North Carolina Newspapers

' 1 V: i : ' 1 .' . - '.I The Progressive Farmer, July 20, 1C00. r v t ". - tfQQ OS Published Weekly at Raleigh, N.C. uutciec. . psc tattt. " ' .... SUBSCRIPTION: ' Single 'subscription, 1 year. .. . ' Single subscription, 6 months. . Single subscription, 3 months. . . .$1.00 .. .50 .. .25 "The Industrial and Educational Interests of our People Paramount to all othef considerations of State Pol icy is the motto of The Progressive .Farmer, and upon this platform it ,thajl rise or fall. Serving no master, ruled by no faction, circumscribed by no selfish or narrow policy, its aim - will be to foster and promote the best interests' of the whole people of the State. It will be true to the instincts, traditions and history of the Anglo Saxon race. On all matters relating specially to the great interests it rep resents, it will speak with no uncer tain voice, but will fearlessly the right . defend and impartially the wrong con demnsFrom Col. Polk's Salutatory, February 10. 1836. DISOONTINU ANCES-Keaponslble BuDscrit- era will continue to receive this Journal until tHe publishers are notified by letter to disoon tinue, when all arrearages must be paid. Ii you donotwisa the Journal oonUnued for another year after your subscription has expired, you should then notify us to discontinue It. SENEWAIfi-The date opposite your name . oa your paper, or wrapper, shows to what time your sufScrlpUoa is paid. Thus 1 Jan. W, shows that payment has been received up to J 1900; 1 San. -01, to Jan. 1.1901, and so on. Two weeks are required after money is re ceived before date, which answers tor a receipt, cm be changed. If not properly changed within tiro weekaftfrer money Is sent notify us. A THOUGHT FOB THE 7EEX. Yes, poor Louis, Death has found thee. Miserable man! thou "hast done ' evil as thou couldst:" thy whole exist ence seems one hideous abortion and mistake of Nature; the use and mean ing of thee not yet known. Frightful, O Louis, seem these moments for thee. And yet let no meanest man lay flattering unction to his soul. Louis was a Ruler; but art thou not also one? His wide France, look at it from the Fixed Stars (themselves not yet Infinitude), is no wider than thy narrow brick-field where thou too didst faithfully, or didst unfaithfully. Man, "Symbol of Eternity imprisoned into Timel" it is not thy works, which are all mortal, infinitely little, and the greatest no greater than the least, but only the Spirit thou workest in, that can have worth or continuance. Thomas Carlyle on the death of Louis XV. THIS WEEK'S PAPEB SOME BAND0M C0K2TEHT3. Mr. Archer, too, has something to say regarding the drift of young men from this to other States. The big fact that in this generation we have sent out practically four times as manv' persons to other States as all the other States have sent to us ought "to start our people on a search for the cause of this condition. Of this emi gration we have more to. say in an other column. "We cannot hope to have fruit any more unless we spray our prchards," said our Mt. Olive correspondent last week.' Such expressions are often heard, and indicate a general awaken ing to the force of facts that have been often set forth in The Progres sive Farmer. This week Entomologist Sherman again brings the matter to the attention of our readers. The letter on "Hogology" is a puz zle; we do not know whether or not 'the writer intends to be taken serious ly in any part of it. Meat from hogs allowed to fatten in filth is really "not .fit for a civilized Christian gentleman to eat;" and we take it that this plea for cleaner quarters is the real mean ing of "Uncle Ben's" irony. It is wrong to judge a man by the coat he wears, bu. many people will do it; and a vastly larger number are attracted by neat packing and dis play of fruits and vesreUbles. There is no other work that pays the market farmer better than that of putting .what a woman would call "the finish ing touch" on whatever he has for salo. Buyers always pay well for ap pearances. This fact is emphasized in An article' on page 8. The formal starting of the Roanoke Island celebration scheme at a meet ing held on the islaud last week gives .timeliness and appropriateness t - the leading article on page 4 this week. Whatever may have been the eccen tricities of Joseph Seawell Jones, this description of Roanoke Island is very well done. The great problem of the Alliance ,is that of winning the interest of the younger people, as Bro. Bain suggests in his letter this week. No organiza tion can survive whose members fail to bring in recruits from the young people. Not only is its death only a matter of time, but it will be somewhat lacking in life and enthusiasm even while its nominal existence continues. Now that we are beginning a cam paign in which members of the Legis lature are to be chosen, the question, "What new laws, and what changes in old laws, are needed V is a timely one. We are glad to print the views of Mr. Gore on this point, and shall be glad to publish the opinions of other read ers. We have just received a copy of the Agricultural Department Yearbook for 1901. mentioned