The Prescott daily news., 1915-08-04
ARKANSAS POLITICS
 ONLY A BY-PRODUCT
Continued from Page, One.)

auspices. Corn Clubs, Cotton Clubs. Pig Clubs, Canning Clubs, Peanut Clubs and what not. It is unquestion- ably true that old-fashioned farmers have been taught valuable lessons by their sons who have imbided the methods of the farm demonstrators, demonstrated that the old, hap hazard ways are productive of more chattel mortgages and meager living than anything else.
 There has been a readjustment of credit, there are fewer crop mortgag- es than usual because of tightening up by banks and merchants, and the state is getting upon a firm basis, living at home, and paying as it goes. The fact that the state government itself is getting further behind in it's finances is only proof that it has been operating under the wrong sys- tenn and needs change.
 Lumber mills througout the state are running full time, and report a fourishing business. There have been comparatively few business failures, and no large ones. The fact that all business interests are weathering the storm is proof that times are not so hard as the pessimists would have us believe. These are not boom days, but steady, substantial days.
 There is an increasing activity in Little Rock. There has been a con- siderable amount of building during the year, with prospects for more. street improvements that will cost $100,000. Employment is thus being furnished for those most in need, the money is going directly into the hands of the merchants, and the city is be- ing beautified and made more attrac- tive. Other improvements are in prospect, including about $2G,000 worth of new electric lights that are to be provided for the people of the city through the shrewd financiering of Mayor Chas. E. Taylor.
 Another sure barometer of business activity is found in the postal re- ceipts. The increase is not large, but | that there is an increase at all, re- | flutes the theory that there "has been no business" Receipts of the Little Rock office for the year nding Juene 30, 1915, were $345, 5,981.60, as com pared with $329, ,S83.36 for the year preceding.
 Bank clearings too, show a health ful increase, and commercial inter ests are looking forward to a most prosperous fall and winter season. With all these material advantages of the state, there are two tremendous lhandicaps that must be overcome. One of them is the lack of market for large proportion of the prod ucts of field, orchard and garden. This accounts for the tenacity with which the farmer has chung to cotton, for it is a ready cash crop. But it is estimated that the peach crop of the state this year was worth almost as much as it's cotton crop and yet here has been no local market and no adequate foreign market. Associa- tions of growers in some sections have in some measure solved this problem locally, but it is still prob lem for the state at large. Just so long as Arkansas peaches lie in the | n q a1~H of ket, and California peaches are sold on the Little Rock market, just so long will the Arkansas peach grower have grievance.
 This question of marketing is re- ceiving attention more and more, and something is sure to come from the agitation and education that is going on.
 The other handicap is the familiar one of ''too much politics. It has been very consisely put by c. c. aKir- patrick, former secretary of the Lit tie Rock Chamber of Commerce, now connected with the agricultural ex- tension department of the Interna- tional Harvester Company, who said:
 "Let Arkansas have a business-like political administration for four or five years and she will advance won. derfully. When this states affairs are handled on business basis like the business of huge corporation there will be revolution in it's pro-