Ml) IS OFFERhUFRUITGROWERS

NISWONGER POINTS OUT METHOD

TO BRING BETTER RE-

TURNS.

Asheville. —The biggest objective

tor the apple industry in western

JJorlh Carolina in 1926 will be to urge

tbe producers to raise high condition-

ed fruit and to co-operate in the plan

tor the orderly marketing of the fruit,

H It Niswonger, extension horticul-turist. whose headquarters are in

Asheville, said recently..Mr. Nishwonger will proceed with

bis plans when he returns from the an-

nual conference of farm experts inRaleigh. January 4 15. In referring to

tie procedure, Mr. Niswonger said:

We hope to overcome the practice of

heavy pruning and to see in the fu-

ture that only the best varieties of

apple trees are planted. We desire

u centralize the new plantings in sec-

tions located near shipping pomts or

orchard sites that can be economically

cultivated. sprayed and handled.‘Demonstrations in carrying oat the

program will be conducted by com-

munities selecting an orchard in asection, which all phases of orchard

management will he followed with theencouragement. Seasonal instructionswill be sent during the year to those

co-operating in the orchard work.

We hope to aid the orcharists in

renewing low producing orchards to

stimulate the production of more and

better fruit by the applications of ef-

ficient orchard management. Wewan! to realize in various counties aduplication of the results of moderatepruning as established through the

pruning demonstrations at the state

test farm in Buncombe county. Soil

management and spraying also will be

followed.We intend to stimulate better care

of commercial orchards in order to se-

cure a quantity of high conditioned

fruit. The owners will be asked to co-upe rale for not less than three years

jb putting into practice the recommen-dations of ihe extension department.

Pie d meetings will be held in the or-

chard in order to disseminate the re-sults obtained by this progressive pro-gram.”

Wilmington Will Replace Church.

Wilmington.— Undismaked by tile to-

ts! destruction by tire of the beauiiful

and historic Pirst Presbyterian church,the session of the congregaliou held a

meeting and definitely decided that the

4-hurch will be rebuilt immediately at

an approximate cost of $276,UU0, the

estimated value of the building which

was burned. Insurance to tbe amouut

of $125,000 was carried.

Following the conference a telegram

was sent to A. L. Cain, architect for

the Southern Presbyteriau denomina-

tion. with headquarters al Richmond,requesting a meeting at the earliestpossible date to plan the new building.

Work on the annex recently startedat an approximate cost of SIOO,OOO willi e suspended until the conference withMr, Cain is held.

Hertford County Turns to Tobacco.Aboskie.—President V. D Strickland

»r,d Walter I. Curtis, of the chamberof commerce, weui to Como, and heldtbe first of a series of meetings spon-sored by the organization loosing t«the promotion of a more general culti-vation of tobacco in Hertford county.They were accompanied by C. A. Rose,county agent, who is assisting the lo-cal men in the campaign. At the meet-ing several of the leading farmers ofthe Como section pledged themselvesto thp campaign of tobacco production,and signed the cards distributed by,t.. workers in the tobacco campaign.

, Continues Search For Oil.New Bern—Over SIO,OOO was raised

at an enthusiastic meeting of tbestockholders of the Great laike Drill-ing company held here in tile chamberof commerce offices, the money beingpart of that needed to' continue thework of drilling a well for oil at CampBryan near Havelock. Eleven ilirectors and over 50 stockholders werepresent at the meeting. 900 of the 1200stockholders being represented,

f At present the well at Camp Bryanit 2,500 feet deep. Contracts havebeen let to Wherry Brothers, drillingcompany of Pennsylavnia. to continuethp drilling to 3,500 feet, if necessary.A $25,000 additional stock increasewas voted at the meeting, raising thetotal capital stock to $200,000.

Injuries In Auto Crash Kill Woman.

High Point. —Mrs. Martha L. Ring,

Wife of Luther Ring, died at her homein the vicinity of Meehanicsville as a

result of injuries inflicted when she

was struck by W. S. Tyndall’s automo-bile December 19. Tyndall is under

bond of $5,000 for appearance in police

court on a charge of manslaughter.

