THE WEEKLY PILOT
Published every Friday morning
by the Pilot Printing Company.
— ^
STACY BREWER, Manager
Entered at the Postoffice at Vass,
N. C., as second-class mail matter
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1921 '
NOTICE THE
DEVELOPMENT
It may be a little vain for a
newspaper to call attention to
its achievement, but as the news
papers of the county are so gen
erally identified with the prog
ress of the whole community,
and their growth reflects the
conditions of the county, it is
permissible for a Moore county
paper to occasionally point out
the development that its success
indicates. The Pilot last week
was so crowded with advertis
ing that it had to increase the
number of its pages materially,
and the prospects are that the
winter is to witness an adver
tising call on its facilities that
last year it did not anticipate.
This is of course gratifying to
the publishers, but it is of more
significance than simply a busi
ness satisfaction to the owners
of the paper. Making money is
hardly the aim of any paper in
Moore county, although it is the
desire of every printing estab
lishment to do the best it can in
the way of earning a livelihood
for those who carry on the busi
ness. But beyond the mainten
ance of a proper living for the
papers a bigger job rests on them
and that is to further the
general welfare of the Sandhill
country. That they are doing
this is evidenced by the confi
dence the advertisers show in
buying space in the columns.
The f^ilot was a venture, and
about the time it made its start
the country was wakened by the
rude jolt of financial disturbance.
Friendly prophets were positive
that the undertaker woultl be
the first man called on to serve
the new-fledged institution. But
the fledgeing has made a closer
acquaintance with the banker
than with the mortuary agency,
and so far on its journey it has
been able to do a fair share in
-encouraging the work of the
community, and to such an ex
tent that its advertising has
grown to a point where it looks
as if instead of looking for a
coffin it will be necessary to
look for more paper to print
more pages to accommodate
more business.
This is not, as was said at
the beginning of this statement,
so much a personal matter. In
spite of the financial flurry the
new. paper has been found by the
business world to be a factor
of value, and the indications are
that it has a right promising
place in the county’s work. And
as the orator, when he is about
to leave the stage, says to the
audience that has listened to
him patiently, '‘We thank you.”
THE HUNTING
PROJECT
Mr. Bliss, of the Hotel Vass,
announces that the project of a
hunting lease on the lands out
to the east of Vass has been
successful, and a tract of five
thousand acres is now at the
command of the men who have
been engineering the scheme.
The hotel will be the headquar
ters of the sportsmen, and if it
works out as is expected Vass
will find a pretty considerable
number of northern visitors
here from time to time while
the hunting season is on. Pine-
hurst and Southern Pines are
filling up with settlers and the
contiguous territory is crowding
out the wild creatures, so that
the hunter must move into an
extending circle. That course
for the present has to turn to
ward Vass, for on the east side
of the Seaboard railroad is
about the only extensive wild
land that is left in the vicinity
of the big resorts.
With the hunters coming to
Vass to make temporary head
quarters this section will make
the acquaintance of a highly
valuable type of people, men
who are in touch with the big
things that are going on in the
world, and it is reasonable to
imagine that they will find here
opportunities for development
just as they have found in the
county around Pinehurst and
Southern Pines. This is a de
parture that ought to encourage
the Vass folks to cultivate the
opportunity to reach the new
comers, and incidentally to do
everything possible themselves
to develop their town and sur
roundings that it may shov/ to
advantage, for the old proverb
tells us that the gods help them
that help themselves.
But here is the point. North
ern people have done a tremen
dous lot to help in the develop
ment of our neighbor communi
ties. They have literally put
millions of dollars into that sec
tion, and are putting in more.
They have occupied much of the
territory, and must begin to
reach farther out' for orchard
land and for the home lands
they are utilizing. Vass must
in time become a part of the
resort development, not perhaps
in the same intensive style as
the belt from the Carolina to
the Highland Pines, but in an
adjunctive way, a sort of over
flow of the denser centers. Now
is the beginning of a movement
in that direction, and it is logi
cal to look for a continuation of
this movement until this whole
country around Vass is a part
of the winter resort and alive
with winter business and sum
mer progress from it.
