unusual and out of the ordinary. Few people in all recorded history have been called to service in as spectacular a manner as Isaiah. To most men God makes himself known in other and more normal ways. It was through these normal ways that God came to Hosea, Amos, Micah, Jeremiah, and others of the ancient Hebrew prophets. Some modem Christians, like Isaiah, know just the day and hour when their consecration call came, followed by their consecra tion answer'; others grow uncon sciously into Christian life. John Greenleaf Whittier describes Char les Summer’s gradual yet steady championship of the oppressed slaves before the War between the States in these words: “No trumpet sounded in his ear, He saw not Sinai’s cloud and flame; But never yet to Hebrew seer A clearer voice of duty came.” And so it is with many modern Christians. They have never seen or heard anything that one could count as miraculous evidence of God’s presence; yet, like Charles Sumner, they know that they have heard and answered God’s call. But there is one thing that we need to keep in mind. In all pro bability, we shall never hear or know God’s call if we do not put ourselves in the way of hearing it. Isaiah went to church, and there he caught the vision. We cannot expect God to reveal him self to a person unless that person opens his heart to God’s revela tion. We must be willing to hear and to obey before God’s voice can become audible to our ears. A story is told of an English army officer, who, when asked how long it would take him to get ready to start for India, replied, “I am ready now.” The challenge to the modem Christian is, “Are you ready now to start wherever SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1939} God may want you to go?” If you are, God has doubtless told you already where to begin work. And that is what is needed most today—men and women who are ready and willing to start work on any task that needs doing in God’s world.” Professional Cards s. F. NICKS, JR. Attorney - at - Law First National Bank Bids: Main St. Roxboro, N. C DR. R. J. PEARCE EYES EXAMINED MONDAYS ONLY Thomas-Carver Bldg. 1 Pay Your I Telephone Bill I By The 10th 81 ,209 MALAWA Cases reported in U. S. in 1938! DON’T DELAY! C C C START TODAY with 00 0 666 Checks Malaria in 7 days. A) R. A. WHITFIELD \ Distributor Roxboro, N. C. IVE BUILD FOR Roxboro and Person County With all Work Guaranteed. No Job Too Large and None Too Small. GEORGE W. KANE Roxboro, N. C. Before you put a license plate on your new car put a liability policy in your vault f THOMPSON INSURANCE AGENCY Roxboro, N. C. NOTICE I will exchange feeds of any kind to the farmers for oats and will allow yon $1.25 per hundred pounds. I will also exchange flour. R. H. Gates Depot Street ==j===l
The Roxboro Courier (Roxboro, N.C.)
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Sept. 3, 1939, edition 1
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