davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
BIG CORPORATIONS
HAVE GREAT POWER

When the Georgia Railroad
Commission opened(up its heart
and gave nearly every Public Ser
vice Corporation the right to in
crease rates, said commission
started something that will be
hard to stop. The people will
eventually see that when a cor
poration gets large enough, its
influence becomes too great to be
controlled. Our Commissions are
nothing less human than the rest
OF us, and are naturally influenced
by their friends. Corporations
soon learn the friends of the men
with whom they deal, and as
soon as possible get these men
into their service. For an exam
pie, one of the Attorneys for the
North Georgia Octopus happens
to be very close relative to one
of our Railroad Commissioners.
| am not saying this had any
weight with the decision, but the
Atlanta Gas Co. received sub
stantial increase which the people
OF Atlanta do not believe is rust
and right.
Most assuredly, we are drifting
towards Public Ownership of ali
Public Utilities.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16

true that American industry could
not AFFORD to pay the present
Ewage scales the controversy
would show different complex
ion. The business and reason
!, ableness of the present wage
scales has not been attacked; nc
real evidence has been, submitted
to show it unjust or unreasonable
And it is not true that it is more
than industry can bear, although
it is more than the A. B, and
A. railroad, operated as it is at
present, can afford to pay.
1t is absurd to expect that a line
Of railroad in an only partly de-
veloped section of the country
can pay the same returns as one in
a fully developed section of the
same country. 1t is economically
unwise to make wage scales in
fully developed sections higher
than in poorly developed sections.
That would forever prevent de-
yelopment Of sections like South
Georgia because no one would
come here to work, and the al
ready. crowded sections would be
further crowded. It is the econ
omically wise thug to have the
wealthy, well developed sections
OF a country share the burden of
developing the other sections OF
the same country.
How?
What is government for.
Why do millions of people OF
different religions, and business
interests, and different racial her
itages, ally themselves into a body
polite such as the United States
Why do they pay taxes to support
the government and send Their
fellows to jail when they break its
laws?
Why should not all the people
pay for what all the people get
Why should the expense of max
ing South Georgia worth ter
times as much as it is now to New
England and, California, be born
entirely by South Georgia?
1t should not.
Government ownership of rail
roads will make possible an equit-
able distribution of the cost Of
national. development and i'm
provement. Government owner.
ship of railroads will enable
transportation profits in one sec.
ton to pay transportation losses
in another. Government owner
ship of railroads will make posi-
bic the payment of fair wages to
men of all sections.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
COMPLIMENTS TASTE
OF CIVIC LEAGUE

If the present ticket put out BY
the Civic league doesn't suit
everybody in Fitzgerald, we are
awful hard to suit. A few may
bolt little on some OF the Al.
dermen, but | can find no reason
why any one should hesitate or
the Mayor, assuming that ht
suits the Civic League. But re
member this, the Civic League
nor. any other League, nor any Sc,
of officers elected, will ever d.
anything toward cleaning up tn,
town, whatever that means, unit
we can get some authority which
Will make our arresting officer
see more clearly, and smell NOR
acutely.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
WHERE FITZGERALD
STANDS WITH THE STRIK-

ERS-We have some five hun
dred or more of the employees of
the A. B, & A., a good per cent
of them home owners III the city
and county, living here in Ben
Hill county. They are all aver
age good citizens and no com
plalnt or objection to them has
been raised by any source, when
their bi-monthly pay check made
its regular appearance and found
for the most part its way to one
or the other of the many BUSH
ness houses catering to the pub
lie here.
Our railroad pay days, are like
an oasis to the traveller in the
desert, during the good times
and tight times that befall every
Community from time to time.
The failure of crops, the inroads
of the boil weevil and sudden
decrease of commodity values,
certainly are not due to the men
working in industries or in rail-
ways and school boy should
know that low wages cannot
bring good times back or make
business better with the. mer-
chants.
The only hope of better DAYS
lies in maintaining high wages
and securing better prices for
farm commodities. We can't
have the latter with an under
paid industrial population. The
few hundred employees involved
IN this strike represent the whole
mass Of railway employees thru
out the country and are as the
front line defense in the whole
industrial scheme. Attacked first
by circumstances over which
they had no control it became
their burden to assume the re-
sponsibility to resist with the
only weapon left to them after
exhausting every legal method
provided by Congress.
Pending a settlement by the
Wage Board of their case, the
men are taking a vacation. They
are citizens Of Fitzgerald. More
than one hundred of them own
homes here. They want to con-
tinue to work with Fitzgerald as
their headquarters and h G
Leader predicts that if they win
one article in the terms they will
demand that the railroad shops
be kept here.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
SENIOR PLAY SHOWS
AUDITORIUM NEED

