Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by Georgia HomePLACE, a project of the Georgia Public Library Service.
About The Henry County weekly. (McDonough, GA.) 18??-1934 | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1910)
Henry County Weekly. FRANK REAGAN, Editor. Entered at the pestofllce at McDon ough as second class mail matter. Advertising Rates: SI.OO per inch per month. Reduction on standing contracts by special agreement. Even the coal man, puns the Phila delphia Record, may be all right in Iris weigh. The price of pork has gone up in a way, suggests the Washington Star, that may entitle it to rank with, pos sum as one of the dainties of the sea son. Some of the most unhappy people in Europe live in palaces and belong to the reigning families, notes the Christian Register. Among them are women of the highest rank who pass their days in fear lest their husbands or children may be assassinated. “Don’t order food by phone,” says the Women’s Municipal League of Boston, “go yourself and see what the shop looks like.” This course, ob serves the New York World, has the added advantage of providing a little outdoor exercise. Not all Boston ideas are freakish. Senator La Follette says of the millionaires who complain about the harm that they and their affairs have suffered from governmental attacks: “These whiners, with only themselves to blame, remind me of a bad little boy. He ran howling to his mother, ‘Oh, ma, Johnny hurt mother’s fcttle darling?’ ’Why, I was a-goin’ to punch him in the face and he ducked his head and I hit my , knuckles against the wall.’ ” “The people who visited at Heidel berg last season and heard there that if they came next year they might see a performance of an historical play in the great court of the castle, will be compelled to take their Hei delberg plain and be satisfied —as well they may be—with its already known attractions," says a writer in the Ber lin Post. “The Badische Forst und Domaenendirection, the body having charge of the old schloss, decided at a meeting recently held at Karlsruhe to give up no part of the sacred edi fice or its grounds for theatrical pur poses.” One of the regular advertisers In the newspapers of New York city is a corporation whose principal busi ness is the building of skyscrapers. The advertising manager estimates that under no conceivable circumstan ces can his announcements appeal to more than five percent of the readers of the mediums he uses. And yet, insists the Philadelphia Record, he declares that the advertising pays. This testimony is worthy of the con sideration of the vendors of thousands of articles in the uses, qualities and prices of which 100 percent of the readers of the newspapers are inter ested. Such commodities may be ad vertised with twenty times as much probability of success as attends the efforts of the concern which finds its newspaper publicity profitable not withstanding that 95 percent of it necessarily goes to waste. The man who proposes to make meat cheap in this country by tax ing its exportation is described as a lawyer, and is said to have been a special deputy attorney general in New York, which means simply that he was deputized by the attorney general in some specific case. Hut while this establishes his status as a member of the bar, his proposition proves, to the Philadelphia Record, that he is not familiar with the Con stitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, Clause 5, of which pro vides: “No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any state.” In Section 10, Clause 2, there is an implied recognition of imposts or du ties levied by the states on exports, but only by the consent of Congress and for the benefit of the federal treasury, and as no state could tax exports to its own advantage, or with out diverting the export trade to some other state, the prohibition is prac tically effective. LESSONS FROM THE COTTON CROP OF 1909 Bureau of Plant Industry Issues Important Bulletin. PLAN TO FIGHT BOLL WEEVIL Government Agricultural Department Has Ap proved Method For Growing Cotton Under 801 l Weevil Infestation. Washington, D. C.