. 1-. %v" ■ - ' r ,. / > ?f: i I'i'? ‘ '>'•'’'■ '■■' / ¥ .^c'l THE HOKE COUNTY NEWS THE HOKE COUNTY JOURNAL l^OLUME XXVII-^Number 2 RAEFORD, N.'C., FRTDAY, APRIL 10th, 1931 S1.50 YEAR, IN ADVANCE Ufge Standard Shipping Rules Be Used By Watermelon Growers Railroads Submit Shipi4i>K Specifi^tiflM For Safe Delivery of 1931 Crop; Would Bene fit Riilroads And Shipper; ^ SCOUT *‘" lIGISlJflltE SEEMS begiBning to turn toward the sum- -mer . crop of Wateitnelbns In this section, the, following dispatch front the State D^artment of Agriculture -will be. of Interest. Hoke County has been a ■ section ? of ^he State which has rapidly becqnie prominent in the prodndtibn of Jiatermelona. Maqy faraers found thbm ,profitable etren in the clrcUint^tan'aii bf the past year. '• The rtles printed below are mg- ed by the' railroads in an effort to secure uniformity and safety in the packing of watermelon cars. Those who have packed watermelons in former seasons will Immediately IHEERi LDUL BOVS IS KIIJIII|I WRECK Raeford Scouts Prepare For Vance Burch, Cliftmi Young ^District JanAoree}. Attend f Honor Court Mcnnday Night EMPLOYEE Cream Depot Plans Obtain Endorsement of Farmers Here No Agreement* No Adjoum- Ment} LegislatcHTs Favor In- .difect Approach. ~ By CARL GOERCH Talk about your contrasts! One day we have Blister, with its beautiful anthems, gorgeous flow ers, Inspiring thoughts, lofty ideals and sublime significance; the next day we have the legislature again, . with all of its foils ani^ foibles. Tote that these rules are That’s moving from one extreme to followed by the majority of the ^ vengeance. farmers in this section who have endeavored to ship a well-packed car. Elach detail of this packing is familiar to most Hoke County grow ers, but these .rules will accomplish much if they are given thorough publicity and adhered to by the growers as a whole. The suggested rules are as fol lows: Rule 1. The shippers shall at their expense, line with 50 pound kraft paper the side walls of cars to the height of the load, and prop erly bed the floors with dry excel sior using not less than three bales of 100 pounds per bale to the- car and shall- cushion the ends of -the car with excelsior pads not less than 4 inches in thickness to the height of the load, such pads to be secure ly attached to the ends of the cars. Rule 2. Melons must be loaded compactly with the least possible slack. Melons varying more than 4 pounds in weight shall not be load ed in the same car. Rule 3. Shippers shall, *Tit their expense, board car doors from floor of car to top of load using boards ■of not less than 4 inches in width and 1 inch in thickness, spaced not more than 2 inches apart; such hoards shall be free froAi knots and tshall be flush with the inside wall -of the car. This submittal was also advised in Docket No. 533. There’? a reason for Easter, but it’s hard to find any justifiable rea son for the legislature still beiuB In session. When we sent the boys up to Raleigh, it was with the un derstanding that there was only one thing In the'world that we were interested in, and that was a re duction in property taxes. Prior to their election as members of the General Assembly, every last one of them was shouting from the housetops that he would tear his shirt, his sox and his red flannels in the effort to lift the burden of taxation from the shoulders of the farmers. Arid now look at ’em! Perhaps we were at fault in mak ing the instrufctions too plain and obvious. Politicians don’t like a direct course about anything. You take your real, genuine, dyed-in-the- wool legislator and he’d a darn sight rather drive over detours than sticks to the paved highways. Start him off with the idea in mind of buying a new suit, and he’ll commence operations by going first to a hardware store and asking the price of stoves. Ask the aver age man what time it is, and he’ll pull out his watch, glance at it, and .announce; “Hair past five,’’ or whatever the hour may he. Ask a politician and he’ll smile at you benignly, pull out his watch , with a flourish, stare at it fixedly, clear his throat impressively and then un burden himself as follows: “Time varies with the longitudinal Have Sluid Roast] position which you may occupy on I the earth’s ^surface, in accordance Scout Ehcecutive C. ii^;^9rothePS, of the Cape Fear Area - th® guest of the Raefortf troop at a meeting at the Slcoilt Etut last Tuesday night.' The • ifleeting was well attended by the Scouts to Iteten to the story of what will ^ajipeii it Wilmington on May the first and second when the district Boy Scout Jamboree takes place. 