The Cleveland Star
SHELBY, N. C.
MONDAY — WEDNESDAY — FRIDAY
THE STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC.
SUBSCRIPTION PRICE
By Mail, per year .. $2.5.0
By Carrier, per year... $3.00
LEE B, WEATHERS ........—....... President and Editor
E. ERNEST HOEY .....—..—........ Secretary and Foreman
R2NN DRUM —.......—....— --- News Editor
L. E. DAIL ........—...— —,- Advertising Manager
Esilercd os second <qj»ss matter January 1, 1905, at the post
o'nce at Shelby, North Carolina, under the Act of Congress,
f.farch 3, 1879.
We wish to call your attention to the fact that it Is and has
teen our custom to charge five cents per lute lor resolutions of
.esp_»ct, cards of thanks and obituary notices, efter one death
not'ce has been published. This will be strictly adhered to.
FRIDAY, DEC. 4, 1931
TWINKLES
Just two more shopping week-end after tbi» one in
which to sret ready for Santa.
South Carolina's Senator Byrree will on Monday intro
duce a bill to abolish the Federal farm board. The charge,
we presume, will be that it has done little good. Maybe it
hasn’t bur it would be going too far if someone would desire
to aboiish everything that hasn’t been so successful in the
last few' years.
Word from Raleigh has it that Attorney General Brum
mitt, w'ho decided not to run for governor, is astounded,
since his decision not to run, at the number of people who
have told him they would have supported him. ' It is enough
to astound him if the proffered support, now that he isn’t
running, was greater than that which every candidate seemr,
to think he has just before getting in a race. '
WE MUST BE SHOWN
FROM WASHINGTON, as the readers of the last issue of
The Star likely noted, comes the news that at last a
practical cotton-picking machine has been invented and per
fected. The new machine, various agricultural departments
are quoted as saying, will with one man operating it do the
work that five ordinary pickers could; it will, so the report
declares, do away with the negro cotton picker, for many
years a necessary part of the agricultural scene in the South,
and prove a great economy to the cotton farmer. Perhaps
so, but we must be shown. It may, as the experts say, be
the greatest improvement on cotton handling since Eli Whit
ney invented the cotton gin, but it. isn’t the first all of us
have heard about a cotton picking machine. We may be
unduly skeptical, but we reiterate that we’re from Missouri
until we see and know that there is a cotton-picking ma
chine at work on every farm where there is a mortgage—
and that will be enough farms to assure that it will work.
AN INVESTIGATION BLOCKED
THE INVESTIGATION into the charges that lawyers have
bought jurors in Buncombe county may by the time
this is read have made some advance under the court of in
quiry conducted by Judge Stack, but as the situation was
viewed when this was written it appears as if the investi
gating forces have moved intfl a hopeless stalemate.
Wickes Wamboldt, Asheville councilman and newspaper
columnist, made the statement that he believed he could
present -jurors who would testify that they had been bought
if they could be assured immunity from punishment them
selves. When Wamboldt was called into court he repeated
the statement and Judge Stack ruled that jt was beyond the
power of the court to grant immunity to anyone. Under
those circumstances, Wamboldt said, it would be impossible
to bring forth the bought jurors as the man who had said
he could do so would not even make the attempt without the
rcqnaoted immunity. And there, we predict, the invoatiga
tlon, at -east along that channel of procedure, will end. The
Asheville Citizen appealed to this “man of standing,” who
told WambbJdt that he could bring In the jurors under their
proviso, to bring them in anyway in justice to the commun
ity and »U members of the bar association who would, as a I
result of the general charge, be left under a cloud of sus
picion unless the corrupt lawyers, if any, were shown up.