— The season of 1909, while one of the worst we have ever known for the cotton crop in all but tne Atlantic states, taught some valuable lessons. First —It demonstrated that a crop of cotton, under heavy boll weevil in festation, could be made after July 1, provided the farmers pick up the punctured squares and work the field intensively. In fact, there were very few bolls on the cotton plants in Lou iana and Southwest Mississippi on July 1, 1909. The weather then be came dry and warm, and such as fol lowed the instructions of tVe govern ment demonstration work made a fair crop of cotton, both on the al luvial bottoms and on the hill lands and the planters who failed to fol low such instructions made \* ry lit tle. Louisiana has always had years of a short cotton crop, due to adverse weather conditions. The crop of 1905, though practically unaffected by the weevil, was only 511,798 bales, which is less than half the product of 1904. Owing to loss of labor and fear of the boll weevil, about 30 per cent less than normal acreage was planted to cotton in 1909, and when practically no cotton was made up to July Ist, such was the alarm that a large area of cotton was plowed up and planted to other crops. The amount plowed up or abandoned is estimated by good judges at 40 per cent. But allow that it was 20 per cent, deducting from the probable crop in such a season, to-wit; 511,738 bales, the 30 per cent not planted and 20 per cent plowed up or abandoned, and the crop of Louis iana, without allowing anything for weevil damage, should have been about 286,574 bales. As far as cau be ascertained the crop was about 270,000 bales. This clearly proves that the fright is more damaging than the weevil. The second item emphasized by the experience of 1909 is the importance of picking up and burning the punc tured squares. There never had been any question but picking up the squares in the fore part of the sea son would check the weevils, but it was proven in 1909 that if was effect ive after the field was fully infested if rapid cultivation was continued. The third item of value demonstrat ed by the season of 1909 is the im portance of having the land well drained so the crop can he worked as soon as the rain ceases. Under boll weevil conditions the heavy black lands and the poorly drained fields should be devoted to other crops, be cause intensive working of the crop is a necessity. There must be no weeds and no grass in the crop. Fourth—The past season has added its conclusive testimony in favor of the plan for making cotton under boll weevil infestation, which plan, ap proved by the United States depart ment of agriculture, is as follows: 1. Destruction of the weevils in the fall by burning all rubbish and ma terial in and about the field which might serve for hibernating quarters of the weevils, and breaking (plow ing! the soil as deep as conditions will allow. 2. The shallow winter cultivation of the soil if no cover crop is used. 3 Delaying the planting till the soil and temperature are warm enough to make it safe. 4. The planting of early maturing varieties of cotton. 5. The use of fertilizers. 6. Leaving more space between the rows, and on ordinary uplands having a greater distance between plants in the row than is usually allowed. 7. The use of the section harrow | before and after planting and on the young cotton. 8. Intensive shallow cultivation. 9. Agitation of the stalks by means of brush attached to the cultivator. 10. Picking up and burning the squares that fall under weevil condi tions, especially during the first 30 or 40 days of infestation. 11. Controlling the growth of the plant if excessively by deep and close cultivation while the plant is young. 12. Selecting the seed. 13. The rotation of crops and the | use of legumes. It will be noted that the system, as i outlined, has a two-fold object: (1) To reduce the number of weevils and (2) to aid early maturity. The foregoing methods may require modification to suit the soil and climate. Where there 2,500 Sheep Stolen. San Antonio, Texas— A. G. Ander son of Terrell county reports the theft of 2,500 sheep from his ranch, and re wards aggregating SI,OOO have been posted for the arrest and conviction of the guilty party. The officials of the Orient and Santa Fe have been notified of the theft, as it was the supposition that it intended to ship the sheep out of the state. Mount Aetna Still Atcive. Catania, Sicily —Mount Aetna ex hibited new activity. A stream ot lava has turned toward Cisterna Re gina, and has almost reached that village. The crops in the vicinity of Borrillo and Nicolosi have been ru inert. is too much food and a surplus of moisture available for cotton in any soil, common sense dictates that these conditions should not be inc: ased by deep fal breakings. Wj, therefore, ad vise the following p£m under boil weevil conditions on such lands: Burn all the cotton tsalks, and af ter the weevils have gone into win ter quarters burn all the rubbish in and about the field as early in the fall as possible. In the spring, bed on the firm ground, giving more space be tween the rows. Prepare a good seed bed before planting and maintain ridge cultivation throuhg the season. The under weevil conditions there is an excess of plant growth. Fifth—-The lands must be well drained and no larger area planted than can be intensively worked. Sixth—All the supplies of food