in Mr. Mitchell's letter on page 1, and we presume that the entire edition will be ready for distribution by the time this issue reaches our readers. It is well worth having, and any reader of The Pro gressive Farmer can get a copy free by applying promptly to his Congress man or Senator. Some time ago we spoke of Wood row Wilson, the gifted young South erner who has recently become Presi dent of Princeton University, as being "of Nor.th Carolina ancestry." This, we suppose, was a slight error. He was born in Staunton, Va., but his father was once pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington and Woodrow himself attended David son' College in this State. The South is justly proud of the fact that the greatest men of the country are au thority for the belief that Dr. Wilson will execute worthily and well the du ties of the high office in which he suc ceeds such a long line of distinguished men. Harry Farmer seems to be in favor of applying to the ' schools of each race the amount of school taxes-paid by that race. This idea is undoubted ly popular in some sections of the State, and some very plausible argu ments are advanced in its behalf. But whatever the advantages of the plan, careful study has convinced the writer that it also has some very serious dis advantages and some positive dangers These we hope to set forth in an early number of The Progressive Farmer. Several decidedly grave questions are involved, some that do not appear on the surface. Let not the reader form his opinion hastily or without due con sideration. Mr. J-P. Alexander's chess article seems to have excited considerable in terest, if we may judge by the num ber of replies received. Chess or cheat is not, as Mr. Alexander seems to think, degenerate oats; nor a kind of oat monstrosity, as Mr. Barbrey's in genious theory would indicate; but a species of brome grass, itself subject and the oat also subject to what Mr. Barbrey calls "the universal law in nature that like begets like.' " From the day of creation until now man has seen "the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit, each after his kind;" through all the ages it has been true that "whatsoever a man sow eth that also shall he reap." If the ground contains oat seed alone the reaper will get nothing but oats; if chess seed is there,chess will be reaped, provided conditions favor its growth. Sometimes they do not, as Prqf. Em ery explains. Men do not gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles; neither do they harvest cheat from oat seed. The educational rallies mentioned in our State News columns will doubt less accomplish much good, and we hope that every reader of The Pro gressive Farmer who can aid them in any way will esteem it a privilege to do so. For it is a privilege and an honor worth the seeking, that of help ins forward in any degree the cause of public education in the South. This truth is very neatly and forcibly ex pressed by Dr. C. Alphonso Smith, of Louisiana, (soon to become a teacher in our State University), in these words: "Not for the last twenty-five years has there come to the men and women of the South so fruitful an opportunity for civic servioe on a la rge scale as is offered by the new movement in behalf of our common schools." And ju'st in this connection let us propose three cheer3 for Moore Coun ty, in recognition of her magnificent work for the library movement. Our Moore readers are to be congratulated on the progressive spirit shown by their educational leaders, and our readers in other counties should set up Moore's example as an ideal to push lorward. to. TELEPHONES 0E KO&TH CAROLINA FAB HERS. "The telephone is a great cbnve nience, and there's no reason why city people should monopolize, it." : The farmers of the Great West reached this conclusion several years ago, and lost no time in acting on it. The telephone system has been rapidly extended, and now in many sections practically all the farmers have phones, the man without one being re garded as sadly behind the times. And this innovation has added much to the pleasure and profit of country life, as a number of articles heretofore pub lished in The Progressive Farmer, and commended to our North Carolina readers, go to show. The telephone puts the farmer in touch with his neighbors and with the markets: herein lies its value. With out loss of time in changing your clothes, hitching the horses, or driv ing over the roads, the telephone, with all the speed of electricity, puts you into communication with the person you seek. You can call up Merchant Brown and get his prices on butter or beef or learn the price of cotton or tobacco at your nearest market; you can call up Farmer Jones and ask him to send you a field hand for the next day, or tell you the condition of your sick neighbor; your wife and children can arrange with neighbors for social visits ; in case of illness, the physician can be quickly summoned; neighbors can be called to the rescue in case of fire or accident; important news will reach you before getting stale and there are a thousand and one other ad vantages that do not occur to us just