The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-08-22

BAPTIST Preacher, Who Had Kept
I'D the improvements in His Attain
IA Home. says a Visit to Old scenes
in the State Shows a Spirit of Pros
perity Beyond His Expectation.
Rev. John z. White, pastor Of the
Second Baptist churcn Of Atlanta,
Ga. after an absence i ten Years.
las been revisiting tha scenes of his
youth and young manhood. and was
in Raleigh Thursday and spent the
oav with friends returning from a
visit to his brother. Mr.. R. b. White,
at FrankIinton. During the last
years of his stay in North Carolina,
Dr. White was secretary of the Bap-
list State Convention, which is the
most influential and useful place in
the gift Of that great church requir-
ing the incumbent of hat position
to literally live IN the saddle and know
North Carolina from the mountains
to the sea. DR.. White knew the State
in all its life as we'll as any man in
it and upon mis- return, after this long
absence, was greatly impressed with
the substantial progress and develop
ment that he noted along every line.
Speaking yesterday, before returning
t. his home in Atlanta, Dr.. White
sad:
i have kept up with the general
conditions of progress in North Car
Gina, being a daily reader OF The
News and Observer and was prepar-
ed for the signs Of GREAT Improvement
III conditions, but an opportunity to
look at matters at close range have
mad ~ - - D-r - - & ~ w 10
yond my expectation. | have been
especially struck With the improved
social and educational status in the
country districts. l revisited the
scenes of my birth in Clayton, John
ston county, and saw the farms there
III as high state Of cultivation as any
ever saw in the boasted agricultural
region of Georgia. The signal evil
dence Of a broader intelligence is seen
IN the Improvement in the country
roads and the more p~retentious dwell
lnSS of recent erection, being proof
of the fact that the people are more
prosperous financially and also more
appretlatiVe Of the cultivated con-
ditions of life. 1t would be difficult
TO ma in all the South a community
OF thrlfter spirit Or of higher moral
character than Clayton. | saw SIM
lar conditions at my old home in
Holly Springs, Wake county. also in
thatham county near PittSbOro. The
Httle village of Apex surprised me by
us ambitious appearance. The price
81 real estate and the general air of
prosperity are proof of progress and
development and prosperity.
i spent several days at Franklin
ION, IN Franklin county, and was in
d position to tell the people that an
clncer Of a Trust Company in Atlanta,
VINO recently visited their community
10 investigate their township bonds,
reported to his TrnSt C0mnanE thar
~frankhnton township was the most
Nide awake country township and
mao the best system Of up-to-date
country roads that he had seen in his
Investigations in the whole South.
| have been especially impressed
WIN the wonderful revival Of agri-
culture. Everybody is talking farm
ing. ! can remember when in this
same place politicians had no surer
appeal TO the p~rejudices of their au-
HlenceS than to make light of the
educated farmer, the man who tried
'o apply scientific mathods to his
business. But a politician would have
snlaIl hearing in these same commu-
mites along that line today. Not only
the larmerS and the sons of farmers
ore studying the books, reading the
agricultural department reports and
applylng the latest agricultural
kho"iedge to the soil and to the
plant, but the uSiness men and
%tankers and pcs sssional men are
turning to the farms. One of the
most influential farmers in one of the
communities l visited is the cashier
vi q bank who turned to farming as
an intellectual interest and has be-
come Sir Oracle in his community on
now to make cotton and corn. More
thdh mat, he is demonstrating on hS
own farm the practical values OF
scientific, knowledge. The best evil
uehce. 1t appears to me, to prove
mat North Carolina is forging for