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Jackson Progress-Argus
PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY
J. DOYLE JONES
Editor and Publisher
Entered as second-class matter at
the Post Office at Jackson, Ga.
TELEPHONE NO. 166
OFFICIAL ORGAN BUTTS COUN
TY AND CITY OF JACKSON
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
IN ADVANCE
One year $1.60
Six months
Singe Copies 06
Every governmental official or
board whose duties include the han
dling of public funds should pub
lish at regular intervals an account
ing of it, showing where and how
each dollar was spent. This is. be
lieved to be a fundamental princi
ple of Democratic government.
About time for the first killing
of the peach crop—but the peach
■crop has as many lives as a cat.
Butts county and this entire sec
tion is becoming livestock conscious.
It is a sign of better times on the
farms and in the cities.
The second extension for buying
1939 automobile tags expired Wed
nesday. Authorities say there will
be no more extensiiyis this year.
The state highway board had an
expense account of more than three
million dollars last year. That ought
to take care of a lot of overhead.
State senators say they have
nothing to do—just waiting on the
House. The House doesn’t seem in
a hurry about what it’s going to do.
Atlanta newspapers were taken
for a ride on the Ku Klux Klan kid
naping case. It turned out—so we
are told—to be an initiation cere
mony.
February, the shortest month, is
the birthday of Washington and Lin
coln America has produced no
greater patriots and statesmen than
these immortals.
Georgia teachers have been much
in the limelight recently. They are
strong enough to insist that the leg
islature cure the salary problem for
good and all.
Trucks from south Georgia pass
through here loaded with cows and
hogs. Jackson must have a stock
yard and co-operative sales of live
stock this fall.
Forty years ago Georgia had its
most severe freeze since weather
records have been kept. Once in
forty years is often enough for that
kind of weather.
Hugh Howell took a running start
and leaped into the governor’s race
months in advance of the primary.
He is probably going on the idea that
the early bird gets the worm.
If it be true, as stated, that those
who live by the sword, also perish
by the sword, then the whole bunch
of dictators from Hitler and Musso
lina on up and down should not feel
any t' comfortable.
As lie spring season approaches
Butts county residents should begin
a campaign of home improvement.
Beautify the home grounds, the
parks, the highways as an invest
ment in civic progress.
Georgia is making a mistake in
trying to develop too many parks.
Each county should have a play
ground or picnic ground, but not all
counties have the natural advantages
for state parks. The state authori
ties should center their energies and
resources on a few outstanding
parks and make them worthwhile to
the people of the state. Recreation
is a modern need and it can best be
met by having a few large and ade
<qiiuic!y dcvclorcd parks.
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
By J. D. JONES
As this is written the general as- 1
sembly has before it a bill for a
gross income tax and another for
a four per cent sales tax. Either
measure, legislators agree, will raise
several million dollars in revenue.
The sales tax, which would reduce
the advalorem tax to a minimum
and repeal many nuisance taxes, is
preferable to the gross income tax,
this writer believes. Regarding the
subject of taxation, which has been
a perplexing problem in all ages,
there are many opinions. Nobody is
hungering and thirsting for more
taxes, and the grand scramble is to
pass the buck and avoid all the taxes
possible. It is a studied conviction
that what this country needs above
everything else is for the people to
become tax conscious. That will be
the beginning of wholesome reform
and desired economy in the public
business. Under the present system
of hidden taxes —with a loaf of
bread paying fifty three different
taxes, with everything you wear, eat
or consume paying hidden taxes—
it is easy for people to delude them
selves into the belief they are not
paying any taxes. Many people seem
to think that only the rich and well
to-do pay taxes. The politicians
have raved much about free services
of one kind or another. Get some
thing from the government—it’s
FREE. Dig a ditch, build an audi
torium, erect a school or hospital,
pave streets, build a bridge, get a
federal building. The government
gives you this, we are told. There
never was a greater fallacy. The
government does not have one thin
dime except what it extracts from
the people in the form of taxes.
There are no free services. Some
body pays. Under a sales tax every
body will pay and this will have the
effect of starting the demand for
economy from the bottom, not from
the top. When the butcher, the
baker and the candlestick ma
ker Tom, Dick and Harry
and all of us have to pay we will
then know we are partners in gov
ernment and that it takes money to
run the show. Make the people tax
conscious, make them partners in
government, let them know what
they are getting costs money and
they are helping to pay the bills, and
then—it is devoutly to be hoped—
will stop the incessant demand for
free services. Do that and
federal and state employees pay
their part of the income taxes and
they will not feel so free to levy
taxes on the other fellow.
