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Grady County Progress ROBERT H. HARRIS ROBERT L. KINCAID Associate Editors. Entered as mail matter of the second-class at the Cairo, Ga., Post Office, July 22, 1910. WHAT ABOUT EDUCATION? That was the subject-of our leading editorial, las? week, It is the subject of our leader, again, this week. For this, we offer no apology. The twicer-treated ques tion is the most important—of a secular character—about which cur people can be concerned. And it is not.easy to exhaust the subject;—howsoever readily the patience of some of our readers may become exhausted by its repeated presentation. The conclusion of our former article was expressed in these words: Let us be willing to educate; let US SANCTION COMPULSORY LEGISATION LOOKING TO THAT end; LET US CHEERFULLY SUBMIT TO LEGITIMATE TAX ATION FOR THAT PURPOSE. In the present article, we shall consider a different phase of the question. And we feel sure that no fair- minded reader will adjudge us guilty of a breach of good taste, because of a few personal references to ourself, in making clear our objective point. This editor was a school-boy at the opening of “the war between the states." Leaving school, a lad in his teens, he joined the first command that left his state, the Newnan Guards, as lettered, “Co. A, of the 1st Ga. Regt." He served in the Confederate army, without a lapse, until the end of that war; and refusing to surrender, at the :close, he made his way attended by two of his “men," on foot, through the country, to his home in Thomasville. Mrs. W. C. Barrow, of this community, is the daughter and Mrs. J. L. Mauldin, of this town, th? niece of one of those men—Mike Stephens. By the time named, this writer had become a grown man. The little “smattering" of “book learning” he had acquired at school was. practically, a vague memory, of no available service to nim, and he found himself under the necessity of “going to work" to take care of a little girl to whom he had been then recently married. Thus, he never did “go to school" another day, after he “left for the war." And, thus, you readers may form some conception of the terriffic battle that youth was com pelled to wage with adverse and often hostile circum stances, (which will not be even hinted at, here) to even imperfectly qualify himself for positions that he has since been called to fill, as a teacher, in schools and colleges. Will it not be conceded, now, that our experience •gives us some right to speak upon the subject or educa tion?—and schools? We have suffered the want. We have felt the need. We have realized the imperative necessity. We believe we have some conception of the proper remedies for hurtful conditions that have long existed in connection with our public school system—or lack of system. Therefore we speak. The particular phase of the educational question we desire to call attention to, in this article, concerns THE IMPROVEMENT OF OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. There is nothing before our legislature, now"in session more important than this matter and we are glad to be a- ble to say that we believe measures have been and will be adopted which will vastly improve the situation. We long for the youth of the on-coming generation to have offered to them opportunities and advantages that we did not enjoy and that thousands of others like us lacked, in the^ea ’s agone. And we are hopeful. Both branches of our legislature have evinced a laudable disposition to improve heretofore existing very defective conditions. Several important bills are pend ing which, if passed, will greatly ameliorate, if they do not completely correct great evils. We mention some of the principal subjects-matter of those bills. They are: First, To provide for a more thorough and and up- to-date plan of organization in our public school system. Second, To give the state board of education actual and not merely nominal influence. .Third, To require a more a more-careful supervision of rural schools than has'been possible, under the- here tofore existing system. change the name, county school COM MISSIONER, to SUPERINTENDENT, imposing upon S: aild au thoricy corresponding to that title. f lfth, To preclude hitherto prevalent delays in the payment of public school teachers’ salaries. We wish our people, throughout the state, would. AVD^DEFTOTEACTIOlf. 81 ^^’ URGING PR0 ^ PT An Excellent Woman Gone. Mrs. S. M. Spooner, the moth er of Mrs. L. F. Butler of Cairo, died at the home of one of her sons near Iron City, on the 8th ins ., and her body was laid away to rest, in the family burying grounds on the following day. Mrs. Spooner is an excellent woman and her death is sincerely lamented by many warm friends. Mrs. Butler, the devoted wife of one of our most prominent citizens and highly esteemed in her own person, has the heart felt sympathy of numerous friends in her sad affliction. £ ABOUT FARMING. What do you know about farm ing? asks someone. Well, probably not nearly so much as our interrogator. But possibly we may know some things that he has not yet found out. We are going to write about those things. The census report on “Farms, Farmers and Farm