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Farmer
Vol. VII.—No. 18.
RALEIGH. N. C., MAY 1, 1913.
One Dollar a Year.
19 iil
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TAR HEEL SKETCHES.
BV J. Z. GREEN.
Over at the meeting of Cleveland
County Union at Shelby Thursday,
President Joe Blanton called the at
tention of the brethren that in Au
gust that Cleveland County is the
“mother of the Farmers Union” in
North Carolina and that the old lady
would be called upon to entertain
her children in August, the State
Executive Committee having named
Shelby as the place for the summer
meeting of the State Union. “We
want to give the children a good
time back at the old homestead,”
said President Blanton, and it goes
without saying that Shelby and
Cleveland County will take good care
of the convention. Brother Blanton
will find that the “old lady” not only
has a big family of children but also
a lot of great grandchildren, when
more than eighty counties dump
their delegates into Shelby.
For convenience in co-operative
buyiirg some Local Unions in the
State have collected from their mem
bers, small trading funds to be used
in paying bills. The fund is placed
to the credit of the member who does
the buying and is replaced as the
goods are delivered. In some in
stances this trading capital amounts
to a hundred dollars, and in some in
stances it is less. Over in Orange
County a proposition was made to
collect a hundred dollars among the
members to be used in paying bills
by the local trade agent. “No,” said
a thoughtful member, “a better plan
will be to hire the hundreds dollars
from a member who has a surplus
and pay the interest on the same
from the fees and dues that come
into our local treasury.” And his
plan was adopted. A young man in
the Union had a hundred dollars
which he didn’t need the use of him
self. All the members signed a joint
note and hired his hundred dollars
for six dollars a year which was paid
out of the common fund in the local
treasury, thus letting the expense
rest alike upon each member. “We
have been buying our sugar for
$4.56 per hundred pounds and coffee
(which retails for twenty-two cents)
at sixteen cents a pound,” said a
member of that Local Union last
week, “and T tell you we have been
keeping that hired capital busy for
onr benefit.” The young member
whose capital they hired would have
received only four dollars a year
from the bank. In this instance he
receives six dollars a year and at the
same time it benefits his vicinity just
in proportion as the members keep
that money busy. This expediency
in neighborhood buying is also
adopted by many other Local Unions
in the State.
* * *
It is far better for the country to
have small towns well distributed
over the State than to have conges
tions of population into a few large
cities. It is to be hoped that the ten
dency that prevails in the North to
concentrate the people into a few cit
ies will not prevail in the South. It
isn’t best for the farmer who wants
a near-by market and it isn’t best for
city consumers to be so far separated.
I don’t think North Carolina is
threatened with this sort of congest
ed population. In the greater pro
portion of our smaller towns the
growth of population compares favor
ably with that of the larger cities.
« * *
People in cities like something
new. Unless there is variety and
novelty they grow restless. On the
court house corner at Durham the
other night a long-haired preacher
attracted a good audience. I could
hardly pass the street without push
ing my way through, so I yielded to
the temptation to listen at the' long
haired man myself. He was dealing
sledge-hammer blows at nearly
everything in existence as well as at
things that are not in existence. “My
sister wanted me to join the church
and get in society,” said he. And
then he proceeded to deal with the
modern city church as a society for
social recreation and display of cost
ly apparel. “I used to belong to that
thing up there with a drum in it (re
ferring to the Salvation Army on the
other corner) until they wanted me
to beg for money, and I quit them,”
said he. And as his kind of preach
ing furnished novelty that the Salva
tion Army no longer carried with it,
this long-haired preacher had the
crow’d with him that night and the
other street preachers were not in it.
Which means if you want to keep up
interest in this restless age you must
change the program occasionally.
North • Carolina was better repre
sented in the Conference at Rich
mond than any other State except
Virginia. Some of ,our Farmers’
Union men asked Mr. Caldwell, of
Minnesota, if he could attend the
meeting of the State Union in North
Carolina and make a talk on co-oper-
tion, but he could give no definite
answer until his return from the Eu
ropean countries, where he goes to
investigate co-operation over there.
It would certainly be a treat to have
either Nelson, Tousley or Caldwell at
one of our meetings.
“PASSING OF THE HORSE.”
The above is the title of a new
book written by Herbert N. Casson,
L. W. Ellis and Rollin W. Hutchin
son, Jr. This book has been written
in collaboration by three experts in
their respective fields. Mr. Casson
is well known for his original re
search work in industrial and econo
mic subjects and also as an adver
tising expert. His best known books
are “The Romance of the Reaper,”
“The History of the Telephone,” and
■“Ads and Sales.” Mr. Hutchinson
writes authoritatively as a commer
cial motor vehicle engineer, and Mr.
Ellis is connected with the Rumle^
Company, manufacturers of motor
trucks.
This is the first and only book of
its kind and is not written to serve
any literary purpose, but to tell the
latest facts concerning the unprofit
ableness of the horse.
Many of the facts are startling in
their magnitude. If it be true, as
these writers maintain, that our total
horse-cost is now $2,000,000,000 a
year for maintenance alone, then
there can be scarcely any other prob
lem so urgent and so important as
the displacing of horse-power by
trucks and tractors on the farms and
in the cities of the United States.
Whoever is personally concerned
in the immense waste and costliness
of horse-power, will find this book
of great interest and value. Writ
ten especially for horse-owners who
are finding their horse-profits de
creasing.
A tariff for revenue only is a tariff
for the people only.—Birmingham
Age-Herald.
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