Georgia may be hard up financial
ly but we do not believe the state is
broke enough to justify the passing
of a bill to legalize horse racing and
other forms of gambling. What
does it profit a state, nation or com
munity to have free schools, paved
highways, recreation centers and
great culture and then neglect its
moral surroundings? Georgia, as
well as many of the communities in
the state, might well answer that
question.
If the contention of Quimby Mel
ton. Johnnie Spencer, Olin Miller
and other successful newspapermen
that good editors never clean up
their desks is true, then the Junior
Editor who writes through “Argus
Eyes” is making a good start. For
the time he has been on the job his
desk is quite as badly jumbled as
that of Take It Or Leave It—and
that’s saying a lot. Speaking of lit
tered desks, this column has a
friend whose desk is a literal wreck
—but believe it or not, he always
comes up with the right paper. It
is strange why all of us do not take
a day off occasionally and clean up
our desks.
Far be it from the writer to tell
Congress how to run its affairs. It
is a pretty safe bet, however, that
Senators'Glass and Byrd, of Vir
ginia. will win out in their fight
with President Roosevelt over the
naming of a federal judge in the
Old Dominion State. Legislative
courtesy is firmly established as a
policy, both in the states and in the
nation.
THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA
News coming out of Atlanta indi
cates the legislature is in revolt and
that almost anything is liable to hap
pen. It seems to be established that
no kind of tax legislation will be
enacted until there is action for
drastic economy in the state gov
ernment. That within itself is the
beginning of real reform. The pub
lic business should not be loaded
down with needless office holders,
all drawing big salaries and doing
little work. These deadheads should
be cleaned out before there is any
kind of tax raising legislation en
acted. Nor is it at all certain that
the advalorem tax should be abol
ished entirely. That would leave
a loophole for many large real es
tate owners residing out of the state
to escape taxation entirely. An in-
come tax is a fair tax and should be
retained. The advalorem tax should
he retained in part to insure that
large property owners should pay
something toward support of the
state government. After drastic
economies have been put into opera
tion, after useless boards and bu
reaus have been lopped off, then if
it is necessary to raise additional
revenue to pay teachers and give
adequate support to health service
and the public welfare program, a
general sales tax seems to be the
best method yet suggested. A gross
income or gross receipts tax would
have the effect of paralyzing busi
ness, of running capital out of the
state and would defeat the ends
sought. Merchants and business
men, manufacturers and others are
protesting vigorously against a gross
income tax. Already loaded down
with social security and unemploy
ment taxes, as well as regular levies,
business is not in position to stand
additional burdens such as would be
imposed by a gross income tax. The
legislature faces a real opportunity
for service. May partisan politics
be forgotten in the present financial
crisis and the good of the state plac
ed above selfish purposes.
THROUGH ARGUS EYES
BY DOYLE JONES JR
If the “city fathers” really want
to establish themselves in the good
graces of the public of this city they
will see to it that the traffic lights
at the tw-o intersections in the heart
of Jackson are reduced half of their
present timing.
As the lights are now operated
they are a nuisance to the motoring
public and serve no good whatsoever,
causing a tendency to speed be
tween lights to keep from waiting
half a day on a red signal. Jackson
does not need lights that stay on
35 seconds nor does any other town
this size.
If the lights are speeded up the
motoring public will breathe a sigh
of relief. It is a trivial but aggra
vating matter and one that should
be attended to immediately.
Early this year there was experi
enced a great emotional and, I
trust, financial fire to do big things
in the matter of recreational facili
ties for Jackson this year. That
spark must not be allowed to die.
Ever so often it must be kindled if
the dreams of a recreational “Uto
pia” are to be realized in this com
munity. The Jackson and county
schools sadly need a modern gym
nasium and it must be obtained soon
or never at all. Pride and vanity are
wonderful things and often danger
ous. But an even greater offense
is the lack of civic pride on the part
of a town. It burns any public spi
rited citizen to see towns half Jack
son’s size, and even smaller, playing
basketball on modern, adequate
courts while the Jackson teams play
in a miniature chicken coop. Al
most as pressing a need as a gym is
the cry for tennis courts. Unless
the town agrees to relegate petty
feuds into the background and co
operate financially to the hilt the
main objectives will be forever lost.
