Newspaper Page Text
. TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1926 TR
RADIO ADDRESS OF JUDGE W. P. FLEMING
'Broadcasted Over W. S. B. of the Atlanta Journal, April 26, 1926
Subject: “Cordele and Crisp County Interests”
" Grateful acknowledgement is made
of every couriesy cxiended by W. 8.
8., of the Atlanta Journal. This is
not & mere formality, but expression
of sincere appreciation from cach par
ticipant in this program, and in be
half, cspecially, of the pcople and
the interests they represent on this oc
casion,
Cordele, Crigp County, is at the ex
act center of the earth’s surface, and
located on the ‘dircet contral water
shed route through Georgia to all
points in Florida—the highway whose
roadbed. and bridges were not wash
ed away by the excessive rainfalls of
1923. The highway that was once an
Indian trail of romance and tradition.
Many years ago Indian trails {rom
the north, east and west, converging
‘towards the ground on which the
City of Atlanta is built, united at or
about the present location of W. S. 8.,
and from this point extended 2s onc
great trail southward, along the cen
tral watershed of Georgia, by way of
the present sites of Griffin, Macen,
Perry, Cordele, Tifton, to & peint not
far below Valdosta, where the Great
Trail divided again into three—one
cont'nuing along the central ridge of
Ilorida; another down the east coast;
“the third down the west coast—all to
wards the Happy Hunting Grounds of
the Everglades, :
For more than one hundred m:iles
this old Indian trail through Geor
gia was and is uncrossed by a stream.
On the east it is drained towards the
Ocmulgee; on the wes:, sowards the
Flint—known to Indiany by the much
more euphonious name, Thronatees
ka. The Thronateeska, or Flint, is
the west boundary o: Crisp county,
and a mine of wealth in its potential
production of power—the Merimac of
Southwest Georgia,
This ceantral watershed route
-through Georgia, first marked out by
the instinct and experience of Indian
woodsmen, who followed it on mis
sions of peace or war, was later used
by white pioneers of Georgia hefore
“Atlanta “was; in primitive days it was
the old Stagceenach TRoad through
Geoergia to the Land of Fiowers; it
was afterwards that, fo rgood reason,
the Central of Georgia snd the Geor
gia Southern and Florida Railroads
were constructed along its length;
still more recently, Pathfinding Cors
of the Glidden Tour, under auspices
of the Atlanta Journai and the New
York Herald, approved .it. It is to
day the Federal Government Military
Highway through Georgia to Fiorida;
a part of it is DlXik ROUTE A, that
passes Cerdele’s Tourist Hotels, and
her Municipal Tourist Camp—provid
ed with modern conveniences for our
tourist friends, and supcrvised by a
courteous gentleman.
For many conscentie months an
avgrage of 1,000 tourizi cars a day,
abayt. that, have come by this new-old
trail ‘gtgt is ncw in precess of being
paved fi:f.{;p end to end, not so much
for military excursions of troops as
for these our tourist frineds, who
are to our delight scme pathfinders
themselves. There is room and cor
dial welcome for more of them in Cor
dele’s hotels, homes and parks. Let
’em come,
CRISP COUNTY, the plucky little
285-square-mile scrap of the coastal
plains section ¢f Georzia, where 8
bales of cotton were mad: last year on
5 acres, despite the boll-weevil; the
first county in Georgi. to organize
under the State Foresiry Act, for re
forestation and conscrvation; the
cracker county that has™ 200 dairy
farms, ten months ol nasiure, 3,000
flairy cows, and whose creamery pro
dueced last year 300,000 pounds of
golden hutter; that has 300 boys and
girls and 50 adult farmers cengaged
at this time in various farm contest
programs; that last year captured
capital prizes in open competition;
the county from which one farm ship
ped last year as a gide-line to its oper
ation, $2,800 worth of vegetables; an
other, 60 carloads of juiciest water
melons; that produced more than 250
pounds of lint cotton to the arre,
wherecas the state average was 153;
that produced and marketed last year
naval stores in the amount of $250,-
000; the little wiregrass county that
has 3,000 acres in vigorous young pe
can groves, one of which groves re
contly made a single shipment of 80,-
000 pounds of nuis; that is, in large
masure, bounded by pccan groves,
ene of which measures 3,600 acres;
where one good pecan tree in a back
vard pays tax on the nremises; wherve
10,000 young pecan trees have been
plantod this scason; the county that
has 250 acres of bearing asparagus—
recently $25.00 a crate; where soil
and climate are, by actual demonstra
tion, unsurpassed for proeduction of
all small fruits, berries, vegectables,
by list; the ccunty of acres that pay
good income on an investment valua
tion of $l,OOO, where acres can hbe
bought at $25.00 to $50.00.