Dr. W. W. Harvey, of Greensboro,

county coroner, after viewing the body,

pronounced embolus as the. cause ofher* death. Embolus is produced by a

blood clot caused by sudden jar

FliOS IK EUROPElit DEATH FOIL

TRANSYLVANIA, HUNGARY, TU-

MANIA IN MOST SERIOUS

CONDITION.

Paris.—Transylvania, astern Hun-

gary and Rumania present the most

critical situ ition in Europe, which ia

slowly emerging from one of the worst

floods in its history.

The number of dead in these coun-

tries and the amount of damage in-

flicted probably will not be known for

several days, perhaps weeks, because

of the demoralization of communica-tions and because of vast areas of ter-ritory which will likely remain under

water for some time. But it is cer-

tain that there wil ibe a tremendousdeath toll and huge financial loss.

The swollen rivers and canals inBelgium and Holland are going down.

The German and Polish rivers also

are receding. The situation in Prance

remains at a standstill, but the rain

there continues unabated.

Details of the casualties and suffer-ing in Transylvania, Hungary and Ru-

mania slowly are reaching Budapest

and Bucharest. It is variously esti-

mated that between 500 and 1.000 per-

sons have perished, while the loss in

cattle and the damage to spring wheatand property is tremendous.

Most deaths occurred in isolatedhamlets and on small farms, whereresidents had no warning of approach-

ing danger. This makes the numberof close computation of casualties al-

most impossible. Many died of hun-

ger or exposure as they waited to berescued from their housetops or other,

vantage points.

Eastern Hungary has suffered great-

ly but the wheat reports are more re-assuring. At Kis-Jano. it is known

that 155 houses collapsed and several

persons perished In the Ozete dis-

trict, 41b houses and farms were de-

stroyed and it is believed that por-

tions of this district will be inundatedfor at least ten days.

The worst situation exists along theRiver Theiss, where thousands of in-

habitants still remain on the roofs of

their flooded houses awaiting rescue.Great ice packs swept down from the

mountains by recent thaws have com-pletely dammed up the river at severalpoints, causing the water to overflowthe countryside.

Asks States Be Refunded Tax.

Washington—Refund of $100,000,-

000 to southern states taxed for cottoncrops during the Civil war was asked

in a bill introduced in tile house by! Representative Edwards, of Georgia.

| The bill states Ihe sum mentionedis “now. illegally held in the treas-ury." The government would lie re-quired to refund the money to the

states affected, which in turn would

return it to the planters or their heirs.Tbe tax was levied on cotton acre-

age from 1863 to IS6B.

Mr. Edwards, in explaining the bill,said the supreme court had held thetax illegal, but that no refund everhad been made.

Vaudeville Staged in Church Services.

Erie. Pa. Vaudeville acts will have

: a place hereafter on the program ofSunday services in the First Baptistchurch of Erie

Rev. Oliver Horsman. pastor, hasnotified his congregation that vaude-

ville actors and actresses, from an

Erie theater, will appear in future dur-ing Sunday evening services in theFirst church.

Two acts were intermingled with

the church services—the first a violin-ist. and the second vocalists and in-

strumentalists.Explaining his move, the pastor

said: "In the past the church has

held ail attitude of aloofness and con-demnation with regard to the stage.

I will not say at this time whetherthat was right or wrong, but I thoughta little experiment of co-operation lie

tween church and theater might not jprove amiss. I hope the congregation iof this church will receive the actors iand the actresses as human beings ;like the rest of us.”

Liquor Tax Hearing.

Washington.— Tim supreme court 1consented to hear on April 12. ahead

of the regular order, two cases involv-1ing the validity of taxing illicit liquor.One is the case of Joe Dukich, from jWashington state, and the other the |case of Israel Seligman, of New York.

Would Strip Dohey Interest*.

San Francisco. —A decision, which it IUjmeld by ilie United States supreme

cou.. .. L, ..... Edward L. Do-jhey im-... ... ,eir i. d jleaseholds in naval oil Iher one in California and deny them iany relief for work peM'o,rined { ii» such jreserves' an dut the Pear) Harbor oil 1station fit, ftohouilii'. was'handed down!here by the United ctr uitcourt cf appeals.