THE FARMER
SPECULATOR
Much has been said about the
suffering of the farmer from the
speculator, but the farmer is the
most habitual speculator on
earth, and the suffering that
comes to him from speculation
is his own speculation, and not
the speculation of others. Last
year when cotton was around
forty cents he held his cotton
for a higher price. It fell, and
if he sold cotton later for ten
cents that he refused to sell for
forty when it was up, if was
his own speculation, and not
some other man’s that put him
in wrong. The farmer is always
one side of the cotton specula
tive game. He makes the cot
ton. The man who buys is the
other side. One wants a high
price, the other a low price, and
each plays against the other.
Right now the farmer is playing
a game. Cotton went to over
twenty cents; but since it went
that high it fell lower again,
and farmers who might have
sold cotton at twenty cents sold
for less a day or two later be
cause they chose to speculate on
a higher price.
The Pilot is of the opinion
that cotton is going higher, but
it is not putting any money on
that opinion, for opinion is
speculative, and it is up to the
man who has cotton to do the
speculating as to price. . The
whole thing is just this: the
farmer wants for his cotton all
he can get. If the top price has
been reached now is the time to
sell; if it has not now is the
time to hold. But no living man
can say whether the top has
been reached or not. The specu
lator who thinks not will buy
cotton. The speculator who
thinks the top has been reached
will refuse to buy at the present
prices. That is the whole story
about speculation in cotton, and
the sooner the farmer gets out
of his head the terrible bugaboo
about speculation the sooner he
will get to actual facts about
his crop and the price. Well in
formed men take different views
of the future of cotton. But
either must depend on their
judgment, and no man yet has
been able to read the future.
The man who sold cotton last
week for eighteen cents regret
ted that he did not sell it a few
days sooner for twenty. He
may regret that he did not hold
it and get twenty-five or he may
be glad that he sold at eighteen
instead of fifteen later on. And
there is the whole story. No
one knows what the future will
be, and whether you believe it
or not, the speculator who is not
a farmer burns his fingers as
often as the farmer does in buy
ing and selling cotton, and some
times a great deal worse.
ELECTRICITY
In a short time the Carbonton
dam will be connected with the
other light and power lines in
the county. The work of put
ting up the pole line from the
dam to Carthage is now under
way. The power plant at the
dam is about ready to turn on
the current, and when the pole
line is finished, which will be
about the middle of October, the
existing systems will be forti
fied by the big reserve of power
over at the new place. Because
of the surplus Siler City has
been taken in but the available
amount will handle the new
place as well as the older ones.
From now on Moore county will
be among the best served elec
trically of any counties in the
United States, and probably no
county so largely rural will be so
well lighted as Moore.
Since John McQueen has
bought the plants that Mr.
Chandler developed he h^s gone
over nearly everything and put
it in more modern condition,
and when the new current comes
in it will be to a plant that is
almost new throughout. Un
fortunately the streams have
been so scant in their water sup
ply that the summer has not
been as satisfactory to the pa
trons of the lines as is desired,
but that could not be helped.
With the dams filling up with
water in the fall rains, and the
new power from Carbonton, a
new condition will have been
reached, and it is reasonable to
expect that this condition will
be permanent. Of course the
county will grow, and the de
mand for power and light will .
increase, and the electric service
will have to keep up with it. But '
Mr. McQueen will not be caught
without all the facilities that
will be required, for he is look
ing, far into the future and his
plans are made for such expan
sion as is necessary to prepare
for the big population that is
indicated by all the development
that is now forecast by the pres
ent big activities.
The patrons of the company
can have patience a little while
yet, for the prospects are wholly
satisfactory, and it is but a short
time until everything that can
be asked in the way of electric
service will be at the command
of all the towns of the county.