Crisp County, the Egypt of Georgia
—formerly the locaticn of the Capi
tol of Georgia; now the capitol of the
peanut world—that statement not to
be taken figugatively; where {wo
home business ¢onceras have bought
and worked this season raw peanuts
for which they ;aid in cold cash $l,-
700,000; whete! one dealer in live
stock has solj'ihis season 600 head
of mules, and has bought from At
lanta more maleés than any dealer in
Georgia. The statement of which
bare fact tells its own story of in
creased agricultural enterprise in
Crisp county territory.
CRISP is the county that has ncver
sold a bend if any description, except
to build her Court House; that has
never defaulted in a payment; that
hasn’t a dollar of past-due floating
debt; that has never owed a dollar on
her public school affairs; that has
never issued any form of school bond;
that has cash in hand now to pay ev
ery possible scheol demand for 1926;
th;lt_kha;’i excelient school provisions
for her large and enthusiastic school
population—that ought to be hetier.
I mean, of course, the schools might
“be better; the children are thorough
bred. A matier of inhcritance, I sup
pose. Witness this: At {he recent
Third District Schoel Meet at Dawson,
Crisp eounty hoys and girls teok away
the Literary Cup, and three first priz
cs. That is o fair sample of their hab
its.
Crisp, that has one of the lowest tax
rates in Georgia; has 700 miles of
good public road, modern equipment
and a cracker-jack roadbuilding war
den; owns an A-1 county farm; has
spannced her streams with concrete
bridges; and is today paving her
part of the Trail of Romance, Dixie
Route A, through the county on a
pay-as-you-go plan, and as ncarly as
possibie on a pay-as-you-cnter prac
tice.
if that record is easily: matched,
try this: There is a littlé man in Crisp
County, Georgia, a good citizen. of
the county, who has a more. or less
happy wife =and thirty-nine-—II said
THIRTY-NINE, more or less happy
children. None of them hungry, none
contemplating-a move elsewitere. A
man of Zacchean stature who has evi
dently made the mest of local op
portunities, kceping in mind the pre
cepts of Theedore Roesevelt under
climatic conditions in which they
kept well—6Gl:3 degrees average for
25 years. He also had pure artesian
water. Results gpesk in trumpet
tones a challenge to the world,
CORDELL, capitol of Crisp county,
Gateway to the coastal plains section
of Georgia; the town in which never:
has a drop of whiskey heen sold le
gally—l said legally; the Hub from
which soven lines of railroad radiate
to the world at large; a part of whose
population are kept busy checking
through her Union Depot seventy
trains daily, Not 7—T7O, 22 passen
ger and some of the rest double-head
or freights; where the aggregate of
freight and passenger receipts for
1925 was ©1,000,000; passenger re
ceipts alone £260,900,
Cordele, the former home of Gov
craor Jogseph E, Drown, War Govern
THE,CORPELE DISPATCH
or of Georgia, and temporvavily the
capitol of the State. Atlanta has nev
er been more than a permanent capi
tol.
On the spot where Governor
Rrown’s Mansion was—a donble-pen
log cabin it was—are located Cor
dele’s two excelient tourist hotels, the
HSuwance and the new Cordelia—hoth
usually full to capaeity with satisficd
guests,
On the nearby spot where Govern
or Brown’s historic collard patch was,
is now a Carnegic Public library— -
the library that originated and was
{irst in the south to employ the circu
lating library system whereby public
libraries are made available and serv
iceable to the homes of all the peonle.
This system, now in general uso else
where was in Crisp a symbol of that
fine spirit always existing between
Cordele and the county at large. The
significance of this pioneer movemens
on the part of Cordele as a sure rem
edy for present ills, is emphasized by
the official report just made to the
Southeastern Library Association, by
Miss Merrill, executive of the Ameri
can Library Association, that forty
percentum of all the people in both
the United States and Canada have,
as yet, no access whatever to public
Hbraries. We preseribe the Cordele
system, free, and under the original
label.
Cordele is in a territory of historice
interest, rich in story and legend of
person and place; in which various
erganizations, civic and other, con
iribute liberally to the intcrests, spe
cial and gencral, of the community.
Men and women of broad sympathics,
but loyal first to their own heritagn.
She has never Jlearned, or wished to
learn the art of coining emre promis
es into cash. She doesn’t have to
What some places have on heantiful
appealing maps, she has on the
ground, in terms of briek and stone.