The court upheld the action vi the!

a I AUGA DEMOCRAT—EVERY THURSDAY—BOONE, N. C

lE# KILLED1.... J( BUST

EXPLOSION occurs in retort

OF FLORIDA TURPENTINE

PLANT.

Pensalcola, Fla. —Ten men were klll-! id and nine seriously injured in an ex-

: plosion at the plant of the Newport

j Tar and Turpentine company hereSix additional workers at the plant

| had not been accounted for.

i The explosion occurred in one of the

fire retorts of the plant, wrecking the

building. Then resultant tire spread

to other buildings of the company, a

million dollar plant. The tuipentine

products on the premises caught lireand spread rapidly.

The explosion occurred little more

than an hour after the plant openedup for operations. Firemen said they

had seen three bodies behind a liarrier of flames in one of the buildings.Many of those killed were badly muti-lated by the explosion and burned be-

yond recognition in the fire.The known dead are: Warren Eld

ridge. Bay Minette, Ala.; Ward Eld-

ridge, D. M. Baggett, Pansacola; Wal-

ter Watson. Pensacola; E. M. Ham-

mac. Pensacola; R L. Calhoun, Pen-

sacola; G. Carter. Pensacola; CharlesHunter. Pensacola; S. G. Faulk, Pen

suro'.a; Frank Moran, negro. Pensa-cola.

The injured are: B. Daniels, TomPayne, W. J. Jones. Charles Hammac,G. D. Adcock, J. A. Stockman, negro,

all seriously injured and D. Lowe,Charles Allison and Peter Anderson,severely but not dangerously injured.

All available doctors were called to

assist in attending the injured who

were rushed to hospitals.Search was continuing for the miss-

ing men and firemen worked furiously

to subdue the flames in order to reach

the interior of the buildings where themissing men were believed to have

been caught to the blaze. Little hopewas held out for those in the burningbuildings.

Sheriff Fails to Halt Bull Fights.

Tampa. Fla/—The oppearance of a

sheriff who issued instructions that

the proposed hull fight arranged by lo-cal promoters he called off failed tostop the show here and the fight was

started on scheduled time.Sheriff Hiers, who appeared in the

arena shortly before the fight was to

start, instructed promoters to call offthe fight, declaring he was acting un-

der instructions received from Gover-nor Martin.

The promoters said they had receiv-

ed permission to stage the show, whichwas arranged as a part of a Spanishfestival, from both the city and thelocal humane society. They declaredit was only a sham battel in whichthe toreadors would use spring swords

which would not hurt the animals.

Toreadors were imported for the

event. •

At the close of the fight. ManuelGarcia, the promoter, was placed un-der arrest and was later released onbond of $5,000.

World Tobacco Crop Smaller.Washington.—A world tobacco crop

; slightly less than those of the past| two years but 38 per cent greater thanthe annual average of the five years

before the war. was indicated in de-

' partment of agriculture reports from

; 19 countries which last year producedj74 per cent of the world crop. India

and China were not includedTile more import, ml producing coun-

tries in Europe show a decline of 13

per cent from last year, the departmeat announced, the drop being theheaviest in Frame with a loss of 45

per cent. Jugo Slavia and Bulgaria Ialso show declines while Czeoho Slo-vakia and Greece have materially in-creased production.

Production reports have not yetbeen received from the Dutch East

Indies and the Philippines but thecrops there were said to be of inferiorquality. Turkey reports a crop of

better quality than usual.

Neve Kind of Bandits Make Haul.Westminister, Md. —A band of

thieves said to have numbered at least50 men broke into the governmentliquor warehouse of the IndustrialGrain Products corporation at Tan-nery, four miles from here, bound 1three guards and four other men in jthe bui’ding and hauled away a cargo Iof between 75 and 100 barrels of whis-key. The liquor was valued at SBO.OOO 1by the warehouse manager.

