Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1915-09-02
com CLUBS AND RELIGION

mere We're said to be more than
Two hundred corn club boys in at
| tendance on the annual meeting at
the A. M! College last week. These
boys We're not only intensely inter
esteu IN the growing crops left be-
nfnd Tor few days, but they were
nearing lectures which will fire them
| still more with an enthusiasm which
VIII express itself in vast economic
advantage to the country i'm the near
future. 1t is our opinion that the
days OF tumble bee" cotton and
nubb1ny corn are about numbered
IN North Carolina; and with the pass
ing or these will go much of the
InuoDlny rel gfon that has been the
curse and blight of our country.
Inc old idea that poverty promotes
p1ety cannot be accepted uncondt-
ltlonally. AS rule poverty en-
trenches itself in ignorance and vice.
and, at best, is incapable of produc-
ing militant type of religion. This
Is the secret of the large number of
1mpotent church organizations all
over our land. The people are ig-
norant They have NOT discovered
that they live in world OF vast DOS.
s1bll1ties-that the soil beneath their
feet and the atmosphere that they
breathe are teeming with resources
ready to yield them wealth and make
1t possible for them to be a positive
power for good, They are the de-
scendants of generations that accept
ed poverty as their lot and long since
ceased to make any serious effort to
improve their condition.
Now that these boys have got In
| line for the march of progress, and
are gradually discovering themselves
and their opportunity to be and do
something, we verify believe that
nothing is to be the beneficiary more
than the church and that for which
the church stands; namely, religion.
| Let those who have despaired of the
country church take note of this con-
stantly increasing army Of boys who
are learning to do things. Let pas
tors get in touch with the corn club
boys and the tomato club girls, for
I these are the ones that are going TO
do things, and, therefore, are the ones
to whom we must look for removing
the grave clothes from our country
| churches.
There is no hope from the old set
who still whine about the poverty OF
the country church, and it's disad-
vantages. The sooner we get them
off of official boards, the better for
the cause of religion. Their influ-
ence is as deadly as the asphyxiat-
| ing gas of the German army. The
wonder is that the church has con-
tinued to exist under the blighting in
fluence of such leaders. Of course,
we do not mean to say that all our
leaders in advanced life are OF this
type, but many of them are. Many
are little and narrow and mean, and
there is no hope of ADVANCEMENT with
such men in the lead. Most of them
are men who will plant and scratch
over twenty acres to get one hundred
bushels of miserable, wormy nubb1ns,
in sight of one of these boys who has
demonstrated over and over that, with
less labor and expense, he could get
two hundred bushels from two
acres.
The only thing to do with such men
| is to superannuate them and wait
patiently for their funeral, Thile we
pray the Lord to multiply lie corn
cub boys and convert them so that
they may carry intensive methods
| into the church as we'll a into the
field. Let us have consecrasci pros
perity instead of sniveling, hook
worm piety.-N. G. Advocate.