Remember a well built, modern gym
nasium isn’t merely for those play
ing now, but for the children in the
lower grades, and for the children
who will arrive on the scene at a
later date. Let’s build a gym and
build a <1 one—for those here
new . t to come.
There is a noticeable stiffening
of legislative backbone in Washing
ton. This is evident also in Atlanta
where the legislature is in session.
It is a refreshing sign. The “me
too” type of legislator has outlived
his usefulness, if he ever had any.
What to do with the baby on the
doorstep is causing members of the
general assembly concern. The peo
ple want improved health service,
old age pensions and seven months
school term, as attested by the vote
in two elections, but hate to pay the
fiddler. The life of a legislator is
not all a bed of roses just now.
LOOKING BACKWARD
THROUGH THE FILES
News of 40 Years Ago
There was agitation for a rail
road from Covington via Jackson to
Barnesville.
The young people had a Valentine
party at the home of Mr. and Mrs.
J. O. Beauchamp.
The county commissioners organ
ized by electing W. M. Mallet chair
man and J. O. Beauchamp clerk.
The tax rate for the year was set at
5.64 and added to the state rate of
5.36 made $ll.OO on the thousand
dollars.
Jackson Institute suspended Mon
day and Tuesday because of the
cold weather.
“Walter Moore is one of the
shiftiest young farmei’s in Butts
county. He will do well if cotton
should go to 3 cents a pound—for
he is built that way.”
Judge Charles G. Janes of the
Tallapoosa circuit was to preside
over Butts superior court for Judge
E. J. Reagan, disqualified in sev
eral cases.
Col. T. J. Dempsey was at home
from Washington, D. C., to attend
Butts superior court.
News of 30 Years Ago
W.ork of grading on a railroad to
extend from Flovilla to Bibb was
being pushed by Captain W. F.
Smith.
Butts superior court was in ses
sion with Judge E. J. Reagan pre
siding and Solicitor General J. W.
Wise as prosecuting officer.
Jackson bottling plants, The Jew
el Bottling Cos. and the Empire Bot
tling Works, were turning out 27,-
600 bottles of soft drinks monthly.
Mrs. F. C. Shephard entertained
at a heart-dice party Saturday for
Miss Ella Shephard, of Boston.
The Jackson Oil Mill was closed
for the summer after a successful
season during which between three
and four thousand tons of seed were
crushed.
News of 10 Years Ago
The death of Mrs. Mary Taylor
Hodges, former Jackson resident,
occurred Sunday morning at the
home of her daughter, Mrs. H. D.
Moore, in Lakeland, Fla.
The contract for paving east Third
and west Third street was awarded
to Hall & Bowen, Macon, on a bid
of $1.90 per square yard.
Members of the Georgia Forestry
Association met at Indian Springs
and outlined a program of develop
ment for the state park there.
Orders were being taken for a
carload of Wilson Big 801 l cotton
seed for use of Butts county farm
ers.
WITH THE EXCHANGES
Still In The Joke Class
Taxing bachelors is one of the
jokes constantly turning up in legis
latures. First thing these jokers
know, the thing will be taken seri
ously, and then will come the wail
ing, for not even a tax will force
some men to take wives unto them
selves, even if they could.—Elber
ton Star.
A Lively Corpse
King Cotton is dead, Dr. 11. P.
Hooper told the Association of Sou
thern Agricultural Workers. But an
awful lot of fuss is being raised
at the autopsy to find out what kill
ed him; or is it the heirs to his es
tate causing all the argument?—-
Tifton Gazette.
Better Farming
In these clays of scientific farming it is a pretty
tough soil that will not respond to modem faim
ing methods.
Of much importance is proper seed selection,
proper preparation of soil —propel cultivation and
crop rotation. All of these go a long way toward
larger yields and putting farms on a self sustaining
basis.
This bank would like to see every farmer in
Butts County prosper. All who make their farms
self-sustaining will find us ready to extend help as
far as is consistent with sound banking. To be help
ful as well as appreciative to all of our farmer
patrons is one of the pleasures of banking service.
JACKSON NATIONAL BANK
JACKSON, GEORGIA.