now. Of course, there are some sections of North Carolina where the rural tel ephone is not yet practicable, but there is no good and sufficient reason why this convenience should not be at once put within the reach of thousands of our farmers now without it. And our sole purpose in writing this article is to bring to the attention of our read ers what has been accomplished in one North Carolina county under condi tions no more favorable than are those in dozens of other counties. Union is the county to which we refer, and to the Marshville Home we are indebted for our information. While en route to the Press Convention a month ago it was our good fortune to get with Editor Green, of the Home, and in the course of our conversation he told us of the extension of the telephone sys tem in his section. The matter inter ested us so much that we asked him to publish the facts in his paper that we might copy them for the purpose of showing what Union has done and what any other county may do. The last number of Editor Green's paper contains the article we have since been looking for, and we are glad to copy it herewith: ' "Union County's telephone system probably surpasses that of any other county in the State, especially in the rural districts. There are in the county ten telephone exchanges and six of these are in the country. The total number of 'phones in the county is 542, and 295 of these are in towns and 247 in the country; and the system is yet in its infancy in the rural dis tricts. At the present rate of increase the number of 'phones in the county will probably be increased 100 per cent within the next twelve months and it is only a question of short time before this county will be a network of wires and almost every farmer will have a 'phone in his house. The tele phone system, together with rural free delivery of mails, will revolutionize things in favor of country life, render ing it less isolated and more attract ive. Even now all important news is transmitted to every part of the coun ty as soon as it occurs. Two hours sf ter President McKinley was shot at Buffalo, the affair was being talked about by our farmers through their neighborhood exchanges. During the recent Congressional Convention at Monroe farmers sat in their homes and received the ballots as they were cast for the various candidates and mary of them knew who the nominee was before the first applause from. the friends of the successful candidate had subsided." We hear that in several North Caro lina counties recently farmers have or ganized co-operative cotton oil mills. This is as it should be. With proper management they will pay handsome ly. To convert any of the raw mate rial of the farm into a higher form into beef or butter or wool or oil means two profits instead of one fir the farmer. See on nagf S the plan adopted' by the Edgecombe farmers ifcr starting one of these oil mills. 2T0BTH CAROLINA: : A HTJBSEBY TO y , GEOW TZP IH." The following article by the editor of The progressive Farmer,, published in the 'Charlotte Observer of Sunday, 20th inst., brings out someT facts not nearly so well known as they should be, and, we hope that no apology is needed for its republication here: I have this, sentence well fixed in my mind; I do not know who said it or whether any one has ever said it be f ore at any rate, it is a big and indis putable fact: "Emigration has been the bane of North Carolina." This has always been true, and I should not be surprised to hear that the sentence is found in some address much older than the writer. Nearly fifty years ago in 1855, to be exact Dr. Calvin H. Wiley, then Superin tendent of Public Instruction, had this to say as to the matter: "Efforts to promote the love of home in the plastic nature of child hood are peculiarly becoming in North Carolina, a State where the want of this attachment and its ruinous effects are eloquently recorded in deserted farms, in wide wastes of guttered sedge fields, in neglected resources, in the absence of improvements and in the hardships, sacrifices and sorrows of constant emigration. Our State has long been regarded by its citizens as a mere nursery to grow up in." At another time Dr. Wiley said that it was no exaggeration to say that "the State was a great encampment while the inhabitants looked on them selves as tented only for a season." He continued: "We have neglected our resources and instead of making a thorough examination of the advan tages and capabilities of that part of God's creation on which we have been planted, with fostering skies above us, with a healthful climate and enticing scenery around us, we have been straining our eyes to far distant lands, and teaching our children that North Carolina was not their home, but a nursery from which they were to be transplanted to other regions." And down to this day North Caro lina is regarded by many of her bravest and brainiest as "a mere nur sery to grow up in." This is not an idle assertion, but a fact to which census statistics bear indisputable tes timony. They indicate that every year for a hundred years North Caro lina has sent more sons and daughters to