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Jackson Progress-Argus
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
J. DOYLE JONES
Editor and Publisher
Entered as second-class matter a
the Post Office at Jackson, Ga.
TELEPHONE NO. 166
OFFICIAL ORGAN BUTTS COUN
TY AND CITY OF JACKSON
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If wet officers cannot enforce a
dry law, wonder if wet officers can
enforce a wet law?
Make your place of business ac
tive and attractive. It has a good
effect on your friends and custo
mers.
Butts county 4-H clubs have a
large and enthusiastic membership
and plan to make this the best year
in history.
Georgia supported the Roosevelt
birthday parties to raise funds for
the Warm Springs Foundation in a
splendid way.
The state administration is still
hunting additional revenue. That’s
nothing unusual. Most of us could
use more income.
There is such a thing as biting
off more than one can chew. Looks
like governmental agencies have
reached that point.
Before the frost is on the pump
kin this fall it will not be surprising
if one hears economy stressed from
many political stumps.
"Get the money, boys,” seems to
be the slogan of the special session.
Nothing else matters much if funds
are forthcoming to provide a good
show.
The 1938 political campaign has
reached the stage where candidates
are being paraded for favorable
mention. Many are called but few
are chosen.
All governmental authorities have
tried everything else and might try
economy just for a change. It would
be welcome relief from so much
reckless spending.
The legislature has not done any
thing as yet to stop the bootlegger.
Under the new local option liquor
law the bootlegger will probably
flourish as never before.
The Atlanta Georgian-American
says Mrs. Eugene Talmadge will
probably be a candidate for gover
nor this year. Not red galluses, of
course, but what will her fighting
insignia be?
The Butts County Democratic
Executive Committee is scheduled to
meet this week and it is likely there
will be considerable political activi
ty following the meeting. The state
campaign will also get started be
fore a great while.
About nine-tenths of the unem
ployment could be stopped by em
ploying enough help to make out all
the reports and answer all the ques
tions asked by the high pressure
groups. It’s a great life if one
doesn’t cave in.
Tax exemption, it develops, is not
a boon granted to all suffering tax
payers, but something to be applied
for under a lot of rules of red tape.
Old Johnny Public lives and learns
and the more he learns the sadder
he becomes.
The highway patrol has been in
creased by another class of forty
graduates. It is too early yet to
Appraise highway patrol, but some
good in curbing reckless driving
and preventing automobile accidents
seems to have resulted.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
By J. D. JONES
The 4-H clubs in Butts county,
engaged in several constructive pro
jects, have started the year under
conditions that promise rich re
turns. At a meeting Saturday an
organization was perfected, officers
elected, committees named and
work outlined for the months ahead.
No movement in recent years has
meant as much to the rural youth of
America as the 4-H clubs. Devel
opment of Head, Heart, Hand and
Health is carried out in such a way
that the members are given training
that fits them for more useful and
serviceable citizenship. The county
agent and home demonstration agent
work with these young people con
stantly and this is perhaps their best
and most effective work. Butts
county is fortunate in having a
county agent and home demonstra
tion agent who are trained, capable,
efficient and successful. Under their
direction the 4-H clubs should have
the best year in the history of this
work. The enrollment will probably
be the largest recorded here. It is
good business to train the young.
Sooner than they realize the re
sponsibilities of the future will be
placed in their keeping.
So much is said about farmers
not being able to find markets for
what they produce that it is well to
call attention to the fact we have a
.$40,000,000 market right at our
door. Georgia lacks that much—or
more—of raising enough food and
feed for its population and work
animals. As long as we have to
buy that much produce from other
states, it seems idle to claim we have
no markets for farm products. First
of all, Georgians should sell these
things to themselves. When they
take up this forty million slack it
will be time to argue about no mar
kets for products of the farm. This
should be the main concern of any
farm program mapped for 1938. Un
less Georgia feeds itself it will nev
er be able to raise cotton enough,
under present conditions, to pay
all the fertilizer and food bills.
There are cash markets for most
of the products raised in Georgia,
provided they are put up in attrac
tive form. The state is well sup
plied with meat packing plants and
can use all the hogs and cattle grown
in Georgia. The supply of Georgia
raised beef and swine is not suffi
cient to keep the packing plants op
erating on capacity basis. A lot
of the talk about no farm markets
will not bear investigation. It is
an alibi, in many cases, for pure
laziness, indifference and careless
ness.