Col. Roscoe H. Hearne Killed.Washington.—While changing a tire

on his own machine. Lieutenant Col-onel Roscoe H. Hearne, of the UnitedStates army, was struck and fatallyInjured by a passing automobile nearthe Congressional Country club. Thedriver of the automobile. Charles L.Van Meter of Washington, was exon-orsited

Colonel Hearne who recently wastrap-ferred from the cana, zone toduty with the Ohio national guard atCityeland, was visit ; ng frieiii: her#HyysaiiifcMkmam

DOCTOR KILLS TENSCHOOL CHILDREN.

Tashkent. Russian Turkestan. —

Although charged with causing

the deaths of ten children, whomhe inoculated by mistake withdiphtheria germs instead of with

antitoxin. Dr. Ivan Shorkohoy,

chief physician of the Tropical

Medical Institute, has been given

a sentence of only ten weeks im-prisonment.

At his trial before the supreme

court he placed the blame on a

nurse whose negligence, he said,

had resulted in the deadly solu-

tion being placed in the wrong

bottle. The nurse received asimilar sentence.

FIREMAN KILLED ON DUTYLEXINGTON FIRE TRUCK COL-

LIDES WITH CAR; TWO

OTHERS MAY DIE.

Lexington, N. C.—Three men were

killed and two others were so badly

injured that they probably will die as

the result df a collision between a tire

truck and an automobile in front of

the postoffice here, while the appara

tus was engaged in answering a lalsealarm. All of the dead and injured

were firemen.

D. C. Cope was killed instantly, and

Ed Cope and Howard Michael were

so seriously hurt that they died withina few minutes and before assistance

could reach them. Henry Y’arborough

is suffering with several smushed ribs,

and both he uud Gibson may be inter-nally injured.

Riley Cope, another member of the

truck gang, was thrown clear and es-caped with minor injuries.

It is said that the truck was trav-

eling at a rapid rate of speed and wasendeavoring to pass another car when

the accident occurred. The two cars

came together at an angle, the lighter

vehicle being overturned, it wasstanding at the curb and was unoccu-pied.

The injured were hurried to a bospital, where they were said to be rest

j ing comfortably at a late hour.

Fire Destroys Historic Church.Wilmington. N. C. —The First Pres-

byterian church, one of the oluest and

wealthiest churches in this city, burn

ed to the ground with a loss of approx-imately $30D,000. Fire fighters, realiz-

ing it was impossible to save the beau-

tiful church, turned tjieir attention to

houses surrounding the church hu Iding and had been successful in con-fining the blaze to the building inwhich it originated.

The fire broke out while prayer

: meeting was in progress. It is pre-! sunied the tire resulted from the fur! nace. This is the church of which Dr.Joseph R. Wilson, father of Vlhe latePresident Wilson, was pastor for many

years. The church also had an organ

that cost approximately $20,000 whichwas presented by the late Dr. J, M.Sprunt, as an offering commemorating

peace at the end of the world war.The property was worth several

hundred thousand dollars and will be

| a complete loss.

The church building proper, with itshigh tower, was totally destroyed,

and the Sunday school annex, calledChadbouni Memorial hall, is practi-

cally ruined.

Four Lose Lives in Wreck.Tacoma. Wash. —An 80 foot plunge

of a street car into the waters of themunicipal waterway at Eleventhstreet, and the consqnent breakup ofthe car resulted in the death of fourpersons and the injury of four othershere. The car, beyond the control ofits operator, shot through the opendrawbridge and broke as it struck the

water.It is believed that the breaking up

of the car prevented even greater lossof life.

Thout known to be dead are;

G. E. A. Farow, 63.Toiojiro Obayashi, 57.Mrs. Alice Scott, and Louis Scott,

five, her son.

Failure of the breaks on the streetcar is blamed by Clyde Sfaley, oper-ator, for the accident. Staley declar-ed that he applied the airbrakes inthe usual manner as tbe car came tothe bridge and he noticed the warninglights on the lowered gates. At theirfailure to respond he used the hand 'brake and then released the sand andthrew his motor into' reverse, he as-

serted.A lifeboat, a launch and a tug boat

aided in the rescue work.

Jardine Calls Farm Meeting.

