PERSON COUNTY TIMES
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A PAPER FOR ALL THE PEOPLE
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J. S. MERRITT, EDITOR M. C. CLAYTON, MANAGER
THOMAS J. SHAW, JR., City Editor.
*
Published Every Thursday and Sunday. Entered As Second
Class Matter At The Post office At Roxboro, N. C., Under
The Act Os March 3rd., 1879.
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News from our correspondents this off'e<‘ no
later than Tuesday to insure publ’cation for Thursday, edition
and Thursday P. M. for Sunday editio.i.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1941
Willkie In England
Announcement by defeated Republican candidate
for president, Wendell Willkie that he will in a few days
fly to England “for a private survey of the internation
al situation” is perhaps more significant than His declar
ation in favor of modified adoption of his one-time ri
val’s “Land-Lease” arms bill, but both his decision to
go to England and his recognition that the President
must advocate measures as drastic as those being pro
posed, are indications that Mr. Willkie has since Novem
ber been keeping an unbiased ear to the ground.
It is to be supposed that Mr. Willkie, if he goes to
England, for even a short stay, will by acquisition cf j
first hand information be Better able to be an intelli
gent critic of war measures which in the United States
will pass as statecraft. It is likewise to be supposed that
Mr. Willkie, in even so short a visit as he will make \v ill
see in England some items not included on the program
planned for him, although it is natural to suppose the
English people whom he meets will be anxious to show
him both the best and the worst aspects of war: worst
from standpoint of death and destruction, and best from
standpoint of morale
In any case, if Mr. Willkie is to continue as an
American minority leader it is important that he should
as much as possible have first hand information as to
what is happening in the English war center. We could
Wish he might go to Germany, Italy and France with
same purpose in mind, since reports coming to us from
those countries are even more unreliable than those now
coming from Britain. If we must be in this war it is
our duty to know as much as we can (and that is much
more thsn we have to date been told) concerning back
stage goings-on. The Willkie trip may mean a little more
enlightenment where enlightenment is needed and we
will, therefore, await his report with interest.—despite
fact that not many Democrats will listen to it.
We Saw It Coming
Survey of the Daily Tar Heel (Chapel Hill) prec<p
itated controversy over text-books of North Carolina
history, prepared respectively by Jule B. Warren, secre
tary of the North Carolina Education association, and
by Drs. A. R. Newsome and Hugh T. Lefler, of the Uni
versity faculty, reveals more than ever that something
needs to be done to end political and “personal pull” in
fluences now exerted upon those educational bodies
■whose duties require them to advise and select. Ra
leigh’s News and Observer is of opinion that action to
end possibilities of charges of favoritism and collusion
need to be taken by the General Assembly. And, we sup
pose that if anything is done to remove suspicion of ,
political influence in selection of text-books, such remov
al will have to come from the General Assembly, al
though it passes our comprehension as to how a Legisla
ture composed primarily of men who are themselves po
liticians of first water can be expected to induce reform ;
in a system of selection previously of their own making.
Some two, three, four months ago we saw this con
troversy coming and said as much in these columns.
Now that the row is here, after choice has been made,
we are inclined to say to adherents of J ule Warren and
of Drs. Newsome and Lefler, a “plague on both your
houses”. Suspicion has it that those persons at Chapel
Hill who are interested in the Newsome-Lefler aspect ;
of the case are not any less guilty, for all their vaunted
intellectualism, than are the proponents of Mr. Secre
tary Warren. Log-rolling and you-stick-to-me and 1
stick-to-you attitudes are in educational matters no more
attractive than they are in other and less ethereal
camps. Beside, public school education is in North Car
olina at low enough ebb without this semi-annual wash
ing of text-book linen.
The Greatness Os James Joyce
News of the death of James Joyce, distinguished
Irish author, at Zurich, Switzerland, made headlines in
Monday morning papers for reasons naving nothing to
do with his ultimate reputation as a sensitive prose ar
tist. Known far and wide as the author of the many
'times banned and indiscriminately praised “Ulysses”,
-Joyce was essentially an author’s author, despite the
•fact that layreaders, if they take trouble will find in
“‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man” and in a book
PERSON COUNTY TIMES ROXBORO, N. C.
of short stories called “Dubliners” work that is as simple
and direct as any done in our time.
We, too, can remember when our friends went to
Paris and came home with two-volume, paper-bound
smuggled editions of “Ulysses” which not many of them
took trouble to read through because they were satis
fied to hit what were thought of as high spots of sala
ciousness. And we can recall with pleasure the day some
seven or eight years ago when American ban upon pub
lication of the volume was lifted. That pleasure was, we
think, grounded more upon disapproval of the idea of
censorship in any form rather than upon desire to im
press people with the importance of a book in many re
spects unintelligible.