She mzkes no promise of paved streets
electrie lights, artcsian waler systom,
handsome schoo! huildings, imposing.
churches, beautiful homes, for jn
stance. These are here. Signatures
on the dotted line to printed promises,
do nol erect or provide goverament
huitdings, {tourist holels, office and
hank buildings, distributing plants for
half a dozen big oil companies, at
tractive well stocked stores, parks,
hospitals, city hall, manufacturing es
tablishments, diversificd industry-ur
ban and country. These do not exist,
really, in vari-colored Pisgah visions
of & promised land. They do exist
here—already here,
And Lack is here. L-u-c-k, the
county’s self-diziributing Farm Agent,
who, with Miss Holbrook, efficient
ilome Agent, have objectives wound
and sct for a record noise this year.
And—Crisp county folks are here,
Anything that might be said with re
spect to Cordele or Crisp county’s
creditable financial, commercial, ag
ricuitural, educational, or g)ther coi
diticn, should he interpreted as a {ri
bute to the character and wise intel-
Lhgence of the people of the county. 1
have seen them go to the front in time
of war, and in time of peace. In that
same valiant gpirit in which they met
the issues of wartime—what spirvit
that was!—in that same spirit they
have wrested themselves and theirs
irom the grasp of conditions of these
past lean years that submerged hopes
and fortunes of many, and erashed in
stitutions everywhere, It is the mili
tant spirit of Georgians that cannot
be defeated. To the theusands that
arve listening in at this moment, it is
o joy to express the sentiment and
conviction thet by pluck and encigy,
wise methods and honorable means,
they have alrcady climbed from the
deptks of despond and threatening
disaster to where the sun is shining
on a better day.
And now, Cordele and Crisp coun
ty are looking towards the future,
with purpose to make the best ol it.
In this connection, they have an earn
cst meszage for the. men and women
voters of Georgia, and for invesiing
capital of the nation,
Crisp county has, like other local
units, mines of wealth her very own—
natural resources untouched by the
kand of progress since the world was
made; which resources developed
wonld immeasurably enhance the in
terants of the county and benefit the
state at large. Thoe county must take
the initiative in the making of these
devoiopments, {or these interests, if
made at all, But Crisp cannot dig
without consent of the people of
Georgin, Her peovnle stand ready,
with picks and shovels, awaiting that
consent,
At the General Eleetion of Novem-
Ler 3, next, a Constitutional Amend
ment will be submitted to the people
of Georgia, providing for Crisp coun
iy's issnance of bonds in the amount
of one and a quarter millions of dol
lars, for construction of a hydro-clec
tric plant on Flint River—the west
boundary of Crisp—from which hy
dro-electric plant may be distributed
14,000 horse-power of light and pow
er to the sireets and highways, homes
and businesses of the county.
The doing of this means the making
of happier homes in which live a con
tented people; it means the furnish
ing of farm homes with the conven
iences and necessities of modern eivil
ization; it means the lifting of bur
dens hard to bear {rom the shoulders
of drudging wives and daughters; it
means the gpestablishment of new in
dustrics, provision of new employ
ments for our people, and better mar
kets for their wares and produce; it
means the saving of our sons and
danghters from false allurements of
places to which distance lends en
chantment; it means the accomplish
ment of a beneficence to he necessari
ly shared with our neighbors, an era
of unexampled progress and prosper
ity fer Crisp county, and money for
the State Treasury.
No county in any state in the Un
ion is known to have undertaken a
similar project of such magnitude. All
necessary preliminary surveys, ar
rangement with the Federal Govern
ment, and others, have already been
made and dene, atl expense of citizens
of Crizp couniy. Any other expense,
now or cver, in connection with the
furthierance of this project, wiil be at
expense of Crisp county people,
whoge best business men have already
thoroughly gone into this matter and
are strongly for it. Our people are
Tor it, gripped with an invineible con
viction, and an indomitable purpose
to “carry on’ to completion this un
dertaking that may, or may not, in a
few years make Crisp a tax-free coun
ty. '
Anticipating favorable action on
the part of the fair-minded people of
Georgia, with respeet to this Consti
tutional Amendment; Cordele and
Crisp county, adopted by a parctical
ly unanimous vote, in an election held
on April 10, a five-year tax exemption
of every manufacturing and industrial
plant named in Article 7, of the State
Constitvtion, and in the Act of 1925.
This is a gesture significant and expres
sive of = Cordele and Crisp county’s
friendly and inviting attitude towards
investing capital.