Washington.—A conference for the

discussion of the agricultural surplus

question has been called by Secretary

Jardine to convene here January 12,

It will be the first of a series of con-ferences planned by the secretary for

this purpose.The date coincides with that for the

first day’s scs.on of the fourth nationalco-operative marketing conference tobe held here and many leaders in agri-

culture are expected here far both

FIND TAXDOUBLEDIN TWELVE YEARS

; Conference Board Make*Study of Taxation.

| New York.—Twelve and a halfj cents out of every dollar of the com-

I bined income of the American people1 during the last year went into taxes,

i according to a study in taxation by

I the national industrial conference. board, New York. The total burdeni of federal, state and local taxes hasnearly doubled in proportion ; to na-tional income since 1913, rising from0.9 per cent in 1913 to 12.5 per centin 1924. also showing an increase over

. the preceding year, 1923, when the* total tax burden amounted to 11.8

I per cent of the national income.While the increase of taxation in

proportion to national income in 1924in part was due to increased state

' and local tax levies, it was in nart.i however, also due to a decrease in

l national income during that year, the¦ board points out.

The national income in 1924 is esti-, mated by tlie conference board at[ $63,000,000 as against $65,000,000 in

I 1923, representing a decrease of threeper cent for the year. Expressed in

dollars of current purchasing power,the national income in 1924 was al-most double that of 1913; deflated totake into account the decline in pur-

' chasing power of the dollar since 1913,( the national income in 1924, in terms

| of “1913 dollars” was $39,000,000, as! against $32,000,000 in 1913.! While tlie average gain In popula-j tlon, according to census figures, lias! been about 1% per cent annually, fed-

-1 eral, state and local taxes together, have increased at so fast a pace that., according to the board’s computation.

| the total per capita tax burden has

J risen from $22.73 in 1913 to $70.97In 1924, or more ttian trebled. The

j same is true of the average taxburden of each gainfully occupied per

| son in the United States, which has in-. creased 20K.N per cent from 1913 to

1924. from $59.25 to $182.94.

I Measuring the tax burden perfamily, the social unit, the hoard finds

; that it lias nearly trebled, having risen

I from $102.12 in 1913 to $304.23 in 1924.[ The conference hoard, however, spe-

r eiflcnlly emphasizes the increase of

i taxation in proportion to national in

| come as the truest and most signifi-

i cant test of the burdensomeness oftaxes, inasmuch as national incomeIs tlie measure of a nation’s rapacityto spend.

COPPER IN COLLEGF

I -

Elmer Carlson, a senior at ihe Uni-versity of Wisconsin, is working hisway through tlie university by servingas a member of the Madison policeforce.

Matrimonial Odds Setat 13 to 1 Against Men

Sacramento, Cal. —If you are look-ing for a wife, the chances are 13 to 1that you will not have any luck duringtlie next year, according to L. E. Ross,chief of tlie state bureau of vitalstatistics.

Women may receive some encourage-ment ill Boss’ announcement that theirchances are much better than those of

the men. The odds against a woman igetting married are only 7 to 1.

Boss goes further to state that di-vorced women have a better chance togel married than any other class.

The odds against single men marry-ing are 14.3 to 1, Boss says, whilesingle girls are quoted much lower, at8 to 1 ; widowers have only one chancein 14 to get married within tlie nextyear, lint widows have only one chancein 29.

Divorced men will remarry within

three years and divorced women withintwo years and a half, Boss predicts. 1

The annual marriage rate per 1,000population is twice as high for womenas il is for men. He explains that anequal number of each sex marry everyyear.

Coins Over CenturyOld Hidden in Ground

Kansas City, Mo.—Coins dated 1802were found under u stump by working-men excavating for a home at West-wood road anil Mcrcier street. Tliechins, eight 50-eent pieces, were discov-ered after tlie stump had been removed.

According to Jess Kelly, of tlie John

H. Kelly & Sons Building company em-ployers of the workmen, Ihe coins wereuntarnished end

I lar. They probably will be given tothe public library, be said.

JANUARY 14, IBM

SMDOAH CREWjcm 8V COURTNO ONE BLAMED FOR AIR TRAG-

EDY BY NAVALCOURT OF

INQUIRY.

j Washington.—The Shenandoah oio-

aster, which cost the lives of Lieuten-

ant Commander Zachary Lansdowno

and 13 other officers and men, "is part

of the price that must inevitably bo

paid in the development of any newand hazardous art.”

