The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1917-07-11
Contemplate the Present.

We assert in the first place, that v if it were advisable in ordi'
nary times, to issue this noun Of bonds to build the kind of roads pro-
posed, the present is NJ time to ndertak tn WORK. of reasons -" -
stating are these:
"a Labor is higher o than in any time in recent ear and the price
of labor will continue to 90 upward until the close Of the var. stee'
cement and all materials to be used in the construction o BRIDGES etc., IRE
higher, very much higher, than in ordinary times.
() Labor il. scarce at the present time and the farmers and other. e
quming labor al hardly secure the requisite amount of labor to u their
farm. and other industries. In a few days hundreds of men will be with.
drawn from the farms. and the positions which they 20 hold for the period
of the war, and other. JUS take their places. Ti. will make a further
scarcity of labor, with the result that wage. will. increase. The farmers
who are to produce the food for the conduct of the war us have labor.
The price i. already beyond their reach almost, and the laborers are few
and will, for the reasons stated, grow fewer. The attempt a this i'm %
build roads in Abbevile county can have no other result han to draw
great numbers of laborers from VI farms and to Put hem o tn roads
Farmer. who are already in the tolls for the want of labor, and who are
paying 20 much for labor already, will be forced to g o into competition
with the contractors o the roads and pay a great deal nor than they are
o paying. They cannot do it, and the farms will Re without aborers.
() We arr just entering upon a great var A war tai of nearly two
billions of dollars has been levied upon the people for the next year. The
people have lust been asked to subscribe to a bond issue of two billions of
dollars, and, in September n October, another bond issue must be sub
.eribed to the amount of three billions of dollars, and the people of Able
vile county take their share Of those bonds.
Last week, in this county, we we're asked for FIVE thousand dollars, a
voluntary offering from the people of the county to the Red Cross fund,
and in four month. w e will be asked to give another FIVE thousand dollars
for this purpose, and the war is only beginning. If the a shall last for
Eve years, Is some authorities think, tho resources OF hi county will be
taxed to their utmost, and the people will st.gger under the burdens which
re inevitable. Why then should W rush into new and UNEMPLOYED ground,
to add to these burden. and to cripple ounslve. for responding to the
calls of the government? If the wal lasts for only W years, billions and
billions of dollars must be spent by the government 1t is stated by those
that know; that mor than .eventy.6ve billion. of dollars worth of proper
{ las bsen swept iron tn FAC or IN eerth IN Europe aheaoy NO
world is that much poorer, and billions more will be burnt up and lostb be.
fore this war is over And this takes account Of property alone.
Millions Of young lei m going I, the front, perhaps FIVE millions of the
men of this country between the ages Of twenty-one and thirty will go I'd
the wal, or be enlisted, before it is ended. This means that one-half Of the
young mn between the age. stated will 60. 1t means that one-half of the
m lei who will be called upon to pay thi. particular bond issue, because the
lei between these aesm must be the burden bearers of the government
for the mex twenty years, will 60 to the war. If fifty Per cen of them r
killed or disabled, the ability of this county to pay this bonded indebtedness
il, curtaied by twenty-five per en- a stroke. IF W . are in the war
for FIVE years, and men and property everywhere are destroyed, as they
will be, does it not NEAR that there will be fewer mel to u the farms,
fewer purchasers to buy them, and fewer men to u the stores and mills,
and fewer purchasers o buy the goods, and does this all not NEAR that
property values must tumble, and that property which is now valuable will
become waste lands until the county is re-populated and rebuilt? Will not
the ability of the people o pay existing debts and o subsnt even, be made
each day more difficult? -