The commercial., March 24, 1922, Image 10

About The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?

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MIC lUiviMLKuAL
Marshall & Balrd. Union City. Tenn.
Entered at the post office, Union City. TenneS'
ee. aa second-class mail matter.
FRIDAY, MARCH. 2 4. 1922.
Democratic Ticket.
For Sheriff J. W. (Watt) Cherry
For Trustee Armour Ratliff
For County Court Clerk R. H. Bond
For Circuit Court Clerk J. N. Ruddle
For Register W. J. Edwards, Jr.
ANNOUNCEMENT
For Representative.
BRATTON We are authorized to an
nounce S. R. Bratton as a candidate for
re-election as Representative from Obion
County in the General Assembly of Ten
nessee, subject to the action of the Demo
cratic party.
"Who's Who and Why?"
We have a communication enti
tled "Who's Who and Why?" The
first paragraph reads as follows:
"After hearing the 'town gossip
and the undercurrent to eliminate
our schools and churches, our roads
our tax, the heart of all and af
ter I pause a moment and tremble
from fear for the coming generation,
I ask myself the question, "Who's
Who and Why and What Is the
Trouble?"
Now, just exactly what the writer
is driving at is rather vague except
by inference.
The contributor, however, pro
ceeds to say that for one he
would suggest we get together and
put the best possible men to the j
front with all conservatism, yet not
too conservative to eliminate non
progressiveness. After a few desultory remarks this
contributor then comes to the point.
He suggests the names of good men
for Legislative timber. Among these
are Hons. T. J. Bonner, S. F. How
ard, G. W. Stovall, G. R. McDade.
There can be no mistake about
these gentlemen. They have served
the people of Obion County before
and with honor and credit. There
is no reason to suspect that they
would not do so again. This paper
lias the highest confidence in these
men.
So far we have only one candidate
for the Legislature announced. Per
haps there may be others. It re
mains for the Democratic voters of
the county to name the nominee.
There is no question about this call
ing for discussion.
But the contributor has suggested
town gossip and undercurrent to
eliminate schools and churches. This
is the first intimation that such a
thing exists. If there has ever been
a hint or sign that anybody wants
to eliminate either schools or
churches it has never reached this
office. Rather has there been a sug
gestion that we might change our
school system, making it possible for
all the children of school age in Ten
nessee to have a common school edu
cation instead of heaping up money
for higher education and for dupli
cation in the normal schools. Every
Democratic candidate for Governor
for the past ten years has preached
this on the stump, but the school
lobby comes along and the Legisla
ture proceeds to do its bidding. The
common schools are therefore neg
lected and the graft grabbers get
busy raking off something for these
big schools that in importance are ac
tually insignificant compared to the
common schools.
If the contributor wants to discuss
elimination he might first contem
plate a system that closes the doors
of the common schools in order to
promote duplication in the normal
schools and experimental university
courses.
Progressiveness and waste are not
synonomous terms. Every man that
tears his hair for public aid is not a
progressive, but the man who pays
his debts and stands for constructive
measures and those things which are
calculated to be of permanent value
is not only a progressive but a re
liable citizen.
The Commercial has joined the
forces in suggesting a change in the
school system of Tennessee and there
is no regret is so doing. Instead of
swallowing up the interests of the
school children of the State for high
er education The Commercial and
hundreds of others that we know of
in the county stand for the children of
Tennessee. The public school system
was intended originally that the
cnuaren might nave a common
school education. The system has
not been advanced by any means by
taking these privileges from the chil
dren, but rather has it been pervert
ed for political uses as well as for
higher education.
To say that any man with ordinary
intelligence has ever dared to suggest
the elimination of our churches is to
make a serious charge. This office
has never heard of such a thing.
The people of the county will have
meeting to-morrow and no doubt J Instructing Legislators.
Will UO (&U ClPl v-ow. "
people that will set at rest all ques
tions of legislative policy.
