Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1922-07-07
FOURTH AT fort Mill
Large Crowd Attended independence
Day Celebration.
STEVENSON AS PRINCIPAL SPEAKER

Rain Interfered With Program ant
curtaiIed Attendanee-Plenty o.
Dinner for AIl-Good Order Main
tanned and Big Crowd Had Gooe
Time.
(By Staff Correspondent)
Fort Mill, July 4.-Despite the in
tercerence of Jupiter Pluvius, who sen
much rain, q large crowd Of people was
in For, Mill today for the Independ-
ence Day celebration under the auspi-
ces of Eli Bales Post Of the American
Legion, the Fort Mill Manufacturing
company and the town of Fort Mill
While several gatherings in nearby
towns and communities together with
the threatening weather, curtailed
somewhat the attendance here today
still it was the largest crowd in Fort
Mill in a long time and the crowd had
most enjoyable time of it. One OF
the features of the celebration was n
picnic dinner with soup, served under
the shade of the trees in the grove op-
posite the Old Fort Mill academy,
where the exercises of the day were
held. There was plenty Of roast beer
and fried chicken and soup and every
thing that goes to make up good pic
mic dinner and in fact there was so
much of it that a crowd twice the size
of that present could have been pro-
vided for.
Representative Crowd.
The crowd, which numbered about
l 900. was a representative crowd OF
York county people, practically every
section Of the county being we'll rep
resented. There were also many peo-
ple from Lancaster county in attend
ance. Because of the rain, which be-
gan falling shortly after Congressman
Stevenson, the principal speaker or the
day. began his address little after II
o'clock, several features on the pro-
gram had to be abandoned. Those
necessarily dispensed with included a
sham battle between the Rock Hill and
Fort Mill military companies, and
baseball game between Fort Mill and
Waxhaw, n. c.
The greasy pig race, which had been
advertised as a feature was pulled Off,
however, and so was the sack race
both events being participated in by a
number of boys and young men. Both
events furnished much amusement FOR
the crowd as we'll as the participants.
Formal Exercises.
Formal exercises began about II
o'clock, when the audience was called
to order by Brice D. Culp, command
er of Eli Bales Post. Of the American
Legion. The exercises were opened
with q short prayer offered by Rev. X.
H. Wiser, pastor of the First Presbyte-
rian church. Short addresses OF well
come were made by Mayor Arthur c.
Lytle, who assured the audience that
the town was theirs for the day, ana
CAPTAIN Elliott Springs, representing
the Fort Mill Manufacturing company.
Col. II. p. Spratt introduced Congress-
man Stevenson, the principal speaker
of the day.
Stevenson Speaks.
In the course of his speech Congress-
man Stevenson deplored the apparent
political lethargy of the people in many
20 hnlr-
ers that when political interest was at
q low ebb it BODIED no good for COM
munity or state: but that people should
at all times be interested in things po-
litical in order that they might have
the best possible men to pick from IN
filing pubic offices. His remarks
were occasioned by the observation
that some newspapers in the state
were calling for candidates to come
out. He assailcd the tariff schedules
as agreed upon by the Republican ma
iority in congress and showed how
such schedules would increase the cost
of living for peoples in the South and
West especially. He reiterated his
advocacy of n bonus for eX-service men
and paid tribute to the valor of SOL
diers of the United States in the World
war.
He said that in n speech at Chester
year ago he had sounded a warning
of period Of depression that would
come for twelve months and that his
speech was regarded by some of his
hearers as "unduly pessimistic." How
ever, there were those from Chester at
Fort Mill today who would testify that
his prognostication had been correct
Today he was prepared to prophesy
that the country was in much better
economic and financial condition than
it was twelve months ago. and he be-
iieved better times were ahead. Ad-
dressing his audience on the subject
"A United Country" Congressman Ste
venson spoke in part as follows:
It is great to meet and celebrate the
birth of our country when it is united