'Mr. Brothers explained the vari ous plans for the Jamboree, which will be a gathering of about one thousand Scouts from Southeastern North Carolina. The Scouts will erect a city of tents, attend a camp fire Friday night and get a good nights sleep for the strenuous ex ercises which will take up the time Saturday. Following the explanations by the executive, the Raeford Scouts went into the business of electing their teams for competition on the big day. Teams to compete with the other Scouts were selected for the following events: Rifle Marksman ship, First Aid, Archery, Chariot Race, Paul Revere Race, and Wall Scaling. In addition there will be a big parade in which all Scouts will take part. In an election of a different na ture, Thomas Cameron was elected Senior Patrol Leader. Thomas was formerly patrol leader of the Boh Whites.' His place with the Bob Whites will be taken by Jake Aus tin. Monday night at Laurinhurg the following Raeford Scouts went up for degrees: Tenderfoot, James Gor don Currie and Kerr Stevens; Civics, Cooking and Handicraft (Merit badges, Paul Dickson; First Aid to (Animals, Public Health,, land Leather Craft, Robert Ward Whit ley; Civics, Cooking and Handi craft, Jack Morris; Civics an.d Handicraft, Jake Austin; Fireman- ship, Clyde Upchurch. Man, LosesLife When Motor Car Is Defied; A. S. Allen Receives Minor In juries. Robeson Demonstrator Presents Proposition To Gathering; Great Opportunity For Cattle Raising In County. Local Legionnaires ATTENTION FARMERS Mr. J. B.' Dawson, Jr., fertilizer expert of the State Department of Agriculture, will be in Raeford next week to analyze fertilizer sam ples for such Hoke county farmers as desire this service. All farmers •vho wish to avail themselves of this service should notify County Agent Burton immediately so that he can arrange for this service. One man was kflldd and another very, painfully injured on Aberdeen and RockfiBh raRroad at Clifton, fji^hteen' miles eaat of Raeford, on ■V^dnesday, April eighth ahopt sev- hn-flfteen o’clock in the ^rnlng, vrhen the motor car on which they were riding to work - was derailed. Four negro section hands, also rid ing on the motor car were scratched and bruised in the accident. The section hands under the sup ervision of A. S. Allen and Vance Burch, foreman and sub-forman of the Aberdeen and Rockflsh section gang, set out from Raeford for their work about seven o’clock in the morning on Wednesday. While go ing at a moderate apeed near Clif ton the car was derailed, hurling all the men to the ground. Burch was seriously injured and Allen pain fully hurt, while the negro workmen were shocked and received minor injuries'. The Injured men 'were immediat ely taken to the hospital in Fay etteville. Here Burch died about an hour later and Allen was reported as painfully but not seriously injur ed. The nature of his injuries was not reported. Both Burch and Allen were well known residents of Clifton. Burch, who met his death in the accident was a-fine young man about thirty^ years old, and his death was a great shock to many people in Rae ford and Hoke County who had been associated with him. associated with him. "The cause of the accident -was shrouded in mystery. It was found that a railroad spike had been driven into the track where two sections of steel rails joined. It was by this that the motor car was de railed. The car was a total wreck. Railroad officials were unable to explain the presence of the spike between the rails. It was thought probable that it was the thought less act of some children that caus ed the tragedy. NEW RIViUJiy FI SfliniRN COTTON India And Russia Plan Colton Productiim On Largo Scale, Further Reducing American Monoply. Hogs on feed in Chatham County recently, paid from $1.35 to $1.85 a bushel for all corn consumed in addition to paying for the other purchased feeds. 4 ,The members of the American Le gion enjoyed a shad roast last Fri day at the Country Club. The so cial was the first of a series of activities that are designed to re new the activity of the Ellis Wil liamson post. , About fifty guests were present from . all over the county and ate their fill and were satisfied with the rhast shad, cat fish stew, slaw and cornbread. The food was arranged and served un der the supervision of Womble, the Sanatorium chef and reached a cli max pf gastranomic perfection. Sev eral of the local ministers were • honor guests and held up the eat ing standards, of their tribe in the most creditable fashion. with the principles first announced by Arestes, ancient Egyptian ,philo-j sopher, who lived long before the days of pyramids. These pyramids were built as monuments by cer- Continued on Back Page) AUDITOR’S REPORT TO COMMISSIONERS SHOWS FINANCIAL CONDITION OF HOKE Superior Court Convenes April 20th The April term of superior court for Hope County will convene ac the Courthouse In Raeford on Mon day, April 20. Summons for Jury services ha've been issued and all preparations are being made for the session. His Honor Judgs Prank A. Daniels, of Goldsboro, will pre side. Notice To Legion Auxiliary Members Please send 1981 Auxiliary dues In at once; otherwlBe your name will he automatically topped. Send iduus to, Eaul.. I)o,wa», aec?