For a session called for the pur
pose of exacting laws to bring about
tax reform the special session of the
general assembly has been a dismal
failure. With the exception of a
few stop-gap measures, the intan
gibles tax, the beer tax and the
whiskey tax, there has been nothing
done that would equalize the tax
burden. The tax laws passed do
not equalize the burden of taxation.
These measures are designed purely
and simply to raise additional rev
enue. The revenue raised from all
these sources will be disappointing.
Authorities claim the administration
must raise eleven million dollars ad
ditional to be able to balance the
budget and pay all appropriations.
Nothing short of a general sales tax
will turn the trick. The legislature
may remain in session until Christ
mas, but the fact remains that the
'surface has not been scratched in
j tapping the main source of revenue.
| The population may wet its individ
ual and collective throats with beer
and whiskey, but it cannot drink it
self into a balanced budget. Even
now there is talk of another session
later on to deal with tax reform. A
j lot of devilment is done in the name
lof tax reform, and the public is be
coming pretty well fed up on prom
ises.
The appeal being made in behalf
|of the Red Cross for funds to re-
THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA
lieve starvation and destitution in
] China is one that will be hard to
I deny. Great cities have been laid
waste. There is the most intense
suffering among women and chil
dren. Hundreds of thousands and
millions of refugees must be fed or
allowed to starve. The Chinese are
an honest, honorable, upright peo
ple. The nation has been brutally
treated by Japan. One of these days,
authorities predict, China will rise in
her might and wipe Japan off the
map. That may or may not be true,
but certainly it is no consolation in
the present hour of need. President
Roosevelt has called attention to the
vital need for prompt action, the
Red Cross, always in the forefront
to relieve suffering and misery, will
take up funds. N. F. Land i3 chair
man for Butts county and all who
care to donate to this worthy ap
peal may get in touch with the
chairman. It is a fine time for the
churches and Sunday schools, who
I
have a large investment in mission
ary effort in China, to show their
interest.
A meeting of the Butts County
lemocratic Executive Committee has
>een called for Saturday to consid
r a date for the primary for the
lomination of county officers. Those
o be elected in the primary include
a chairman and member of the board
>f county commissioners. Others
■vho will be voted on some time dur
ng the year are candidates for rep
resentative, state senator, judge of
he Flint Circuit and congressman
from the fourth district. The local
•ace has been slow in taking form
>ut following action by the execu
tive committee there likely will be
ome developments of an interesting
political nature.
The Jonesboro Production Credit
Association meeting in annual ses
ion Friday reported a good increase
in business. This association serves
seven counties in this immediate ter
ritory and total loans in 1937
amounted to about $260,000. Less
than one hundred dollars was charg
ed off the books. This is proof of
what the writer has always contend
ed, that the small farm borrower is
the best credit risk on earth. When
Georgia was afflicted with an epi
demic of bank failures a few years
ago, efforts were made to show this
was caused by the failure of farm
borrowers to pay. Such was not the
case, not the main reason at least.
Usually the banks were looted from
the inside or a few individuals were
given loans far beyond their ability
to pay. Since emergency seed loans
have been effective and now under
the production credit associations
farm borrowers have made a won
derful record. In most cases these
loans have been repaid almost one
hundred per cent. These produc
tion credit associations advance
money to farmers who can offer
adequate collateral, at low rates of
interest. Those who cannot bor
row from these banks, or from oth
er banks, have to depend on the
emergency seed loans for funds to
carry on farm operations. Captain
E. S. Settle, Jackson military and
businessman, is president of the
Jonesboro Production Credit Asso
ciation. Loans for 1938 are now
being made, he reports.
There is a well defined opinion
that tax exemption will not be the
boon predicted for Georgia taxpay
ers. Voters ratified a constitutional
amendment in November granting
a $2,000 homestead exemption on
owner-occupied homes and S3OO ex
emption for household and kitchen
furniture. It now develops that ex
emption will not spread, like a blan
ket, over all the people but is some
thing that must be applied for. And
in applying for tax exemption don’t
forget there is plenty of red tape.
