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Jackson Progress - Argus
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
J. DOYLE JONES
E ditar nod Pubiishar
Entered as second-class matter at
w.. '* f ice at Jackaon, Ga.
TELEPHONE NO. IS6
OFFICIAL ORGAN BUTTS COUN
TY AND CITY OF JACKSON
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NOTICE
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Plant late food crops.
The fanner with hog and hominy
next year will be in a strong posi
tion.
Join in the clean up movement.
It is a guarantee of better health
conditions.
A lot of people are trying to speak
of the depression in the past tense.
That’s fine and dandy—but does it
mean anything?
#
Paul Brown must be a populhr man
in the tenth district. He was elected
ta congress over eight opponents by
a crushing majority.
The corn crop in this section is
most promising. If a few more fav
orable showers come there will be
hog and hominy for another year.
The boll weevil is firmly en
trenched in cotton fields in this sec
tion and it is going to require a
hard fight to make a normal crop.
It is too early for state politics.
The people are not going to get en
thused this early in the game. There
are so many things to think about.
Governor Talmadge has cut the
state tax rate twenty per cent. Now
let counties and municipalities fol
low suit and we will be getting
somewhere. ',
According to the experts all that
is necessary to restore prosperity is
to raise wages. The business that
cannot stand the increased expense
seems to face a bad day.
France has a large share of the
world's gold, but she will learn that
all is not gold that glitters. What
matters her gold compared to the
respect and good will of the world?
In Judge M. J. Yoemans Georgia
has an able attorney general. He
stands out like Stone Mountain
above a mole hill compared to some
men who have held that office in the
past.
Butts ocunty boys stationed in
forest conservation camps spent the
Fourth of July holidays at home and
without exception these splendid
young fellow's are enthusiastic about
the work. N
The kidnaping racket has reached
Georgia. A prominent Atlanta bank
er was kidnaped and held for ran
som. This sort of racket ought to be
broken up before it gains a foothold
in the South.
If everything else fails, the United
States can get out of Europe and
stay out. In case of future wars each
nation can tote its own skillet and
Uncle Sam cart save his men, his bil
lions and his self-respect.
The government report shows
there are 40,798,000 acres planted
to cotton this year. This compares
with 37,200,000 acres in 1932 and
41,189,000 acres in 1931 and 46,-
078,000 acres in 1930. If the acre
age reduction campaign is put over
this will reduce production material
ly and will help growers wonderfully.
It is a pretty safe bet that farmer.?
of the South will never again be per
mitted to run wild on cotton acre
age. The acreage to cotton, whea',
nnd other crops will be restricted,
according to reliable information.
It may hurt state pride to admit
it, but tax digeets are going to show
a sharp decrease this year compar
ed with 1932. Counties, cities and
the state will have less to spend and
budgets should be made accordingly.
One grievous loss occasioned by
the recent hail storm was the de
struction of the fruit crop of all
kinds. Peaches, apples, pears, plums
—every kind of fruit was wiped out
and thrifty housewives will not be
able to do any cunning this season.
Alas and alack, the best laid plans
of men go wrong. The plants erected
at Montezuma and Monticello to take
care of the surplus peach crop have
been sold by the sheriff. These in
dustries held much of promise but
went up against the financial rocks.
With national guardsmen on duty
ir the state capitol, an airing of the
acts and doings of the public serviev
4 I
commission, efforts to balance the
city and county budget and prom
inent bankers being kidnaped, At
lanta is having anything but a dull
time.
If the farmers of the cotton belt
can be organized in a few days and
led to plow up a fourth of their cot
ton acreage it will be one of the
greatest accomplishments ever un
dertaken in peace times. The cotton
belt is far-flung and the movement
was a stupendous one.
The day seems to be at hand when
the man who plants a vegetable or
fruit tree must stand by with a
poison gun in hand to spray and
fight the insect horde. The farmer
who doesn’t wage relentless warfare
on insect pests will not do much
reaping.
The country has had running fits
about overproduction. For the sake
of argument, suppose the country
were to have major crop failures and
there was not enough food and cloth
ing to go around. What would hap
pen then? Jusl such a situation may
arise one of these days.
Corn and other food crops may
be planted as late as July 15, it is
claimed. Food prices are advancing
daily and the farmer who has to buy
his supplies next year is going to
face a tremendous handicap. The
common sense thing to do is to plant
and save all the food and feed pos
sible.
The Century of Progress Exposi
tion in Chicago is a much larger en
terprise than many people * thought
possible in times of depression. The
exposition has caught the popular
imagination of the people and thou
sands of visitors are flocking to the
second city of America to see the
sights.
