The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1920-09-10
CATTLE TICK LOSES IN
ANOTHER BIG SKIRMISH
Angry Farmers Storm Commissioners and Threat
en- Them With Political Extinction, But
Commissioners Hold Firm

tank county farmers staged one
.of the biggest indignation meet
mos ever seen. in this section
last Monday morning at the,
county court house, as protest
aoainst the tick eradication work
now going on in this county. The
meeting was held in the pre-
sence of the Board of County
commissioners, and a determin-
ID effort was made to get the
commissioners to put, an end to
the dipping of cattle by cutting
oil the county appropriation for
the work. Dire threats were
made against members Of the
board. when it became evident
that they did not propose to stop
the dipping, and some of the
more hotheaded among the op-
porents of tick eradication de-
cIared that no member of the
board who favored the dipping
would be reelected.
The board of county commissioners.
be il said to their credit, did not al
low themselves to be frightened from
their stand by the open threats of pol
itral extinction which were heard on
every side. The only member of the
board who took sides with the oppo-
ncrtS of dipping was ". J. f. Spence,
commissioner from Newland township,
WHO has the reputation of being some,
thing of a reactionary. The result of
the meeting was that the commissioners
took TO steps to stop the work of tick
eradication, and the angry farmers pre-
sent went away hotter in the collar than
ever
The men who are now raising such a
racket over the squelching of the tick
are in many cases the same men who
were red-hot in favor of the work a
year ago. They seem to forget that
tick eradication would not have been
pat on in this county this year, had it
not been that the farmers themselves
went down into their pockets and gave
contributions to help construct the very
dipping vats which some of them are
now so anxious to do away with. On
Ale other hand, it is exceedingly doubt
full whether the 200 men fighting tick
eradication at the courthouse last Mon
Gay. are really representative of the
sentiment OF the citizens in the farm
nj, Ac
An onlooker at Mondays meeting said.
some of the pen present looked like
they needed dipping a blamed light
worse than the average COW.
Republican gum-shoe artists, particu-
larly in the lower part of the county,
are now working day and night to make
campaign issue of tick eradication as
means of discrediting Democratic rule
III Pa>quotank. They are telling their
neighborS that a country is no longer a
free country when a board of commits
sioners refuses to carry out the ex
pressed wish of the people, but instead
Grams down their throats something that
the people do not want. And, unfortu-
nately. some of the farmers themselves
foolish enough to fall for the Repub-
fran propaganda, which is put forth
N sugar-coated, form that is extreme
ly easy to swallow. Many formerly
good Democrats have already swallow
ed the Republican bait, and on every
dde they can be heard clamoring for
a "change.'' The tick issue threatens
to cost the Democrats bunch of farm
er votes in November.
nn1y 10 Of
had the nerve to speak in advocacy of
the tick eradication work in the presence
OF 50 many opponents of dipping was
j. Wesley Foreman. Mr.. Foreman has
herd of about 100 of the prettiest
thoroughbred cattle to be found any
where in Northeastern North Carolina,
On his farm near this city. He has
sDent a lot of money on his cattle,
Which are the best that he could buy
IN the country, and he is sparing no
expense to give them the best care and
attention. Mr.. Foreman is doing this,
Of course, with an eye to future profits,
and lie is dipping his cattle just as reg
ularIy as he washes himself, if not as
often. In the course Of few years,
Mt Foreman will be in a position to
exhibit prize-winning cattle at various
lars and stock exhibitions, and he will
akcWise be ready to- offer pure-bred
stock for sale on the big cattle markets
OF the country. AS long as Pasquo-
tank county has cattle fever ticks, just
50 long will the county be under State
ana Federal quarantine, and for just so
iohg a time Mr.. Foreman and other
progressive cattle raisers in Pasquotank
VIII be entirely cut off from exhibits
'hG markets. Therefore Mr.. Foreman
ana every other raiser of first-class
'a5tic III this county is vitally interested
III the elimination of the tick, and the
resulting lifting of the quarantine. Mr..
'reman was often interrupted and
''uid do nothing to changexthe senti-
'lieht OF the bunch at the courthouse.
FARMERS in Pasquotank county must
.-"t forget that the cotton boil weevil
- already in North Carolina, and is fast
-, "ihlhg toward this corner of the State
lie arrival of the destructive pest will
necessarily mean a reduction in the
ocreage of cotton here, and the farmers