®: MACHINE AGE INDEED The industrial revolution has finally taken its most telling toll on the inhabitants of Raeford. Long known as a town where the ball and bat were the first thing that infant sons learned to use and the last symbols of youth ful play that maturity laid down, Raeford has come to take her baseball from a machine. The palace of the mechanical pitcher in the old McNeill Wholesale House has drawn cr'ovvds of old timers back to the wielding of the taped handle club. The pitch er Is an iron man and his arm creaks a little as he ithrows but he has control, stamina and serv es up nice straight balls in gravy train style for the eager batsmen. All the Stalwarts of Raeford Baseball history have been taking their turn and past ing mighty clouts against the canvas horizon.. It Is. a far cry from the time when Raeford' had .a ball park fence and a grand stand but It feels good io have a bat In hand again and —chunk —whack—ploek, there ,goea an other one In" the home run aee» The' Conty Commissioners mot in their regular monthly session last Monday, April sixth. The meeting was mostly taken up with routine matter. Several applications were made for the pauper roll, some be ing accepted and several rejected. Dan Graham, colored was granted admission to the Sanatorium on county funds. The calls for assist ance at this time are proving great er than at any time in the history of the county. Mac Daniels, a negro prisoner who was taken to the Sanatorium some time ago when it was thought that his physical condition forbade his working, was adjudged by the San atorium authorities as too healthy to stay there. He was hired out to his father-in-law for the remainder of his sentence. At this meeting. County Auditor McGougan made his statement to the commissioners as to the con dition of the county finance. His statement included the budget as signments for the various items in the general county fund, the amount that had been spent so far this year and the amount left to be spent. This report covered the first eight months of the county year which ends July* the first, nineteen thirty-one. The report showed that the county finances were in Very good shape. ‘ The total smoont assigned by the budget to the general county expens es for the year which is now eight months gone, is $28,655.00. Of this amount $17,991.95 has been spent in the eight months from July through February. Allowing that in two thirds of the year, two thirds of the budget would ordinarily be spent, the county would have spent $19,103.33, two thirds of the budget figure. The actual figure spent how ever, is about eleven hundred dol lars less than this. The temperance in the spending is made even more impressive when it is known that several items on the budget have been paid in full instead of two- thirds and that the county has al ready financed three sessions of superior court, a large item of ex- According to information brought to this country by American Consul William Hall Beach of Bombay, In dia, who has been conferring with American tobacco officials with re gard to the shipping of their pro duct to India, the fabled monopoly of the Southern States of the United States has suffered another blow in the activity for cotton growing which is manifesting itself in India and Soviet Russia. This activity is a dual threat; it reduces the market in these two great territories for American cotton, and it makes the two rivals with America for the pat ronage of the rest of the world. The entry of Russia into the field of cotton growing parallels their re cent distressing activity in the field of wheat. ' J The consul stated in part: “The Indian governments Sukkah Barrage, an irrigation and dam project of considerable magnitude, will make available 7,000,000 acres of fertile land that is to be planted in cotton. This area of Western India, near Karruchi, is to be given over to raising a plant bred from the Indian and Punjab-American seeds. Land is to he leased by the government, the maximum acreage leased being 20,- 000.’’ Such has been the increase in the production, of cotton in India that while this country imported 400,000 bales of American cotton in 1926-27, she imported only 40,000 bales in 1930. Officials cause all cotton going into India to -be fumi gated against the boll weevil. They, have no tarriff on imported cotton. A qiass of cheap labor is available for the work in the Indian cotton fields, but present indications are that the large scale use of mechani cal devices similar to that used on the large plantations in Texas will be used in India. It is thought that the production of this cotton in In dia will reduce by a*large part the market for American cotton in the Orient. Hitherto Japan has been a fine market for American cotton. Much of the Indian cotton is sure to be used in the English mills us well. The textile business is booming in India, as well and it is thought ,hat fully half of her 6,000,000 hale crop