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fOL. .XL
MOOXI AIMY, JfORTR CAROLINA, THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER tO, 1917. MO. 10
An Economical Suicido in Surry
By J. H. Cwtor.
Ia thia time whan the world U
■winfinf around the moat critical eor
nar it haa doabtlaaa known paopla
ara ready to baliave moat anything
they iaa ia the newspapers and magn
lines of tha day; in fact, thay ara pra
parad to accept situations and condit
iona that wara impoaaibla a faw yaara
ago. Thia la nacaaaarily » to a great
extent, yat It daw not follow that ev
ary local and economic question should
ba accapt ad aa a mat tar of fact ao4
awallowad bacauaa tha official solution
haa baan labelled, "ECONOMY." In
private life man recogniae that there
ara nmt aorta of economy that thay
can not afford. In tha store, if a caah
register system, of raaaonable coat,
will aave the (alary of a bookkeeper
year aftar yaar, a failure to buy it ia
a high priced economy. On tha farm,
if a farming implamant, of reasonable
coat will do tha work of one or mora
farm handi, thereby increasing tha
farmer's income, a failure to own one,
either aolaly or jointly, ia a high pric
ad economy. If a town, at a reaaon
able coat, can inatall a fire protection
ayatam that will aave thouaanda of
dollara worth of property, a failure
to do so is a high priced e-onomy. If
a county, at a reasonable coat, can in
duce farmers to increase the wealth
of the county by thousands of dollars
annually, a failure to do so ia an
ccoaomy that cannot be afforded. The
following statement of facts should
ba considered and discussed by every
citizen of Surry County who believes
in his County, and who is intarastad
in her progress and continued develop
ment.
Six yearn ago the Federal Govern
meat, the SUU ftQd the County ieali*-(
ing that the application of mora scien
tific methods of agriculture would de
velop Surry County, employed a coun
ty agent to devote one half of his time
to this important work. Since that
time the county agent ha.i been em
ployed for his whole time. To be sure
he has not waved a magic wand over
the county, transforming the un
scientific farmers into wealthy plant
ers, and the thousands or renters and
tenants into independent farmers (as
all of us might have wished, and as
some have confidently expected); nor
has the almost unparalleled progress
that has been made in the last six
years been wholly due to his efforts.
Yet here are the facts that speak for
themselves.
Six years ago crimson clover and
vetchea were unknown crops in Surry
County. Last year the county agent
had a record of 10,000 acres, the esti
mated value of which for land im
provement is $10 per acre. Six years
ago rye was not considered as a soil
improver. Now it it a general method
which is annually enriching the soil
thousands of dollars. Then, (six
years ago), there were no soy or vel
vet baans; this year thousands of acres
were used for this purpose. Then
there were more than three hundred
car loads of Western corn being ship
ped into the bounty each year. The
1915 crop was sufficient for the needs
of the County; the 1916 crop, would
have been sufficient but for the July
floods; and the present crop will
doubtless be larger than ever. The
yields of corn per acre in six years
has more than doubled; the acreage
has increased about 25 per cent.
In 1911 the wheat yield was f.'a
bushels to the acre; now it is more
than 12 bushels, and the acreage has
been largely increased.
Then Surry County was a County
inhabited by scrub cattle. In 1911
there was one registered bull in the
County; since then the county fcgent
has himself ordered for farmers 35
full bred bulls and a large numlier of
heifara and cows. Today there are
large numbers of Short Horns, Hol
steins. Jerseys. Gurnseys aad Devon*.
Today the only buyers that can be
fount! for scrub ntth are tenth farm
er*. Only racmllr Prof. Utley, of
Mountain Parte School remarked that
rattla had improved ft»a hundred par
c«Bt in the last few jraars in the Coun
ty.
Than, not a creamery in the county;
now there are S cream routes in the
County, besides two creameries, ana
now under construction.
Six years ago a hog paeturs was un
known to Hurry farmers. Today
there are in the County thousands of
acres in winter and summer (razing
cropa. Than there ware just a few
registered hogs; today there are no
scrub hogs in the County.