other States than the other States have sent to her. In 1790 when the first census was taken, North Carolina had a larger population than New York. We ranked third in population, New York fifth. From 1800 to 1820 we held fourth place; in 1830, fifth; in 1840, seventh; in 1850 tenth and so on down to 1900 when we ranked fif teenth. (Let it be said, however, that this indicated some progress as we were sixteenth in 1890.) Nowhere have I seen the harmful effect of emigration on the State more correctly or forcibly set forth than in Dr. Walter H. Page's address on "The Forgotten Man" delivered at Greens boro in 1897. Taking up the fact that, according to the census of 1890, North Carolina had sent out 293,000 about one-eighth of her children then liv ing, while only 52,000 persons had come to her from other States, he said: "If a slave brought $1,000 in old times, it ought to be safe to assume that every emigrant from the State has an economic value of $1,000. This emigration therefore had up to 1890 cost us $293,000,000 a fact that goes far to explain why we are poor. To take the place of these 293,000 emi grants after twenty years of advertis ing and organized effort to secure im migration, 52,000 persons born in other Statos had come here, a large propor tion of whom, of course, had come for health. But counting the sick and dying at $1,000 each, we had still lost $241,000,000 by the transaction. This calculation gives a slight hint of the cost of ignorance and the extrava gance of keeping taxes too low." Let me add, parenthetically, that when Dr. Page says the emigration "had up to 1890 cost us $293,000,000," it is clear that he means the cost had been that for the generation living in 1890 alone. The estimate does not take into consideration the loss the Stat Had sustained by the emigra tion of persons not living in 1890. Not less startling than the 1890 fig ures, mentioned by Dp Page are those given in the 1900 census report, which I have had the melancholy pleasure of examining within the last few days. Before getting to aggregates, let us consider some of the figures in detail, taking up those States in which 5,000 or more native North Carolinians now live. There are fifteen States in this class, while only Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina have sent t more than 5,000 to us. ' V - J To Alabama North Carolina has sent 12,102 persons; Alabama has sent us 927. Twenty-thousand men and women have gone from this State to Arkan sas; 300 Arkansas travelers have come to us. Over 13,000 natives of North Caro lina now live in Florida; Florida has sent us only 388 persons. Thirty-two thousand Tar Heels are in Georgia; we have within our bor ders 5,617 Crackers. In Illinois are 5,883 natives of tur State; we have 454 persons in return. Indiana has exchanged on a basis of 11,310 North Carolinians for 488 of her citizens. Mississippi has 15,639 living son3 and daughters of North Carolina; wa have 578 natives of Mississippi. More than 10,000 persons have gone from this State to Missouri; only 358 have come from Missouri to us. Some of New .York's strongest men are in the ranks of the 8,771 we have sent her; she has sent us 1,740. Our exchange with Pennsylvania has been at the ratio of 6,741' for X759. South Carolina is the only j State of my list that has toted fair with us. We have 31,513 of her citizens and have sentj.her only 29,521 of ours in return. t , Tennessee has profited at the rate of 28,405 for 6,784. ' ' - Texas has taken 23,065; we have from the Lone Star State only 386. Last of all, Virginia, the State in which most North Carolina exiles live 53,235 of them; and of all States, with the sole exception of South Caro lina, has sent most to us 25,619. Now for aggregates. Altogether (to these fifteen States and to the others having less than 5,000 native Tar Heels) North Carolina has sent out 331,258 of her sons and daughters now living one-seventh of the total num ber while we have within our borders only 85,290 persons born in other States. This shows a net loss to us of 245,968 persons, meaning a cost to the State of a quarter of a billion dol; lars, as Dr. Page would say. And as he would say, furthermore, "when we remember that almost every one of these emigrants went to States where taxes were higher and schools were more numerous and better, and where competition is fiercer, and when we remember that they went from a State that is yet sparsely settled and richer in natural opportunities than the States to which most of them went" the fact that something is wrong somewhere "becomes tragically obvious." The writer has been pondering this matter ever since Mr. Paul Collins an nounced at the last A. and M. College commencement that 18 of the 22 young men who graduated there last year now hold positions in other States. I could hardly believe it. Here in the midst of this industrial awakening in North Carolina over 80 per cent of an A. and M. graduating class leave the State within a year after they get their diplomas! I am not blaming this excellent institution; I am sure it has not encouraged the exodus. But I mention the fact because it is such