will be used within her O'wn territory. The dominion now has 10,000,000 spiridles and in the ter- (Oontinued on page 8) pqnse. Some of the items on the budget have their allotments already ex hausted. In many other items, how ever, the surplus Is sufficient fo make up the dlficlts by transference of the money from one cause to another. The county school budget too, is in safe condition. The allot ment of aeventy-flve thousand dol lars In round numbers for the carry Ing on of the six months school term has only been reduced by fifty-one thousand dollars up to this point in the school year, leaving a balance of about twenty-four thous'aud dol lars to continue the work until the close of school. More than thirty farmers and cow- owners of Raeford and vicinity were present last FTiday afternocn at the courthouse for the meeting with re gard to the establishment of a cream depot in Raeford to serve the people of the county. The meeting— was held at the instigation of County Agent W. D. Burton for the purpose of testing the sentiment of the citizens toward the proposed cream depot. Mr. O. O. Dukes, farm demonstra tion agent of Roberson County was the principal speaker of the occa sion. Mr. Dukes made an illuminat ing and interesting talk on the cattle industry in this section. He explained in detail the function of a cream depoL emphasizing that its main purpose was to take charge of the excess cream. He declared that as long as there was a maAet for the raw milk and cretun, the operation of a cream depot was use less due to the lower prices in that field. If, however, there is not a market sufficient to take charge of all the milk and cream produce in the county, then, he assured his hearers, a cream depot would prove its worth. iMr. Dukes advised the testing of cream for butterfat before it was attempted to sell it to creameries. To be available for such use, he said, the cream should test four and a half per cent butterfaL Cream which tested only three or three and a half per cent would not he taken he said. Mr. Dukes told his audience that this section of the country need not feel itself inferior to the sections which are famed as pasturage and cattle growing sections. He report ed a recent conversation with a Michigan man, a citizen of a sec tion famous for its pasturage, who said that the j?astures in Roberson county were as fine as any in the country. The 'same could be true of Hoke Conty, said Mr. Dukes, if the farmers took care in seeding their pastures. He recommended es pecially Lespedeza and Carpet grass. Following the talk by Mr. Dukes a poll was taken of those present as to what they wished to do about the matter of establishing a cream depot in Raeford. Hearty commen- dation of the move was found among all present and a good number com mitted themselves as being pros pective patrons of the depot were it established. It was expladned that the establisliment of. the depot would require a revolving fund and ways of raising this fund were dis cussed. Action was deferred until it could be ascertained whether this money could be obtained. However, it was definitely settled that tho need was present m the county and that the depot would be establish ed if means of raising the revolving fund were found. WILL INSPECT LOCAL MILITARY UNITS TODAY A great deal of activity may be seen in the ranks of the local mili tary units this week and all eyes and minds are turned toward the annual inspection which is on schedule for Friday of this week. The inspection is an annual event and is a climatic one for the offic ers and men of the Hoke county military units. Beginning Friday afternoon. Maj or Franklin Kemble, senior instruc tor of the two hundred and fifty-sec ond regiment. North Carolina Nat ional Guard, will be in Raeford to direct the inspection. In the after noon inspection will take up the records and papers of the units. Battery F and Battallion headqpart- ers and supply train of the first CONSTRUCTION WORK AT FORT BRAGG News has been received, in Rae ford of a large construction pro gram which will be instituted, at Fort Bragg in the near future. The plans call for the erection of six teen * additional units at the fort which will bo used as officers quart ers. The sixteen units will be con structed at a cost ot one hundred and fifty thiousand do^ars. Tho contract has been let to the C. V. York Construction company of Ral eigh. The former inspections have rated the Raeford organization welL Tho officers have been at work for somo _ time practicing their men in answer Battallion. In tho evening the ia-ling the curt, swift quesUons in which spection of the units will continue with a drill and review. Much interest is manifest in the inspection and it is certain that the local Boldiera wUl be at thetr bast. scrubbing and tralni^dT 'be in tip top ccmdiUon for lug ot Frttoar. tho inspectors test the stdfliers ft* alertness. 'With a wo^ ot iK^|jbslilng; Witt ..t