A few years ago little attention,
almost none, was givan to the rota
tion of crops. Since then farming has
been revolutionised which is resulting
in the conservation of the strength of
the soil and the increase of thousands
of dollars in the wealth of the Coun
ty. Six years ago a scientific method
of draining and terracing was not
known in the County. Since thea
thousands of acres of land have been
reclaimed and savad.
In 1911 there wan one silo in uie
County; today there are 16 and others
under construction.
Six years ago there was not a shred
der or huxker in the County; now they
are to be found in every community.
Then there were only a few riding cul
tivators; now hundreds of them can
be found in the County. Then there
was not a Boys Corn Club (whose ef
forts and whose exhibits are general
ly conceded to be responsible for the
organization of the Surry County
Fair), not a pig club, not a poultry
club. Today the clubs of the boys—
the farmers of tomorrow, and inciden
tally the farmers of today—have hun
dreds of members that seemingly do
ing too much splendid work to be de
prived of tfielr adv&or and leader.
These boys have averaged about sev
enty bushels of corn to the acre for
the last two years. The improvement
in the poultry of the County has been
ahnoet as marked as has been the cat
tle improvement during the last tw >
or three years.
Six years ago the farmers had G
accurate knowledge as to the .spraying
grading and marketing of Irish pc
tatocu. This knowledge brought
into the County thousands of dollars
in reccnt years. In 19)1 not a farmer
in the County knew how to keep
rweet potatoes through the winter,
•ast winter, according to a partial
list kept by the County agent, 10,000
bushels were kept. The farmers have
received scientific knowledge from
books and papers, but this method of
keeping potatoes was given them by
the county agent, he having had to
promise in many cases to pay to the
farmer $1.00 a bushel for all the po
tatoes that were lost in this experi
ment.
Not only along these lines, but along
others too numerous to mention, has
the County advanced in knowledge and
wealth. Where did all this knowledge
come from? With the exception of
farm journals (whose scientific meth
ods are actually demonstrated by the
county agent) and a number of new
citizens who have come into the Coun
ty, our farmers have the same sources
of information that they had beforw
except for the county agent.
Now for the ECONOMY PAKT OK
IT: The Board of County I'ommi*
> ioners has refused to make any fur
ther allowance for this work and have
officially informed the county agent
that the reason for it* discontinuance
is solely because the County is not
able to spent $600 for this work.
ECONOMY? A County that has a
valuation of $20,000,000, whereas six
years ago it had less than $10,000,000;
a county building roads and bridge*
for convenience of Its people who owe
much of this development to the adop
tion of the scientific methods that
ihey have been taught in recent years;
a county paying comfortable salarie*
to its officers to execute Its law* and
rMmi a county erecting buildings la
IrnplBi with ita ■ 1m ami Importance;
a county steadily advancing along edu
cational Unas and programing *aoaral
ly, and yat a county whoae Board of
CoMiaatenara begins ECONOMY by
refusing to maka aa atlowanra of di
hundred dollar* to continue the work
of the county agent. 110,000 at leaat
saved hi nwaat potatoaa last year;
thousands of dollars Mead every year
to the farmers at the cavity—facto
whoea proof la obtainable la any na
tion at Surry County. Yat Unable to
pay 9*00 for actantiflc agricultural
work.
In fact, it la rumored that thg state
ment of the Board of Commissioners
was to the effect that the County not
only did not have the money, but that
this amount, <400, could not be bor
rowed. This la doubtleaa a mintake,
for these gentleman would be untrue
to the County to allow its credit to
gat to thia point without notifying the
citizens of such a state of affairs.
ECONOMY? Nothing but ECON
OMY. No charge la being made by
the Board of Commisioners that this
scientific work was not beneflcial to
the County, and not worth ita cost.
The whole aituation seema to resolve
itself to thia: If the work has bane
fitted the County >600 a year, the
County cannot afford to be without It.
If the present county agent is ineffi
cient, or unsatisfactory for any reason
turn him off and hire another. If not,
retain him, or else give him a state
ment of the action of the Board so that
he may use it in some other pro
gressive County whose officials are
either in sympathy with the efforts
for the development of their County,
or who have the FINANCIAL OAR
ING to borrow $600 on tha credit
of a County of 370,712 acres and valu
Farmers, if you Have an opinion
about this matter, you owe It to your
selves and to your boys to express it to
^ the Board of Commissioners who have
started on ECONOMY at the end that
| vitally affects YOL'.
