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The Official Legal Organ of Chattooga County
DAVID T. ESPY JR. X
WINSTONE ESPY ~ DAVIDT.ESPYJR. WILLIAMT, ESPY
JAMES BUDD
NEWS EDITOR
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NEWSPAPER
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Address All Mail to: THE SUMMERVILLE NEWS, P. O. Box 310, Summerville, Ga. 30747
Editorials
Falklands War
Upholds Democracy
Britain's success in retaking the
Falklands Islands should reassure all
those who cherish democratic govern
ment and international law. While it can
be argued Argentina has a serious claim
to the islands, it can’t be argued seriously
that surprise military force is the means
with which to change sovereignty which
has existed for a century and a half.
If that were to be condoned, Mexico
could seize some of the U. S. southwest,
and almost every country in Europe could
move militarily against one of its
neighbors — based on events in the 19th
century.
The Organization of American States
did itself no good in this crisis. Rather
than upholding the democratic process
(Falkland Islanders were overwhelmingly
in favor of remaining under British
sovereignty) and opposing naked military
aggression by a dictatorship, the
organization was intimidated by Argen
tina and criticized the Thatcher govern
ment in England for attempting to retake
the islands.
The lesson in all this is that too many
Latin regimes to the south lack the
dedication and respect for democracy
Americans cherish. Emotional tempera
ment overruled sober judgment. If they
now fret because the United States stood
July Fourth
On the Fourth of July the people of
this country observe the anniversary of
the signing of the Declaration of In
dependence, one of the most important
documents of history.
In it, Thomas Jefferson, the principal
author, set forth the inalienable rights of
man and the theory that governments are
instituted by men, not by God, and,
therefore, derive their powers from the
consent of the governed.
This was a revolutionary doctrine in
From Our Early Fil
= —__'g_______—_———g‘-——
* 44 YEARS AGO
The following are excerpts from the June 23, 1938, issue of The Summer
ville News.
* - s
SUMMERVILLE MILLS TO BE SOLD ON JULY 26th — Plant Employs
About 400 Persons In The Manufacture of Coarse Yarns, Duck and Osnaburg
Cloth.
The Summerville Mills, Inc., will be placed on the auction block July 26, ac
cording to an order issued by Rowell C. Stanton, of Rome, referee in bankrupt
cy for the United States district court.
Established thirty-one years ago, the plant employs about 400 persons in
the manufacture of coarse yarns, duck and Osnaburg cloth, using 16,000
spindles and 375 looms, it is stated. The plant includes warehouses, oil mills,
gins, two big springs, with the pumping equipment and water distribution
system, and 100 employees’ houses. The entire property has been valued at an
estimated $700,000.
* * *
POPULAR MECHANICS AND THIS NEWSPAPER OFFERED AT
BARGAIN — A double-barreled bargain in good reading has been made
available to present and future subscribers of this newspaper through an ar
rangement with the editors of Popular Mechanics Magazine.
Readers now can obtain a year’s subscription to this nationally-known
magazine and a year’s subscription to this newspaper at a special low price
quoted elsewhere in this issue. (Both for only $2.95).
: * w *
POLK COUNTY VOTES WET; FLOYD NEXT — ROME, June 16 — Polk
county, yesterday, voted 810 for the liquor package store and 472 against. On
ly a small percentage of 4,221 registered voters come to the polls.
Municipalities voting were Cedartown, 661 wet, 466 dry; Rockmart, 292
wet, 168 dry; Aragon, 88 for, 68 against.
The repeal movement’is under way in Floyd county. An organization
meeting of the Floyd County Association for Repeal will be held tonight. Peti
tions are already being circulated in forms of cards cailing for an election to
repeal the Floyd county dry hw'. M
TRION THEATER — Thursday “Lives Of A Bangal Lancer.” A picture
so much enjoyed all over the country that people everywhere have demanded
that it be brought back. Therefore, we are giving you another chance to see
Gary Cooper, Franchot Tone and Richard Cromwell in a great story.
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for international law and the democratic
process, the reflection is on these regimes,
not Washington.
But one suspects their resentment of
U. S. support for Great Britain will soon
be forgotten, especially since each year
they all want financial and technical aid
from this country. One also suspects this
punished aggression will weaken Argen
tina's influence in the New World and the
dictator within that country.
Meanwhile Margaret Thatcher, and
the British armed forces, come out with
enhanced reputations. The prime minister
had the courage to hit back. And the arm
ed forces, though they suffered more
losses from the air than had been an
ticipated, proved adventurers can’t twist
the old lion’s tail with impunity.
The best result, from Washington’s
viewpoint, is that Thatcher’s success
greatly strengthens her government and
her personal popularity, at a time when
her corrective economic policies are at
last beginning to work.