As to candidates the contributor
has suggested some fine men. There
are no better in the county, and no
opposition will be offered to any one
of them that might not be offered to
any other candidate.
That Bonus Again.
Verily the Harding administration
moves on lines or least resistance,
just as it was the policy of the Wil
son administration to move on lines
of most resistance. Take the soldier
bonus, for example. Last summer
the President opposed it on the
ground that the treasury was in no
fix to deal with the enormous ex
penditure the bonus would saddle on
it, that it would defeat all the scheme
of economy Congress was hatching;
that It would force an increase of
taxation; that it would impair the
public credit, and therefore it was
not to be thought of at the time.
Then clamor came on deck, voice-
ful and importunate. The thought
ful man knew that one soldier favor
able to the bonus made more noise
than a dozen opposed to it, or indif
ferent to it, but the Harding ad
ministration keeps its ear to the
ground, and pronounced opportunist
that it is, the Harding administration
interpreted the clamor for the bonus
as vox populi, and then the President
Voters of Obion County are deter
mined to see that whoever is sent to
reDresent that county in the Sixty
third General Assembly will do their
will
Profiting by the experience of
vears erone by. they will Issue in
structions before the primary this
year and bind their candidates to fol
low those instructions.
Obion County- was one of the for
nate counties in the personnel of its
representation in both branches of
the last General Assembly, In the
lower house Representative S. R,
Bratton, .and in the upper house ben
ator B. F. LeDuke, were counted as
leaders of the anti-back tax group.
Obion County has no cause to com
plain of its representation in 1921,
but if every other county in the state
would follow Obion's lead the en
tire State would be benefited.
A mass meeting of voters has been
called for Union City on Saturday,
March 25, when the issues of the
campaign will be discussed and a
taxpayers' platform written.
A noticeable thing about this can
is that it is directed to all the citiiens
and taxpayers of the county. There
is no hint of Dartisanshin in it. Of
course, Obion is overwhelmingly
Democratic, but there is a good
strong minority, which, cast more
than 1,300 votes in the 1920 elec
tion. What the leaders of this move
ment are trying to do is to get the
taxpayers to think in terms of the
general good; When the taxpayers
decide what they want and then in
form the candidates, the latter will
toe the mark when they come to
Nashville.
1 lie eesBiuu ui iv&o io gums w .
rr, J I
a strenuous one. laxupyeis uau
i the best part of the job before the
meets by tne simple
became an advocate of the bonus
And immediately it was heralded that . Legislature
the bonus would run through Con- process of instructing their legisla-
rpKa like a hot. knife throueh soft tors and then seeing mat mey iohow
butter.
But the thing ran against that ug
ly snag taxation. How was the money
to be raised? One scheme was to
sell bonds and thus saddle the thing
on posterity; but the bankers insist
ed that would impair the national
credit, as manifestly it would, and
greatly embarrass certain refunding
plans the secretary of treasury has
in view. The President suggested a
sales tax, which he called a tax on
production. What a miraculous dis
covery that "a tax on production!"
Whoever heard of a tax on produc
tion that was not paid by the con
sumer of the product? The tax on
whiskey was a tax laid on produc
tion and collected from the distiller;
but those who drank the whiskey
paid the tax in the end.
The "farmer bloc," that is the
boss of Congress, let the President
know that it would not hear to a
sales tax, 90 per cent of which would
be paid by folks who have to struggle
for a living men and women who
depend on wage or salary, or growing
crop for the wherewith to buy things
offered for sale. Then the "farmer
bloc" took the initiative and demand
ed that the money for the bonus be
raised by taxation of the millionaire
class. And thus the thing collapsed,
and it is now confidently predicted
that there will be no bonus enacted
the present session, the administra
tion and the G. 0. P. finding the
"resistance" too strong and too ob
stinate to overcome.
It was ifotndly hoped to pluck
enough money out of the loans we
made to the allies in the world war;
but turnips do not yield blood, and
that scheme was dropped as imprac
ticable and impossible. And what is
the result? The clamor is louder and
more threatening . than ever; but
some powerful people have assured
the administration that there is a
heap more bark than bite in the
clamor and reluctantly it has been
resolved to have the House pass the
bonus and let it die in the Senate.
