Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1921-07-28
EDIT RIAL.

EDIT . K A l..
THE South is naturally resentful at
~ the nationwide sensation caused
by President Harding's announce
ment of alarming prevalence of pei
lagra and semi-famine in the South.
The resentment might have been
natural enough had the people of the
South known all along that the state
ments made by the president were
true (which they were mott, be-
cause it is only human for Americans
TO attempt to overcome their diff
culties alone and without undue
prominence being given to their adj
versities. But the whole thing came
as a shock to the South because the
people of the South did not know of
any such alarming conditions and do
not yet know of them.
Poverty? Yes, the South has that
and always will have it. 1t had pow
eTty whgn cotton was selling at 40
cents q pound, for even at that high
price there were many shiftless small
farmers who were unable to realize
profit on their crop, and there were
many impovidept persons of both
colors who never put by penny, re-
CARELESS Of how easy or how hard
they may be to obtain. But this is
q condition true in the North and
West as well as the South. The
only difference, perhaps is that in
the South, with no severe winters
and with long growing seasons, less
care is taken to provide ahead than
where climatic conditions compel
providence with penalty of actual
starvation or freezing for those who
do net prepare.
o. the heels of our wave of re
sentiment at reported conditions
of which we have been ignorant
comes the information from those in
authority and those whose business it
is to know, that there really is
considerable increase in the number
of cases of pellagra in the South, a
condition which Senator Harris stated
after inspecting the records and re-
ports in the hands of the United
States Public Health service, war
rants attention, although the condi-
lions are not alarming. Which prob
ably approximates the truth, as it
should have been stated by the pres
ident.
EXPERTS tell us that the increased
amount of pellagra is due largely
to the mild winter through which the
South passed, a mild winter always
being followed by an appreciate in
crease in this peculiar disease. An
other source of the malady, how
ever, may be found in the fact that
many people, particularly the rural
tenant class, who have been hit hard
by cotton conditions for nearly a
year, have been unable to purchase
the variety of food which they other
wise would have had. This has
brought about low vitality from lack
of balanced rations, which has invited
illness
But probably, most of all, the
cause of the condition lies in the fact
that the PEOPLE of the South do not
as generally assthey should give i'm
portance to the family garden In
South Georgia it is possible to main
tain a flourishing garden the yea
around from which green vegetables
of practically every kind known ma!
be had in season and from which some
kind of fresh vegetation may be haC
for the table at all times of the yeal
Physicians assert that where prop
erly balanced diet obtains there is M
pellagra. In the South it does no
require much, if any, ready cash t,
provide a balanced diet, for tn
daily corn bread or biscuit and sid
meat, on which the poorer classe
chiefly depend, may always be sup
plemented with garden products o
some sort which may be grown almos
without expense and prepared ais
with almost no cost, and with tn
fruits which also grow in abundanc
in garden and orchard and may b
had all for little effort of the prope
cultivation. Only the will and tn
energy, too often lacking, are re
quired.
pERHAPS the South needs the Al
tention right now of health al