To those persons who think that such frankness as
was expressed in “Ulysses’" is essentially European we
might say that we can in any night spot in Roxboro
hear stories of similar vulgarity and we thank God no
body wants to take the trouble to preserve them in print,
mainly because those people whom we know could not,
if they wished, cover them with that air of artistry in
nate in such a man®as Joyce was. Joyce was an Irish
Thomas Wolfe, made much wisei, and theretore, sad
der, by inheritance ,of a culture bey ond Wolfe’s grasp.
NITH OTHER EDITORS
Skilled Labor Shortage
Durham Morning Herald
For at least a year, in some instances longer, sc-lf
appointed or officially designated spokesmen for tills
that and the other group have chorused “there is a short
age of skilled workers.”
Men in government, men in industry, and profes
sional toyers with such questions have preached and are
preaching that thesis
Nothing like all of them bother to include statistics
or even estimates, but many of them do.
So, we are less inclined to challenge the view that
a shortage of skilled workers has developed or is going
to develop soon than we are to say to the prophets and
complainers “why don”# you do something about the
short&ge except talk about it?
You get skilled workers by taking unskilled workers
and training them. You don’Y get them any otner way,
never have and never will. You can provide a certain a
mount of the required training m schools of one sort or
another. Much of it can not provide in schools, but can
in shops and factories.
There are millions of unskilled workers who would
like to become skilled workers and have the capacity to
do so. Some of them were once skilled in their trades and
simply need a “little brushing up to bring them up to
date.” Some are youngsters who have the ability, but
have never had the opportunity to apply their talents.
They can be made into skilled workmen in a relatively
short time, if some of those who keep saying"there is a
shortage of skilled labor” will give them jobs.
It is true, as everyone who discusses skilled labor
shortage question admits, directly or indirectly, labor
unions figure in the actual or potential shortage. For
some of the unions limited, as best they could, the ad
mission of recruits to the skilled trades, as a means of
holding up wages and staving off a surplus of trained
workers in a particular field.
But the blame cover nearly everyone in the broad
equation and the way to expand the ranks of skilled
labor is for all hands, industry, government and labor,
to take on raw recruits and train them in the skills. It
is little short of tragic that we have not done so already.
Omens In Music
The Baltimore Everlasting Sun
Just at present persons who cencern themselves
with the lively arts are chiefly interested in the fight
between the ASCAP musicians and the radio chains
which are trying to break the ASCAP monopoly. But
there’s another development in popular music that seems
to us to be worth a passing note. This is the growing
tendency among the kings of jazz to be snooty about
the kind of music that earns them their keep and to
crash the ranks of the highbrows.
It wasn’t so long ago that innocent music lovers vho
only knew what they liked being assured that hM
jazz is high art. There was a novel called “Young Man
W ith a Horn.” which told the story of one of these self
less votaries of the high art of hot jazz. And a number
of treaties were written and printed demonstrating just
why and how hot jazz makes Beethoven and Brahms and
Mozart sound like a gang of punks. Offer a member of
the younger intelligentsia some tickets to the Philadel
phia Orchestra and it was “No thanks,” Jelly-Roll Mor
ton and his New Orleans Feet-warmers were more in
style, “if you don’t mind.” t
But something has happened, and it seems to be
Benny Goodman who is mainly responsible—Benny,
possessor of two of the hottest lips and ten of the nim
blest fingers that ever brought squeaks out of a clarinet.
A week or so ago he put on a white tie and performed
Mozart’s seldom-heard clarinet concerto with the New
York Philharmonic Orchestra. Nor is that all: Benny
admitted in an interview preceding his appearance with
the Philharmonic that “serious” music takes more out
of a musician than jazz. He admitted, furthermore, that
despite months of hard practice he was not at all satis
fied with his own ability so far as the great clarinet
classics are concerned. He even referred slightingly to
a recording' of the very highbrow Brahms quintet which
he made last year with a string quartet, saying:
“The only thing wrong with that recording is Good
man.”
And now it turns out that Eddie Duchin, maestro
of society jazz, and a very capable pianist in his way,
has been secretly practicing up oi. Chopin’s Mazurkas
and a lot of classical piano concertos. Here is what Ed
die said on the subject, when smoked out:
“I love my jazz, but I have become very interested
in serious music. When I am ready for it, and I hope it
will be soon, I will appear with some of the symphonic
orchestras in the country.”
And finally, who should we find but Artie Shaw
himself, ex-husband of Lana Turner and idol of the
joke boxes, busting forth with a phonograph record en
titled “Concerto for Clarinet, Parts 1 and 2 ? To tell the
truth, this “concerto” would have to have a lot done to
it before it could be called “classical.” But the very fact
that Artie uses the word concerto at all tempts us to be
lieve that there may be something in this classical mu
sic after all.