These matters are now being work
ed out, blanks will soon be available
to tax receivers and then the grand
scramble for this great “boon” will
get under way. First and last tax
exemption is going to cause a good
deal of head-scratching and the fur
will fly one way or another before
the last is heard of this matter.
The Butts county 4-H clubs will
start several new projects this year,
according to County Agent M. L.
Powell. They will include a Carrot
project, Beef Cattle project, REA
project, Wild Life Conservation and
Home Improvement. The register
ed pig project has done unusually
well, with more than SSOO worth of
pigs already sold here and elsewhere
in the state and with good breeding
stock now on hand to further in
crease swine production in the coun
ty. The Carrot project should prove
of vast interest. Georgia buys car
loads of carrots from California,
Texas and Florida. The things can
be grown at home and sold in At
lanta, Macon and Savannah markets.
During the year boys will be encour
aged to obtain beef cattle and grow
them out for sale. This is work that
holds much of promise not only for
Butts county but for the state as a
whole. Livestock, if carefully watch
ed after and intelligently handled,
will make Georgia a great and pros
perous state and do it in a mighty
short time. The Wild Life Conser
vation project and Home Improve
ments are other new things that will
have an appeal to members of 4-H
clhbs. The simple truth of the mat
ter is the club members are showing
the older farmers and farm women
the way to better conditions, hap
pier living and greater prosperity
and abundance.
Georgia merchants, said to be
chief opponents of a general sales
tax, have been sold short by the
legislature. Granted that the local
option bill is enacted, Georgia will
embark on a great drinking spree,
advocates of the measure claim. To
raise from three to four million dol
lars in tax revenue means a whiskey
bill for the state of multiplied mil
lions. The more money spent for
drinking will mean less money for
automobiles, radios, furniture, re
frigerators, house furnishing, food,
clothes and shoes and the solid com
forts of the home. Nobody need he
fooled on that score. The merchants
got the worst of the deal. A general
sales tax, with all of its objection
able features, would have served a
better purpose. As Georgia drinks
itself into a balanced budget, pros
perity and the more abundant life
sales of merchants will suffer. Check
up and see a year from now.
In the good old days the tax col
lector opened his books in October
and closed them in December. Now
tax collecting is a year round busi
ness. All that foolishness will be
stopped when Georgia adopts a sales
tax and goes on a pay-as-you-go
plan.
The people of the entire nation
will back President Roosevelt in his
appeal for adequate national de
fense. We have not yet reached the
millennium, and the nation that
keeps up its army, navy and air
forces is not likely to be bothered
by other nations.
Brother James Aloysius Farley
claims the newspapers are not pay
ing enough postage. Why not turn
about, Brother Farley, and pay the
newspapers for printing all the gobs
of publicity from the agricultural
department, army, navy, marine
corps, census bureau, REA, CCC,
PWA, civil service commission, etc.,
etc., etc., etc?
Some vote dry and drink wet,
while others vote dry and live up
to the slogan. A majority of the
representatives and senators in this
immediate section voted dry on the
whiskey bill. Butts county’s repre
sentative, W. E. Watkins, and sen
ator from the twenty-sixth district,
Judge Flynt, both voted dry on
this important issue.
NEWSPAPER PROMOTIONS,
CHANGES
W. T. Anderson, president and
editor of The Macon Telegraph and
publisher of The Macon Evening
News, announces the appointment of
George Dole Wadley Burt as editor
of The Macon Evening News. Mr.
Burt served as reporter on The Tel
egraph and was later connected with
LOCAL NEEDS
COME FIRST
WITH JACKSON NATIONAL
This truly local institution prefers both to in
vest its funds here in Jackson and Butts County and
to shape its loaning policies to local conditions and
needs.
If you could use additional funds in a way that
will make business better in Jackson and vicinity,
this bank’s officers will be glad to figure with you
on your needs.
JACKSON NATIONAL BANK
JACKSON, GEORGIA.
he Associated Press. He is regard
ed as a trained and capable writer.
He is a son of Captain William Burt,
formerly in command of the Jack
on CCC camp.