a striking illustration of the drift of our young manhood to other States because it speaks loudly enough to bring the matter to the attention of all our people. Our greatest resource is not our farms or forests or factories, but our educated manhood, and it is perhaps not too much to say that North Caro lina could better have lost a dozen of its cotton factories or a hundred of its saw mills than these eighteen well trained young men who left our. State last year. And all this emigration in the face of the fact that no young man who wishes to .find great work to do or great movements to aid or great re sources to develop need go beyond the borders of North Carolina as is very well set forth, for instance, in this paragraph from a recent number of the Biblical Recorder: "Think of it, the Governor said it, North Carolina is the poorest and the most illiterate State! But when Mr. John Small gets his water-way con structed, and Mr. D. A. Tompkins and the Messrs. Fries, the Dukes and the Holts get their cotton mills all going, and Dr. Holme3 gets his roads built, and Governor Aycock gets the schools running eight months, and Judge Clark gets our history written and known, and Editor Caldwell gets men to thinking in politics inat. fighting why, we shall have the ? est, most intelligent and best St in the round world. And all is before the, young men and women graduated the other day shall be? men and women; and much of it some who did not go to college, ' there ever such a time to come f t in North Carolina?" orti ": But it is clear that the gr tion is whether or not the Repr right in thinking that our young J are going to stay here and do & work. At any rate these questions ti not down: What is the matter with our Sta or what is the matter with her so&jj Is it not true that there is a grea$ work here for them to do ? If So can they be made to see it ? Are there conditions that form a barrier to pr0g ress ? If so, what are they and ho can they be remedied or removed? Here is a problem big enough for our public men, our editors, 0iir speakers, our thinkers in every spj of activity. Tt ifl Tiitrh t.imA fnr.-na ir can l , -o - - .v oic way it is that we must still sorrowfully C0B. I f ess, as Calvin H. Wiley confess I fifty years ago, that North Carolina 'J regarded by many of her best neonlJ as a mere nursery to grow up in." The Thinkers, THE APPALACHIAN PASS. It may be added that it is doubtful if the peop1e of Piedmont and West ern North Carolina are alive to tht importance of thi3 park proposition, All scientific testimony agrees tk the disastrous floods which these seo tions have recently suffered were due to the destruction of the forests. But for it we would not have had the re cent stories of ruined crops and ruin ed lands nor the present spectacle of sandy wastes on creeks and riyerriii- with waving grain or rich green gra3s upon which sleek cattle fed, on which! the eye has been wont to feast. The! work of def orestration goes on apacel and unless it is stopped there wi))K, recurrence of floods and accompany ing destruction. Anything that is cal- cuiatea to moany tneir energy suuim i i j i c . J De naueu as a oeueuceucc , auu uu is the practical view of the Appalaj chian national park proposition for; the readers of The Observer. It is a dazzling idea, that of a great, i i it ! pars ot two million acres mure wi in North Carolina than in any other. State cared for, protected and beau tified by the government, a perpetuij reservation, a pleasure ground for tL5 people. But ours in the more utilitij rian view. This reserve is needed i a protection to the lower country against tne iorces oi nature. lotte Observer. ONE M0BE BOY FOB THE DU8T El The News and Observer, Rale. N. C, of May 6th, contains the ioll ing item, which was read by thousas-, of people in North Carolina and K forgotten: J "A thirteen-year-old boy in ScOj land County was convicted of steah stationery from a Gibson mercba The judge regretfully sent him to tt, chain-gang to associate with harden?, criminals." , I And so the old, sad story repeats tj self in ever-varying form, and the offense against which God and na have pronounced the severest of curses is again committed in a Cbr tian state. Has not the time corns some force in society to find soff( thing better to do with weak, help' neglected, erring boys than to con them to the hardening school of chain-gang? Think of a great Staj of two millions of people, with aUj machinery of government and V'k ment, arrayed against a pitiiui weak boy just entering upoa hte tJ and grinding him to dust with itM exorable machinery, his only c weakness and the neglect of Paren and State ! Among these million a j thre not thousands of men aoa J men with human heart3 to derfl 3 that this kind of barbarism shall ce at once and forever in this go00 J State 2 Can not the people underst that it is not the State's chief busm ) to punish? Will another General sembly of the. State refuse to an adequate appropriation for a j j of reform to which boys like thiy be sent to be made into men m3 of judicially sending them to heu i the chain-sam??-Atlantic al Journal. r r V V,-