Of course fiat money was invoked,
and here is the economic profundity
of Mr. Arthur Brisbane, who lugs
around the brains of the Hearst yal
lers, contributed to the elucidation of
the problem:
"Five hundred millions distributed
among two or three million men
would be immediately spent, and
spent wisely, for things actually
needed. This would stimulate trade,
help restore prosperity. It would do
for the hard times what a good rain
does for the baked soil. But it would
not suit those accustomed to make a
nice profit whenever 'government
needs money."
But why pause at $500,000,000?
Why not make it $5,000,000,000?
Why not hunt up every citizen who
is in financial distress, fill both his
pockets from the public treasury and
bid him go to the store, buy things
"wisely" and thus stimulate business,
abolish poverty, eradicate debt, ob
literate hard times and supply every
human being with all the joy his
heart has room for?
What is the government for, if
not to make everybody rich? Are
there not printing presses? Is the
grinding out of "greenbacks" a lost
art? True, Jack Cade is dead, hut
why should not his soul march on?
Savoyard, in Nashville Banner.
When you buy a LIGHT GLOBE
SEE IF YOU ARE BUYING A MAZ
DA, OR WHAT. Averitt Electric.
instructions.
Look ud the record of every man
who offers for the Legislature. If
you would not trust him to conduct
vour private business, do not send
him to Nashville to run the State's
business
Bv all means instruct legislators
instruct them especially to rid the
State of the back-tax gang. Nash
ville Tennessean.
Each to His Taste.
Perhaps we are a little old-fash
ioned, but it occurs to ua that there
has never been, at least in recent
years, so much said and written on
the theory of evolution. Our idea Is
that if the theory of evolution is cor
rect it would be more credita
ble to our boasted civilization to for
get it than to be continually brag
ging about our monkey ancestry.
Just what satisfaction one gets out
of the belief that his forebears were
four-legged animals, Insects and pro
toplasm we do not know. We are
willing to admit, if it is necessary to
terminate the argument, that the ev
olutionists are descended from fish,
insects or reptiles. Some persons of
our acquaintance possess the charac
teristics of all three. If they desire
to boast of such ancestry and empha
size the resemblance, that is their
business, but we would very much
prefer that everyone be left to select
his own ancestry according to his
taste.
We have never known of anyone in
the hour of sorrow to go to Darwin
for consolation. We have never
known anyone to boast of inability to
interpret the Bible, but who could
not as logically boast of incapacity
to understand anything.
The philosophy of man has its
foundation in his belief in God and
when you take that away from him
and link him with the Jungles you
destroy not only his philosophy, but
every hope that has inspired man
through all the agec.
It was not intended that man
should know everything. Sometimes
we are disposed to think that it was
divinely ordered that some men
should not know anything. There
are thousands of mysteries before our
eyes which man has never solved and
never will solve, but we do not deny
them because we do not understand
them.
Of what value would it be to a
man if he could solve the mystery of
life and death and the hereafter?
But before undertaking a job as hard
as that, let the inquisitive ones go
into the fields and explain the mys
tery of the seed that is planted in the
furrow, how the gentle rain and the
earth, warmed by the rays of the
sun, bring it forth into new life, into
blossom and full bloom. Let him
explain the fertilization of the ear
of corn by the pollen wafted over the
fields by the summer's breeze. Let
him meditate upon and solve these
simple questions before delving into
the mystery of human life. Let him
first try something easy. At least,
let him keep off our ancestors. He
may make a monkey of his own if he
likes. Memphis News-Scimitar.
Isnt Worth It.
"It's a wuthless man I's got, Miss
Jenny."
"Why" don't you get rid of him?"
Sue him for divorce."
"DIvo'ce? You say a divo'ce? W'y,
chile, a divo'ce ud cost me fifty dol
lahs, an ah ain't got no money to
waste on that niggah." Wayside
Tales.
