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01 interest paid. Ten per cent is usually added to
make the “time price,” and as the note or account
runs for only six months it is equivalent to twenty
per cent per annum. Even if only 6 per cent is
added it is equivalent to 12 per cent interest
per annum. Ten per cent per year is considered
a good dividend upon capital invested. So when
farmers pay, through “time prices” for fertilizers,
the equivalent of twenty per cent, they are a pay
ing twice as much as the world considers a good
line for capital, and more than three times the le
gal rate of interest. And yet this tremendous
economic error is made by thousands of farmers
in North Carolina who have surplus enough to pay
cash for fertilizers, but who buy on credit, just be
cause that commodity is sold that way by the
manufacturers, and allow the banks to carry their
four per cent, while they pay twenty per cent on
their fertilizer purchases, or sixteen per cent more
than the banks pay for deposits on time certifi
cates.
THE VALUE OP RURAL CREDITS.
A great deal has been written and said about
better rural credits, and it is an important eco
nomic question, but rural credits wouldn’t be
worth much to the farmer who foolishly holds on
to his cash, for fear he “might need it,” and then
uses his individual credit to his own hurt by pay
ing twenty per cent interest on money. Better ru
ral credits would, however, help the wise farmer
who could see the wisdom borrowing money at six
per cent interest to save fourteen per cent on a
' fertilizer account. Along with better rural credits
it will be necessary in the South to conduct a vig
orous educational campaign to teach farmers les
sons in business which they have not learned yet.
The necessity for this is all the more apparent in
view of the fact that such a large per cent of our
farmers, who have by close economy and self-de
nial, accumulated a little surplus, do not know
what to do with it, except to turn it over to some
body else to invest and use in their business.
EXTRAVAGANCE ON THE FARM.
It is a notable fact that lots of folks do not
know what to do with prosperity. In late years
the standard of living has been raised to a point
where a tremendous crash would be inevitable un
der sudden financial reverses. President Dabbs,
of the South Carolina Farmers’ Union, comments
JNION FARMER
[Thursday, January 23, 1913.
I in the Progressive Far-
r recently said to the
g a good work to se-
Df farm products, but
that I feel is of even
d should be stressed
should try to impress
sndous evils of extrav-
;o me that our people
conomy. By the time
ir of fine mules And a
it be traded off for
Ificing the well-tried
wagon for something
i, while there were
a the old.’
hat the bank loans of
le total value of the
y a quarter of a mil-
any men seemed to
)f what they would
ow more money than
rops would make, and
I on high-priced stock
Id make just as much
ept the farmer under
y reason of his over-
lyraents, it kept the
> that they are not in
assistance they would
E3LINQUENTS.
an economic necessity,
’ organization, is a ne
ed reserve force to be
it gives^ power and in
fluence to a class of people who' are powerless
when acting single-handed, as individuals. In a
county in the middle part of the State last year a
ginner at the county seat established a new gin
ning plant out ten miles from town, where there
was but little competition. At this county gin
ning plant a price was made for ginning that was
twenty-five cents higher per bale than at the gin
located at the county seat. A Local Union prompt
ly served notice that they demanded the same
rate as charged at the county-seat gin and they
got it. They not only saved themselves 20 per
cent on the price of ginning, but they saved every
citizen of the neighborhood the same. You never
know when something will arise that needs the
potent cohesive force of organization. No pro
gressive, hustling, wide-a-wake neighborhood can
afford to do without the Local Union. In this con
nection we again urge each Local Union to ap
point a committee on delinquents to see any de
sirable members who may have become indiffer
ent enough to drop out of ranks. Of course there
are some who have quit the Union who may not be
desirable members. While this is true there are
many who have become dellnguent, not through
any disappointment, but through that spirit of in
difference that creeps into all human oragniza-
tions, and their renewal of membership will prob
ably be permanent. This second growth is al
ways better and more satisfactory than the “camp
meeting” kind of growth that comes in the be
ginning.
CX)-0PERAT10N IN THE LOCAL UNION.
The Carolina Union Farmer wants to hear from
Local Unions that are co-operating. We know
that there are hundreds of Local Unions in the
State that are putting into practice neighborhood
co-operation, but these seem to be the ones that
are slowest to make reports, just as the hustling
farmers—those that are doing the best farming—
seldom say anything about it themselves. But
your experience in neighborhood co-operation,
through your Local Union, will be encouraging to
others. If you are not accustomed to writing for
the press, just write The Carolina Union Farmer
a letter giving the facts and we will do the bal
ance. We do not want long letters. Just a few
lines are often more effective than lengthy ar
ticles. Leave off all introductory comment and
let us know what you are actually doing to make
your Local Union meetings live and interesting.
Local Taxation for Schools.
C. C. Wright, Wilkes County.
To the Officers and Members of the Farmers’
Union:
I do not know of a better #«bject to emphasize
in the beginning of the new year than the ques
tion of local taxation for schools. It seems that
in a number of the States the people are already
receiving all the aid from di
rect State appropriation that
they can reasonably hope to get
for some time to come at least
and that if they hope to ever
educate their boys and girls, it
is absolutely necessary to sup
plement the county and State
aid by a fax levied on the property and polls of
the district. The laws of the different States are
so enacted that if even the maximum tax rate
should be Voted it would not be burdensome on
even the very poorest school in the land.
We are aware that in some sections there is a
deep-seated prejudice against taxation in general,
and we have often thought that if our law-makers
could only change the name from local taxation
for schools to local investment for schools it
would greatly aid the friends of education in their
campaigns along this line. A local tax for
schools is always an investment that pays larger
dividends than any investment in stocks and
bonds, for it is an investment in the brains and
in the lives of the boys and girls of the commun
ity. It is an investment, too, that does not im
poverish as taxes sometimes do, but one that Is
expended—every dollar of it—in the immediate
community where it is raised, for the uplift and
the betterment of that particular community.
The teacher as a rule holds the key to the sit
uation, and fortunate is the district that has a
live, wide-a-wake teacher, one who can see some
thing in the profession beyond the mere compen
sation which she gets out of it in dollars and
cents. We have always maintained that there are
not many communities that could not be induced
to vote a tax for schools if the teacher would only
take the matter in hand and go about it in a tact
ful, practical way, explaining and showing to the
people just what it is, what it has accomplished
in the schools where it has been tried, and what it
will do for any community that will adopt it.
As an instance of what can be accomplished by
a teacher whose heart is really and truly in the
work, we desire to relate an occurrence which
came undqr our own observation. During the past
year in a school in one of the Southern States, a
young lady was employed to teach. She soon saw
that a longer school term w^as needed and set
about the work without any delay. She got in
touch with the county superintendent of schools,
canvassed the district, had an election ordered
and carried the measure by a handsome majority.
An additional room was built, two teachers were
employed, and where they had a four months’
term they now have eight months, and from an
attendance of thirty-two a year ago it has now
grown to eighty. This is an object lesson, clearly
demonstrating the fact that men will always pa
tronize a business in which they invest their
money, and is also an object lesson showing what
a community can do when once it really makes
up its mind that the boys and girls shall have a
better chance in the race of life than was allotted
to them. What this young woman has done can
be duplicated in hundreds and thousands of
schools all over this country of ours.
C. C. WRIGHT,
Chairman National Educational Committee.
Hunting Creek, N. C., January 15, 1913.
Little things done well make a great soul, and
small duties are always great duties in the sight
of the angels.—Hepworth.