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THE LAGRANGE REPORTER THURSDAY MORNING, DEC. 24, 19(4 Ca <$vatige£>cpotte< Published Frida/ at LaGrange, (irvinla. J. A. PERRY, Editor. HUGH McKAY, Publisher. SUBSCRIPTION, $1.00 PER YEAR Payable in Advance. Entered aa second-clans matter at LaGrange, G#., under the Act of October $1, 1911, at the goat office March 3, 1879. MR. MARSHBURN A FARMER I*Grange has at IcaHt one (if no more) “city farmer," in the person of Mr. N. E. Marshbum. He is not only an earnest advocate of diversi fication, of the common-sense plan of producing crops- that can be readily sold at good profits, but he is putting his excellent thoorics into sound prac tice. ,Mr. Marshbum is best known in IwtGrange as a merchant, and in this field he has displayed marked good taste and judgment in buying and u most agreeable personality on the sales floor. But down in South Geor gia he is best known as a cantaloupe king. Next year nu will plant 2,00*1 acres in the splendid vuriety which he hus evolved and hns trade-murk registered under the name of "Pink Queen.” This enormous acreage divided into various tracts ncur Thomusville, Fitzgerald, Alma and Byromville. Mr. Marshbum is at the head of an organization in which there arc about thirty people interested, and which is the largest in the United States. Somo idea of the oxtent of the business will be gained when one considers that the item of scud alone will total $4,000, and that the syndi cate'has contracted for 600,000 crateH for an estimated production of 6,000, 000 cantaloupes. Here is a splendid examplo of pio neering. Mr. Marshbum has simply picked one of the numerous opportuni ties for growing high-class products for which the “malefactors of great wealth” (as Mr. Roosevolt calls them) in the large cities will pay fancy prices. Why doesn’t somebody else break into one of the many favorable fields that nre only wuiting for the bruins and initiative to devolop them? Hero are a few of them: Milk-fed broilers, capons, squabs, pimento peppers, Lima und other varieties of beans, strawberries, figs, loganberries and dozens of other things in the line of fruits and vegetables. ♦ ♦ ♦ SALEM ♦ ♦ ♦ Mr. John White, one of our most substantial farmers, has just finished a large, convenient metal warehouse on his farm and finishod storing some fifty or sixty of his 1914 crop of tho fleecy staple to uwait a more re munerative price. One by one our absent young folks are returning to the parental homes around Sulem for tho holiday soason. Miss Zelma Zachory returned from Kings boro on Saturday where she has a successful school. MIbs Ethe- leno Sands returned Monday from Lithia Springs where she has been engaged in teaching. Miss Ellen Sat- terwhite returned Thursday from iho LaGgange College. Prof Edward Leo Floyd of North Georgia college, came in Sunday from Dahlonega and. Dr. Albert Brawner came Monday. We regret to note the illness of Mra. Willie Williams, we wish for this estimable lady a quick return to health. Mr. and Mrs. Charley O’Neal and family were Sunday guests of Mr. and Mrs. John Frank Thompson. Misses Mary Nell and Frances An derson visited Misses Irma and Winona Swanson Monday. Salem High School closed Friday afternoon with some appropriate and delightful exercises consisting of read ings, music, songs, etc., after which the teachers, Miss Will O'Neal, Mrs. Fletcher Anderson and Miss Bessio Bryant gave the mothers and a few of the grandmothers a most enjoyable reception in the music room of the school building. Delicious refresh ments consisting of salads, pickles and cheese straws were served with hot tea. The occasion was one of rare enjoyments to all. Mr. and Mrs. Bill Anderson spent a couple of days the past week in La- Grange. Quite a number of Salem folks have been to LaG range the past few days hunting up Santa Claus. Among them Misses Louie and Lillian Mor gan, Messrs. Hop and Jep Morgan. Miss Lanie Lou Davis of Beech Springs has been the guest of her sister, Mrs. Lucy O’Neal, this week. The friends and relatives of Mrs. Willie Kate Griggs of Atlanta have received cards announcing her mar riage on Dec. 24 to Mr. John Spiers of Atlanta. We wish them much happiness. What of the New Year? And what of the New Year? A short week now and it will bo ushered in with it:< manifold blessings and trials; it* responsibilities and its opportunities, for those of us who are "Spared in life and health to enter the imaginary gate-way and travel through its dayH and weeks and months. As a matter of fact, each new day that is vouchsafed us presents a new and blessed opportunity. The change over from one year to another is marked by no physical change. The lower animals never know the difference. Ifut it ia good for those of ns who are blessed with the capacity to think as well as to feel, to plan ahead as well as to live by the day, to give careful thought to the proper observance of the an niversaries established by sound precedent. Especially is this true of the New Year, with its beautiful symbolism of burial of the things past which cunnot be undone, and of turning with high resolve and eager hope to a new day with its recurrent opportunities for improvement. This thought is beautifully expressed in the following .by Arthur J. Bur dick: “The bells in the steeples are swinging and ringing An anthem of joy and of hope and of cheer, For time has not ended and efforts expended Not in vain, for yet Opportunity’s here, And we’l'. labor and battle and push our way upward In days that the incoming New Year will bring. From the grave of the old