For a time critics of the left poured
forth a drumbeat of claims that her
economic policies would never work. But
now Britain is regaining its economic
feet. Mrs. Thatcher can now add to that
accomplishment a successful foreign and
military policy.
1776. Moreover, the Declaration makes
plain the right of the people to alter or
abolish their government and to institute
a new government in such a form as they
may deem most likely to provide for their
safety and happiness.
The historic Fourth has become iden
tified as a day of leisure, marked by
fireworks, accidents, games and amuse
ment. There are also, appropriately, pro
grams which point out the significance of
the Declaration and the principles it ex
presses, which should not be forgotten.
Mountain Echoes
by Jimmy Townsend
Model-T Facts
I'll bet you didn’t know that Sears
Roebuck and Company was the chief sup
plier of parts for the Model-T Ford. I saw
an old catalogue from 1907 the other day
and there were more pages of accessories
for the four-cylinder car than anything
else. The sales of Sears Roebuck dropped
some from 1910 until 1919, but continued
to some extent until the last Model-T was
built in 1927.
The Model-T was the American scene
to millions during the 19205. A Ford was
sold as naked as a baby and it was up to
the new owner to screw on decoratives.
Ornaments for the radiator were the big
gest catalogue-seller. Most cost around a
dollar and looked like lions or swans, and
some owners were brave enough to fasten
a nude woman slightly bent over the
radiator cap. The Koto Wings, which
gave the Peagasus touch, was also
popular as a decor.
Next came the Ruby safety reflector
for the rear, so that it would reflect the
lights from another car. The radiator com
pound to stop leaks was a part of
everyone's equipment, as much as
aspirins are to your medicine cabinet. A
little oil can to fasten out there under the
hood and a gas can in the car somewhere
were a must. A patching outfit, a tool box
bolted on the running board and tire
tools, and a hand pump were ordered from
Sears and made part of the car itself.
The Model-T, with top up, stood seven
feet high. The driver sat on the gas tank.
When hé wanted to check the gasoline, he
alighted along with everything else in the
Dialogue . ..
by James Budd
Frankenstein In Control
““Society is now one polished horde,
formed by two mighty tribes, the Bores
and the Bored.”
It’s amazing to think that English
poet Lord Byron could so adeptly
describe the two major political parties of
the United States 200 years ahead of time
in his poem, ‘“Don Juan.”
Couldn’t help but notice the mid-term
caucus of the Democratic Party last week
in Philadelphia featuring Ted Kennedy,
John Glenn and Walter Mondale. I think
we’ll be seeing a lot more of their faces
before 1984.
You can’t help but wonder what hap
pened to the likes of Wilson, Roosevelt
(Theodore and Franklin), Lincoln and
Johnson (Lyndon). I suppose the Great
Maker threw away the mold.
Meanwhile in the Republican camp it
was ‘“‘Bedtime For Al Haig.” He’s no
longer in control like he was after the
assassination attempt on President
Ronald Reagan in March 1981.
* * *
It was Lord Byron who gave us the
phrase, “Truth is stranger than fiction.”
The term has been juggled over the years
from its original form when it appeared in
“Don Juan” as: * 'Tis strange but true;
for truth is always strange; Stranger than
fiction.” |
Byron again so adeptly describes the
events of recent weeks.
(Reruns of The Twilight Zone could
almost compare to the events).
Equality of rights under the law shall
not be denied or abridged by the United
States or by any State on account of
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front seat. The seat was pulled off, the
metal cap unscrewed, and a wooden stick
was stuck down to see how much liquid
was in the tank. A few attempted to use a
match to see how much gas they had, and
went to meet their maker. But a couple of
sticks were always in the car somewhere
to add to the rattles of the flivver.
After a Ford was about a year old, a
set of anti-rattlers were ordered. This was
the time of gadget-bred gadgets. Owners
not only bought readymade gadgets, they
invented their own by the hundreds. Nine
dollars bought a set of curtains that made
an open car into a sedan in a hurry. The
Model-T didn’t have bumpers, so some
bought these and attached them. Others
just let the fenders wilt with the years
and close places. Tires were 30 x 32, cost
about seven dollars, and punctured easi
ly. The Jiffy patching can had a top that
was made like a miniature nut grader.
This roughened up the tube before the
goo was spread on. Everybody was
capable of putting on a patch, expected to
have to, and did have to.
The car came equipped with a crank,
and the first thing a person learned was
to get results in cranking the car. Pull the
lever which was the spark down; and the
lever on the other side was the gas, so you
pulled it down, too. Twirling the crank
was kind of an art; and when the motor
responded, you would run like the devil
around the car to the driver’s seat and
wiggle levers until you heard a few explo
sions. Then maybe it kept running; but
see MOUNTAIN ECHOES, page 5-A
State Rep. Hosea Williams, D-DeKalb
County Jail, started a one year prison
sentence this week for a series of traffic
violations. The day before he was due in
jail, he allegedly was DUI again.
