The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1915-07-06

of fulfilling His own prophecy: He
that beiIeveth on Ne. the works tina,
| do shall he do Also: and greater
works han these shall he do"
In these latter days a principle is
coming into common use. which is
better h Alladin's Lamp: Things
nave causes. We may not be able
TO open the blind eyes az did the
Master, but we can do even greater
things in knowing the causes of blind
ness and preventing it. We may not
be able to cast out demons. but we
can outlaw and destroy saloons and
red light districts. We may not be
able to call four persons back 10 life,
as our Master did, but we car reduce
h death rate at least one third"
and every year keep $4,000 people
from dying in our own State.
A New Doctor on the Way.
/ believe that we are entering a
new era. The people are beginning
do put ~AlIsseoeu eql dn eYBA OF
| ~portunity of stamping disease. The
secretary of the State Board of Health
| speaks the truth when he says that
the time has come. OIL is easily within
sight, when the death rate is going to
share with the taX rate III political
significance. The Indians used to
have great reverence for their "Medi-
cine Man." and we are more and
more getting back to their point of
view. There is "a new doctor on the
way to North Carolina, and when he
arrives the people will rise up TO call
him blessed. His chief function will
be not to cure, but to prevent disease.
He is going to tell us that we are
spending too much time preparing
for the life hereafter n not enough
tine getting ready for the life here
now-that God doesn't want weaklings
in His Kingdom; that all through the
years we have been too eager to gaze
up through the telescope in an at
tempt to fathom the mystery Of the
stars and not 6 enough to look
down through the microscope and
learn a little something bou the
} finally, he will proclaim, God being
, his helper, that if disease can be
stamped out in North Carolina; ir
J short, that Americans can do as vel
2 at home as they have done abroad.
' The Land Problem.
:. Nor can we say that the fight fol
. justice is won until we find the sOlu
ton of the land problem. Unless w
r call a halt to the drift of our lane
into the hands of a few the time i
not far distant when we will find our
: selves facing the condition that Lin
coin declared was an impossible con
e dition: M Nation can live half FIRE
n and half Slave" Forty-three per cen
of our farmers are tenants. Nearl
e half of our men who live on tn
farm have been robbed of that fir
a sense of proprietorship and indepen
/ dence which has characterized th
farmer yeomanry that through a
q the years of our history has given
our civilization it's stability an
strength and with which rests tn
hope Of the commonwealth in tn
future. The big farm is the State
worst menace; the small farm is /
finest protection. There was a ma
= in Movion who owned q fla arm so la re
h that it took a passenger train thre
days to run across it. But the rebe
If came and drove him from his nous
= and now ne is a fugitive from n
country and neither home nor fan
10 lily is left to cheer the evening of h
70 life. Verify, the condemnation pr
Is nounced by Isaiah still stands: "W'
ID unto them hat join house to nous
It. that lay field to field, till there be I
&c place, that they may be placed a1o'
te in the midst of the earth"
After all that vas said on the su
ject last year, it is unnecessary to di
I'd cuss the question Of taxation befo
ID this audience. But / am still convin
o. ed-the farmer vote Of the State
lie shown in the taxation amendment r
Of turns to the contrary notwithstandi1
re that our system Of taxation is chic
to ly responsible for the existence of t
ne land problem A system which pc
dy mits of a minimum tax on unused la
ut encourages the land-grabber to do !
tn worst. There are 31,193, 500 acres
er lane in this State, but only $3.50
"a, acres are in cultivation product
in crops. Allowing for pasturage a
Of hills and swamps there remain 8,45'
Of 600 acres hat ought to be product
n crops, out are idle. Divide this in
is S0-acre tracts and you have t
,e- 1O5.632 new farms in North Carroll
lid If you want to see this great Sta
ed blossom like a rose, force the vaca
is land on the market and into use
ed. taxing it at its real value. Fulfill t
dream of God ancient prophet, W
At foresaW the time when: They sh
Sc sit every man under his vine and u
der his fig tree, n none shall ma
them afraid When that time com
he when every farmer tills the soil VIII
si- he himself owns, then and lot ur
then, will the farms of North Ca
on lima begin to produce enough to fe
ne the people Of North Carolina, and