Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-11-21
PRODUCTS
DINNERS GIVEN HERE
AND IN MICHIGAN
Atlanta and SevenB-One
Other Cities and Towns of
the State Dine on Home
Grown Food


Seventy-two towns ate turnip green's,
cornfield ham and other Georgia-raised
foods Saturday night.
Seventy-one are Georgia cities. But
/ the last is the northwestern city of
Detroit, which knows much of automo-
biles, but little of boiled dinners.
The great total of cities banqueting
on products of Georgia farms were
celebrating Georgia Products Day.
At the Piedmont hotel, mayors of
many towns, the governor, and officials
of civic organizations sat at dinner
where Muscogee county chicken, bread
from underground corn meal, and fresh
shrimps from Brunswick were served.
One hundred and fifty guests met at
a feast which banquet" stiffly fails
| to describe.
Their gathering was like a home
coming at holiday time, when the board
| is spread with plain, familiar dishes,
and the spirit is wholesome and sim
| cere.
1t suggested such a setting as an
old, old homestead in the country,
where association has endeared every
object, and customs are Old-fashioned
and good.
! PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT.
The purpose and effect of the dinner
was progress and development. But
there was "a getting ba:& 90 the soil"
about it; a return to the day when com
munities and states were self-sufticient
and lived on their own products with
out dependence on distant neighbors.
Three other Georgia products dinners
| have been held in Atlanta, but none
| other has been. so signifcant-so full
of the spirit of this day set aside 10
| impress the need of states living
within themselves" rather than de-
| pending on other markets.
AS the dinner progressed, wire di-
rect to the banquet hall in Detroit
brought messages of congratulation
| from the mayor of Detroit and the
| governor of Michigan.
! Telegram after telegram was read
from other Georgia cities; and the fact
was impressed that throughout the
! state groups of citizens were meeting
at dinner to urge the home patronage
! of home products.
Addresses were made at the banquet
at the Piedmont hotel by Governor
|
ward, Mayor-elect Asa G.. Gambler, May
or ]. Pierpont Morgan, of Savannah;
| Wright Willingham, president of the
! chamber of commerce of Rome; H. h.
| Stockbridge, president of the National
| Farmers Congress; w. b. Hunter, OF
| Cornelia, president of the Georgia Fruit
Exchange; B. A. Tyler, president of the
| chamber Of commerce of Dalton; w. c.
| Battey, of Fort Myers, Fla, and Bruce
Kennedy, secretary of the chamber of
commerce of Montgomery.
HUNTER URGES MARKETS.
The most important of the addresses
was that by w. b. Hunter in which he
/ urged that diversification of crops be
| aided by the establishment of local
markets in small Georgia cities.
81 believe that cooperation of the
producers Of the state" he said can
bring into being a marketing organiza-
ton greater in it's scope than any the
world knows today, and that such an
organization would place Georgia on
/ the highest pinnacle. of modern bust
ness"
The banquet which, like the other
I seventy-one Georgia products dinners,
! was under the auspices of the Georgia
state chamber of commerce, began with
a toast by Robert +. Maddox to Presi-
dent Wilson, whose reelection has
! duh6N SAOAS W AiAASAAN@ tNA'N' 49, - 800 -
blessing. to mankind"
In introducing Governor Harris, Mr.
! Maddox, POSTMASTER, allowed himself q
poetic moment;
THE south is in the saddle
Georgia's on the jump,
Twenty-cent cotton,
Is making Dixie hump"
He paid a tribute to the Georgia
chamber OF commerce for its efforts
| ha nf tho state for
| the invasion of the boil weevil, and de-
clared that Georgia is spending more
money now than any other state on
| the importation of high-grade beef cat
tie.
THE Georgia state commissioner Of
agriculture" he said, predicts that
within this generation the south will be
supplying the beef cattle of the ma
tion."
Governor Harris spoke of his con-
nection as trustee with the Georgia
School of Technology.
| IL had rather be known as the found
er OF that school," he declared, than to
/ be governor of Georgia.
1.-THE Georgia state chamber of conf
merce," he continued, has done more
! for the advancement of this state than
any other influence"
Mayor James G. Woodward predicted
speedy realization of the hope that
Georgia will become self-sustaining.
! There is no reason" he declared,
| why Georgia should not live at home"
MIR. GAMBLERS SPEECH.
Mayor-elect Asa q. Gambler recalled
the old days when Georgia products
we're all that could be had.
l 81 remember a Georgia products dim
ner L attended in 1866" he said. pine
knots furnished light, roasted corn was
used to stiffen the pudding, and we sub
! stltuted 'possum for chicken-not be-
cause we had no chickens, but because
hey roasted so high a fellow of my
build could not get at them.
1.-THE progress of Georgia is shown b.
a compilation I saw today, made for a
| financial institution in Chicago. The
| conclusion Of this statement was that
! Georgia land, when you consider how
| much it produces and how cheaply it
can be bought, is the best bargain of
Mayor w. j. Pierpont, of Savannah,
said that the value of the present cot
ton crop is one and a quarter billion
dollars, so per cent more than the value
Of the entire wheat crop of the United
| states; and that 1.-The value of the seed
| is equal to the entire cotton crop of
| he year before the war"
| He described Savannah as the great
| est port on the Atlantic coast, except