Newspapers / Gates County Index (Gatesville, … / Dec. 5, 1945, edition 1 / Page 12
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GATES COUNTY INDEX Published Every Wednesday at Gatesville, N. C., by Parker Brothers, Inc. Publishers of The Hertford County Herald, Ahoskle, N. C.: The Jackson News, Jackson, N. C.; Bertie Ledger-Advance, Windsor, N. C.; Gates County In dex, Gatesvllle, N. C. National Advertising Representatives Newspaper Advertising Service, Inc. 188 W. Randolph St., Chicago SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One year: $2.00; Six months, $1.25. Isle of Wight Counties in Virginia. _ Beyond the Above Area East of the Mississippi River Rates are. One year, $2.25; Six months, $1.50. West of Mississippi River and Outside U. S.: One year, $3.00; Six months, $1.75._ Entered as Second-Class Matter October 22 1933 at tne Post Offlc7~ta Gatesvllle, N. C., under the Act of March 3, 1879._ Member: N. C. Press Assn, and National Editorial Association. FARMERS PROFIT DURING WAR American farmers as a whole have employed their boom wartime incomes to increase their financial assets more than three-fold since the start of the war and to reduce their overall debt by about a billion dollars, thus giving them greater resources than ever before to meet the prob lems of reconversion. This is disclosed on a study of data put out by the Bureau of Agricultural Economics of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. This study does not include farmers’ ownership of life insurance, which is known to have increased substantially during the war. At the beginning of this year, the figures show, the farm population as a whole had accumulated nearly $17 billions in financial resources, consisting of demand and time de posits, currency, U. S. Savings Bonds, receipts on crops stored in warehouses, and investments in cooperatives. At the same time they had reduced their liabilities, consisting of real estate mortgages and non-real estate debt, to just under $9 billions. As a result, this gave farmers as a whole nearly $2 in financial assets for every dollar they owed. In contract, at the beginning of 1940, financial resources of farmers as a whole aggregated some $5 1/4 billions while total debts were approximately $10 billions. Thus, when the war was started, farmers had little more than $1 in financial assets for every $2 they owed, the reverse of to day. As a matter of fact, the ratio now is probably better than the above figures (the latest available) show since farmers have undoubtedly added to their resources this year. PEACETIME PATRIOTS Patriotism runs high during a war, when a people is drawn together by the necessity of meeting a common foe. Then self-interest and prejudices are likely to be at their lowest ebb. Then the positive characteristics of a country stand out in the minds of its citizens, who search for the answer to “What are we fighting for?” Despite pessimistic reports to the contrary, most service men knew why they had taken up arms. In the strain of war, the people on the home front, too, found an answer. But with the peace signed, comes the real test. When the emotionalism of war is done, and Americans being picking up the threads of their old existence, will they forget those things they learned during the struggle? Will they find now only their country’s negative characteristics? Will they feel their patriotic contributions ill spent in the face of resurging self interest and prejudice? INCENTIVE AND ABUNDANCE Often those who have the most, do the most kicking. Ap parently that is as true of a nation as of. individuals. The uproar in this country over prices, wages, production, pur chasing power and living standards, ignores the great ad vantages we enjoy. America is a country of material abundance. Our land is fertile. Our forests are productive. Our rivers are mostly navigable. Our industry hums with activity. Our cities are thriving. It is not possible to measure the wealth of our blessings. The outlook for the future is even brighter. If we do not get the things that the optimists prophesy in the postwar era, it will be no one’s fault but our own. The great bene fits that have derived by all the people were not brought about simply because they were ours just for the asking. They were brought about because we worked hard. The tragic fact is that in the midst of our abundance, we seem to have forgotten that it did not come easily. We must be careful for if we let our incentive die, it is certain that we will lose our abundance. Does your butter taste differently lately? Maybe it’s but ter.