and forage must be raised at home, and can be on the lands not planted to cotton. Seventh—lt is practically safe to make advances in boll weevil territo ry if the farmer follows government instructions. Eighth—There should be a rigid system of inspection to see that the government plan is followed. The great drouth and the intense heat in July and August last year throughout Texas and Oklahoma, ac centuated the importance of deeper tillage and more thorough prepara tion of the soil. I ask every agent of the farmer’s co-operative demonstration work and every farmer in the southern states to his best to make a banner crop of all farm staples in 1910. From the Bureau of Plant Industry, by S. A Knapp, Special Agent in Charge. FIGHTING SOUTHERN LAW, Bonaparte Uses Murder Case to Test Agricultural Contract Acts. Washington, D. C. Protesting against what he terms an attempt in some southern states to reduce the negro to captivity, Charles J. Bona parte, formerly attorney general of the United States, filed a brief in the supreme court of the United States in behalf of Pink Franklin, a South Carolina colored man, who, on a charge of murder, is sentenced to be hanged. Franklin, under an “agricultural contract” to work for J. D. Thomas, in Orangeburg county, South Carolina, in 1907, quit before the contract ex pired. A statute had been passed in South Carolina making it a misde meanor for a laborer to break such a contract if he had become indebted to his employer. A warrant was sworn out for Franklin’s arreSt. The constable, H. E. Valentine, in attempt ing to arrest the negro, went to the latter's house, entered and was killed. Franklin was convicted of murder. Mr. Bonaparte’s brief attempts to show that the negro had a right to re sist arrest and protect himself, fam ily and domicile, because the statute on which the warrant was based had been held to be obnoxious to the state legislation, violated the federal con stitution and that any attempt to en force the provision by the arrest ol a person in the situation of Franklin constituted a crime against the Unit ed States under the laws forbidding peonage. CRUELTY OF NIGHT RIDERS. Awful Crime Charged to Band ot Kentucky Raiders. Brownsville, Ky —After an all-night vigil at his cabin, 10 miles from Brownsvile, Sheriff Gillis Vincent, of this county, and a party of ten picked men, effected the capture of Jesse An derson, who is charged with being the leader of the band of night riders which, recently killed the 12-year-old son of Mrs. Dol Carroll and whipped two other members of the family. When the band broke into the Car roll home the boy who was shot at tempted to run. When the bullet struck him he fell to the ground and began to cry piteously for his mother and brother to come to him. Instead of permitting it, the band seized the 21-year-old son and the 18-year-oid daughter and whipped them. After wards members of the raiders picked up the wounded child, brought him to the door and threw him on the bed, where he died. MAN-EATING PANTHER. Towns in West Virginia Terrorized by Wild Animal. Bluefield, W. Va— The towns of Bramwell and Pocahontas are terror ized over the presence of a man-eat ing panthei, which, badly lacerated two children of a coal miner at Wind ing Gulf and killed 30 sheep and six calves belonging to a farmer near Bramwell. The children were playing ( on the mountain side, when the beast made the attack, and it was only by the timely arrival of the father,who heard their cries, that they were rescued. CARTER FOUND GUILTY. Unwritten Law Plea Turned Down by Mississippi Jury. Aberdeen, Miss. John T. Carter, whose trial on a charge of murder in connection with the killing of Dr. W. R. Wendel has been in progress for a week, was declared guilty of man slaughter and was sentenced to serve twenty years in the state penitentiary, the maximum penalty. The defense set up by the counsel for Carter was chiefly the “unwrit ten* law, althouh it was also con tended that he acted in self-defense. The shooting was the result of a con troversy between Carter and Wemfld which occurred in the apartments o. Mrs. Carter. TREASURER’S REPORT State Treasurer Brown Submits His Annual Statement. CONDITIONS iT CRITICISED Peculiarities in the Methods of Conducting Seme Banks in Georgia Are Pointed Out By the State Treasurer. Atlanta, Ga. —The report of State Treasurer J. Pope Brown for the year ending December 31, 1909, which will be submitted to the governor and the general assembly at the next session, has been finished, and is released for publication. It is a very interesting paper. It contains a thorough and comprehensive statement of. the state’s finances, cites facts and fig ures to show that prosperity in Geor gia is on the rapid and steady in crease, and points