Member Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
The Rat-Skunk Type
Our idea of a cross between a rat
and a skunk is Tom Mooney who im
mediately began divorce proceedings
after his recent release from prison
where he did a stretch of twenty
two years, during which time his
wife persistently fought his fight,
kept the faith and patiently awaited
his pardon in the vague anticipa
tion that her last few remaining
years may be spent with the man
she loved. Maybe such ungrateful
acts are not punishable by law but
it seems the crime against his wife
is as dastardly as the one for which
he was sentenced. And to think
thousands of Americans pitied him!
J. B. Chism in Pelham Journal.
The Hen Knows It Pays
Business may be elusive at this
time of the year, but merchants
should follow the example of the
hen. When worms get scarce, she
scratches just that much harder—
and gets them.—Dawson News.
Catching and Holding
The pioneer woman needed only
to catch a husband; the modern
woman has trouble in holding her
mate.—Greensboro Herald-Journal.
SCRAPINGS FROM
HARD SCRABBLE
dear editev,
My letter this week wont be verry
newsie I know, cause I aint been
able to be up and about very much
of late to gether up the gossip. I
aint near as good a gossiper as old
Mrs. McGrudcr.
Miss Minervie Doolittle, one of the
left over ladies of the Pine Ridge
communitie, thinks she is going off
on a vacashun to Floridy and has
got her a lot of new clothes. In
my opinion it’ll take a lot more’n
fine clothes fer her to interest the
masculine mind, but you know when
they is still hangin on they’ll grab
at a straw. Maybe she thinks the
Floridy trip is the last straw. We’ll
be able to tell just as soon as she
gits back if she’ made unriy eon
quests cause ’ll sho strut, her
stuff if she h; visions uf walkin
down the middle lie of old Ebenez
zer church with a gentlemen by her
side who’ll be hers fer keeps. |
can see her grinniri now,
Tuesday was attic cleaning /lay at
my homo- and what I found up there
would fill a corner in a mu/.eum or
whatever they colls the places where
they put* things what they aint got
room for at home, fn a musty, run
ty old trunk, I cornp a- toss th< old
family album and In it there wu/, a
picture and in that, plctur was a 111
tie girl of long, lung ago, and the
clothe* she had on wu/, a fright, 1
know I had on enuf fer thru, girls
like they dress today From the
way my dress stood out by limit |
must mr bad on three •>> d* - ktrta
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1939
with ever one of them embelished
with three lace rufles. A fluffy
dress with oceans of rufles of lace—s
lace all round my little fat throat—
a peace of ribbon round my sixteen
inch waste—lace all over my little
fat arms. Nuthin but the tip
of my black shoes showed. There* 1
wuzn’t no uncovered extremities in
them days. But that picture wuz
pretty so far as picturs go. You
couldn’t much blame the old man
fer fallin fer a girl that looked like
I did then. I made up my mind I’d
keep my attic findings all to myself.
They bring back so manny memries
of the long ago. But it dont do to
live too much in the past. ~So I’ll
have to close this epistle and hurry
over to Mi’s. Simpkins’ quilting.
So long till you hear from me
again.
SUSIE STUCKEY.
One encouraging feature of the
new year is the determination of
Butts county farmers to go in for
soil improvement on a large scale.
Reports indicate there will be more
legumes planted this season than be
fore in years. Lespedeza is a prime
favorite right now. Other
will be planted. Some will try kud
zu to stop gullies and washes and as
a pasture and hay plant. It is a
hopeful sign of more fertile acres.
g
THE GOOD OLD WEEKLY PAPER
You can talk about your dailies
In cities large and small,
But give me the country weekly
For it can beat them all.
No city room at “thirty”
Can surpass the matchless thrill
Of a country weekly office
When a subscriber pays his bill.
Where the editor can run down news
And gather ads as well
As feed the balky flatbed press
And politics foretell.
Where the office boy holds twenty
jobs
And works for little pay,
He runs a chance of getting fired
A dozen times a day.
Where rent is high and bills not few
And lots of notes to pay
It takes hard work and lots of brains
Io live from day to day.
But the folks must have their paper
Every Thursday, rain or shine,
A And by heck they’re sure to get it
I' tom n weekly—every time.
—Exchange.
In Winter'* Praise
f > here's a song of gratitude
For blessings of the night,
hn ruddling quilts and blankets soft
Tbst wrap one warm and tight.
And here's n cheer for sparkling
morns
With tingles in the air, f
And breakfast’s call to pancakes
That comes flouting up the stair.
O I love the balmy springtime,
But I think It's mighty nice, 4
1 n he safe at home nnd "toasty”
When it's wintertime and ice.
—L. G. G.