In addition to the several trophies
awarded annually by the Georgia
Press Association for outstanding
work by the press of the state, it
might not be a bad idea to offer one
for the newspaper doing the best
vvoi'k under the most adverse condi
tions. For instance, some papers are
published in counties without a bank
or mile of paving, and in other cases
the counties have lost fifty per cent
of their population by reason of the
boll weevil and other causes. A lot
of editors are making a brave, under
dog fight and while they may never
win a trophy they are entitled to the
world’s acclaim for carrying on un
der trying conditions.
A DROP IN THE BUCKET
A reduction of twenty per cent in
the state ad valorem tax rate re
cently announced by Governor Tal
madge for Georgia this year will
save a million dollars, it is estimated.
The maximum levy, under the con
stitution, is five mills and that
amount has been levied for a great
many years.
The saving is commendable, pro
vided the government can be operat
THE JACKSON PROGRESS. ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA
ed efficiently. Governor Talmadge
has set a precedent in trying to re
duce expenses at a time 'when econ
omy is needed in public and private
business.
However, the saving is merely a
drop in the bucket. The state levy
has never been burdensome. It is the
local taxes that are crushing people.
Counties and municipalities have no
limit. Bob Toombs wrote into the
constitution of 1877 a provision that
the state ad valorem tax levy could
never exceed five mills. There should
be a limit fixed for counties and mu
nicipalities.
Local taxes are High. The citizens
been demanding better schools
and public improvements and bond
issues have been voted. All of these
improvements, however desirable,
cost money and the burden has been
l
passed on to the taxpayers.
Officials who have the power to
levy and collect' taxes will do well
to follow the example set by the
chief executive and lower the tax
rate as much as possible. This is
where relief must start.
BANK DEPOSIT GUARANTEES
Senator Robert J. Bulkley, of
Ohio, was a member of the subcom
mittee that was instrumental in get
ting the Glass-Steagall bank bill
through Congress. There has beer:
some criticism of the provision in
this bill for a guarantee of bank de
posits, on the ground that guarantees
subsidize bad bankers and penalize
good bankers.
Answering this criticism, Senator
Bulkley says:
“Other attempts to make bank de
posits safe on the whole did not suc
ceed, although the extent of the fail
ure has in some cases been overstat
ed. And is some truth in the
stand that if you can make bank de
posits perfectly safe, there is no rea
son why the depositor should seek out
a good bank.
“But there is another side to the
question. In the past bankers have
never had an insurance fund of a
size and with a diversity of invest
ment to make proper and adequate
experiments in that field.
“Without attempting to brush
aside completely the results in some
States, I would say that inadequate
experience is not a conclusive argu
ment against this system.
“In the future big depositors will
have to exercise discrimination as
to whether a bank is good or bad,
while the small depositor, lacking
the experience to discriminate, will
fcs completely protected. \
“In this emergency we had to do
something to end the wide-spread
lack of confidence. Did the closing
cf the banks end it? Certainly not.
We have got to build up confidence
so that depositors will refrain from
making unreasonable demands.
“It is all right for some bankers
to say that these things would have
worked themselves out according to
the old lhws if we gave them time.
The question is of what was going
to happen in the meantime. We have
to restore confidence now.
“It is evident that we are beset
by dangers on every side. There is
no absolutely safe course and we
have to steer out as carefully as we
may.
“You are likely to think of this
assessment to meet losses in banks
in terms of banks closed in the last
few year*, but that is an exaggerat
ed view. We are heading toward saf
er and better banking and the de
posit guarantee is one of the things
that is going to make better banks.
“I do not estimate it will take only
one-twentieth of 1 per cent to meer
losses; it will probably take more
than that. But if you step down in
terest on time and saving deposits
you will save more than enough to
pay the probable assessment for this
fund.
“If you want to approach the ques
tion in terms of what might happeh,
I beg of J’ou to think of what might
happen if there were no deposit-in
surance fund. Confidence is going to
be restored by this and safer bank
ing practices and the elimination of
the confidence-destroying investment
banking business.” —Waycross Jour
nal.
WE MUST QUIT KICKING OUR
LANDS AROUND
Farm lands in Georia have been
kicked around since the deflation
started thirteen years ago. Nobody
has wanted it and nobody cared to
work it. But this is changing now.
And it must change before there can
be any permanent prosperity in this
country.
Land is the basis of all prosperity
for out of it come our food and
clothing and the lumber for our
homes. Everything that goes into
sustaining life comes out of the
ground. The earth is our mother and
we cannot despise her for long and
be happy and prosperous. We have
got to go back to her and cherish her
and take care of her and place her
in her proper place in the scheme
of living.
Because the earth calls for labor
we have thought we could do with
out the earth and without labor. But
we can’t do it. We have got to come
back to the drastic earth and to toil
and labor. Land is becoming more
valuable and it i sbound to come injto
its own in the near future. If you
want a farm; some acres upon which
you can build a home and make ai)
independent living better get it now.
