The progressive farmer and southern farm gazette., June 11, 1910, Page 424, Image 12

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

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
WHAT I SAW IN THE MIDDLE WEST.
(Continued from page 421.)
Mississippi there are eight times as
many inhabitants born of native par
ents who cannot read and write as
there are in Wisconsin; in Alabama
fifteen times as many as in Wiscon
sin; in Georgia and Arkansas twelve
times as many; in Louisiana twenty
times as many as in Wisconsin. And
this is the main explanation of why
the West has forged ahead of the
South. Knowledge is power. The
first great need of the South is bet
ter schools for our boys and girls.
VIII.
I said that I saw no farms without
live stock. Dr. Butler has already
pointed out that the average farm
worker in Alabama, Louisiana and
Mississippi gets only $13 a year from
the sale of live stock, while the aver
age farm worker in Iowa, Illinois
and Indiana gets $212—16 to 1
QO'Qincf mi r nAAnl A or»/1 ♦ i a ft r omr
live and meaningful “16 to 1” is
sue, whatever may be said about the
old free silver ratio. This not only
means that they are getting sixteen
times as much as we are from the
sale of live stock, but it means that
they are restoring sixteen times as
much fertility to the soil as we are.
It means, too, that while we are get
ting one profit—that is, from growing
crops—they are getting two profits—
first from growing them, and, sec
ondly, from feeding them to live
stock.
IX.
I said that I saw no burning of
vegetable matter. In Champaign
County, Illinois, I traveled over some
of the richest land in the world, but
I quickly found that the farmers
there did not think their land rich
enough to justify them in burning
'heir corn stalks and wasting the
humus and fertility there is in them.
“The farmers around here say that
it takes two or three years to re
cover from the loss of burning a crop
of corn stalks,” so a thoughtful citi
zen told me, and I could not but con
trast the careful economy of these
farmers with the wastefulness of the
South. Here we not only burn our
corn stalks, but too often deliberate
ly Bet fire to our old fields and burn
up in a few hours’ time all the humus
and vegetable matter which Mother
Nature has spent years accumulating
in an effort to build up our wasted
soils. In Illinois the stalks are either
cut up and left on the land or else
hauled aside and rotted and then re
stored to the soil.
X.
I said that there was no store at
every crossing. I honor our pro
gressive and enterprising merchants
n the South, but we have too many
'ores. Twice as many of our enter
nrising and progressive young men
have gone into merchandising as
; houid have gone. Half the mer
' hants in the South to-day would be
len times as useful to their commu
nities and their State and make more
m am a.. 9_XL__1__ IS
uiciuncMCD u me/ were
giving the same energy and enter
prise to some productive industry,
either manufacturing or farming. The
merchant is a useful servant of those
who produce (provided there are not
stores enough already), but the mer
chant himself is not a producer. We
must come to see that there is just
as much credit in making Southern
meat as there is in selling Western
meat; just as much credit in making
Southern goods as there is in selling
Northern goods—and that in the
present situation the need of the
South is ten times as great in the
producing as in the selling line.
Again, because we have so many
stores, competition in merchandising
k:.L become very keen. I know sev
eral bright young iarmer uuys
grew up with me who have almost
made slaves of themselves running
small stores, who I believe would be
five times better off if they had given
the same energy and industry to up
to-date farming, not to mention the
immeasurably greater service they
would have rendered their communi
ties.
XI
I said I did not see any farmer
“bossing” hands without working
himself, and that because there were
no negroes I found no persons wait
ing to get negroes to do work that
they ought to do themselves or look
ing on any work as “beneath them."
On this point I am going to quote
again a very striking utterance of Dr.
Geo. T. Winston, formerly President
of the University of Texas and of the
A. & M. College of North Carolina.
What he says ought to be memorized,
word for word, by every young
Southern man and woman:
“The necessity of labor and
the honorableness of labor are
the first lessons to be taught the
youth of the South. Our people
as a whole, can not learn these
lessons, because we are still too
close to slavery. We still con
sider manual labor to be some
what beneath a gentleman or a
lady. We’ waste our substance
In the employment of servants,
apparently to wait on us. while
frequently we wait on them, and
usually they cost us more time,
money and trouble than they
render service. It is a matter
not of economy, but of supposed
gentility. A little observation
and easy calculation will demon
strate that in this State we spend
for w'ages and food and break
age and stealage of unnecessary
servants, money enough, if sav
ed annually for thirty yearB, to
purchase every acre of ground in
the state. Our whole landed
property Is eaten up by servants
one time during each generation.
It is Impossible to become
wealthy under such conditions."
It is a common remark of people
who have lived in both sections that
it takes three times as many servants
in the South as in the North, and in
many cases it amounts, as Dr. Win
ston says, to our making ourselves
slaves of the servants Instead of the
reverse. At the University of Wis
consin, which I visited, I heard a
good story which strikingly Illus
trates my point. When Ambassador
Bryce of Great Britain visited the
University last year he was a guest
of the President, Dr. Chas R. Van
Hise, one of the foremost educators
in America, and a man whose salary,
I presume, is upwards of five thous
and dollars. When Mr. Rryce wont
to bed, be put his shoes outside the
door, thinking that they would be
blacked hv a servnVif 'Th.n. <_1_
tiful daughters of Dr. Van Hlse. Boo
ing the situation, blacked the shoos
themselves, and Ambassador Bryce
never knew any better until the story
leaked out by accident some months
later!