—Omaha World-Herald. I:-' \ Roy Parker s Column COLLEGIATE R-C . . . Here is that list of Roanoke-Chowan students at the University of North Carolina I promised some weeks ago: Jesse (Jack) W. Bar nes, Ralph Basnight, Jesse G. Jernigan, Louis C. Mitchell, Irv ing P. Newsome, of Ahoskie; Her sey G. Jenkins, Robert J. Jen kins, William Marsh, Aulander; Caroline L. Long, William G. Long, and Willie J. Long', Garys burg; Brode T. Duke, Ruth G. Gay, Lemuel R. Holloman, and Billy Buffaloe, Jackson; William L. Askew, Jr., Eure; Norman L. Branch, Rich Square; Curtis E. Butler, Kelford; James J. Parke, Jr., and Russell H. Johnson, Con way; Reginald Rawls, Woodland; Charles L. Revelle, Jr., Mur freesboro; Leon K. Cowan, Pow ellsville. OTHER R-CERS . . . Football has been bringing them up this way in big bunches lately. There have been a couple of football weekends when the house and lot where I spend the collegiate months was fairly well filled with outdoor standees and inside house sitters. If I were to list the downhomers I’ve seen around these parts lately the job of col umn writing for the week would be a simple job of name calling. **• H* * RUNDOWN ... As a column writer I am all rundown this week. A week’s lack of practice has shunted my thoughts in oth er more pressing and profitable channels. Something or other got into my throat sound box a couple of weeks ago and it took a week of horizontal bed position to rectify the damage done. That is by way of explaining why you didn't get the usual production last week. STANDING IN LINE . . . This is an open invitation to some un ion organizer to come up this way and put on a strike. I'd like to affiliate with some organization that would put on a sitdown strike. My feet are tired from standing in line. WAITING LISTS . . . Peeve No. 2 is the business of being told I’ll have to put my name on the list—with or without cash deposit—for “thing’s to come.” Since the Pall of 1941 I have been spouting daily lectures to students in advertising and bu siness management, and one of the favorite themes has been, “What a buyer’s market this country will have when this war is ended.” The only thing that saves me now is the fact that President Truman hasn’t yet proclaimed the war’s end. Only that technicality has saved me from being the perfect liar. SWEET CONTEMPLATION. . . . Grouchiness could get the better of me right this moment if it were not for my thoughts of what is to come. When we get over this labor-management sit down strike and when competi tive markets are restored, I am going to get extra value out of the smiles and the sweet talk that will be dished out to us all by people bent on selling some thing. Rural Industries Conference Held In Raleigh Last Week; Speakers Discuss State's Opportunities Practical methods for utilizing North Carolina’s natural re sources and the development of small industries in the areas of raw-material production were voiced by more than a dozen speakers at the two-day session of the North Carolina Rural In dustries Conference at the Sir Walter Hotel last Thursday and Friday. Attending the .Conference from this section were J. P. Nowell and Mayon Parker of Ahoskie. Approximately 100 business leaders from all sections of the State attended the conference, which drew up a definite and continuing program for the es* tablishment of native industries in the rural areas of the State un der the direction of an executive committee of twenty-five persons to be named by Governor R. Gregg Cherry, who called the Raleigh conference. Heading the list of speakers were Dr. Paul W. Chapman, dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Georgia; form er Governor J. Melville Brough ton of Raleigh; and Governor El lis Arnall of Georgia, who gave a short unscheduled talk on the industrial potentialities of the South. Creates Jobs Speaking on “Agricultural In dustries and Services to Fit Rural Communities,” Dr. Chapman said that such industrial development would: Create jobs, increase the per capita earning powpr of the people, decrease the exodus of labor from the State and region at its age of greatest product ivity, and contribute to the stabi lization of the farm population of the South. “We should aim at disposing of every product we have in the form that it is purchased by the consume];,” Dr. Chapman de clared, pointing out that such a program would create four jobs where only one exists now. Asserting that it is a national responsibility to create more jobs, Dr. Chapman declared that with out that “we cannot have pros perity.” Going further, he said, “A Democratic government canrfot be maintained in the United States without full employment.” Dr. Chapman, who has been one of the leaders in the devel opment of rural industries in Georgia, said that North Carolina and the South must look toward establishing an economy based on the raw materials and products available in a given locality. Calling attention