But our guess Is that this “man of standing,” as described
by Wamboldt. will not do so. Noither would any other av
erage man if in that man’s shoes. But an attitude is only
human nature. It ip. the same human trait that makes it
self evident when a busybody goes to an officer of the law
or a prosecutor and suggests that something be done about
the conduct of so-and-so. When the prosecutor or^fficer
asks the informer to sign the charge or appear as k witness,
thpR aiding to bring about his own desired aim, the inform
er immediately throws up his hands and quits. “Oh, no! 1
couldn’t do that,” he says. “I cannot afford to get mixed up
in it." And there yo uare. And thus it is, unless we err in
a prediction, that the Asheville investigation will accom
plish very little. Nine times out of ten the man who knows
very much about official corruption, bought jurors or any
thing else, knows too much or is too closely connected with
the incident to do anything for fear of a reaction in his own
case. And just about ten times out of ten he will do noth
ing. Which doesn’t infer, by any means, that this so-called
“man of standing” was in any way connected with the buy
ing of jurors, if such were done. But if he would volunteer
to come up and tell what he knows, it would in all probabil
ity be difficult for him to get the jurors who talked to him
to talk in public, particularly when they make themselves
liable by so doing.
*‘RJR” AND TOBACCO PRICKS
CHARGES HAVE BOBBED up recently that the K. ,1. Roy-j
Holds Tobacco Company, of Winston-Salem, one of
North Carolina’s greatest industries has to some extent been
responsible for low prices paid E.astern Carolina farmers for
their tobacco this year. Alley rumors and street-corner
"Ando have called attention to the “prosperity” of the
biff tobacco company and contrasted it with the tobacco
farmer’s plifcht in not receiving production cost for his pro
duct. Early this week S. Clay Williams, president of the
tobacco company, went to the heart of the tobacco-produc
ing section, at Greenville, and made a talk to the Rotary
club there. And he didn’t talk of the weather, the Manchur
ian trouble, and such as that; he talked about tobacco, to
bacco prices, and taxes. Elsewhere in The Star today 'is
Reproduced two editorial views of the Williams utterance,
views that vie with each other somewhat. One is from The
Raleigh News and Observer and the other from The Char
lotte Observer. They are presented for what they are
worth; the reader, after digesting both views, may draw' his
own conclusions.
It might be well, however, to look upon the tobacco
controversy from a slant other than the editorial viewpoint.
From The Star’s Raleigh correspondent comes a dispatch
(hat gives the side of a man who lives in the tobacco-grow
ing section, and one whose business is tobacco. He scoffs at
the charge that Reynolds is making it hard for the tobacco
farmer. Rut let the dispatch speak for itself:
“The R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. is paying as much
this year, grade for grade, as it paid laot year for tobac
co sold on the Rocky Mount and other eastern North
Carolina markets,” Senator Le« L. Gravely, a prominent
warehouseman and former mayor of Rocky Mount, said
while in Raleigh.
“I know that the Reynolds buyers have beer. in
attracted «K#t to try to buy tobacco as cheaply as they
can, but to give as much as possible under the condi
tions,” raid Senator Gravely.
“While there may be slight factors that enter into
the price of tobacco, it is the old economic law of supply
and dem-fod after ail," the Nash county legieator and
tobacco man said, referring, to the figures used by Mr.
"Williams, relative to the prices of other farm commodi
ties, particularly.
Speaking of the stocks of tobacco owned by the tobacco
[companies, said in some instances to be sufficient to keep
the plants operating three, four or even five year. Senator
Gravely added that the cost of storage, insurance, taxes and
other expenses connected with the stored tobacco might
easily add one-third to the original cost of the leaf,.before
it is put through the manufacturing process.
He referred to the fact that 60 per cent of the tobacco
grown in eastern North Carolina is shipped abroad for man
ufacturing, and the reduced demand for these tobaccos be
cause of economic conditions in foreign countries, as one of
the reasons for lower prices.
However, regardless of the reasons for low prices, the
tobacco growers are in bad shape and cannot understand why
they cannot receive higher prices, Senator Gravely said,
even though prices of wheat, corn, cotton, peanuts and other
farm products are much lower in prices, proportionately,
than is tobacco. The Gravely view, we gather,-infers that
when things are “on the hog” criticism is bound to come,
and Reynolds being nearby proves to be a handy target on
which, to let off steam.
