Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-04-20
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Coxsw'n
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DIXIE GOES AHEAD
By Frederic J. Haskin
LContinued From Editorial Page1

meeting of all these farmers, and laid
the proposition before them. The
farmers sat and studied" a while and
decided that it was good. A circle of
the Sand Hill country forty miles in
diameter was taken as the territory
of the board. 1t was divided into
twenty-nine districts, each of which
had a bit of a village as its center
Each district was given three repre-
sentatives in the council of the board
and each district had one vote. A
meeting is held once a month, not to
talk, but to pass upon some specific
project. These meetings are heavily
attended.
The Board has an executive COM
mittee which meets every week, and
an executive officer in the person of
Clyde l.. Davis, who is on the job every
day and nearly every night. Among
other things he has been a Kansas
farmer, rural evangelist, and a stu
dent of the classics. He needs all of
his versatility. The Board of Trade
calls upon him to produce anything 1t
wants. Not long ago II wanted a fair
and told Mr.. Davis to organize one
but not to hire any balloon ascensions
midways. or anything like that. Mr.
Davis went among the people, and
had them rig up their farm wagons
to suit themselves for a great parade
The farmers fell back upon the story
and legend of the countryside. They
came as wild Indians, as Highland
clansmen, and as soldiers of the
revolution, bearing the muskets and
powder horns of tn cir ancestors They
showed such a vivid consciousness OF
their own remarkable story that Mr..
Davis is now under orders to produce
a historical pageant.
These, however, are the frills and
furbelows of the Sand Hill Board of
Trade. Here is another thing it did.
When the European war broke, the
cotton went down and down until the
little planter and the tenant farmer
were within an inch of starvation, the
San Hill men were hard hit. They
raised other things, but cotton was
their best money crop. In this
emergency the executive committee
of the Board of Trade held a solemn
meeting.
IF this Board of Trade is of any use
it's got to prove it now," said one, and
the rest agreed. There was the
emergency currency issued by the
government, of course. The executive
committee went to Raleigh and found
there was not going to be enough of
that TO go around. Then they went
to New York. Although there were
men in the Board of Trade with
lot of credit, they found that money
was very scarce in New York, too. At
last they got credit of a hundred
thousand in Boston. They returned
to the Sand Hills and built a ware
house in each of their districts. The
farmers were told to come there and
store their bales that they would be
given receipts based on fair price
and that those receipts would be cur
rency in the Sand Hill circle So the
Board of Trade saved the cotton
situation to the great increase of its
strength and glory.
The way the board handled the
tweet potato crop was typical. The
sandy soil of the section is admirably
suited to raising them. but the ma
tives produced chiefly the yellow vans
which they liked. The West and the
North want dry sweet potatoes. The
Board of Trade procured seed of the
best varieties of dry sweet potatoes
and saw that II was distributed. They
also made arrangements with the
railroads TO furnish them heated cars
for winter shipments. The farmers
L%--i- a. tlaa DEannaitian with a will