Lands,” for 1910, was published in the telegraphic dispatches of Tues day, last week. As our pages were about full, at that tim**, we have deferred j reproducing that report until we have space in which to call special attention to three of its most salient fea tures;—and to add some com ments that may prove of soi inWest to our farmer friends? One of those features is the marvelous increase in the value of agricultural lands, since A. D. 1900. Another feature of interest is the reduction in the size of farms. And the third is the large in crease in the number of negro farmers who own their home steads. As to the first point, the census shows an advance in farm values of 166 per cent! A correct statement of increase in values,'up to this date,, (1911), would probably show a much larger per cent, of enhancement than is indicated in the census repdrt. We remember the time, not a thousand years ago. when some large holders, were called “land poor.” There are no such persons NOW>{ (Those who own lands that they are willing to sell and those who want to purchase lands may, each class, profitably reflect upon the facts herein set forth. As to the second point, we consider the reduction in the size of farms an encouraging symp tom. It seems to us to indicate two things; First, That more people are owning farms; Second, That there fewer tenants Let us consider these points, separately. First, While there are a.few men who, like James M. Smith, of Oglethorpe, are able to suc cessfully conduct planting operations on a vast scale, most farmers do better, on a small scale. While the small farmer handles fewer hundreds of dol lars than the large planter han dles, a larger percentage of what he does handle is left in his packet, as profit. As profits ac cumulate, the small farmer who has not owned land,to start with soon finds himself abla to buy a farm. Second, The increase in the number of small farms owned by their operators, implies a cor responding decrease in the num ber of tenants. That ’means more “intensive” farming. While many a renter will merely skim the surface, so to speak, extract ing everything possible from the soil and giving little or nothing in return, the man who owns the land he cultivates will endeavor to improve its fertility, to re move stumps and other impedi ments, to stop “washing.” etc. Now, as to the third point. \ve state the facts and leave our farms in Georgia. At that time the percentage of white farm- owners in the state was 63 and of negro farm-owners, 37. In 1910, the number of farms was 290,000—an increase of $66,000. Of farm-owners, there were, at the latter date, 58 per cent, of whites and 42 per cent, of ne groes.. A little figuring shows 29.5 per cent, increase within ten years, in the number of farms in Georgia; an increase of 13.5 ip the number of negro owners; and a decrease in the number of white owners, of oyer 8 per cent! Sit down and cogitate, people! OUR WORD KEPT. We were mildly twitted by some of our friends, last week, because we “failed to keep our word to have the paper published Thursday.” The “jollying” was entirely friendly and jocular, resulting in no irritation to us, as we are sure none was meant But, as a matter of fact, it was a broken engine and not our broken word, that delayed our issue. We went to press before 2 o’clock, Thursday, and the whole edition would have been out, three hours later, but for the fact that our motive engine ‘ ‘went dead on us, ” when we were about half through; thus delaying us until Friday morning., H. ENCOURAGING. The Georgia and Alabama In dustrial Index, published in Columbus, Ga., said, a few days ago: “Georgia-Alabama Cities con tinue to set the pace for progress. The mayor of Savannah, Ga., is to recommend this week an elec tion on issuing $600,000 of bonds for drainage purposes. Mont gomery, Ala., is to vote on issu ing $325,000 of funding and im provement bonds. Birmingham, Ala., is inviting bids on $1,300,- 000 of bonds, recently voted. Lawrenceville, Ga., is to vote on the issuance of $50,000 of water works and sewage bonds. Wash ington, Ga., voted electric light and waterworks bonds. At- talla, £Ia„ is inviting bids for extensire > sidewalk paving. Blakely, Ga., awarded contract for the construction of $20,000 of sewers. . “A large ice factory is reported for Augusta, Ga., and a similar plant will prubably be established at Valdosta, Ga. Plans are be ing prepared for a large lumber manufacturing plant at Tusca loosa, Ala. New railroad shops are to be built at Thomasville, Ga , at a cost of $80,000. A fur niture factory is reported for Gainesville, Ga. A saw manu facturing plant at Atlanta, Ga., is to be enlarged.” . We suggest 'that the live sec retary of our Board of Trade fur nish The Industrial Index with facts about some of Cairo’s vari ety of important new enterprises. . : H. The Civic Sword. A copy of this publieation has reached our desk and we take pleasure in calling attention to it. It is a neat octavo monthly of sixteen pages, issued by “Sword Publishing Company,” at Camp Creek, Ga., Culberson, N. C . P. O., and our junior edi tor, Mr. Robert Lee Kincaid, is in charge of its editorial depart ment. His seat, for sometime