T wo Vie ws On Tobacco, Taxes And
RJR As Based On Williams Speech
Clay Williams Talks.
(Charlotte Observer.)
Clay Williams, president of the
R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company,
on Invitation, delivered an address
to the Rotarlans in Greenville, Mon
day night, and he made It occasion
for a general line of defense of the
Reynolds Company, especially
against the charges that his com
pany had operated to depression of
the price of tobacco on the mar
kets of the State, and In explana
tion of the "prosperity'’ that com
pany enjoys and the benefits em
bodied therein to the State and the
people.
He started cut by picturing the
State, in 1911 as against the State
in 1031, with a total tax bill ad
vanced from $*3,i>00,000 to $102.
000,000, and then he got into the
matter of reduced prices for to
bacco, cotton and other products,
agreeing with the Federal Farm
Board that it would have been "a
littls short of miraculous, if, under
the circumstances, the prices for to
bacco had not come down. Mr.
Williams traced the course of pre
judicial preachments against his
company, and proving that it is not
a contributing factor to the low
prices paid the tobacco farmers,
finds that there is romething else
up the sleeve of the Reynolds bait
ers. That company is "too prosper
ous." It is prosperous President
Williams admits, but it is standing
up today in the face of depression
without having thrown down its
fellow citizens here in North Caro
lina, nor having had any hand in
bringing about their distress. He
has yet to find the first thinking
man in the State, who is willing to
look at the facts, and say that the
Reynolds Company is responsible
for the wave of depression in North
Carolina which has swept so many
things before it.
Mr. Williams faced the charge
that the tobacco company is mak
ing too much profit on the grow
ers by showing facts in transae-1
tions going to prove that the pros
perity of the company was not
built up through means of that kind.
No doubt, he said, those inclined
to criticise the company because it
is prosperous, would be pleased with
a proposition Williams laid down
His company would be regarded as
a "good fellow." tf it would agree
to furnish all the people of North,
Carolina at exact cost and withoutj
a cent of nroflt a” its nroduMs+tei*
the population of North Carolina
uses. Truly that would sound like a
magnanimous proposition, but a
surprise would be in store if the
Reynolds should put their business
on that basis. The people of the
State would find that they had been
penalized to the extent of more
thnn $1,000,000. In Its net result,
that supposed magnanimity on part
of the Reynolds to the extent of
about $800,000 from its net profits,
would actually result in the citizens
of North Carolina being forced to
put up about $2,000,000 in ex
change for the $800,000. How? Mr.
Williams explained that there are
120,000,000 of people In this coun
try'. of whom 3,000,000 in North
Carolina. “Bring all of our export
business home and distribute it
over the one hundred twenty mill
ion population along with all of
our domestic business, all being
put on a per capita basis," says Mr.
Williams, “North Carolina with one
fortieth of the population would,
on that basis, pay us one fortieth,
or two and one-half per ct^it of
our gross Income from sales and of
our net profits. We made a net
profit of $34,000,000 in 1930. North
Caronia's contribution thereto was
accordingly, on the assumed basis,
something over $800,000. If we were
to fix our prices at exact cost, the
citizenship of North Carolina would
at that^stage of the matter make a
saving of $800,000 from our net
profit*. T^ut, when we should have
reduced our prices to exact cost,
we would have eliminated all of
that income on which we pay in
come tax into the State 's general
fund in the sum of approximately
$2,000,000 of tax as figured on the
basis of the law as amended In
1931. It's as simple as this: Those
figures mean that R. J. Reynolds
Tobacco Company takes every cent
of profit that any citizen of North
Carolina pays to it, then adds to
that cent another cent and a frac
tion which it has made somewhere
else, and then carries the two
cents plus down to your State
Treasury and deposits them in that
general fund which largely educat
es our children and carries tire
burden of so many other things
for - which funds must be provided
by the citizenship of North Caro
lina whether R. J. Reynolds Tobac
co Company puts in anything or
whether, on it* failure so to do, it*
part has to be distributed back
over and collected from the balance
Of Hie eififPnshin r>id vou ever
see a finer commercial example of)
spending your money and having!