Charles J. Bayne, who has been
editor of The Macon Evening News,
will become assistant to W. T. An
lerson on The Macon Telegraph.
The Atlanta Journal recently
hanged its style of make up, mak
ng the paper easier to read. The
Journal is ever in the forefront of
progressive ideas and policies and
friends like the new and better
Journal.
A FRANKED POPOFF
When James Aloysius Farley, the
gum-chewing former New York
fight commissioner who conducts the
postoffice department in keeping
with his early training, pops off The
Eagle starts buying salt so as to
have many a grain to take with his
utterances. He is a politician to the
core, in all the sour, sorry and sor
did sense of the term, and the result
is that only those beholden to him
for bread and meat pay much at
tention to his frothings.
His latest extravaganza had to do
with the expense to his department
of $72,000,000 in order to carry
newspapers and magazines through
the mail, a service for which it re
ceived only $18,000,000 in return.
The President linked forked tongues
with him and declared that it was an
abuse which the newspapers should
correct.
Undoubtedly, newspapers do re
ceive concessions from the govern
ment. They should, because they
depict the world of the day as it is,
thus giving their readers a chance
to be informed. The papers, also,
run reams of pluperfect trash, bun
combe, propaganda and hoOey for
the government and for this service
should be rewarded. But the main
point, characteristically, was over
looked by Aloysius.
Franked mail from Washington
cost the government in postal rev
enue $120,000,000 annually, accord
ing to Representative A. J. Engel,
Michigan. Add to that the cost of
the paper and printing and the bill
would total 200 million. And, un
like the newspaper charge, the gov
ernment gets nothing in return—
except a build-up for the “ins” and,
therefore, a better chance for them
to get back to the Capitol come
elections.
Farley overlooked the fact, Mr.
Engle pointed out, that the govern
ment send! out enough stuff each
year to provide 55 pieces, weighing
eight pounds each, to each of the 45
million voters in the last election.
The Eagle puts in an order for
another sack of salt.—Gainesville
Eagle.
FAMILIES THAT CONTROL
The sixty families that run Am
erica have had a great deal of pub-
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1938
licity. The New York Times, how-'
ever, is not satisfied. It is inclined
to the view that the families which
really determine what America is
and what America does can be found
elsewhere than on the directorates
of interlocking corporations. It
takes the rolls of the Federal Social
Security 80ard—26,000,000 names,
by the way—with their numerical
strength as shown on the rolls, as
follows:
Smith 1 294,000
Johnson 227,000
Brown 164,000
Williams 156,000
Jones 147,000
Miller 137,000
Davis 1 123,000
Anderson 115,000
Wilson 96,000
Taylor 81,000
Somehow the rating of the Times
seems to carry more authority than
the rantings of the muckraker wri
ters. Convince this country, from
the Smiths on down to the Taylors,
and you have pretty well won the
mind of America. In the long run
the rich families go broke, but the
prolific families rule and always will.
—The Dallas Dispatch.
WITH THE EXCHANGES
Soon Produce Prosperity
If the farmers of Georgia will
follow a diversified livestock pro
gram of farming, it won’t take
twenty-five years to bring prosper
ity to this state. It can be done in
five. The market awaits the live
stock, and all the farmer has to do
is to produce them.—Tifton Gazette.
Something Seldom Done
i
A financial wizard is the person
who can pay for a 5 cents purchase
out of a $5 bill and then refuse to
spend the remaining amount.—
Greensboro Herald-Journal. *
Newspapers Produce Revenue
When Congress abolishes all of
ficial and other franks, there will
be no need to place an unjust bur
den upon newspapers, the poor
man’s only library. The newspapers
develop more business for the post
office department than any other
agency extant. Year in year out,
the newspapers secure more revenue
for the department than any other
agency.—Carroll County Times.
Saved By a “Spell”
We wonder if Georgia law makers
are likely to follow in the footsteps
of Oklahoma lawmakers. It is
stated that Oklahoma has taxed ev
erything except asafetida, and the
only reason there is no tax on that
is the lawmakers did not know
how to spell the word and there i
wasn’t a dictionary’ in the State
House. After all, maybe it is a
good thing that lawmakers do not
know so much.—Barnesville News-
Gazette.