DR. R. J. PEARCE F. C. Hall’s Transfer
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Start This Year With
International
S. B. WINSTEAD
Winstead Warehouse
DOES FORD PAY GOOD WAGES?
Here are some facts about Ford Labor.
During the year ended November 30th,
1940, the Ford Payroll throughout the
United States averaged 113,628 hourly
wage earners, not including office em
ployes, students, or executives. They were
paid $185,105,639.12. On this basis, the
average annual wage was $1,629.05.
According to the latest available govern
ment figures, the annual average wage of
all workers in employment covered by
old age insurance law was $841.00.
If the 45,000,000 workers of this country
received the same average wage as Ford
employes, they would have had additional
wages of more than $35,000,000,000, thus
increasing the national income about
50%. Think what such an increase would
mean to the workers of this country and
to the American farmer, whose prices are
based on the national income.
Wage scales in the Ford Rouge plants are
divided into three classifications:
Unskilled .. .
Minimum hiring wage . 75c per hour
Semi-skilled . . .
Minimum hiring wage . 80c per hour
Skilled . . .
Minimum hiring wage . 90c per hour
Higher wages are in consideration of
ability and years of service.
Minimum wage scales for unskilled labor
at the Rouge plant are the highest in the
industry. Top wages for skilled labor
compare favorably with, or are higher
than, wages in other automobile plants.
Now some facts on Ford labor conditions:
Not only are sanitation and other health
conditions the best in the industry, but
Ford also leads in safety devices for the
protection of employes. Proof of
this is found in the following com-
FORD MOTOR COMPANY
THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1941
DOLL If MADISON
ADVANCE PROGRAM
From Thursday, January I.6th
thru’ Saturday, January 18th
Motion Pictures are Tour Best
Entertainment
Thursday - Friday.. Jan. 16-17
Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havi
land Ray Milland, Ronald Rea
gan, Alan Hale in
“Santa Fe Trail” (First Run)
Where yesterday’s history
makes today’9 thrills! The
Santa Fe Trail! Bullets waiting
at one end The Devil at the
other!!!lt’s always trouble!
Our Gang: “Kiddie Kure”
Fable Cartoon: “Happy Holi
days
Special morning show Friday;
10:30.
Afternoons Daily 3:15-3:43;
Admission 10-30 c.
Evenings daily 7:15-9:00
Admission 15-30 c
Saturday January 18th
Chrales Starrett, Louise Cur
rei with “The Sons of The
Pioneers” in
“THE PINTO KID” (First Run)
Episode No. 11 of the Serial
Zane Grays “King of the Roy
al Mounted” Master Spy) with
Allen Lane, Robert Strange,
Robert Kellard, Lita Conway
Popeye The Sailor Problem
Pappy”
Continuous shows starting at
2:30; P. M. Admission adults
30c; choldren 10c up to 6
o’clock, 15c after 6 o'clock.
n
Special Show Saturday Jan. 18
Warren William, Frances Rob
inson, Bruce Bennett, Eric
Blore, Fred Kelsey in
“The Lone W T olf Keeps a Date”
(First Run)
The most daring Adventure of
Them all—The Lone Wolf-
In His most exciting Screen
Thrills!!
Color Cartoon “Syncopated
Sioux”
No morning show:
Box office opens Saturday
night 11:15: picture 11:30:
Admission all seats 35c
parison of compensation insurance costs:
The national average rate in automotive
manufacturing plants as computed by the
National Association of Underwriters is
in excess of $1.50 premium on each SIOO
payroll. The Ford cost of workmen’s
compensation is less than 50c.
This indicates that the chance of injury
in a Ford plant is much less than in the
average automobile plant.
The Ford Motor Company has no age
limit for labor, and in fact deliberately
attempts to keep older workers working.
The average age of Ford workers at the
Rouge and nearby plants is 38.7.
A recent check-up shows that nearly one
half the workers at these Ford plants were
40 or over, falling into these age groups:
25,819 between 40 and 50
14,731 between 50 and 60
3,377 between 60 and 70
417 between 70 and 80
12 between 80 and 90
In addition to the so-called regular em
ployes, the Ford Motor Company has
hired, and now has on the payroll, at the
same regular hourly wage, thousands of
workers who are blind, crippled or other
wise incapacitated for normal productive
work. They are not selected for their
ability to build cars or to maintain the
plant. They are on the payroll because of
Henry Ford’s belief that the responsibility
of a large company to labor goes be
yond the point at which the unfortunate
worker can no longer produce profitably.
The above are facts. They are open to
anyone who really wants to deal in facts.
Anyone who wants to get a job ... buy a
car ... or place a national defense con
tract on the basis of fair labor treat
ment must place Ford at the top
of his eligible list.