Mount Airy, N.C., Sept, 11, 1917.*
Asks Removal of hi*
Brother as Sheriff
Danville, Va., Sept. 7.—Word has
' reached here of unusual proceeding*
' which have taken place in Stuart, tc
remove from office the sheriff of Pa
trick county, J. H. Staple*. The man
bringing the charges into the court is
the sheriff's brother, Archie Staples.
The court is asked to remove the sher
iff because of misconduct in office.
Judge E. J. Harvie has issued a ruled
against the sheriff returnable tomor
row mibrning when th« case will come
up.
The root of the trouble appears to
lay in a shooting affair which took
place some weeks ago, the son of Joe
Staples, the sheriff being shot in the
Hack of the head with a rifle by the
son of Archie Staples, both sons being
still in their teens. It was first
claimed that the shooting was acciden
tal but now, the grand jary is |p inves
tigate the affair.
This afternoon it was learned that
the charges preferred against the
sheriff by his brother is that he is al
leged to have solicited and accepted
valuable consideration to influence hi*
• I
official conduct.
To D*t«Iom Torpedo-Plane.
Niw York, Sept. 6.—In an effort to
develop* the torpedo-plane a> a wea
pon against battleship*. Codfry L.
Cabot, of Roelon, a vice-president of
the Aero Club of America, hai placed
f30,000 at th di«po«al of Rear Admiral
Bradley A. Kinke, U. S. N., cetireil,
to carry on experimental wcrk. It «ai
announced here tonl|K by the club.
The announcement *ay» it U hoped to
develope a machine that can carry the
heaviest torpedo direct from England
to the German naval bate at Kiel.
SOLDIERS FATHER URGES
BULLETS FOR TRAITORS
"TImi mouth of aadltion ^oald ha
•hut by a bullet."
Theea m tK« mm ot I wnl Ely
Quigg, lawyer and formar ClfTlM
man froa* Naw York, i|mkl with
aapacial foree again*t uditlN and
traaaon aa a fathar whoaa only *aa la
oa hi* way to the tranche* la Fnmaa.
Ha MpkAUttlly dtpIorM tmy,
a nee* of opinion, any varying point* of
view on tha baaic principle* of war and
peace, and dMthraa that tha only thing
now to ba considered in how to win
tha war with tha laaat poaaibla loaa
of life. In ringing words ha danounran
nation* "organised into baaata of
pray" and pacifists whoaa word* and
acta incraaaa tha aacriAea tha nation
must maka to randar tha world "aafa
for democracy." ana In tna following
lattar which tha Naw York Tribune
print* aa a laading editorial ha call*
upon thoaa too old to flght in tha
tranche* to aupport tha President la
any atop* ha may taka to auppraaa *a
dition at home.
Tha mouth of eedition should be
■hut with a bullet.
I am not boiling with raga, Mr. Edi
tor. I am not even excited. Tha point
ia thia—my son, my only child, in
prompt raaponaa to hia country'« duly
sounded call, ia to-day rcaded for tha
Franca tranchaa, there to ba tha tar
get (or German bullets. Every voice
raised here at home to discourage oth
ers from going with him, they to back
him and he to back them, and so to
make their mighty work a success at
the least sacrifice to any, increases the
chance, alre^^.considerable, that he
will never com.* back to his mother and
me. I think thal^£hat voice ought to
be stilled before hi&has been.
Uut thia view, aoyportaat to m«t
P important to tile father* ar>d*Tnoth
ers of tha thousands who marched
down Fifth Avenue recently and to tha
parents of the hundrens that are be
ing gathered from all over this land to
places of training and departure, ia
Lhe very least of it. The great thing
Is that until the world rids itself of
nations organized into beasta of prey
no man'a home is worth building. No
man's business ia worth pursueing.
No man's wife or hia cradled baby,
getting a breath of fresh air in tha
| street in front of his house, is safe
from rape or de&lh.