The result of the play given
by the Senior Class of the High
School only emphasizes the fact
that we should have an auditor
ium 1t was a good play well rem
dered and generously patronized
by the public. Everybody feels
well paid for the amount inves-
ted, but the rent for the building
took a large share of the proceeds.
Now these boys and girls go to
lots of trouble and expense to
give us good, decent shows the
proceeds of which are for the good
of the community, and we should
provide a place for them to ex-
hibit. In this auditorium we
could show motion pictures of
the right kind. | am afraid we do
not realize the influence pictures
are having on our boys and girls.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16

a button factory as far as their
effect on Fitzgerald prosperity
was concerned, but now mean
as much, each in itself, as cotton
is going to mean.
The day when the Fitzgerald
business man could drift for nine
months and push for three
months, during cotton picking
time, and make good profit, is
gone. Why? because cotton is
gone. But the farmers aren't
gone. They've quit raising cot
ton but they are going to raise
something else and that some
thing else, or rather those some
things else, are going to bring a
lot more money when all the
years account are checked up
than did cotton IN a brisk three
months.
Pay day in Fitzgerald is twelve
months in the year from this
good day henceforth and forever,
or so thinks and hopes the
Leader. From now on Fitzger-
aid is an all year around business
town, 1t may not be as conven-
lent for merchants to have to
push for trade all the year
around as it was to let things
drift until fall and make the big
push then, but it is going to be
better for Fitzgerald, and the
farmers and the merchants and
all.
The cotton crop locally this
year isn't worth as much as to-
bacco will be this summer. Cot
ton may be worth more next
year, but so will the tobacco
crop in this sectien-and so will
the hog and COW and sweet po-
tato and peanut crop.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
HOW THE WEST WAS
DEVELOPED

Perhaps the people of Fitzger-
aid do not know that THEY, as
citizens and tax payers of the
United States. helped to contri,
butte something like fifty billion
dollars ($50,000,000,OO0) in the
present valuation of government
land grants GIVEN, FREE
without charge or strings attach
ed, to the seven great western
railroad systems that made il
possible to change the great west
from a desert prairie, peopIed by
wolves and buffalo, to a region Of
immense wealth and promise, a
section whose wealth is reflected
in every nook and corner of the
grand old u. S. A..
The U. S. government has nc
land in the South worth giving
to the railroads to help them to
develop the South. 1t has pitiful-
ly little land left in the West since
the railroads got through with it,
But it still has the power, and the
right, if it will take advantage OF
1t, to make the wealth that was
created by YOUR gift and mine
to the West and to the North. to
IN turn to help pay the cost of de-
velopingl South Georgia, and the
other undeveloped regions.
Government ownership of rail-
roads is today no far-fetched
dream in radical minds. In
Washington, D. c. ], last week. we
have il on good authority, was be-
gun a series of conferences be-
tween the money masters of the
East, not interested in railroads
but deeply interested in national
prosperity, and a federal Judge.
these conferences look toward
government ownership of rail
roads, not as means alone of
lnsuring high wages to workers,
but as a means of insuring good
business and general prosperity
to America.
The man who has notsawakened
to the realization that this Atlanta
birmingham and Atlantic wage
controversy involves something
more than dispute between a
little group of Fifteen hundred or
SO OF men and the operators of.
single little railroad line, is GER
tainly sound sleeper. 1t inyol-
YES all wage earners, in Fitzger-
aid and elsewhere. The world
has its eyes today on the Atlanta
Birmingham and Atlantic. and
large part of America has it's
eyes on Fitzgerald and a little
group Of five hundred or SO strik-
ing railroad men in Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16

Postal establishment is an insti-
tuition for service, and every effort
shall be exercised to humanize the
industry. Labor is not a com
modify. That idea was abandon
ed 1921 years ago. Next Easter
the 100000 employees have the
hand and brain to do the job we'll
and they shall have the heart to
do it well. We are going to be
partners in the business"
| arise to nominate Mr.. Will H.
Hayes for the position of General
Manager of all the railways OF
the United States. The transpor-
tation of a barrel of flour from St.
Louis to Fitzgerald is as much a
function of Government as the
transportation Of a letter between
those places.
With such a man as Postmaster
General Hayes at the head of the
entire transportation system OF
this country, we could never see
such deplorable conditions ashave
existed in this section for the last
week. Labor has always born its
share of the worlds loses, but
unfortunately has received very
little of its profits, and it still
seems to be the disposition Of
Capital to keep the laborer down
1t is to be hoped that organized
labor will be strong enough te
withstand this last effort to crush
| If
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
PUT THE ROAD TAX
ON GASOLINE