Land is going higher and will become
more valuable as the race is forced
to recognize the real values of life
and to find out we can’t make a
living by our wits and by speculation.
In a few years there will be a scram
ble for land.
Better buy now while you can get
it cheap.—Winder News.
AN OPENING WEDGE
The executive order issued last
week by Governor Talmadge
that cuts the state ad valorem tax
from five mills to four, a twenty
per cent slash, is a concrete exam
ple of the change needed in the tax
methods in this state. That the gov
ernor realizes that, not only must
taxes be reduced in Georgia, but
that more modern and practical
methods of taxation are a necessity,
is shown by his discussion of the
proposed sales tax in a recent speech.
This cutting of the State ad valorem
tax and an invitation to all cities
and counties in the state to do like
wise is a timely move and one that
should be followed, during the next
meeting of the legislature, by legis
lation that will completely work over
the tax system now in force in Geor
gia.
It is no secret that property own
ers in Georgia have been over-bur
dened in the past few years by the
heavy ad valorem tax that thousands
of them have not been able to pay.
The unpaid back taxes on every
county tax book in the state bear
mute witness to this. The school sys
toms in every county that have been
Jackson Presbyterian Church
REV. NEIL McGEACHY, Pastor
SUNDAY, JULY 16
Sunday School at 10:90 A. M.
Preaching service at 11:00 A. M.
You are cordially invited to attend all these
services.
Union services Sunday night at 7:30, with Rey.
M. R. Heflin filling the pulpit.
closed or hove had their terms cur
tailed for lack of funds, and the
other departments of state govern
ment that must rely on the payment
cf ad valorem taxes for support are
crying examples of the need for some
revision hn the tax laws. It is neces
sary for the state to have money to
carry on the work it must do and it
is just as necessary for the citizens
of the state to be relieved of unfair
unfair taxation that has caused many
of them to lose their property.
Because of Georgia’s patch-work
system of taxation that has, as Top
sy, “just growed,” thousands of able
people in the state pay little or no
tax. They have not tried to evade
payment of taxes, but because their
methods of living and earning a liv
ing have developed since many of
our tax laws were placed on the stat
ute books, they are not called on to
carry their share of the cost of state
government. A large majority of the
colored population of the state, and
it. is considerable, pays no taxes ex
cept special luxury or gas taxes, that,
are nothing but a sales tax applied
to certain commodities.
The people of Georgia, however,
are fast realizing that a revision in
our tax program is necessary and
proper. While this paper advocates
a uniform retail sales tax as a basis
for state tax revision, a complete re
vamping of the entire tax system
should be undetraken at the same
time. Other states are adopting the,
sales tax plan and finding it profita
ble. Mississippi has had a sales tax
for over a year and the people of
the state are enthusiastic over the
results that ahve been achieved. Illi
nois and North Carolina have recent
ly put a sales tax law in their statute
books and the tax is already in op
eration. North Carolina, that has a
small sales tax levy with certain ex
emptions, expects a nine million dol
lar income from it the first year.
Excessive county and city taxes
are the taxes in Georgia that cause
property owners to suffer. They have
been piled higher and higher year
FRIDAY, JULY 14, 1933
after year until the tax-payers
throughout the state have become un
able to pay and are crying out in op
position and are asking for relief
that will be permanent and sure. The
action of the Governor in using hi,
constitutional authority to reduce
the state ad valorem tax points the
way to the obvious work that muse
follow —a revision of Georgia’s tax
laws and the adoption of a general
sales tax that wdll be fair to all arid
adequate for the needs of the state.
—Ed Rivers Weekly.
WHAT PRE-WAR PRICES
WILL MEAN TO COUNTRY
The new farm bill proposes to raise
farm prices to the level of the five
year average from August, 1909, to
July, 1914, or the pre-war period.
The averages of farm prices during
that period were as follows: 4
Corn, per bushel $ .64
Oats, per bushel .39
Wheat, per bushel .88
Rye, per bushel .7^
Hay, per ton 11.87
Potatoes, per bushel .69
Apples, per bushel .96
Hogs, per 100 pounds 7.24
Beef cattle, per hundredweight 5.90
Lambs, per 100 pounds 5.90
Eggs, per dozen .21
Butter fat, per pound .26
Wool, per pound .17
Milk cows, each 48.00’
Horses, each 142.00
Chickens, live, per pound __ .11 j
—lndiana Farmers’ Guide.
BIBLE CLASS OF GRIFFIN
WILL MEET AT FELLOWSHIP*
Announcement is made that the
Men’s Bible class of the Griffin
Presbyterian church will have a
meeting at the Fellowship Presby
terian church on August 6, and Hon.
E. M. Owen will make a talk at that
time. Arrangements for the meeting
are being made by Judge S. B. Wal
lace, of Griffin.
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