The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., March 19, 1910, Page 209, Image 13

About The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette. (Starkville, Miss.) 1910-1920

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teason after another spending a larger per
cent of their total income for commercial fer
tilizers. possibly paying out 3 or 4 cents on ©very
pound of cotton they raise, or 10 to 20 cents on
every bushel of corn, without making any real
effort to learn the simple facts about the needs
of the cotton or the corn plants? Or a man goes
on making crop after crop off hta land and ex
pecta It to feed him and his children and his chil
dren's children down through all the ages, as It
must, and yet shows an utter disregard for his
soil's welfare—hia Interest being only In what he
can get off of It this single season—and lets It
become less productive and less responsive even
to the fertilization on which he so largely de
pends for any crop at all. The blindness and the
suicidal folly of such a course must be obvious to
every man who will think seriously.
This Week and Next.
nca HE SEVERAL SERIES of articles we are
running Just now shonld make a strong
appeal lo every farmer who really wishes
to do the b» t farming, and who is willing to
use his mind at w»*ll a* his body in his work. The
great**! *ucce*s can only come a* the result of
el«*r, bard, honest thinking; and It Is tho edu
cated farmer—the one who l* familiar with the
law* that govern I If©-process#* on the farm, and
who know* how to conform In hla farming oper
ation* to the**' law* — who la going to control the
future All theae aerie* are primarily education
al The "1500 More a Year" article*. "How to
Grow Live Flock In the Sonth." "How to Double
the Corn Yield." "Short Talk* About Fertllltera"
— all of these are wrltteu to give our readers
explicit Information about the practical details
of their work. They have been written, too. With
especial reference to the needs of the y«at mass
of farmers In our territory. Some reader* may
think them too elementary, while others may
conclude that they are written "above tbo beads"
of many farmers; but we are confident that any
reader who studies ’hem not merely skims over
them -will ac.juire helpful Information; and we
feel very *ure (hat any tnnn who la willing to give
them tho careful thought which tho learning of
any lesson demands will b© ablo to understand
(hero and to make the Information they contain of
value to him In hla work.
This week we are beginning a serloa of "letters
to the Farm Hoy." plain talk* to plain farmer
boya which older folk* can also read with profit,
and a series of talks on bee keeping, one of the
little "aide lino*" which la too generally neg
lected Professor Karns, who write* these arti
cle*. |* an authority on the subject, and we truat
hundreds of our render* will profit by them.
Another feature worthy of special note In
this Usue is Mrs. Stevens's timely article on homo
sanitation and the prevention of contagious dis
eases. (>ur lastly along these linos Is, as Mrs.
Ri«*vena saya. oft»*a little less than criminal; and
” la one of our first duliee to keep Just ns well
*• *e can, and to make our surroundings Just as
healthful aa possible.
N*»\t week, remember. is our "Cotton Special,"
and w« trust to make It of Immediate practical
l>"noflf fn every cotton grower In all our territory
A Thought for the Week.
[^1 HOSE WHO I.ABOK In the earth are the
Kj.'V chosen people of flod. If He over had choe
*' - on people, whose breasts He has made His
peculiar deposit for substantial and genuine vlr
',|® It la the focus In which He keep* nllvo that
■acred fire, which otherwise might escape from
the earth. Corruption of morals In the mass of
cultivators 1» a phenomenon of which no age nor
nation haa furnished an example. I think
our people will remain virtuous for many cen
turies, as long as they are chiefly agricultural.—
Thomas Jefferson.
I “What’s The News?”
Bt CLARENCE H. POE.
The Week’s Happenings.
Tpl11E GREAT Philadelphia strike seems to be
iilJ the loK,cal outgrowth of the general cor
ruption which has so long prevailed in the
government of the Quaker City. The fact that
'he street railway company refused to accept the
proposition for arbitration throws public senti
ment on the side of the workingmen. And it
must be said to the ;hame of Philadelphia that
the city government was also opposed to arbitra
tion, the Mayor warmly supporting the side of
the street car magnates. The situation also re
minds us that while in such a struggle the work
ingman’s weapon is his physical strength and the
employer's weapon his capital, the law seems far
more effective in restraining the laborer’s exercise
of his strength than the capitalist’s exercise of
his. It is observed In ’’The Honorable Peter
Sterling’’ that the crimes in past ages have been
largely crimes of brute force, and the law has
learned to shackle that, but the crimes of to-day
n ro Inpffotv AelniAU A# nunnlnM A m/I A AaaL _ •
-—■ —" - —<miu vuv vnon vi
our time Is to punish the crimes wrought by su
perior but unscrupulous mental power as well as
the crimes wrought by superior but unscrupulous
physlcalp ower.
J*
This idea is further emphasised by the facts
which have come out In the government suit
niralnst the Standard Oil Company, now before
[the United States 8upreme Court. It Is some
thing of a co-incidence that just as the announce
ment Is made of Mr. Rockefeller’s colossal gift to
charity, the American press is publishing this
review of the conscienceless methods by which the
staii'ard Oil Company has won its wealth. Mor
ally, we cannot see that Mr. Rockefeller’s money
has been accumulated more honestly than was
that of the robber b irons of the Middles Ages.
Rut If his restitution is good, let us condemn his
bad acts only and not his good ones.
