Pearson tribune. (Pearson, Ga.) 191?-1955, October 01, 1920, Image 1
VOL. <»—>.<>. 22 NEWS OF OUR NEIGHBORS. Gleanings from All Sections of South Georgia. The farmers of Camden county are harvesting rice, picking cotton and grinding sugar cane. This is rather early to grind cane. Mrs. Hattie J. Lott has sold the old Southern Hotel block in Way cross to Hereford brothers, of Val dosta and Waycross, for the sum of * 125,000. L. C. Walker, county agent of Ware county, has resigned to en gage in other business. During his incumbency in office Ware county industry was greatly promoted. Berrien county will have a Fair this year, a 2 day event, held un der the auspices of the Chamber of Commerce, on Wednesday and Thursday, October 20th and 21st. The Herald says that the aver age price paid for tobacco in that market this year was 30c. a pound and predicts a larger area will be planted to tobacco in Berrien coun ty next year. Mr. E. J. Berry, formerly clerk of the superior court of Ware county, is now station auditor for the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlan tic railroad. He will probably make his headquarters in Way c ross, his old home. The Eleventh congressional dis triet convention was held in Way cross, in the county court house, last Saturday, Judge W. C. Lank ford was formally nominated for congress. The new district exec utive committee was named but not published. Four recreant boys of DuPont were arrested a few days since and lodged in the Waycross jail under warrants charging them with bur glarizing freight cars at DuPout. It is stated the boys have made coin plete confession. They have been released under bond. At the commitment trial at Douglas of I yew is Flanders for the homicide of Ira J. Bicketson, held last Friday, ihe Defendant was held without bail. It is probable the trial will be at the October Term of Coffee superior court, the third week of <>ctober. In the late primary Hardwick beat Walker four votes in Ware county. Hardwick's followers will have the fight of their lives to keep their man ahead in W are county at the runover, notwithstanding it is stated the Smith faction will follow their chief in his support. The leading citizens of Lanier county-lobe met in Milltown a few evenings since and, with en thusiasm. organized the Lanier County Chamber of Commerce. There is nothing like doing things in the right way. and they have started doing things in the right way in Lanier county. Mashburn and Marsh, president and cashier respectively of the Bank of Pulaski, Hawkinsville, have been convicted of receiving deposits knowing that the Bank was insolvent. They were fined each $250 and SI,OOO for costs, by agreement of court and counsel, it appearing that they had reimburs ed the depositors. The juries try ing the cases gave the Defendants penitentiary sentences of from one to four years. The Douglas municipal election occurs on the third Saturday in December. There are already three announced candidates for Mayor — Arthur Brooks, William R. Frier and Carl R. Tanner. Poor boys, how the Tribune sympathizes with them! They will run themselves tired before the real race takes place. The women, not having qualified themselves under the city charter, will not participate in the election this year. In Those Bays. Editor B. T. Allen, writing in The Gazette of February 12. 1892, said: “These are political times when Democrats cannot afford to compromise their faith in the slightest degree. 'Those who are not for Democracy arc enemies and should be treated as such." What Editor Allen wrote in the days of the third party boom may be ap plied equally as well in the trying days through which Georgia Demo eracy is now passing.—Tifton Gaz ette. Georgia was then getting her first taste of Bolshevism. Tw ent y eight years ago! How the memory of B. T. Allen, then editor of the Tifton Gazette and now editor of the Pearson Tribune, is refreshed anen t the doings of t hose days, flow well he remembers the stubborn fight he made for pure democracy against the Farmers' Alliance that had been misled into the Third Party. It was Tom Watson and his satellites who misled the Al liance to its death through the channels of politics. Tom Wat son's burden then, twenty -six years ago, was the destruction of the democratic party; lie has never “let up” and it is his task today. The Gazette editor, of twenty six years ago, fought Tom Watson, candidate for president; John Sib ley, of Tifton. candidate for con gress from the oid second district, and Wm. Bussey who wanted to represent Berrien county in the State legislature, with all tlie energy he possessed. Not content with the fight in his newspaper he took the stump against them and assisted in defeating all three. During the campaign it, became the duty of the Gazette editor to expose the Bolshevistic conduct of Win. Bussey in his lnaiiagtancnt of the Alliance Store in Nashville. Whereupon the editor was notified that Win. Bussey was going I" lick him on sight. The editor went over to Nashville to see Wm. about it, but when the editor went in at the front door of the Alliance store Wm. went out the back door as if he had been sent for to go in a hurry. The editor was satisfied he didn't mean what he said, and let it go at that. A short time after this, to cover up his fraud and crime in the conduct of the store, he set fire to and burned Un building and the contents and fled from the scene of his Bolshevistic crime. Wrong doings makes us all cowards. The lesson of those days bid Democrats to be on the alert, not to grow careless or indifferent; democracy is still the safeguard of the American people and must be preserved. Our very liberties de pend upon it. Democracy and truth have received a severe shock in Georgia, but life is no! e.