one to the brave and the bold one Success and achievement will certainly spring.” Consideration of an event which marks the passage of time naturally leads one to thinking of time as a measure of our existence. None of us properly value nor make the best use of our time; on the contrary there are but few who do not indolently waste a great deal of this precious stuff thut life is made of—and some of us even deliberately kill a lot of it. The few who really do appreciate the value of time have crowded wonderful achievements into their brief spans of existence. A story is told of Edison in his younger days when he was just beginning his wonderful evolution from telegraph operator into the most useful citizen of his time. He had fallen in with some friends on the streets one day on hjs way to his work. They were disposed to loiter and kill time in pleasant chat or badinage, but suddenly Edison broke into a run and left them, saying: “Excuse me, I’ve got so much to do and life is so very short I must hurry.” If the New Year rolls? out its appointed time it will have twelve months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525,600 minutes and 31,536,000 seconds. What it will bring to each one of us will depend largely upon how wisely and efficiently we use our time. We must or should spend eight hours out of each twenty-four in sleeping. That is one-third of the time. We probably spend an average of forty-five minutes in eating each one of the three meals a day which all of us, happily, get in one way or another. That accounts for 821 hours in course of tfie year, or nearly one-tenth of our time. Then take off the Sundays, which, for reasons of health as well as religion, shobld be devoted to rest; also deduct the time out of each working day which should be devoted to reading and recreution, and we have left only about 2600 hours of productive time out of the 8760. Does this not bring home to us, therefore, the importance of the lesson learned and applied to such good account by Edison? Per haps you remember the old quotation: “Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward offered, for they are gone forever.” Let us include among our New Year resolutions one that we will strive to make better use of our time. We should not count the time wastefully used that is devoted to sound reading and wholesome recreation, for by both do we make our minds und bodies more fit for efficient work; but we should train ourselves to an instinctive habit of making the most of the hours—and even the minutes—which we allot to our daily work. Right here we feel inclined to pay our respects (or disrespects) to the idlers who waste the time of other people. But they are not worth the space or time; and, besides, we "don’t use such language,” as Mr. Dooley said when asked for his opinion on the Mexican situa tion. The coming year will test the mettle of our people as it has not been tested since the Civil War and the dark days of Reconstruction which followed. It will bring out the yel low streaks and show, up the faint-hearted, the selfish, the quitters, hi a way that those of this generation have never experienced. While fortunate by comparison with the lot of tbe countries being devastated by the war, or eveh the conditions existing here during the Sixties, there is no deny ing the fact that this section has received a heavy blow through the low price of cotton, its chief product. At best it will take us some time to recover from it, and the process of readjustment is necessarily trying. But is not this a good time, (when, after all, we have so much to be thankful for), to forget the past except as a guiding experience, and turn with hopeful purpose and freshened vigor to the duty and the opportunity of doing better next time ? To Our Farmers. Specifically, we would say to our farmers that the chief trouble lies in the fact that too mimy made the mistake of placing their entire dependence upon cotton and went in debt to make a big crop. If this section did not owe any money to other sections there would be no real distress. But the farmers owe the merchants and banks; these in turn owe the jobbers, manufacturers and banks of other sections, and, as stated, there is where the chief trouble lies. This points out the obvious remedy: We must begin work to ward becoming self-sustaining and make cotton largely as a mrplus cash crop instead of the main reliance. We must wake up to the fact that when we ship in supplies that should be produced right here at home we have to pay for them with several profits added, the profit of the original producer, theprofits of the middlemen between him and the railroad station at his end of the line, the cost of transporta tion to this market, and then the profits of a few more middlemen, of which there are entirely too many. The retail price of com is 85c to $1.00 per bushel, whereas,any fahher can produce com at not over 50c, count ing everything, and frequently less. Meat is retailing at 16c to 20c per pound, whereas it can be produced on the farm at from, 4c to 6c. per pound. These are cited merely as illustratiopk but the rule applies all along the line. The farmer who has made his farm largely self-sustain ing. and who owes but little, is in position to hold his cotton for a year or two if necessary, and it will probably pay him to do so. True, he must feel the conditions to an extent, but it is not nearly so, bad as that of the man who has neglected to r^ise his feedstuffs and foodstuffs, and who has gone in debt for more than his crop of cotton would pay for even if the