Newspaper Page Text
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.