to the increas ing mechanization of agriculture in the South, he expressed the belief that development of rural industries would help solve the not-too-distant problem of rural unemployment. The Georgia dean was intro duced by Dr. Clarence Poe of Raleigh, editor of The Progres sive Farmer, who fii'st conceived the idea of the current confer ence. Dr. Poe contended, in his introduction, that North Carolina must undertake the processing and manufacturing of its raw materials or it will become “poor er and poorer, while other sec tions become richer and more powerful.” Governor Cherry, who spon sored the conference, wel comed the delegates, and charged them to do their utmost to find a practical solution to the prob lems that North Carolina now faces and will face in the fu ture. Manifold Purpose Declaring that North Carolina has the resources and the capital available, Broughton said that rural industries would serve a manifold purpose in taking up seasonal slack in employment and increasing the per capita income of the State’s citizens. The ac cessibility and availability of re sources in given areas should, be considered, Broughton said in as serting that rural industries are “a challenge and a possibility.” Amall’s Remarks Governor Arnall, who attend ed the conference as Broughton’s OTHERS SAY— In Editorials ON SMALL HOUSES It has been a full month since all federal building restrictions were abolished in an effort to speed the construction of thou sands of badly needed houses. Thus far, with a few scattered exceptions, there is no indication of any nationwide move to build new homes. Moreover, almost without exception, those which are projected are in the $12,000 to $30,000 class, far out of reach of the people who most desper ately need new housing accom modations. Because of this, the Senate Banking Committee is to be con gratulated upon its action in ap proving legislation holding out special inducement for private builders to construct homes cost ing $5,000 and less. The legislation, a revision of the earlier Wagner-Ellender bill, was introduced in the senate with bipartisan backing and thus seems assured of an early pas sage. * Whether or not it will prove the answer to the present critical housing shortage remains to be seen. If not, then obviously some thing else must be tried. The lack of adequate living quarters af fects too many people too seri ously to be allowed to continue unabated.—Atlanta Constitution. ABOUT STOCKPILES From time to time various and sundry persons urge upon our government the high necessity of “stockpiling” so-called strate gic materials. The argument is that we may become involved in another war and should not allow the United States to be caught short of “critical” supplies as it was in 1942. Congress will do well to ex amine every such proposal calm ly and thoroughly. National se curity is one thing; the protec tion or bolstering of certain com modity markets in the name of national security would be some thing else. The government now has left on its hands some very considerable stockpiles of essen tials in war; its people expect it henceforth to concentrate its at tention upon preserving the world’s peace rather than prepar ing for another conflict. Naturally and rightly, Congress will listen carefully to what our ranking Army and Navy officers have to say about risks to which the United States is exposed in a world none too ready to com pose its innumerable quarrels. The fact remains that we pro duced or obtained what it took to defeat two of the most formid able nations that ever waged un declared and aggressive war fare. As things are, we have less reason to fear the world than parts of the world think they have to fear us. —Wall St. Journal. guest, started his talk with the declaration that “There is noth ing wrong with the South but the poverty of its people.” The Georgia governor, who has in stigated numerous progressive reforms in his state, declared that “The time has come to stop apologizing and do some thing. We ask the question of why we have no better educa tion facilities in the South—and the answer is, we can’t afford them.” One of the needs of the South is home-owned industries and the production of the finished prod uct from our raw materials, Arnall said. “We have great pos sibilities—all we need is the determination,” he concluded. Dr. L. D. Baver, dean of the School of Agriculture at State College and chairman of the con ference steering committee, pre sided at the morning session. Afternoon Session The afternoon session, which was devoted to short talks on (Continued on page 4)
Gates County Index (Gatesville, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Dec. 5, 1945, edition 1
12
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