Ill
R, A. Alexander
9f
Ben tjraninani
"Don't he Deceive
Remember we are exclusive distributors
The Genuine Alabama
Blockton Red Ash
Coal
Other grades are quite inferior try ours
and be convinced.
IV s ttie Best
.. -.
ever brought to Union City.
Alexander Coal Company
Both phones 13.
I,
: it
zMr.Hoorer
says
"Our transportation facilities are below the needs of our
country, and unless we have a quick resumption of construc
tion, the whole community agricultural, commercial and
industrial will be gasping from a strangulation caused by
insufficient transportation the moment that our business
activities resume." f
"We paid tremendous sums in commercial losses and
unemployment in consequence (of transportation shortages).
We laid it on the war. We should lay it on our lack of fore
sight and antagonism to railroads."
-
"We must build an extension of lines, including terminal facilities,
additional sidings, etc.; every year equal to the construction of a new
railway from New York to San Francisco."
". . . . Since we entered the war in 1917, we have constructed at
least 10,000 miles of railways less than our increasing population and
economic development called for, and we are behind in rolling stock by
about 4,000 locomotives and 200,000 cars."
"I wish to emphasize that
unless we can have an im
mediate resumption of con
struction and equipment,
our commercial community
will pay treble the cost of
the whole of them in the
losses of a single season."
"Obviously we must maintain
the average rate that will support
our transportation systems ade
quately." " .
"A great deal has been said
about the inefficiency of our rail
way system. I do not sympa
thize with these statements.
Comparison with foreign railways
will demonstrate that our railways
are of higher standards, better in
methods than others, and are.
growing in efficiency."
From the statement of Herbert
Hoover, Secretary of Commerce,
before the Interstate Commerce
Commission, February 4th 1922. -
The Situation of the N., C. & St. L. Ry.
This Company agrees with Mr. Hoover that the
carriers should, if possible, in the interest of the pub
lic, prepare now in this period of adjustment for that
. revival of business which is sure to come. However,
so far as this Company is concerned, increased ex
penses and reduced revenues have not only made
improvements to the transportation machine impossible,
but have actually forced serious curtailment in main
tenance of existing roadway and equipment.
Mr. Hoover referred to the "perilous closeness" of
present earnings to fixed expenses.' In 1921 our
revenues were much less than our operating expenses
and fixed charges. Not one cent was earned for the
investors in the Company's stock.
This Company is using its every resource to effect
economies. It continues its efforts to obtain from the
controlling Federal agency a reduction in wages which,
if granted, will be passed on to the public in reduced
rates. . - "
This Railway, conservatively financed and managed,
for nearly three-fourths of a century has furnished
excellent transportation service to Tennessee, Ken
tucky, Alabama and Georgia.
If we are to continue to furnish adequate transporta
tion there can be no reduction in railroad revenues
without a similar reduction in expenses, and we must
be relieved of such restrictions as deprive the manage
ment of the control of the details of railroad operation.
W. R. COLE,
President
JUST ARRIVED
A car of Zeigler Special Stove Nut Ux2,
Franklin County, Illinois. Also 3 cars
of Kentucky Lump. We. Handle Bundle Kindling.
Prices Right. Call us before buying.
Home Phone QY COAL CO.
J. H. McCLURE. Prop.
TYPEWRITERS
Cleaned and Repaired.
Staffords Superfine Ribbons
Cumberland
346
"Why should the groom cut such
a small figure at weddings?"
"Well, I don't know. Maybe it is a
good plan to start a husband off with
an idea of his utter unimportance."
Louisville Courier-Journal.
S. E
Cumb. phone 317
BYRN
1T..J mJ Gil A A.H
OJ1U guviuucio.
m. .linn n.Vtt, rmt
sense,
Much as we labor to make them;
Old heads on new shoulders a stunt
too immense
While flappers continue to shake
them. Wayside Tales.