Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / Dec. 17, 1908, edition 1 / Page 8
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8 THE PROGRESSIVE FARMER. Thursday, December 17, 19 0 8 PROGRESSIVE (Established 1886.) Fabllshed Weekly by The Agricultural Mllshing Gompanj. Entered at the Raleigh. Postoffloe as second class mall matter. Under the Editorial and Business Managevtent of -CLARENCE FOE. as "an individual, and of every individual South- of land in the South so that it produces only half erner the farmer no more than the banker, the what intelligently directed labor would get out merchant, the railroad man, the lawyer, the of it la a Duraen on tne community, is dragging preacher, the teacher, the statesman. The pros- aown ifle ievw ui mw iur every omer man in the pcrity of every trade, art, and craft in a com- community. Suppose you are his fellow-citizen: munity and the prosperity of every indiviual in then because of his inefficiency, his poverty, be- the community, from the boy on the street who cause of his failure to contribute to public funds blacks your shoes to the master mind who or- and public movements, you must have poorer ganizes your railway systems or governs your roaas, poorer scuouis, a meaner scnooi-nouse and Stated the prosperity of every man, I say, ae- coun-nouse, a biiaDuier cnurcn, lower-priced pends upon the prosperity of the average man, lands; your teacher will be more poorly paid, this average man in the South being a farmer your preacher's salary will be smaller, your news- aiul this is the greatest truth that I hope to bring paper will have a smaller, circulation, your town you to see with me this afternoon. will nave a poorer marKet, your railroad smaller 4. And then the hooeful fact the fact that traffic, your merchant smaller trade, your bank Managing Editor I already earnest . men and women, 'working here smaller deposits, your manufacturer diminished and there in different lines of endeavor, have de- patronage, ana so on ana so on. veloped almost unconsciously " the several com- I -- & Sxobstabt-Tbbasubeb ponent parts of a fairly comprehensive and well- xEGRO MUST BECOME MORE EFFICIENT OR TBAYiLrao AGKNT lrOT,naea scneme 01 rural aeveiopmeni, a primary GIVE WAY TO IMMIGRATION. and essential part of which is this getting ?auu , s more a year farming in the Southern States,--a The ramifications are infinite, unending. And scheme of education which embraces young and the doctrine is true whatever the color of the old, not only the farm boy in the school, but the man. . The ignorant negro in thej South is one of adult farmer and the farmer's wife as well. the greatest economic burdens with which any I people nas ever naa 10 contena. r rom travel and I observation in ten Southern States, I have almost AN APPEAL TO THE SOUTH'S COMMERCIAL worked it out as a principle of political economy INTERESTS. that, other things being equal, States and com- ,nw thA ST,niresTnfln nf th Smith'tTRHi111"63 are Prospering in proportion to their iUSirf"! agricultural interests, I come to you to appeal for white population I do not know what we are e fyour support, to ask you as citizens and as lead- soing "Jl? elZmnZt lrVered before the Southern Commercial Consrress. Washing- ers to Join in a great movement for rural devel- musi enner irame a bt.ueuu3.01 eaucauon and ton. D.C., Tuesday. December 8.190a. LnmAnt in ha onth t am mn tn hoBO iraimug uiai wm neep uiui nuui uraggmg aown W. P. MARSHAL! PBOT. W. P. MASSEY, CHAS. M. SCHERER. T. B. PARKER, O. P. KOONCE, - - ROBERT S. FOUNTAIN, Western Representative E. 315 Dearborn Street, Chicago. I1L $500 More a Year for the !e Southern IN TWO PARTS PART I. my argument not on any plea as to what this the whole level of life in the South, that will make development will mean to the South as a section, hini more efficient, a prosperity-maker and not HE captains and the kings depart" : our 0p to Southerners as a whole, but upon what it bankers, our manufacturers, our mer- will mean to you as an individual. My hope is chants, our lawyers, our doctors, all these to show you that your individual prosperity is have brought their reports, worthy, inspiring, no- dependent upon the prosperity of the average table, and all of these men I honor; but here at man in the. South, this average man (I repeat) the last I bring to you your forgotten man, the being a farmer. man who, of all men, is re-building and must" re- Too long, my fellow Southerners, a large ele- hntM ttiA Smith -the man behind the dIow. ment of nnr nennla hav r.herishArt a riiffArAnt. Thirty years ago and more that great-hearted feeling. Too long, too long, ah, tragically too,!1 land cl iu ci t - ui ccuci , ui cido uo nm feci, uui. ui, the South and give way to the wnite immigrant. No acre of land will long own as its master the man or the race who mistreats it and makes it unfruitful. Either we must have the negro train ed or we must not have him at all. Untrained, he is a burden on us all. Better a million acres of untitled land than a million acres of mis- Let us remember then that our economic law knows no color line. White or black, the man whose efficiency is above par is a help; white or black, the man whose efficiency is below par is a hindrance. SOME GREAT FALLACIES AND WHAT THEY HAVE COST US. "The farmer, the common laborer of any sort, and far-seeing Southern poet, Sidney Lanier, gave long men have thought or said, "If I am a mer us the key-note of Southern development and the chant, lawyer, manufacturer, preacher, railway burden of my address in a paragraph that every man, banker, or teacher, it matters little to me Southern school-boy ought to learn by heart: (except, of course, as a matter of altruism or "A vital revolution in the farming economy of benevolence) whether agriculture prospers or not, the South, if it is actually occurring, is necessarily whether the man in the field is ignorant or edu carrying with it all future Southern politics, and cated, is progressing or retrograding is prosper- Southern relations, and Southern art, and such ing or suffering." an agricultural change is the one substantial fact I come to you to-day to tell you that . thii is upon which any