to some very start ling peculiarity in the laws regulating state banks. The office of state treasurer is a double one, the incumbent being also state bank examiner. This branch of Mr. Brown s duties has been looked after in a most creditable way, and perhaps the most important portion of his report is that in which he calls attention to two significant facts concerning state banks and the laws governing the same. One is that there is no law in Geor gia to prevent the directors of a bank from borrowing all the capital and surplus and using it for personal pur poses, provided they comply with cer tain conditions. The treasurer makes no bones about intimating that these conditions don’t ainout to much. The other \is that a number of branch banks in Georgia have been established on the capital stock of the original bank. The treasurer’s language in refer ence to these points is as follows: While there might be some criti cisms as to the conduct of certain banks throughout the state, on the whole their management speaks vol umes for the ability and integrity of those in control, and it has been ex tremely gratifying to find them all in line with this department to the end that they may be kept in a heal thy condition. However, upon exami nation of reports sent in by the bank examiners, 1 have found where banks were being conducted in a manner not in accord with my preconceived ideas as to the functions of a banking institution. It never occurred to me that a bank should be operated, first, for the benefit of its directors, but, in some instances, upon examination of the reports of the bank examiner, I was absolutely astounded to dis cover that the entire capital stock and surplus fund had ben used by the directors of the banks, and my astonishment was intensified when I found that there was no law to pre vent it. It is contrary to the old banking laws, but the new act pro vides that no director shall borrow in excess of a certain amount except certain conditions. When these con ditions are complied with they can then borrow all the money the bank has and not violate any law. It never occurred to me, however, that direc tors of a bank should be authorized or justified in using the entire capital and surplus of a bank to promote their own individual enterprises to the exclusion of others who might come in competition with them. I have also been astonished to find that the stockholders of banking in stitutions would select a board of di rectors who had a very small per cent of the stock in the bank and leave all matters connected with the bank entirely in their control. While the stockholders have certain protection under the law, and expect to be pro tected to a certain extent by this de partment, I would respectfully sug gest to them that they be more vigi lant as to their own affairs and as to whom they select as directors of their business. I was also surprised to find that we had a number of branch banks operat ed in the following manner: With, say, $15,000 paid in capital, the bants in A is established, thereupon the Bank of B will be established as a branch bank of A with no additional capital, and so on. In this way, we might have an interminable number of branch banks established through out the state with a paid-in capital of only $15,000. It occurred to me that this was contrary to public policy, if not contrary to law. I so wrote to each of the .branch banks in opera tion, and notified them that I would obtain a ruling from the attorney general in regard to their operation. I judge from the ruliqg which I re ceived from the hands of the attor ney general, that while these banks were not authorized by law they were recognized, and I do not infer from his ruling that these banks are being operated contrary to law and that the operators of them are violating the law. Therefore, we are unable to cor rect the irregularities complained of, and will remain in that condition, unless the legislature at the coming or some future session will see fit to give authority to remedy this and other matters much needed. Mr. Brown is satisfied that the rate of interest in Georgia would be far lower, if there were more money here to be loaned. He holds it is altogeth er a question of demand and supply. One way of getting more money here at home, Mr. Brown points out, is for the farmers to raise their meat, forage and grain crops at home, in stead of sending to the west for them. ATLANTA'S MUSICAL WEEK. Metropolitan Grand Opera Company to Appear in the Gate City. Atlanta, Ga. —Advance sales of sea son tickets for Atlanta’s grand opera, which is to be presented at the audi torium-armory during the week be ginning Monday, May 2, have already broken all previous records far sur passing the advance sales or any oth