The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-09-24

the magnetic plant, and the throw
ing out Of employment Of hundreds OF
men and women, alI of which means
much less money paid out and that
much less money, put into c1rcuiatlon
to be spent with Sumter merchants
for food and clothing, less money for
professional men, that many more
houses vacant, and other serious IL
nancial losses in consequence of the
moving of this most important and
desirable enterprise. All OF which is
regrettable but can not be helped so
far as keeping this factory here is
concerned because outside capital con-
trolls the magnetic factory.
This outside capi. has no interest
! in Sumter, local capital has. But
sitting down and whining will not
furnish work for the hundreds of
p!oyment; nor will putting of hun
drcds of thousands of more dollars
| into bank stock and high priced farm
ing lands and city real estate,
putting our local capital into govern
ment securities and stocks and bonds,
! investing in cotton futures, and other
close corporation and individual
| financial deals, furnish employment
tor hundreds Of men and women.
| Financing industries that viii fur
niSh work and markets do most good.
What Sumter needs now, most Of all
| is for big sbuncnes Of surplus money
Known to be in Sumter, to be invest
| ed in such enterprises as will furnish
work for men, women, boys and girls,
that will furnish means for extraor-
dinary production and local markets
which mean hundreds Of thousands
OF dollars paid out, and paid out with
outside capital brought into Sumter
for circulation among our business
es.ablishme Sumter needs facili-
tics for storing twenty-five thousand
bales of cotton, and marketing facili-
i ties for several million pounds OF
tobacco.
Sumter needs money to buy distress
cotton, and keep Sumter money al
home. Sumter needs marketing IA
cilities for corn, oats, hogs, beef cat,
tie, and dairy products to get ready
! for the boil weevil. Any enterprise
that will furnish employment for five
hundred people for from six to eight
months, and possibly twelve months
annually, will go a long ways towards
making up for the depreciation in To-
cal trade caused by removal of any
enterprise from Sumter.
Any enterprise that will raise the
price of approximately two and a
half nlillion pounds of tobacco from
ten to twenty cents a pound annually
on the Sumter tobacco market, and
which will pay the stockholders a
dividend on their capital invested, is
we'll worth about one hour of every
business mans time to investigate.
Crying about thousands of dollars
lost by Sumters monied men in de-
funct Sumter enterprises will not
brighten up business nor solve pres
ent or future labor, commercial, aSri-
cultural, professional, or financial
problems The Sumter men VINO
owned the stock in those enterprises
selected the officers and directors, and
the officers and directors directed and
selected the management of those
enterprises that failed. The officers.
| directors managers, and superin-
tendentS Of the defunct enterprises
arc responsible. for the failure and
loss of the money in those defunct
enterprises. if there be any blame atS
tached to the way in which those en-
terprises were managed. If there
was anything crooked III the handl-
ing of those defunct enterprises or
the money thereof. then the officers
ana directors who were elected to su-
pervise and to direct are to blame,
and the stockholders who didn't take
to find out what was going on are
as much to blame as any one else.
AS n city. or because Of local condi-
tons Sumter was surely not to
blame. Some Sumter enterprises
surely have succeeded, most of them
have in fact. Brains are required
with money to succeed-that is to be
for the employees entirely Speaking
Of Sumter enterprises, the tobacco
warehouse and tobacco market among
others: the first tobacco warehouse
erected and the ground upon which it
stands still in the hands of its orig
inal owners except about twenty five
shares purchased by other stockhold-
ers who are in the market. OF were
in the market, for all the tobacco
warehouse stock they could buy, and
these same purchasers Of tobacco
warehouse stock are refusing to
part with their tobacco warehouse
stock for less than par value, plus ten
per cent for interest on the invest
ment during five years. That kind Of
looks like Sumter tobacco market in
vcstments are worth something.
The two tobacco warehouses in |!
Sumter were not subsidized in any
way. No money was asked for. as a /
bonus. by popular subscription on
which to erect the necessary build
ings: neither tobacco warehouse was
ever exempted from city license or