The weekly soliphone., 1915-02-19
CONDITIONS IN GREENE.
COUNTY ENCOURAGING
Thrifty Farmers Taking Advantage
of Situation to Grow Food Crops
This Year.
(From Wednesdays Daily Press

sation with Tax Collector Wood re-
Gently. asked regarding the collec-
ton of taxes. The assurance was ad-
vanced that while in a few instances
delays were to be expected, yet, upon
the whole, collections up to that
time (ten days ago. had been equal
| ly as good as they were last year.
Farmers coming into Paragould are
not complaining of exceptionally
j hard times Many of them have al
ready paid their accounts at the
stores, some have money in the
bank, a great many have supplies in
Il their barns and in their homes to
tide them over until another season.
Those who were thoughtful enough
last year to raise commodities that
plants. DIR. c. A. Hardesty stated
! last week that he came in contact
with man recently who had a
psychological conception of oppres-
sion The doctor questioned him re
garding conditions and developed the
following situation: This farmer is
holding seven bales of cotton. Every
time cotton goes up one cent he
makes $35 Already he has made
$40 in this manner. He has corn,
| hay and other feeds for his stock;
potatoes, turnips and other supplies
for his family. He must buy little
and is able to pay for what he buys.
There are hundreds upon hundreds
of others in Greene county in equal
| ly fortunate circumstances. Of
course, we come in contact with some
cases of restitution. Charity
workers in Paragould do this
every day. Under the most prosper
Gus commercial and marketing con-
ditions there are always those who
failed to provide for the inevitable
rainy day. But to argue that Greene
county faces a crisis in poverty, to
insist that our people are thrown
upon the bounty of generous givers;
to hold that the farming element is
asking for aims is a gratuitous sup
position in the main and is not borne
out by facts. The writer of this ar
ticle spent Saturday and Sunday in
Lee county, where the only crop is
cotton. Lee county raises and an
nually markets more than thirty
thousand bales of the staple, as
against less than ten thousand bales
produced in Greene county. When,
last fall, the market dropped to a
ridiculously low figure, alarmists
cried ruin and financial murder. They
could see no ray of hope in the i'm
mediate future. With cotton selling
for less than the cost of production;
with half of the county's popula-
ton made up of negroes who must
have bacon and beans supplied them
during the approaching period; with
| the market for cotton even at five
cents virtually closed, it did seem
that calamity had descended with a
determined purpose to rule. The
banks were unable to extend liberal
credit for the reason that they had
already supplied the plantation own
ers for the preceding season, and
these people, contrary TO eXpecta-
lions, could not possibly realize upon
their years production. There were
long faces in Lee, Phillips, Missis-
sippi and the other cotton-producing
counties where foodstuffs must of
necessity be bought. Violent predic-
tons were made that the negroes
would starve; that landlords would
be unable to make further advances
while their regular avenues of finan-
cial relief were closed. 1t was, in
deed, an alarming situation, and the
most determined optimists admitted
they could scent trouble in the air.
But manly energy, purpose to
make the best of an unfortunate per-
iod, plenty of grit and an active will
have wrought wonderful changes.
Today banks in the bottom counties
are paying back monies borrowed
last fall and, while far from being
normal, nobody is starving and few
are going hungry. If we but stop to
consider the fact that in this coun-
try we have been graciously spared
from the ravages of war, from the
scourge of pestilence and the de-
structive forces OF human agencies;
that we of all men upon the broad
face of the globe are permitted I'M
interruptedly and unrestrainedly to
pursue our policies of Independent
initiative and enterprise, then, in