\lined. This year there seems to be an “armistice with truth," as it lays crushed at, our feet, but “Truth crushed to earth will ris acMtin: TIT eternal years of < Jod no h< . Hut error, wounded, writhes in pain. And dies amid his woi'.snipper.s." Fiddler’s Convention. Nichoi.i.s, Ga., Seiit. 25, 1920. — The Fiddlers Convention will be held in the auditorium at Nicliolls on the Saturday before the second Sunday in October at three o’clock in the afternoon. And on the second Sunday The Wire-grass Singing Convention will be held at the same place. All the singers and their classes ary urged to be with us and help make the occasion a success. S. L. Vinson. President. The original Smyrna Missionary Baptist Association meets with the Harrell Grove church, five miles southeast of Douglas on Friday be fore the fourth Sunday instant? The other Smyrna Association will meet with Nicbolls church at the same time. Official Newspaper of the County of Atkinson. PEAIiSON, (JEOIUiIA, FRIDAY, Of TOILER 1, 1920 EDITOR J. KELLY SIMMONS, Of Mcßae, Writes Second Letter Relative to California. To the Newspapers of Georgia: Sa<iia m kxto, Cal., Sept. 2 1920. —ln a previous letter I told you of having come nearly 3,000 miles to Galifornia to study her manner and method of development and tell it to the people of Georgia through the Georgia newspapers, in order that Georgia might lie come as well known as Galifornia. You will remember I told you in the opening paragraph that the story could be told in one word — A DY EMTISING. 1 have now been in t,lie State about three weeks, and I am more firmly convinced than ever that my first estimate is correct. 1 have been pretty well over the State, and I can’t help but think what a wonder stale Georgia would be if she were to put forth the same effort that, these California people put forth. For, you must remem ber, California is a sand desert un til artificial moisture is secured. Irrigation is the only way t hey can raise anything out here. Georgia farmers have no such .obstacles to overcome. All they have to do is to put a fence around tlu-ir acres, do a little preliminary clearing up and go to work. No bother about water. Nature pro vides that. The Californian will tell you, “with water everything is possible in California. Without iI. not h ing is possible.” It was my first intention to draw a comparison of Georgia and Cal ifornia, but I here is no comi&rison. Georgia is too far ahead in her natural resources. There is only one thing that Galifornia has that we haven't and that is her climate. And conic to think of it, I was talking with a young man a few days ago who is not a native of this State. When asked what lie thought of California, he replied very promptly that “it was all right, except the blooming climate is too monotonous.” I have been unable to gather any intelligent statistics on the temperature of the state, because it varies so widely in different parts of the state. But 1 take some data gathered in Los Angeles, the most favored part of the state from a climatic standpoint. I learn that it occasionally freezes that far south, and that the liter moineter sometimes goes over JOO, so, it will be seen that they DO have hot and cold weather out here sometimes. But, as I have already said, we are not going to try to compete with California. What Georgia must do is to wake up and take advantage of the wonderful natur al opportunities that confront us. WE HAVE El BST GOT TO SELL GEORGIA TO GEORGIA PEO PLE, and then the selling to out, skiers will be the easiest thing in the world, just as it is for the Cal ifornia people to sell California to outsiders. 1 have been much encouraged by talks with some of the large farm ers and truck growers out here. So long as I talked with chamber of commerce representatives and land development agencies, 1 got only the most glowing accounts of suc cess, but when I finally decided to seek out the “sons of toil” I then began to get down to rock bottom and get the unromantic side of | California life. And I found these farmers to be about as interested in Georgia as we have been inter ested in California. They, all, without exception, tell me that a ! Georgia farmer on his Georgia acre can make as much or more, on his peaches, watermelons, cantaloupes, cane, potatoes, peanuts and live stock, as the California man docs •on his acre. True, we can’t raise j oranges and lemons and other such like crops, but we don’t have to. The California people