In Madison, I was the guest of an
other man of distinction, who prob
ably has an income of $4,000 a year
At supper his young daughter, about
fourteen years old, waited on the
table, and nobody even thought to
make an explanation of her making
herself useful in this way, instead of
depending on a servant, as a family
with one-fourth the income would
have tried to do in the South.
Of course where a family docs it
own work all the modern conven
iences are used, and the kitchen in
the North and West would be a reve
lation to most of our Southern
women. All the most up-to-date
cooking appliances are used, ami the
kitchens are so small that nearh all
the utensils and appliances are within
reach as the woman stands at her
stove. Nor do the men expect hot
bread for every meal, if our worn
in the South need to learn the lesao**
of depending less on servants, 0„n
men in the South need to learn th
lesson of providing better eqyjppJ
kitrhcns and dining rooms and all the
labor-saving conveniences that can u
had. And these nro at least cheaper
than servants.
WHY PROFESSOR ARCHIBALD SMITH WAS REMOVED.
Dr. Tnit Butler's Address to t lio Mississippi Live Stock and
Dairy Association, May JJHth—Shall the I.ive Stock Sanitary
Hoard He an Agricultural Insti tution or a Political Asset?
Gentlemen: In calling this meet
ing to order it becomes my duty to
State the reasons why you were ask
ed to assemble in special session at
this time. This I propose to do, but
before proceeding to do this, I desire
to state that while I was urged to
take this action by members, some
of whom are present, and obtained
the approval of a majority of the
Board of Directors before calling the
meeting, I am entirely willing to ac
cept the full responsibility for call
ing the meeting. I am entirely will
ing to accept the full responsibility
for calling you together, if any one
desires to place that responsibility
upon me. I desire to say to you.
further, that the disagreeable duty
of giving you a full statement is not
to my liking. 1 am doing it solely
because, as your President, it is my
duty to do so. I would much prefer
to have nothing to do with the entire
matter; but having done what I
could, as your representative, to ob
tain a liberal appropriation for the
work of the Live Stock Sanitary
Board, I felt that I would be remiss
in my duty If I did not offer all op
position possible on my part, to the
wasting of that appropriation,
through either incapacity, or Infidel
ity to the live stock interests of the
State.
In so far as I am concerned there
is absolutely no personal grievance,
or any such consideration. Involved
in any of these matters, and to those
who know me I need scarcely say
there is nothing having the remotest
resemblance to politics In what I
have done, nor in the statements
which I am about to make. While
I have always taken a deep Interest
in political questions. I have never
taken any active part In politics, and
would not now refer to the matter If
several newKimnom imH „t__■
that I called thin meeting because I
am a supporter of Ex-Governor Vnr
daman for tbo United States Senate
The statement is absolutely false In
every particular, I am not now and
never have been a supporter or a
sympathizer of Jas. K. Vardaman in
his candidacy for the United States
Senate. Of course, j do not expect
the shriveled and perverted minds
from which these falsehoods ema
nate, and one drunk with a lust for
political patronage and plunder, to
he able to comprehend how oae man
tan oppose another politically and
yt not be willing to sacrifice the live
stock Interests of the State and
squander large sums of public money
n order to accomplish his defeat
hut i assure them that such Is still'
the position of honest men, In Mis
sissippi as elsewhere.
Before stating the direct and posU
u* a,lH whicb it is necessary that
you know, regarding tho removal 0f
Prof Archibald Smith from tho I,|T<
Stock Sanitary Bonrd, I dealro to an
swer some of tho mlBleadlng state
mentB In tho Interviews which Qoy.
ernor Noel haa given out to the parti,
aan preBB. and also to throw a little
light on Borne of the false statement*
made by a few small-caliber poljtj.
clans who have more partlaan teal
than desire to Inform themso|vea.
First, it Is stated that the Gover
nor had himself placed on the Uvt
Stock Sanitary Board, and had Prof I
Smith removed, because the
Stock Sanitary Board had been raa
in the Interest of a certain _.n
known politician* Thla statement to
unqualifiedly false. And those who
are repeating It either know that It
Is false or have not taken the iroablo
»o acquaint themselves with tht
facts, and furthermore that this was
not the real motive of the Governor.
I shall show you beyond preadve*
ture. Hut to the charge that tho
I.ive Stock Sanitary Hoard haa boas
run In the Interest of any polltldaa:
\t the organisation of the Sanitary
Hoard t»o years ago Prof Archibald
Smith was made Ita executive oflcwr
hy formal resolution of the Board,
which Is Spread on Ha minutes. ff«
was given full authority to ayyotat
and remove all Inspector* or other
employes Of the Hoard, and to have
complete change of the managetaost
of Ita work and haa alone exerdaad
tho** functions
Those who know Profewsor Smith
need not he told that with the eattrt
control of the appointments and the
direction of nil ftf f K A «a>A»lr a# ike
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