The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-04-23
Where Farmers Need no
Teaching.
w. f. Ma SOY, in Pra teal Farmer.

w. +. Ma SOY, in Pra teal Farmer
The Ohio Farmer is disposed to boast
about the farmers Of Ohio, and doubtless
with much justice, for Ohio has a good
class of highly intelligent men cultivating
her SOIL as is shown by the fact that SO
many of them read The Practical Farmer.
But friend Chamberlain says that while
in other States the Institutes are merely
schools where men go for the purpose of
instructing the farmers, the "Ohio idea"
is that they are gathering of mature men
who no longer need instruction, but simp-
ly come tic confer together and thus seek
additional knowledge. And still he insists
that the speakers Must grow, and grow
faster than the average audiences do
What Is the need of this if they are not
there to ''impart Instruction. If the au-
diences have gotten along so far that there
is no need for the State speakers to i'm
part instruction. as is done in other
States, why have any State speakers at
all, but let these mature farmers evolve
from their wiser consciousness all they
need to know.
Elsewhere in noting what Prof. Ham
lton and we said about the small attend
ance at the Ohio state Convention, Mr..
Chamberlain says that the "Ohio idea is
fer numerous localization Of Institutes
and that only the leaders come together
at the State convention. It would seem,
then, that the leaders are comparatively
few III Ohio. for in the States where we
noted that from 1900 to $500 farmers
gathered at the State meetings, these, too,
were the leaders in those States. Mr.
G. boasts that the awakening In Ohio
came almost a quarter of a century ago,
andthat the past season was the twenty
fourth series of Institutes. Well they are
not doing very badly down IN the South,
either. Institutes have been held in North
Carolina for over 20 years, and that, too,
without \ cent of State appropriation. and
this writer has lectured there for fifteen
consecutive years at between 40 and 80 IN
stltutcs annually. North Carolina had an
Agricultural Experiment Station long be-
tore Ohio had one, and fifteen years be
fore the Hatch Stations were started. be
ing The second one in the United States,
Connecticut having the first one. The
awakening in Ohio came much later. /
And yet the farmers of North Carolina
come together hoping to have instruction
impaired, and not merely to show each
ether that they know it all
GETTING PAY FOR DOING NOTHING. |
It would seem that the only sound and
honest spots in our whole postal system !
are the local postoffices If a clerk IN /
post office steals few dollars, he |
is soon caught and punished but the man
ayers iii Washington can pass through |
Investigations unscathed. |
But it is not the managers alone who get !
the money CT the people without being en-
. IL Al. a. T.
connected with the dstribu- |
ton of the mails it is not surprising TO |
learn that the great railroad corporations |
have benefited by them. Two years ago
the controllers of postal matters in Wash |
ington came suddenly to the conclusion
that some people outside the Department |
and the railroads, in fact the people OF
the country who pay the bills, were get
ting the benefit OF some of the money en-
pended in the carrying Of the mails. 1t
seems that these postal managers can |
twist the laws to suit themselves, and
make rulings for which no one else can
see any reason in the law Publishers Of
papers IN all parts of the country had
been making practice of publishing for
the benefit of their readers. pamphlets IN |
the form Of monthlies or quarteries. and
had had these entered at regular second
class rates and periodical publications
sent out at regular subscription prices
just as other periodicals are. But the
men in charge at Washington who are
so careful that no one outside OF the De
partment shall get the advantage of them,
passed ruling Ga sort of law thew
make without the aid Of Congress- that
these periodicals could not be carried at
the second class rates, and this simply pro-
hibited their being carried at ALL Right |
here the niger" got into the woodpile. |
Just before this ruling the railroads
had had their pay for the carrying OF the |
mails adjusted by the average weights, |
and this rate was for four years to come.
These weights Included the immense mass
of these publications that had been sent
out and were now excluded One pub
Usher of a weekly paper had been aver
aging ton month of these periodicals, |
which were valued by his readers He
had TO quit on account of the ruling,
as the rost office officials decided that |
they could not afford TO pay for carrying |
them But for two years they have beenI