themselves admit that a California peach will not compare with a Georgia peach, and when 1 mentioned Georgia watermelons to a man here a few days age, his face lighted up and lie fold of having once been in Georgia and how he enjoyed those delicious Georgia watermelons. I’hc largest I have seen out here would not weigh over ten or twelve pounds and ( hey taste Hal. I hap petted to be talking one day with a prominent produce man and mentioned something about tlie delicious Georgia cant-syrup. That man said lie had tried every year to get a supply of Georgia cane syrup, saying that he had never in all his life eaten any syrup to com pare with it. I have his order for a supply in my pocket right now. I was talking with a party of California busiuess men one day and someone said something about potatoes. 1 suggested that what he meant by potatoes was Irish potatoes, lie replied, “Oh, no, I meant sweet potatoes, but I am frank to fell you that wo cannot raise anything ns delicious as your famous Georgia yam. The only ones we get out here are those that come canned and while they art better than ours, 1 happen to know they are not as good as tlicj art before they are canned.” That’s the way those who know Georgia out here look upon our products. 1 have hail California fruit men tell me that there is no peach as good as the Georgia peach. They all frankly admit that Georgia, is THE pecan section and that this one crop alone would make Georgia world-famous if we would only go after if like they are going after development out here. 1 was talking with one of the Galifornia live wires a day or so ago, and when 1 told him that Georgia apples bail taken five in ternational premiums he couldn't believe it. He frankly said he did not know we could grow apples in our section of the country. Truth is, the great majority of people out here, those who have only a goner al knowledge of the South, think that Georgia is a corn and cotton state and that we raise nothing else. One man 1 met who is a stock man, said he was in Georgia about twenty years ago and he re meinbered Georgia as a state that made cotton almost exclusively and bought her meat and bread in the middle west. I n fact, he start ed out to give me some advice and advised that I go back to Georgia and tell the Georgia people to go to making their own meat and bread. You should have seen how surprised lie was when 1 told him we were already doing that. They have told me of the won derful Sacramento valley out here and what it will produce. One of the crops they boast of in the Sac ramento valley is tobacco. They were very much surprised when 1 told them that in Georgia we had the largest tobacco plantation in the country, 25,000 acres with 3,- 500, employees. They have been boasting to me ever since 1 came out here that California’s rice crop last season amounted to $72,000, 000. It may interest you Georgia people to know that the by-pro ducts alone from one Georgia cot ton crop brought more than $72,- 000,000. Remember, by-products only. They tell you only of their suc cesses out here. That is why their descriptions are so glowing. I have gotten some of the less ro mantic side of California however. I have talked with hard-headed bankers —men who are not accus tomed to romancing—and their information has always been that there is a “seamy” side —that there are failures as well as successes. One real estate man boasting to ATKINSON COUNTY. Items of News Gathered from Various Sources. A negro man and a white boy were arrested Sunday afternoon under warrants charging them with burglarizing the railroad depot at Kirkland. The white boy is ready to plead guilty. The Negro denies the gentle imputa tion. Miss Edna Fed rick, the teacher, requests the Tribune to announce that, the public school at Mt. Zion will open its 1920 21 session next Monday, October 4th. Patrons and pupils will govern themselves in accordance wit h this announce ment. The compulsory attendance law requires all children between 8 and 14 years to attend unless excused. Sheriff Leggett capt ured a Dodge roadster ladened with whisky, and two young white men in charge, Sunday afternoon. While he was chasing the young men in charge some one removed the whisky from the car and it couldn’t be found again. The car appears to have been the property of Sheriff Tanner, which had been purchas ed by the young men under a con ditional contract of retention of title until paid for by the purchas er. But Sheriff Leggett has re fused to lurti the property over to Sheriff Tanner. me of how- a friend of iiis had sold his crop of grapes this year for $301) an acre, and the buyer is to do the picking. That sounds fine, but that land is worth SI,OOO an acre. Considering the investment, ihe cost of the produce—and don’t forget, it cerlainly costs something to look after a grape vineyard —to gefher with now and then a fail ure, do you (hink that is such a large yield? 