war was not going on. We do not hesitate to say that no greater mistake could be made than to again plant a full crop along the same lines. It would bd more wise to buy cotton out of the present sur plus, for it cannot be produced at current prices. We are not among those, however, who go the length of saying that no cotton at all should be planted, and we do not think it sound to suggest any one ratio of reduction to apply to all. The important point is that whatever amount we raise be prnctically a surplus, or as nearly so as possible. Also it will be wise to plant for a surplus production of other crops such as can be sold for cash at a good profit- It is safe to assume that prices will rule high on all foodstuffs next year, and probably for several years. It is important for our farmers to make a careful study of the market requirements of whatever products other than cotton that they may consider planting as a cash crop. The high quality products command the premiums and profits. But it is important to put them on the market in such form or style of package as to meet the competition of other sec tions. In conclusion we would say to our farmers that now is the Mine of all times when you should organize, for the bene fit of exchange of experiences; for community upbuilding; for co-operative purchase of breeding stock, machinery, etc.; and. lafctly, but of prime importance, for marketing your products to the beat advantage. To Our Merchants. And how will you merchants face the new conditions ? You must choose between two courses, either cut ex penses or increase business. The whole proposition is one of running as near as possible to full capacity. The situa tion is strikingly illustrated by the case of two of the rail roads entering LaGrange. Because it is able to fill its trains to near capacity the, A. & W. P. railroad i9 able to run ten trains a day and haul passengers at two cents a mile, where as the M. & B. loses money on two trains daily with a much higher mileage rate. ' The solution lies in going after business more energetical ly thar. ever rather than to trim sails and seek to get through by mistaken economies. Your chief items of ex pense are irreduceable. First, the biggest is, or should be. your own time. When a man devotes his best thought and entire'effort to a business and succeeds in building it to some size, he is entitled to rate his lime at a liberal valua tion. Then, most of the other cost factors are practically fixed. These include rent, light, insurance, taxes, etc.— these and a lot of other items must continue as large as ever if you stay in business. About the only way that you can save is to discharge a e'erk or two—and you know you will hate to do that. So, in sober truth, your only salvation lies in getting more business. And don’t make the mistake of thinking that is impossible. No man can begin to approximate the possibili ties of any business or individual proposition. In a country such as ours there are no absolute bounds to the trade ter ritory of a business. John Wanamaker, Altman’s, National Cloak & Suit Company, Tiffany’s and Park & Tilford in New York; Sears, Roebuck & Company, Montgomery, Ward & Company and Marshall Field in Chicago, and several of the better stores in Atlanta are selling goods in this city and territory. It may be true that all of this business cannot be kept at home, but certainly a larger share of it can be by the right sort of publicity backed up by the goods and the service. Besides the trade outlets mentioned, there are splendid possibilities in the way of capturing a larger share of trade in the several small towns within a thirty-mile radus of LaGrange. The rule will be that most merchants will vir tually cease all activities along creative lines. What an op portunity there will be then for those who display the con trast of optimism, energy and enterprise! It is only a ques tion of working the home market on a more intensive scale and reaching out over a wider territory in order to keep up sales to the high water mark and even surpass them. Advertising, when properly done, is an investment and not ar. expense. It is the quickest, shortest, most economi cal and direct link between producer or distributor and con sumer. Advertising benefits both seller and buyer. By in creasing volume it enables the seller to make more money and to reduce the cost to the consumer as well. This is proven by a comparison between the great department stores with their multifold economies, and the small special ty shops. Also the enormous distribution and the relatively superior value of Ford cars is another proof. No, advertising is not an expense, but the best of invest ments when properly done. It saves time, the most valu able of all commodities." One man can do just so much in a given length of time. Personally he can wait on just so many customers, provided they come into the store. He can reach more people over the telephone. But he can sit down in his office and write a truthful and interesting advertise ment of what he has to sell and, placed in the newspaper, he can tell thousands at the same time. Advertising multi plies the scope of a store’s activities and enlarges its terri tory. But don’t forget this important point: There is everything in the way it is done. A large amount is wasted in poor ad vertising, in printed talks expected to sell goods but which fall short of the mark because something is wrong. The first and absolutely essential point is to be sure that the store is right in every feature—the merchandise, the prices, the service. Then, and