John Hinckley Jr. was committed to a
Washington, D. C., mental hospital after
a jury found him not guilty by reason of
insanity for the televised shooting of
President Reagan.
England ends the war in the Falkland
Islands after a cost of 1,000 lives and
billions of dollars. The macho Argentines
refuse to use the word surrender to
describe the act. Thousands of Argentine
prisoners of war return home on a British
ship the Argentine press claimed was
sunk in the fighting. Reports surfaced
that some infantry soldiers were shot in
the legs to keep them in the trenches as
the British closed in on Port Stanley.
Speaking of closing in, the Israeli Ar
my surrounded their arch enemies, the
PLO, in Beirut. Could be a Masada in
reverse.
B oo
Lord Byron frequently accompanied
fellow English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
and his wife, Mary, on excursions to Lake
Geneva in Switzerland, where they sailed
and stayed up nights telling stories. It
was the violent electrical storms in the
nearby Jura Mountains that influenced
Mary Shelley to write her famous novel,
“Frankenstein.”’
Maybe Frankenstein is in control here.
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Facing South
A Syndicated Column
Voices Of Tradition
In A Changing Region
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WORKERS OWNED
Windsor, N. C. — Six A. M. Already the women driv
ing into the grassy field that is the parking lot for the
Workers Owned Sewing Company can feel the 95-degree
heat of August days in this eastern North Carolina town.
Six had not always been the hour the day shift began, Hut
the Workers Owned factory has no air conditioning. So,
at the beginning of the summer, the board of directors
called a meeting at which the workers voted to start their
day early in order to finish before the heat of the day
became unbearable.
As the name implies, the Workers Owned Sewing
Company is totally owned by the workers. This means
that each worker eventually buys a share of stock in the
company for $100; each worker then gets one vote in com
pany decisions, including deciding which workers will
comprise the board of directors.
Founded in the fall of 1979, Workers Owned recorded
its first monthly profit in May, 1980, only eight months
after opening. The business plan projects annual sales of
$2 million and an annual profit of $134,000 within two
years.
“It’s something we started ourselves. We're proud,”
says one board member. A worker who joined the coop in
March when she lost her transportation to another job
now prefers Workers Owned: “‘lt's a worker-owned
cooperative so you get a chance to help make decisions.
You watch the company as it grows; you're part of it.”
The workers (mostly women) at Workers Owned now
earn the minimum wage of $3.10 per hour. Outside
eastern North Carolina, $3.10 may sound pretty poor for
a worker-owned coop, especially since the stock may
never bring great financial dividends. But in Bertie Coun
ty, where few industrial jobs exist, especially for women,
the pay at Workers Owned is a welcomed contrast to
unemployment or low-paid seasonal farmwork. Chairman
of the Board Timothy Bazemore is not joking or exag
gerating when he says that, ““At minimum wage, we're
average.”’
Worker ownership is seen as the key to survival for
this company, in a very competitive industry. In the first
place, costs for supervisors are kept to a minimum: super
visors at Workers Owned mainly coordinate, and never
discipline; when a machine is free, they often join the
other workers sewing garments since no one is bound by
job descriptions.
Also, when the workers own the company, they ob
viously have a greater desire to do good work; productivi
ty rates are high. As one worker said when Workers Own
ed approached its first birthday, ‘“Everybody here’s try
ing to make money for the company. I find myself more
interested in the quality since I'm working in a workers’
coop.”’ Says board member Louise White, ‘I feel like I'm
doing it for myself.”
The real advantage of Workers Owned, however, lies
in the good working conditions, in the power of the
members to control their own lives. Says Maggie Cherry,
‘““Here it feels just like I’'m working at home.”
One of the great achievements of Workers Owned has
been the positive way blacks and whites work together.
The idea that the future of the company depends on the
workers appears to be the force creating cooperation.
Board member Louise White (white): “One big family,
that’s all. If you cut your finger, it'll bleed just like
mine.”’ Lila Dudley (black): ‘‘We have learned to deal with
people, not color. That’s one of the reasons we're going to
make it."” .
There have been problems along the way, but a solid
foundation for the coop has been laid. “We've got a long
way to go,” says Dudley, ‘‘but we’re going.”” In August,
1980, Dudley was honored by her church, one of the most
influential in Bertie County, for her role in the Workers
Owned Sewing Company.
Meanwhile, the idea of worker ownership is slowly
spreading. 70 miles away in New Bern, North Carolina,
250 people showed up for a meeting in the late summer of
1980: Texfi Corporation had announced its intention to
close its plant there; these angry workers began to
discuss creating new jobs for themselves by starting a
coop. In this they can listen to one Bertie County worker
for inspiration: ‘“When you get into something like this, it
makes you think about what could be done.”’
— MARC MILLER
Institute for Southern Studies
-Durham, N. C.