Already textile manufacturers have
been interested in making appraise
ment of Cordele’s present and pros
pective advantages of location for
thelr businesses. Amceng the busi
nesses already in Cordele, that need
power from this proposed hydro-elce
tric plant are: The Manufaclurers of
Harris Hydraulic Presses—shipments
of which machines have recently been
made to Miami, to Oregon and other
Pacific coast states, to Cuba, and to
Europe; the Hartshorn Manufactur
ing Co.; the Crisp County Lumber Co.,
and the Cordele Sash, Door & Luin
ber Co.—builders both, and handlers
of all kinds of building materials over
an extensive territory; the manufac
turers of William Stecl Stump Puller,
handled by the International Harvest
er Co,—recent shipment of this ma
chine having bheen maede to New Zea
land; the Beechwood BEand Mill Co.,
& new concern, manufacturers of
hardwood, maintaining twenty log
ging camps, shipping north, east and
acrecss the waters, and bringing to
Cordele 300 to 400 thousand dellarg
of foreign money a year; the Cordele
Compress Co., handling 50,000 bales
of cotton a season; oil mills, Read
Phosphate Co., ginneries, two peanut
plants, newspaper plant, and others.
Others that might build, but cannot
afford to build in Cordele or Crisp
county, until positively assured of nec
cssary power-—power that can be
furnished from this hydro-electric
plant on Flint river,
There have been recent wise en
actments by the General Assembly of
Gorgia, in rcognition of the principle
of local initiative in = local develop
ments for general benefity “Valdosta
and Lowndes county are ‘how asking
for the privilege of building, at their
own expense, a College Memorial fo
Woodrow Wilson, It is a praisewor- .
thy ambition, which, assuredly, Crisp
will help Valdosta and Lowndes to
aitain, Fulton and Dekalb counties
wouid exceed their present tax limit
one mill for educational purposes.
What county would deny them the:
right and privilege of making this con- ’
tribution to the educational needs of '
the State? Mclntosh county wishes,
consent to bond her own property for
a paving project. Here is our hand to
Meclntosh. The fact that the state at
large is not agreed on a paving pro
gram, should not prevent a county
from making solution of its own par
ticular problem. Chatham county
aszks leave to incur debt for Tybee im
provements. She has our consent,
The people of Georgia will not de
ny Crisp county the privilege of the
best place she can merit and hold in
the galaxy of Georgia counties.
There are, almost within a stone’s
throw of the proposed location of
Crisp county’s nydro-electric plant,:
immeasurabie deposits, pronounced
by scientific experts to be of very ex
cellent quality for manufacture of
tile, brick, cement, and lime. Another
mine of wealth this is, untouched as
vet, in Crisp county, Georgia. The
time will come, is approaching for its
develepment. Crisp county folks are
girding themselves for the job. Her
back-yard acre of diamonds shall be
digged; the shut door to Nature's
hoard of weaith shall be opened!
Our petition is for consent of the sov
ercign pecople of Georgia; our mes
sage is to the investing world. .
Florida’s high destiny as the Play
ground of the Nation, is whispered by
every soughing wave that purls along
her heaches; by the deep-toned voices
ot her sunlit seas; by her Gulf Stream:
that no power can turn from the
course it runs to proclaim it.
South Georgia’s destiny for indugs,
trial development is wrif. ag plainly in.
trems of climate, soil, production,”
cheap and reliable labor, transportas -
tion facilities, potential production of -
power, homegencity of populafio’h, i
cager readiness to co-operate for 'dev,{é
velopment of an awakening virgin ter
ritory-—unquestioned conditions that .
have and will continue to speak in
voices of convineing appealing argu
ment to promoters and builders of
manufacturing and industrial enter
prises. Men of acumen, of soundest
business judgement, some of whom
have already answered the argu
ment of conditions existing in this sec
tion, by launching with the tide that
is coming our way. There is no wand
of a Canute that can either change the
Gluf Stream from its course, or stay
this tide. lln that faith we are laying
the foundations of tomorrow’s struc
ture,
Where Thronateeska’s waters
bear
Rich treasures to the sea;
We build our dream of future
there,
In solid masonry.
You are requested to write the
Crisp County Board of Trade, Cor
dele, Georgia, and receive a souvenir
that may afford some interest.
é'!l!I'l!lflil’(fl!l.’l?lfl?!!I'IIIZI!I'Ifl'l.'lll'!.’m5!T|!IIIiiflililil!l!lllflfl!l!liIil'l!’i
£ z
= WHITE ENAMEL
£ 1 cake lvory Soap (medium 32
£ size), 2 cakes Guest Ivory, 4
i cakes I’ and G, the white nap.
2 tha, 4 cakes Star Soap, 2 pack- g
= azes Star Naptha Powder, 2
= fackames Chipso (medinm) size,
2 1 White Enamel Dish Pan, regu
£ lur valuo §2.15,
= i
= ALLFORSI.2O /i
© WILSON MERC. (0.
£ Phone 124
g 10th St. & 17th Ave,
B
PAGE THREE