I have often heard it remarked that
this war U unpopular. What war ever
was "popular," except to the greed,
lust and ambition that caused it?
What war ever wai popular to people
who want to live in the enjoyment of
peace, order, and liberty? the Word
"popular" as connected with a war U
despicable. But never before has
there been a war where the principle
of individual liberty, the right to make
a home, to go about freely, to do one'*
lawful business without interruption,
to protect one's women and children
against the barbarity of lust and mur
der, has been so definitely presented to
the American people as it is presented
to us to-day. Lexington and Concord
were not so bad as this. The issue
that brought us into this conflict with
one another sixty years ago was not
so bad as this.
Not "popalar"! Do you suppose
that five millions of fathers like my
self wouid permit our boys to be taken
away from us, hustled into barges,
and then planted straight In the way
of bullets and bombs and killing sten
ches if we didn't think it was our duty
to go and our duty to urge them to
go? Do you suppose that we flvei
millions would permit a handful of
men down in Washington to impose
upon us billions of taxes for us to pay
next year if we didn't think they ought
to do it and that we ought to pay ? If
the war was unpopular, do you sup
pose that we would leave the manifes
tation of that fact to a rabble on a
street-comer in Butte or on Broad
way?
Up to now nothing has been allowed |
to go very far in this mountry unless
it ■ nnrrtid wHh tlM wtfl at the people,
and tlM rauai that «i M (t war
with Germany I) burn I M intend to
kMp Ihiip that way. The reason «•
wa are handing gaaa ta our yoaag aai
it haram*. aftar patience apinit pro
vacation nnoiamplod la history, aftar,
hopes created ona day only to ba blast
ed tha neat, aftar proof* that wa
•mU ao Ion car deabt. wa haaa at iaat
haaama convinced that tha and for
arhich Gorman armies ware aont
again t Franca and Flanders and Rus
sia aiaans not their conquest only, but
ours alaa nana that if that end ts
successful la Europe It la an ever
lasting menace to national organiza
tion and iadividad liberty everywhere
oa this earth. ,
What is the um of trying to keep up
• ham* sn(l to conduct a business, a
farm, a profession, to earn a living
that will content your wife and educa
te your childrea, If yon hava |ot to
■pond half of what your labor earns
and, to th« interruption of your buai
nesa, spend yaara of your Ufa creating
military equipments and performing
military service in order to be ready to
beat tooie ravenous beast that ia
watching for the right time to spring
at you ? The Carman people muat
get the tense of thU, at whatever cost
to them or us. They are responsible.
They don't have to have the Hohen
xollerns and the Carman military au
tocracy unless they want them, nor
unless they mean what their godless
rulers mean. They are not obliged to
have William and his scheme any mora
than we hava been obliged to have oar
Presidents, from Washington to Wil
son. No blackamith ever shod a horse,
no farmer tilled a Aeld to better result
than is gotten when our President
speaks the mind of the American peo
ple in answer to the Pope telling U»«
can end the purposes for which they
hava permitted their armies to be sent
out must be definitely abandoned.
How perfectly Mr. Wilson said what
the nation means is proved by the fact
that we have allowed Congress to en
act and the President to enforce this
' (elective draft, welt knowing that oth
jers are likely to follow; that we have
|allowed him and the Congress to place
j on our shoulders a tremendous burden
of taxes, well knowing that other and
greater burdens will be added. Now,
j shall we permit anybody, big or little,
' rich or poor, whether his name is
' Hearst, or Moore, or Haywood, or
Berkman, or Codman, or whatever his
interest, sincere or insincere, to ap
I poal to that instinct of avoidance of
' great burdens and fearful risks which
is common to us all and is to be resist
ed only by a high sense of duty?
