The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-12-23
$500 MORE A YEAR FOR THE AVERAGE
SOUTHERN FARMER.
A Practicable Program Of Progress and What
it Would Mean to Every South
ern Industry and Interest.


ern Industry and Interest.
{Fror an Address by Clarence Il. Poe, Edllos
OF the Progressive Farmer and Southern Farm
Gazette (of Raleigh \. c., and StarkVl!!e' AlSs j
delivered before Southern Commercial Con-
greSS. Washington, D. c., Tuesday AltcfnCoh
December s. 1905
The captains and the kings de
part" our bankers, our manutac-
turers. our merchants, our law
vers. our doctors, all these have
brought their reports, worthy,
inspiring, notable: and all OF
these men I honor; but here at
the last I bring to you your tor
gotten man. the man who, Of all
men. is re. building and must re-
build the South-the man behind
the plow.
Thirty years ago and more that
great. hearted and far-seeing
Southern poet, Sidney Lanier,
gave US the keynote of Southern
development and the burden of
my ADDRESS in a paragraph that
every Southern school-boy ought
to learn by heart:
"a vital revolution in the farm.
ing economy of the South, if 1t is
actually occurring, is necessarily
carving with it all future South
ern politics, and Southern rela-
tions, and Southern art, and such
an agricultural change is the one
substantial fact upon which any
really New South can be pre-
dicated."
It is Lanier's old message that
I would bring to you to. day-and
yet I bring a new message too;
that at last we have definitely set
about the fulfllment of his dream.
To tell you what this means to
you and to the South and to ask
you for your support in carrying
it to success, is the object of my
coming.
Average Southern Farmer Should Make $500
More Year.
AS a background of my story
and in order that we may see its
large meaning in the right per-
spective, [ must first Of all call
your attention to two statistical
facts. First, as to the overwhelm-
ing predominance of rural inter
ests in the South, the census
showing that more than 50 per
cent of our population is rural
and that the South is to day the
! one section Of America Of which
it is true that there are more peo-
pie engaged in agriculture than
in all other occupations combin-
ed. Second, as to the efficiency
and earning power Of these peo-
pie heretofore, the last census
showing the average annual val
ue of products per farm in the
North Atlantic States are 1884,
in the South Atlantic as S484. or
exactly $500 per year less; in the
North Central States as 81, ,O74,
IN the South Central: S536-or
1888 per year less. And with this
at my basis, l am ready to lay
down three or four propositions
which I wish to hammer home to
your minds:
l. To bring up it's earning pow
$500 more a year for each South
ern farm is the supreme task and
opportunity Of our generation.
2. It is not only our supreme
task and mbition, but is a real
liable ideal, workable, practic.
able program of progress.
3. It is not only our supreme
task, and a realizable one, but is
one upon whose success depends
the prosperity not only Of the
South as a section and Southern
ers as whole. but also (and more
important) the prosperity of you
yourself as an individual: and Of
every individual Southerner-
the farmer no more than the
banker, the merchant, the rail
road man, the lawyer, the preach
er, the teacher, the statesman.
The prosperity Of every trade,
art and craft in a community and
the prosperity of every individ-
ual in the community: from the
boy on the street who blacks your
shoes to the master mind who Or
ganizes your rrilway systems or
governs your State-the prosper
ity Of every man, I say, depends
upon the prosperity of the aver
age man, this average man in the
South being farmer-and this
is the greatest truth that I hope
to bring you to see with me this
| afternoon.
4. And then the hopeful fact
the fact that alreddY earnest
men and women, working here
and there in different lines of en-
deavor, have developed almost
unconsciously the several CON-
ponent parts of a fairly compre.
hensive and well.rounded scheme
of rural development, a. a.primary
and essential part of which IS this
getting $500 more d year farming
in the Southern States-a scheme
of education which embraces
young and old, not only the farm
boy in the school, but the adult
farmer and the farmers wife as
we'll.
L. ~.