The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-12-17
FRIDAY, DECEMBER II, 1920
co TO WORK.


The Press and Banner has had
something to say with regard to the
duty of people in dealing with the
debtor classes of our people, and es-
pecially with regard to the negroes
We are unwilling that people here
should suffer, and there are many
people, both white and colored' whe
are going to suffer unless the people
are mindful of them and helpful TO-
wards them. We have said this before
and we now repeat it
But this does not mean that peo-
ple who are able to do something 70
help are going to help people who 90
not help themselves There mas
been a disposition on the part OF some
people to sit down through the WIN
tor months and live on what has been
made and gathered in the fall' or 70
,ook to the landlord, or the merchant
~ the bank for the capital stock tor
this idleness. That day has passed.
No man will be helped through this
winter who does not 60 to work AND
a man who does not 60 to work IS 60
ing hungry. The country has been
stripped of the crops which have been
grown and they have either been sold'
OF they are in the warehouses pledg-
ed for the payment of f'~debts which
they viii not pay in full. The landlord
. cannot pay>t to keep people up in idle
ness, the merchants cannot and neith-
er can the banks. None Of them
should do 50.
We suggested this to some indus
trious negroes few days ago and
it did not seem to appeal to them.
: Neither does the warning that the
days Of high wages and Indifferent
service are over appeal to them. But
they must come to their senses. Peo-
pie cannot pay the wages which have
been paid in the past; people will not
be satisfied with the service which
has been rendered in the past, and
the man who works for his bread
must find it out. The Sooner he finds
it out the better.
They say that this is defation, and
that it is so gradual that there is no
evidence of a panic. If that be true,
let us pray that next time they will
send US a panic, and that the panic
will come $50 gradual" that there
will be no evidence of deflatioh.
The truth is that the country is in
worse fix than we have ever known
it. There is no more security now
than in times of other depressions.
The security for debts will bring no
more in dollars and cents on the mar
ket. But the amount Of debts is sew
eral times larger than ever before
when we had hard times. For that
reason there are more peopfein want
than at any other time: in oug >recollecs;
ton, and their distress is more aggra-.
waited. At other times Of depresson
the stocks of the merchants, while
they remained on the shelves, were
worth on the market. what they had
cost. But now stock Of goods which
cost fifty thousand dollars in Septem-
Der is not worth thirty thousand dol
lars. Hence the merchants who have
at other times been able to help can
not now do 80. The banks have bor-
rowed so largely to help the farmers
ana they are collectlng SO little tnar
no money can be loaned. In times of
other depressions we have heard the
bankers in Abbeville ask men to bor-
row money and buy cotton to keep it
from being sacrificed. But that can
not be done today. The country is tied
hand and foot, and the amount of
help which can be offered is not much.
And as indicated in the beginning
there is no way to get out of the fix
in which we find ourselves except to
work out. Every man must 60 to work
Every man must do his own work. He
must earn his own bread. Nobody
can sit down and expect to be fed.