past, upon a tripod from which he could look with the naked eye upon the mountains of four states, his-native Georgia", North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, has qualified him for a good many things that our readers will find out, in due time. H. Local Affairs.' Judging by the way ,in which my friends continue to report to me, local happenings, many of them overlooked the notice given last week, that l am not attend ing to that department of the paper any longer. I did so, cheer fully, the first'threo weeks; but since Mr. Johnson’o assumption of the local tripod, he is looking after and will continue to provide well for that, important detail of our business. My articles will all show my patronymic initial subscribed and. my clippings will either give the name of the pu blication from which taken, or be marked, Ex. Robert H. Harris. Application for Charter. GEORGIA—Grady county. To tho Superior Court of said county: The petition of J. J. Coppage, W. T. Crawford, Walter L. wight, K. P. Wight, D. F. Oliver, J. D. Holman, W. G. Baggett, Ira Higdon, Wight & Browne, Joe Ilighdon. J. E. Hall, Wal ter Davis, W. B. Roddenbery, Walter Harper and C. G. Stephens, all of the County oi Grady, and Camilla Cotton Oil & Fertilizer Company, of the Coun ty of Mitchell, and State of Georgia, respectfully shows: 1. That they desire for themselves, their associates and successors to be in corporated and made a body politic un der the name and style of GRADY GINNING COMPANY for a period of twenty years. 2. The principal office of said com pany shall bo in the city of Cairo, State and County aforesaid; but petitioners desire the right to establish branch offices in the State or elsewhere, when ever the holdeJS of a majority of the stock may so determine. 3. The object of said corporation is pecuniary gain to itself and its share holders. 4. The business to be carried on by said corporation is that of ginning cot ton, to include the buying and selling of seed, and the manufacture of cotton seed oil, and the transaction of ail busi ness incident to the ginning of cotton and the manufacture of cotton seed oil. 5. The capital stock of said corpo ration shall be Six Thousand ($6,000), dollars with the privilege of in creasing the same to the 'sum of Fifty Thousand ($50,000) dollars by a majority vote of tho stockholders, said steck to be divided into shares of Twenty Five ($26.00) Dollars each. Ten (10) per cent of the amount of capi tal stock to be employed by them has been actually paid in. Petitioners desire the right to have the subscription to said capital stock paid in money or property to be taken at a fair valuation. 6. Petitioners desire the right to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to have and use a common seal, to make all necessary by-laws and regula tions and do all other things that may be necessary for the successful carrying on of said business, including the right to buy, hold and sell real estate and personal property suitable to the pur poses of the corporation, and to execute notes and bonds as evidence of indebt edness incurred, or which may be . in curred in the conduct of the affairs of the corporation, and to secure the same by mortgage, security deed or other form of lien under- existing laws. - 7. They desire for said corporation the power and authority to apply for and accept amendments to its charter of either form or substance by a vote of a majority of itB stock outstanding at the time. They also ask authority for said corporation to wind up its af fairs, liquidate and discontinue its bun? ness at any time it may determine to- do so by a vote of two-thirds of its stock out-standing at the time. 8. They desire for the said cor poration the right of renewal when and as provided by the laws of Georgia, and that it have all such' other rights, powers, privileges and immunities as are incident to like corporations or permissible under the laws of Georgia. Wherefore, petitioners pray to be incorporated under the name and style aforesaid with the powers, privileges and immunities herein set forth and as are now. or may hereafter be, allowed a corporation of similar character under the laws of Georgia. — M. L. LEDFORD, m Attorney for Petitioners. Filed in office of Clerk Superior Court Grady County, Ga., July 25th, 1911. J. M. McNair, Deputy Clerk. GEORGIA—Grady County I, J. M. McNair, Jr., deputy clerk of the superior court of said county, do hereby certify that the foregoing is a true and correct copy of the petition for charter of Grady Ginning Company, as appears of fiie in my office. Given undea my hand and seal of office. This July 25tfi, 1911. . J. M. McNaIr, Jr. Deputy Cierk Superior Court Grady Co. Travelers Alabama ward. Effective July 31st, connection between trains 185 and 187 at Bainbridge will be made. No. 187 will leave Bainbridge 6;40 PM. and will arrive Dothan 8:40 P.M. it is Appetizing to see our bread and pastry as it comes from the oven. It not only looks good but is -Very Healthy because it is made of the very best ma terial and well baked. Let us be your Bread and Pastry cook thit summer and you will find it a saving of money and ubor. 1 CITY BAKERY TELEPHONE NO. 173.