This was the conclusion of tbe na-

val court of inquiry which investigat-

ed the accident. Its report, made pub-

lic. urged the navy department to give

‘‘utmost consideration” to recommen-dations that the development of lighter

I than air craft go forward.| The big airship was wrecked by the

jstorm which encompassed her, said; the report; whether prior minor dam-’

jage to the hull structure caused by ex-

-1 cesslve pressure in the helium gas

; cells was a determining factor in tha

final breakup, the court was ”unaMadefinitely to determine."j It described as “inadvisable," how-ever, the reduction in the number ofautomabtic gas valves from 18 to 8, a

! change which some critics have held

jwas responsible for the collapse of thei ship.

i Exculpating the ship's presonnel

from the responsibility for the wreck,

the court declared that during tha

period of danger "the conduct of aU

the officers and men was deserving of

i the highest praise." Consequently it

recommended that no further proceed-

ings in connection with the wreck be

prosecuted. '

The report of the court was exhus-tive, reviewing the history of the ship

from her beginning in 1919 to her de-struction over Ava, Ohio, last Sep-

tember 3, and taking up one by one

the major points raised liy Captain

Anton Heinen, former German dirigi-

ble pilot; Colonel William Mitchell;Mrs. Margaret Ross Lansdowne, thecommanders widow, and other critic*.

jPreaches on His 100th Birthday.

Elon College, N. C. —An occasionunique in the annals of North Carolinaoccurred here when Rev. J. W. Wei-,lons. D. D.. chaplain of the Masonicand Eastern Star home of Greensboro,

celebrated his 100th birthday by.

preaching a sermon Os fltore than 5*

minutes before 800 of his friends a*

!sembled in the Whitley auditoriuQL |“Uncle” Wellons, as he is familiarly

known, lias been a minister in theChristian church for more thanyears, and his sermon wa3 a wonder-ful testimonial to his vitality and per-sistence in spite of his great age.

Dr Wellons urged the young peopleof this generation to seek the thingsthat would benefit them in life. He

commissioned the parents to teachtheir children the true religion ofJesus Christ, and commanded thepreachers of today to preach to savethe souls and not for money or popu-

larity. .He took as his text Matthew6:38, "First Seek Ye the Kingdom ofGod and His Righteousness, and AliThese Things Shall be Added UntonYou.”

Mother Slays Two Children.Oklahoma City, Okla. Running

! amuck with a revolver, Mrs. Ruth, Townsley shot two of her children to

death, probably fatally injured anoth-er, wounded a fourth and inflicted :n---juries to herself.

Doctors believe she was deranged.

“It was my duty,” she reiterated aeshe lay dry eyed on a bed in a hospitalhere.

I Doctors laid a narrow pink ribbon! in her haud and told her:| Your baby is dead. This is the rib-! bon that was around her wrist. You'shot her. Clifford is dead and Dorothy

is dying. Margaret is hurt. You did' that too. Why?

I “It was my duty,” she replied. “No,

II ant not sorry. I only did what waanecessary.”

Three Reported Dead in Flames.

Peoria, Ills.—From three to six per-

sons, attending an all night New

Yeas’r party, were believed to haveburned to death in a Are which de-stroy c(J the Elms, a roadhouse, thopolice reported.

Two men, one the janitor and theother a new year reveler, are being

1held by the police. The latter is re-ported to have said that two women ,

and a man were burned, and that hedragged one of the women to a window

but was forced to abandon here to 1save his own life.

One Dead, Three Hurt.

Rocky Mount. —Frank Belknap, 22, U

member of the Rocky. Mount Fire De-lspartment.• was killed and three otherlLyoung men were injured when a small K

closed car in which they were ridingEleft the V.'ilson-Selma Highway audl|crashed into a telephone pole. Belk-Knap was instantly killed. The threefiother occupants, Herndon Perkins, ISCharles Dove and Dorsey Battle, also”ioi this section, were injured and f,ea. v, iisuu mr hospital, m

Belknap was driving at tke tUM

the accident occurred. j

‘ i

PAGE SIX