It too?”
Taking another tack, Mr. Will- i
lams spoke of the fact that the
portion of the State west of Ra
leigh, having much of industry op
erating largely on capital gathered
from outside of North Carolina;
and making Its profits from sales1
all over the country, and in some ■
cases, all-over the world, can, as In!
the fiscal year just closed, put up
82 per cent of the State's general!
fund while North Carolina east of
Raleigh, not one whit less valiant
as taxpayers, puts up only 18 per
cent of that fund. “That's why I
many of us think that the Solution \
for North Carolina, and fcr the i
North Carolina farmer and home
owner and merchant and other !
business man, lies in getting more
of that kind of thing and not less.
That's why, too, so manv other
States are continuously stretching
out their arms in welcome to in
dustry generally and particularly toj
U*r tobacco Industry. That's why
you and I don’t ever want to see!
any part of industry abused h or
driven from this, your native Slate!
and mine.’1
It _... I
Uilii.*n>s v*. W (Uiams.
i Raleigh News ar.rj Observes > !
Clay William-, president .of the j
n. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company,
in an address to the. orcenviUp R«-1
tary Club on Monday "contended!
that, there are certain in/lucnces1
in North Carolina that have sought:
to foster a spirit of nutagonifith i
rather than one ol co-operation!
between different sections, ant] be-1
tween agriculture and industry, be
tween rural and urban popula-1
lions,” according to the report!
sent out from Greenville.
T; there are any people in NorthI
Carolina guilty of such conduct,j
Mr Williams is right In holding!
them up to criticism. This State!
is one from the mountain to the'
sea. the prosperity of agriculture as j
a while and industry as a whole are |
bound together, end the prosperity j
of country and city people depend!
upon mutual working together, j
Speaking recently Frederick E.!
Murphy, publisher of the Minne
apolis Tribune, who is to come to
Asheville this month, announced!
truths that need to be emphasized.'
“Your non-agricultural activities,” i
he declared “may appear to pro.:-!
per when agriculture is languish
ing, but this is deception, for they
are merely living upon the capita!
that agriculture has produced.” He
added “When the farmers quit buy
ing. let industry do what It will,
the wheels slow down and eventu
ally come to a stop.” And that ic
what has cut down the prosperity
o* cities and industrial centres.
They will go forward together or
fell backward alike.
-it any man Has given voice to
resentment that tends to divide the
people of the section, who is he?
On October 13th of this year Clay
Williams made a speech in Greens
boro. As reported to The Greensboro
News he “cited figures to show that
35 per cent of the States popula
tion living East of Raleigh pays
only 13 per cent of its (the State's!
general fund, leaving 65 per cent,
living west of Raleigh, to pay 32
per cent.” He went on to elaborate
on his assertion that the people
.east of Raleigh do not pav their
share. Such charges are the sort
calculated to “foster, a spirit of an
tagonism between different sections
of the States" which Mr. Williams
deplored at Greenville. In other
words Mr. Williams at Greenville
condemned the utterance of Mr.
Williams at Greensboro.
As a matter of fact, the taxes
paid west of Raleigh were merely
forwarded to the State tax collec
tor. The taxes were paid by the
consumers of the products, If Mr.
•Williams’ company paid more
taxes than Greenville paid, it was
j because the Wlnston-Srlem com
pany received the profits on to
bacco sold in Pitt, as well as For
syth. Tire Winston-Salem company
was only the messenger. The state
tax was paid by the consumers of
the cigarettes Just as they pay the
tax to the Federrl government.