1 told him of one Ilabn n county farmer who sold $1,400 worth of celery from one acre in 1913. He was surprised of course, because they didn’t think we could raise celery in Georgia. Most Georgia people don't know it, either, but you can if you prepare for it like they do out here and in Florida. One Dougherty county farmer has produced as high as 756 bushels of sweet potatoes to the acre, and you know what they are now worth. A Lowndes conn ty man produced a watermelon that weighed 147 pounds. I have been told that one Georgia farmer made around $4,000 on one inten sively cultivated acre. I don’t propose to vouch for that, but 1 just give you this to show that wt make some claims as well as Gali fornia. Ido know this, that from S3OO to SSOO an acre profit are common in Georgia, according to agricultural reports in my hands. They arc very proud of the fact out here that California is only sixth from an agricultural and horticultural standpoint, but did you know that Georgia is only FOURTH ? Georgia is first in peaches. She is second only to Texas in cotton, and if it were not for the area of Texas she would be first. Georgia is third in meat production. While Georgia is largely an agricultural state, her mining opportunities are wonder ful. 1 paid a visit to the Califor nia State Fair this week and had a rather interesting talk with the man in charge of the mining exhi bits. He took a great deal of pride in showing me an exhibit of asbes tos. Georgia laid claim for a long while to the only asbestos mine in the world, with the exception of Wyoming. Georgia has the largest deposit of kaolin. She has 142 square miles of coal; 175 square miles of iron; besides her deposits of gold and other minerals. The thing that impresses you most out here is the bigness of the undertakings. These people out *1.50 A YEA It here are accustomed to thinking in big figures. They think in mil lions when they undertake a pro ject of any kind. They have to do this to get anywhere, because ’ they have to spend millions and millions of dollars getting their land so it will produce. They have faith in themselves and their state. That is very clearly shown by the irrigation projects and other reclamation schemes. I have been shown one tract of 65,000 acres that were formerly overflowed lands. It, is now one of the finest farming sections in California. There is a project on here in California just now that I want to bring to the attention of Georgia people later, and that is a land settlement project. California now has a law making it possible for the tenant fanner to become a land-owner easily. It is too big a story to go into this here. But 1 want to call to your attention this one thing. In 1910 two thirds of Georgia’s farm lands were cultivat ed by tenant farmers! Think of that! Ilow much more valuable Ihcse 190,000 farmers would be to Georgia if they were land-owners. The California bureau of land set tlement is in position to give their new settler every kind of assistance and information that he may need. That is very important. One of the chief sources of failure on the part of people going into a new section oi country is the fact that they do not know the soil and understand farming conditions. Georgia must provide a means that her two-thirds farming popu lation can own their own homes and have a bureau to advise and co-operate with the new-comer. We have a land area sufficient to take care of 40,000,000 people and we must get them. Georgia has a wonderful oppor tunity to develop and grow in prosperity in the next ten years. The possibilities of our agricultur al and mineral resources are be yond calculation. In South Geor gia we have oil lands and vast areas of farming lands to develop, our ports to build up, and in North Georgia they have the minerals and water powers, fruits and a hundred industries to foster. We all know about world-famous American Spirit. We know of the California Spirit. We want a Georgia Spirit. We want every man, woman and child a Georgia booster. We want to SELL Geor gia to Georgians so that when a visitor comes to our state he will become a Georgia booster just as they become a Galifornia booster when they come to Galifornia. The casual tourist in California gets caught. He comes for a few days or weeks and they show him the glories. They tell him the romantic side and he is SOLD. I was very much impressed with the beauty of Southern California, be cause it is indeed pretty. 1 mar velled at the transformation of that desert country into a beauti ful, blooming flower garden and orchard and my first impression was how wonderful is California. Mrs. Simmons brought me to my senses when she casually remark ed that we too might have things as pretty if we took as much care and spent as much money trying to have these beautiful gardens. That is the secret of the whole thing. They TRY. And they keep on trying. They are not con tent with anything less than .suc cess. How this trip has inspired me. lam more a Georgia booster now than ever. Since corning here I have come to realize more than ever Georgia’s greatness and her wonderful opportunities. There is only one thing for Georgia to do —SELL Georgia to Georgians. We must advertise just as California does. She spends millions and millious at it. We spend nothing, or haven’t so far.