J*
We confess we cannot see how Democratic Sen
ators can find defects enough In the postal saving?
bank bill to justify them In opposing It. More
over. we believe the measure will help rather
iKmh k t _ n A L. a.
vnuno IU vuu uuuui ill
that It will stimulate the neglected habit of saving
lu the children and thereby bring splendid re
turns to regular banks as these children grow to
manhood and womanhood. The postal savings
hanks will be a special boon to our farming classes
by providing safe and easily accessible places of
deposit, with a moderate rate of Interest until
the amount becomes large enough to justify In
vestment elsewhere.
*
And now that postal savings banks are In sight,
we hope every farmer In the Southern States wll’
rally to the aid of President Barrett In the mag
nificent fight he Is making for the parcels post
In one of his remarkably vigorous letters, Presi
dent Barrett says of the parcels post Idea:
“What will a parcels post do for the
farmer?
“It will save him about 76 per cent a year
on the charges he Is now compelled to pay
the express companies for everything that
travels in their cars. The packages that
come to his home from the big mail-order
houses In South and North, will cost him
about 90 per cent less for transportation, be
cause In the long run the farmer always ‘pays
the freight.’ The parcels post also has a
county feature. Under the plan proposed,
the small town merchant will be able to send
out small packages ovar rural routes at a
cost so small compared to the hire of a mes
senger or a horse and buggy or a wagon, as
under present conditions, as to put millions
of dollars yearly Into the pockets of both the
Amerclan farmer and the American country
merchant.
"The time has come to cease dilly-dallying.
Oo after your Representative and Senator
with a club, bury him under an avalanche
of letters, telling him you want a parcels
post and that you are not going to let him
or yourself rest until you get it.”
This is a good use to make of your quarter’s
worth of postals. Write your Senator and Repre
sentative about the parcels post. At the same
time tell them to stand for the interests of the
dairymen and farmers, the men who own the
cows, instead of the big packing houses and oleo
margarine manufacturers in Chicago. Some of
our Southern Congressmen are making the excuse
that they are supporting oleo because nearly all
the Democrats suported It before. This is prob
ably true because the cottonseed oil manufac
turers were the only ones who let the Congress
men hear from them about the matter. But the
day has now come when farmers as well as
other people write to their Congressmen, and they
are beginning to have some influence In Washing
ton.
This comment brings us to the proper place to
note that President Barrett of the Farmers’ Union
has Just announced that ’’from May 3rd to May
Tth, inclusive, the Farmers’ Union will hold at the
Coliseum, in 9t. Louis, a National mass meeting
frtr favtnan 1 _ ___i__ i_
- ***'*'• w miivivu iu dvwj;W| uuauij m
portance, undoubtedly In attendance, In the his
tory of America.” A program of unusual Im
portance and impressiveness Is preparing and the
meeting promises to be of epoch-making Import
ance. The Farmers’ Union Legislative Bureau
whose members have done such excellent work In
Washington this session, will make a notable re
port to the St. Louis meeting.
The "disastrous effects of prohibition on a town”
are strikingly illustrated by the workings of the
prohibition law in Wilmington, the leading North
Carolina seaport, last year. The law went Into
effect there January 1, 1909, and perhaps In no
other seaport city has It been so well enforced.
The results are that the number of arrests In
1909 was only 1,218 as compared with 1,9«8
with saloons-the year before; In spite of increased
population, there was a decrease In the number of
deaths and cases of Insanity; bank deposits show
ed the remarkable Increase from $7,200,000 to
$9,960,000 for the single twelve months, the In
crease In bank clearings being greater than for
any other leading Southern city except Atlanta
(which Is also prohibition); the number of build
ing permits and their value more than doubled;
and in spite of losing a $600 license tax on sixty
three saloons each( and voting an extra tax for
schools, the total tax rate was reduced 8 cents on
the $100. Getting rid of the whiskey handicap as
much as possible, while the North still suffers
from It In undlmtnlshed measure, Is giving the
South a tremendous advantage In the struggle for
Industrial leadership. We’ll beat them yet.
The South has probably never sent a man to
Washington who made a greater Impression In so
short a time than Senator Gordon of Mississippi.
It Is a fine Illustration of the Instinctive human
response to a generous, tolerant, unspoiled spirit.
It was said of Henry Grady that when he died ”ho
was literally loving the sections Into peace.” Even
so the great-heartedness of Senator Gordon made
in ImnrAMlnn linnn Onnoroca nrnKoKlv niAw* 1mm#—
ing and more effective than any mere magician
or orator could have won by all his arts. All over
the country they are still quoting with applause
the magnanimous language of his farewell speech,
and especially the following paragraphs which
the venerable M1sslss1pplan addressed to Senator
Heyburn, the flre-eating orator from Idaho:
“I am an old Confederate and you, per
haps. an old Union veteran. We disagreed.
You are the victor. But we each still think
our own generals good people. That Is all
that there Is to It. though we have with us
yet some hlab-mouthed fellows who ain’t
worth cussing.
“We were conquered and took the oath of
allegiance. I can raise my hand and say that
T have never violated the oath, and I never
saw an old Confederate who had violated lt.«
There Is no North or South. I stand here In
my father’# house, and I am proud to be In
It. A# for our generals, you may as well try
to storm the heights of heaven and pluck the
diadem from Jehovah's crown as to take
away from either of them any of the glory of
the records of the two men—T.ee and Crant
—who stood under the tree at Appomattox
and brought the war to a close.’’