I don't care what anybody said a
year a70 about England. I might then
have agreed with a whole lot of it,
; even if he had started with William
the Conpaeror and had never stopt un
til the day when the Germans invaded
Belgium. I don't care what men said
a year ago about capitalists and mon
ey power and the encroachment of
entrenchmented wealth on the rights
of the unprotected poor. I might then
have agreed with moat of what they
said, even tho I might not have been
able to agree with all they suggested
in remedy. But the only thing before
this country now is how to win this
war with the smallest poasible sacri
fice of the arms, legs, lives of the boys
that marched down Fifth Avenue re-.
cently; of the arms, legs, lives of those
who are marching from everywhere
throughout the country to points of |
training and departure for Europe; of
the wealth that is the sustenance of
American industry and that earns
bread and butter to keep them in the
fleld and to keep their wives and chil
dren, their fathers and mothers, their
dependents and those on whom they
may have to depend, from distress and ^
starvation. That is the only question
before the people of this country just
now.
Only at the risk of his life should
any man be permitted to say or do a
thing that impartU tha W Nf
Mm hi this war. Oaiy at the rtafc at
hi. lift .heald any man be permuted
la atf thing* ur da Wtinga that land ta
increase tha sacrifices that our naltM
null now maha ta render thia worM
"Mfi far da*arracy." Thaaa af ua
who ara over fitly, who ar« nac worth
<irafting, who ara aheoiutaly unable ta
tata Afty-three pound* of ammumtM
ami equipment, who most ramaia at
homa, ta tha oflee, behind tha cannier,
or in tha fartoriaa, or on tha fans, raa
•till do something mora—wa can maka
it damned unplaaaant for aeditiea; and
in support of any step that tha Praet
dent will taka ta suppress aedition at
homa, while my son and othar man'a
sons ara doing tha nation's work
abroad, ! offer ta tha President my.
service and praaant ta tha spirit of
edition what modi or little I can da
for its swift extermination.
GERMANY SAID TO BE
FACING A MONEY CRISIS
Demand for Last Potiibb Lom
From Her People to bo Made
Soon— Collapse of War Ma
chine u Predicted.
Wahsmgton. D. C.-—Information,
regarded as highly ugniAcant, ha*
com* to Washington from New York
financial circles relating to a forth
coming new loan in Germany. It ia
understood in Naw York that the
loan ia to be demanded of the German
paopla naxt month. Tha feature of
thia event which banker* consider es
pecially interesting ia that it will be
the laat loan the Imperial Government
can expect from the people of Ger
many, and that if they meet the con
ditions of the forthcoming demand
they will be giving the laat of their
resources and what meager aevings
they may have left.
- ef
Cm /rasa also who have learned of
this situation, are asking, "after that,
whet will happen?"
It is recalled that in the lumrner
months all gold jewelry in Germany
passed irto the melting pot for the
public use. More recently demand)
have been made upon Switzerland for
a loan, the Westphalian coal being
the pawn.
Reports continue to show also a
. *
steady decline in the gold reserve of
Germany, and commercial interests
that still maintain trade relations
'.vith surrounding neutrals are hard
pressed in their exchange methods.
The forgoing information has been
seized upon by many here as pointing
to a sudden cullapse of the Central
Powers' machine, possible during the
winter, when in addition to the bank
ruptcy of the Government itself, the
civilian population will feel the pinch
of privation more keenly than at any
time thus far in the war. One ob
server of international affairs, who
was asked his opinion, said: "When
you ask me what I see beyond thfc
loan, which is Germany's last, I will
«ay 1 can plainly see the last ditch."
Charlotte Young Man U
Dead at Fort OfUtborp*.
Charlotte, Sept. 8.—John W. Hutch
inson, nor of Mrm, S. A. Hutchinson, a
member of the Charlotte bar, died this
afternoon at Fort Oglethorpe. Ha
left August 27 with others from Char
lotte to take training at the swoad
officers' camp and underwent an op
eration a week ago for appendicitie.
His mother was called to his bedside
several days ago. He was a kinsman
of the Wadsworth fami'v of Charlotte,
a graduate of Trinity college and Har
vard Law school. Mr. Hutchinson waa
29 years old.
Malt Down Bronze Statuea.
Copenhagen, Sept. . 6.—A Berlin
dispatch reports that it has been de
cided to melt down braue statues far
monition purposes. jl
The Munich correspondent of the
Lokal Anseiger reports that orders fee
thr appropriation of statues have ai
res,ly been issued In Boverta. » ,jj