not until then, are you ready to be gin using printed publicity. The dictionary definition of advertise is “to make known.” Obviously one cannot make known that which is not true. It is folly to advertise a poor article or a poor store, and by the same corollary most of the good ones are advertised. To Our People Generally. And may we not hope that the New Year will bring to us all a more keen appreciation of our duties and responsibili ties to each other and to the community? There are gratify ing evidences of growth of this fraternal spirit. The Christ mas season is being marked by a more widespread and generous response to the needs of charity than ever before, and this in spite of the fact that a great many find them selves less able to give than in previous years. It seems as though the common calamity has drawn the people closer together, and made them to feel their interdependence, their need of each other. There is practically no limit to what may be accomplished by a united citizenship. Working selfishly apart, we fritter our energies away and fall far short of the possibilities. More closely united, we can have and can do many of the things which seem impossible. Each unit of our population represents a certain amount of potential energy, and in the aggregate the people compose our real capital. We wonder what would be the possibilities of Troup County’s 26,000 “human-power” if all were harmonious units working to the same end. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years the Chattahoochee River was allowed to expend its enormous potentialities uselessly as it flowed to the Gulf. But harnessed up and wisely directed, it is now furnishing over 100,000 horse-power and doing a vast deal of useful work. There is a striking lesson for us in this illustration. “We live in deeds, not years, In thoughts, not breaths, In feelings, not in figures on a dial; We should count time in heart throbs, He most lives Who thinks most, feels the noblest, Acts the best.” —Bailey. Want Ads. JUST RECEIVED—Car of Agricul tural lime. H. W. Caldwell. WANTED—Empty piano box. Apply care Reporter. _ It COAL—Call 233 for coal. We handle the best at lowest prices. La Grange Ice A Fuel Company. tf REDUCE your fertilizer bill by usim H. W. ground limestone. Caldwell. 1-29 ALL BREEDS and ages of Guniea Pigs for sale cheap. GRADY GAY ltpd FOR RENT—Ten room house to rent stables, carriage house, servant house, large premises- W. V. Gray. tf. FOR RENT—One five-room cot tage, 155 Vernon street. Lights and water. Apply to J. L. Bradfield. tf. WILL EXCHANGE bank stock for an improved farm and pay difference in cash. Ad dress Lock Box 197. Janl LOST—Warehouse receipt for two bales of cotton. One is sued by. the Troup Warehouse marked “M M” No. 4676 and one issued by Security Ware house marked “S” No. 6242. J. O. Cleaveland 4t FOR SALE at aJBargain if Bought Within 30 days My Home on Vemon’St. J R. HARRISON, St. Augustine, Fla. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ HOGANS VILLE ♦ ♦ ♦ The following young ladies are at home from college to spend the holi days: Misses Ruth Hayes, Mattie Ware, Kate Philpot, Ina Weems, Nannie Lo Shank, Thelma Hays. Bessie Matthews, Lucy Mobley and Minnie Fletcher Boozer and Messrs. Marvin Mobley, Herschel Daniel and Robert Trimble. Mrs. J. W. Walker entertained the Woman’s Club on Friday afternoon at the home of "Mrs. J. Z. Reid. Mrs. Steve Davis and Mrs. John Wilkinson had charge of the program. Mrs. Walker assisted by Mrs. Reid served a dainty salad course. Mr. and Mrs. Joe Matthews spent last week in Atlanta. Mrs. Hawthorne Ware of Genevu was the guest last week of her sister. Mrs. Lawrence Owen. Mrs. Ware and Mrs. Owen visited Mrs. Spurlock in Atlanta last week end. Friends of Mrs. Silvey, formerly Miss Jennie Lee Cooper, were grieved to hear of her death last Saturday morning. Her remains were brought here Sunday a. m. for enterment. Miss Inez Johnson of Newnan will spend the Christmas holidays with her parents. The Bible Study Class had an in teresting meeting with Mrs. A. B. Anderson. The book of 2nd Chron. was finished under the leadership of Mrs. W. J. Hogan. As the ladies ar rived they were served hot chocolate and crackers. The Campfire Gjirls gave a lovely oyster supper Wednesday evening in the Telephone Bldg. Quite a nice lit tle sum was realized from the supper and the sale of home-made candy. These girls bid fair to have an en thusiastic club, and much good is sure to be done by them. The Scouts are also flourishing and we feel justly proud of these two organizations. Misses Lillian Moore and Mary Culpepper left Saturday to spend the Xmas holidays in their respective homes in Winder and Fort Valley. Prof, and Mrs. Strozier and chil dren will spend their holidays in Dub lin. Mr. and Mrs. Van Brightman and little daughter are expected home this week from Montgomery. The following ladies went to La Grange last week to do some Xmas shopping: Mrs. Will Arnold, % Mrs. Winna Armstrong, Mrs. Arthur An derson, Mrs. W. J. Hogan, Mrs. Ernest Johnson, Mrs. Mack Hopson, Mrs. Steve Davis, Mrs. Jack Darden, Mrs. Jim Reid and others. Miss Florence Trimble entertained the recently organized Campfire Girls Friday evening. Those present were Misses Doris Hightower, Elizabeth Word, Sarah and Julia Mobley, Mary Hall Ellis, lone Ware, Gladys Scoggin, May Weaver and others. Mr. Fay Mooney was Miss Edith Darden's guest Sunday. Mrs. Howard Wooding was the guest of Mrs. Steve Davis Thursday. Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Brook are the happy parents of a fine boy.