really New South can be the feeling that has cost the South leadership. needs no training. Educate him and you spoil predicated." This is the sentiment that has kept our manu- him. The noorer you keen him. the richer will It is Lanier's old message that I would bring factures, our commerce, our literature, our edu- be' the tiDDer class." These have been our pet to you to-day and yet I bring a new message cation that has kept one and all of these chained fallacies. . And a long time have they been preach too: that at last we have definitely set about down to the unprofitable level of our unprofitable ed. Hugging this vampire delusion, the Southern the fulfillment of his dream. To tell you what average man, our man behind the plow. In- nlantation owner, has seen vast areas abandoned this means to you and to the South and to ask crease his earning capacity and you increase the to hroomsedee and cullies, in SDite of the fact you for . your support in carrying it to success, earning capacity of every other worker in the that Intelligent handling would have kept them is the object of my coming. feoum, tree mm irom tne cnalns of unprofitable, productive a thousand years. because misdirected, labor, and you cut the hin- Pi caching this fatal doctrine, the merchant dering shackles of every other worthy interest has sold Western meat and scooters and tobacco, in the Southern States. , . when with prosperous patrons he might have Ah, if our statesmen and public men in the nuadrunled his nroflts hv selline sulkv dIows and As a background of my story and in order that fT1 thitrtfeaI8 ,C0UT14 only have real- harvesters and carriages and pianos. we may eejts large meaning in the right per- 7 . 7, uuol,luw uemaea oy tnis lanacy, tne statesman nas spective, I must first of all call your attention to oJ.w , 7 iumg economy 01 struggled against fate, only to die and be forgot- two statistical facts. First, as to the overwhelm- X" fW i Vv5 IUlUre ten oy people too poorly educated , to read his ing predominance of rural Interests in the South, plitic anJ Southern relations and biography, and too poor, in property to build a the census showing that more than 80 per cent iut?e a?f f 5 ?US asricuual cnange Is monument to his memory, while smaller and of our population is rural' and that the South is S 9 J ?! ,!U bSta "al fact upon which any really meaner men in sections unshackled by these an- ica of which it is , ,T'U c , "c w"- " .mey couia dent errors, are famed in song and story. UVV ma ine prosperity oi every Writing editorials In support of the aristocratic mau aepenas upon me prpsperity. or tfce aver- instead of the democratic theory of industry, the editor has seen his patent-outside weekly fail of AVERAGE SOUTHERN FARMER SHOULD MAKE $500 MORE A YEAR. to-day the one section of America true that there are more people engaged in agri culture than in all other occupations combined. an c.,. x - ago man! octuuu, a tu tuo eiuuieuuy ana earning power oi these people heretofore, the last census showing the average annual value of products per farm In the North Atlantic States as $984, in the South Atlantic as $484, or exactly $500 per year less; in the North Central States as $1,074, in the South Central, $536- or $538 per year less. And PROSPERITY OP EVERY MAN DEPENDENT UPON PROSPERITY OF THE AVERAGE MAN. support, when a properly trained and educated people would have brought him wealth as the head of a prosperous daily. Fierht.fnsr nnhHo. taxation for better schools and I do not know whether or not It has ever been nthr mAthnds nf training and enriching: the worked out as a principle of political economv. avAraA man. vnnr mannfao.turAr has Struggled yci j ecu tcos. Aiiu. I v..,i. .,T-u , , . , ... " ' I o - with this as my basis, I am ready to lay down 7 C 7 1 uuoo"""u ue mat. weaitn along with a small business wnen a prosperous three or four propositions which I wish-to ham- v auuuduc, dui aemocratic. The average man-would have given us great industries mer horn t your minds: I Si i' V ' 6 Prer you are. like those in the North and West. 1. To bring up its earning power $500 more a r " . man 1S tne richer you Still arguing that education and training wouia j mau wuuso earning power is Deiow spoil the working man, and that "cheap laDor par, below normal, is a burden on the community; is what we need, your, banker has complained he drags down the whole level of life, and every that the South offers no opportunities for the other man in the community is poorer by rea- great financier, forgetting that cheap, unprosper- son of his presence, whether he he white man, ous labor means small, unprosperous banks. . or negro, or what not. Your untrained, ineftl- Opposing taxation for better schools, the rail- cient man is not only a poverty-breeder for him- roads hauling cotton in the fall and low-grade self, but the contagion of Its curses every man fertilizers in the spring, have fought passenger in the commnuity that is guilty of leaving him rate reduction as a life and death matter when untrained. The law of changeless Justice decrees a well-trained people would supply the various' that you must rise or fall, decline or prosper, traffic and the heavy dividends of the other with your neighbor. Yon will h 1 - " " w - UM I .TOllUUO. ?S?2ft,rf2"5eti!0ls of tHngingaboutW$3oomoreayear and wealtn poorer for his poverty. - - Your lawyer, doctor, preacher, teacher each v uaPuwui appear in our next issue.- . And so to-dav owrv mnn mrtn t nu, i, ha o t v. nuu ao Uiimg ctU ctCi e III 11115 W1L11 IUU UUU1C11I. ilCi Cfl J , - M. JL i , year for each Southern farm is the supreme task and opportunity of our generation, v , 2. It is' not only our supreme task arid ambi tion, but it is a realizable ideal, a workable, prac ticable program of progress. 3. It is not only our supreme task, and a realizable one, but is one upon whose success de pends the prosperity not only' of the South as a section and Southerners as a whole, but also (and more important) the prosperity of you yourself The second installment of this afldress brlelly
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 17, 1908, edition 1
8
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