er city in the world. A grand total of $19,000 was paid in the first day of the sale, and has since reached $35,000. Great interest is being displayed, not only throughout the south, but in other quarters of the country as well, over the great Music festival that ia to mark the debut of the Metropoli tan Opera company south of Wash ington. The week’s program has been ar ranged as follows: Monday, May 2 —Wagner’s Lohen grin." Wednesday, May 4—Matinee: Puc cini’s “Tosca.” Evening: Verdi's “Aida.” Friday, May 6 —Puccini’s “Mad ame Butterfly.” Saturday, May 7 —Double bill: Humperdinck’s “Hansel & Gretel” and Leoncavello’s “Pagliacci.” All the great singers of the world, including Caruso, Scotti, Farrar. Ho mer, Martin, Fremstad and a score of others will take part. The complete scenery of the Metropolitan opera house will be used, and Atlanta’s new $50,000 organ will also be heard for the first time. Seats range in price from S2O to $5 for the season, far less than ever charged for grand opera anywhere else in the world. During the week Glenn Curtiss will fly at the auto speedway and the last three days will be devoted to the auto races. The sale of grand opera tickets for the season will last until April 16, when the sale for individual performances starts. Mail orders for seat reserva tions addressed to the secretary of the Atlanta Musical association and accompanied by a check will be filled in the order of their receipt. GEORGIA NEWS NOTES’ With the beginning of the second year of the system of putting convicts on the public roads at hand and with eight additional counties asking for their pro rata share of convicts, in terest is centered in the 1910 appro tionment. The working of the state's convicts on the roads has been suc cessful in every respect, so successful that with some few exceptions all the counties ii the state are clamoring for more than their pro rata shares. Those counties that used convicts in 1909 want them again, and more if they can get them. There is no rec ord of a county that used convicts in 1909 refusing to take them again this year. The abolition of the in iquitous lease system has been of untold benefit to the entire state. The highways and roads of the counties are constantly being worked and im proved, a direct result of which is an immense increase in realty values. The state railroad commission will ask for an appropriation from the next general assembly to meet the expenses of railroad inspectors. Only one man is now employed by the commission and only at odd times because of insufficient funds. The one inspetcor now employed is paid out of the contingent fund and this fund is said to be entirely too meager to meet the demands of the commis sion. “It is a violation of law to offer or expose for sale in this state any flour bleached by any chemical pro cess whatsoever.” So states P. A. Methvin, state pure food inspetcor. “I have received letter after letter asking me that question,” continued Mr. Methvin, “and it seems there are a great number of persons not fa miliar with the answer. We are re quired by law to conform to the na tional pure food law as it is interpre ted and construed by the courts, and in conformity with the decision of the federal court Commissioner of Ag riculture Hudson issued an order last June outlawing in this state any flour bleached by nitrogen peroxide, and the Alsop process or any other chem ical process.” “I wish to go on record as saying that in my work as county physician, I found hook worm the commonest disease among ithe indigent poor of Muscogee county.” This statement was made by Dr. Martin Cook, for mer Muscogee county physician, at one of a series of educational meet ings being held in Columbus under the auspices of the Muscogee Medical society. Dr. Cook took the position that the hook worm was a very real evil that confronted the south, and that the public should co-operate with the medical fraternity in stamping it out. The question of the dog tax is loom ing large upon the horizon of pros pective political issues in the coming campaign in Georgia. The law put ting a state tax of $1 on dogs of all description, mongrel, puppy, whelp, hound, and curs of all degrees, was passed at the last session of the legis lature after voluminous discussion and after much protest from many quarters. And now comes the revolt. Many taxpayers refuse to pay the tax. Comptroller General Wright says that if the owner of any dog fails to pay the tax, the tax receiver shall issue an execution against the dog, the dog shall be seized by a bailiff and put up for sale, and if he is so worthless that none will pay the price of re demption which is equal to the amount of the tax, he shall be taken to some convenient spot and execut ed according to law.