Sometimes we are told that New
York pays the bulk of the Income
tax, paying more than all the
Southern states. It is not true. New
York receives the monev from
railroads and industries paid by
people who patronize them where
they operate. New Yorkers who re
ceive this money, and forward the
tax. are but the forwarding agents,
Henry Ford pays no big income
taxes. He collects the money from
the buyers of Ford cars all over
the country and forward i; to the
tax collector
There is no mom in North Caro
lina for suggesting that one sec
tion is' paying in trxes something
for another section. We are breth
ren. East and West, city and coun
try men. farmers and mechanics
are in the same boat. It Is calcu
lated “to faster a spirit of antrgp
nism” for those In one section,
after selling their tobacco products
at Increased prices and paying re
duced prices for the weed, to claim
that it ts paying the taxes for an
other section. It would not be cour
teous if 4t were true. Stncc it is
based on error, there is no excuse
for voicing such claims.
We be brethren. The success cf
industry, of commerce rad of agri
eultuif- from Cherokee to Curri
tuck should be equally dear to
errrv citizen of thr cnrmnonwenlth
3ebate Question Of
Compulsory Schools
(By Caleb McSwain.)
The fifth debate of the J. C. Mc
Neely debating club was given at
the club's weekly meeting, held
Wednesday morning of this week
As a misunderstanding had arisen
concerning those Who were to take
part in the debate, only two de
. baters had prepared for the de
bate. However, Loris Dover volun
teered to aid Margaret Louis Me ■
Neely in defending the affirmative
side of the query, and Sara Louise I
Palls volunteered to aid Nancy Bnej
Sperling in upholding the nega- j
tide of the query, which was "Re -,
solved, that the agg for compulsory
school attendance should be from j
six to eighteen years."
Judges selected from ihe mem
bers of the club decided that Mar
garet Louis McNeely presented her
points of argument more clearly
than the others, and gave the af
firmative side the decision.
At the meeting of the club,
James Byers and Herman Best
were accepted as new members.
Gentlemanly Instinct.
From a novel: “The burglar, op
ening the door, found Lady Clara
in her bath. He immediately cov
ered her with his revolver.”
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comes most easily to those hornet where the conveniences of telephone . . . the
luxury of delivery, are an accepted routine!
Aiiu now . . . 2,000 0c.ality-.Scrv ice Stores, in response to the tug of the pantry
on the purse strings, have added wide economies in price to the advantages
already offered by the Independent Grocer!
ISAAC 24-LB.
SHELBY! BAG
PILLSBURY’S
PANCAKE
FLOUR
2 Pkgs.
DIKE'S
MAYONNAISE — 8 oz. jar .... 19c
SHELBY PURE PORK
SAUSAGE - lb.20c
FRENCH’S
MUSTARD - 2 jars..25c
FULL DRESS
RICE - 21 lb. pkg. .. 19c
KRAFT’S
CHEESE - 4 lb. pkg. . 20c
SNOW KING
Baking POWDER — 25 oz. can 23c
Cakes
SUNSHINE
CAKES AN1)
CRACKERS
S. & P.
PEANUT
BUTTER
Lb. Jar
EAGLE
CORN MEAL - 10 lb. bag 20c
DIXIE DELICIOUS
CAKE — Pound.. 25c
CLEEN-MADE
MACARONI — 2 pkgs.. . 15c
NOODLES OR SPAGHETTI
CAKES CRACKERS
OVEN FRESH — FLAVORY.
THEY'RE GREAT!
I
Potted Meat 7 «■* 25c
P. & G.
SOAP
“The World’s Larg
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7 Cakcs 25c
RED SEAL
TRIPE
Large Can
19c
FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
U. S. NO. 1 IRISH
POTATOES-10 lbs.27c
N. C. GROWN SWEET
POTATOES - 10 lbs, .25c
SWEET. FLORIDA
ORANGES — Dozen.. 15c
LARGE
GRAPEFRUIT - Each . 5c
LARGE RIPE
BANANAS - 4 lbs.. 25c
-BE SAFE — USE ONLY
Palmolive 3 10c cakes 23c
^THE WORLD’S BEAUTY EXPERTS WARN!
Lucky Strike Cigarettes
SOLD AT ALL Q. S. S. GROCERS!
SHELBY 12—4—31
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