4 YOU are so fortunate as to
OWL Ford it costs you $11.25
for a hscence and tag this year.
The principle underlying this tax
is that Ford will wear out that
much road in one year, whether
you use the Ford or not. If you
ride 100 miles the tax is just the
same as if you rode 10000 miles
The injustice of this tax is so ap-
parent that no one will attempt to
defend it. Why not levy tax
on every gallon of gasoline sold
at retail. This is wearing out the
roads.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
In he Listening Post
FACTS, FIGURES & FICTION
(By r. E. POTTERY

There is one piece of work
that the present city administra-
ton can do, that will live after
them, and the citizens of thetown
will point towith pride. Tha t is
to have some decent board cross
lngs put IN where the present ones
Of mud are located.
he worst ones are where the
q. 3. and A. crosses Central Ave.
and ! believe that if the roads at
tentlon was called to this matter
at the proper time the present
outrageous CROSSINGS would be re-
placed with good ones.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
HARVEST TIME is ALL
YEAR ROUND-Ren Hill

HARVEST TIME is ALL
YEAR ROUND-Ben- Hill
county farmers tomorrow Thar
vest six thousand dollars worth
or more Of hogs at the Farm
Bureaus first cooperative hog
sale. Approximately 90, 900
pounds of meat will be sold for
about ten cents a pound. The
volume OF business at these
sales viii steadily grow after the
first one. That is new money
coming into Fitzgerald regularly
that did not come in the past, If
Fitzgerald merchants will go al
ter It and keep it here.
Ben Hill county farmers today
and Saturday and each Wednes-
day and Saturday from now on
are harvesting about $500
worth a week of vegetables, gar
den truck and table delicacies Of
+ hundred kinds sold at the curb
'narlxet. This is new money in
circulation in Fitzgerald as far
s its effects on business goes.
eople who patronize the market
fe eating more vegetables and
leefa stuff than before, are eat
slg butter that once went into
6llr milk and thence into slop for
be hogs, are eating eggs raised
IN Ben Hill county where for
aerly they ate eggs which Fitz-
efald grocers bought from other
ates and sent good money to-
sher states to get.
And the curb market is not
sxting the groccr's business.
he lines on which they make
6iit are not touched BY the
Dbl market The curb market
Adles largely the stuff that
GERS were forced TO carry as a
ice 10 their customers and
badly lost them more money
sase Of It's perishable nature
ii made them. The income
Fitzgerald is being increased
siie curb market; substan-
sum Of money. is being turned
through it which Fitzgerald
|.ants can get if they go
here are going to be water
BIS grown and sold and
<d from here tnis summer
ls win bring new money to
Gerald There are going 10
nonsands of pounds Of To-
few weeks later than
little cotton few
than that, and sweet
little later tkan that,
S1gar chnu and syrup.
other es that once
koskh 4 foW Of pms iss|
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
.Mesopstam,a,s old olorIea.

Nehuchadnezzar's vast irrigation
system. which once watered all Baby
lonia. can still be easily traced for
miles about Bagdad. One giant canal,
the Narawan, runs parallel with the
Tgris for nearly 500 miles: It is $50
feet wide, and all about 1t the fakeoff
and iaterals may stiIl be Identified.
Herodotus said he found forest OF
verdure from end to end" when he Wis
tied Mesopotamla. National Geo
graphic Society Bulletin.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
GOVERNMENT OWNER
SHIP IS THE ANSWER.

If the present scale of wages
were unjust and unreasonable; il
they gave more than the work for
which they pay IS worth. the pres
elt controversy would show a diff
Esrent complexion. If it were
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
HIGH WAGE SCALE MEANS

HIGH WAGE SCALE MEANS
PROSPERITY = The Leader
published several weeks ago an
editorial from the Manufacturers
Record, the recognized, spokes-
man for the operators of American
industry and an admitted and &C
knowledged Conservative" The
title of the editorial was Cheap
ness" its theme was that cheap
wages make cheap citizens and
that cheap citizens make a cheap
country and poor country
only for labor but for all. China
and India were cited as examples.
The Leader wants to expand a
little more on that theme and
try to bring it home to Fitzgerald
business men if it can. Under the
1920 wage scales approximately
$4,000 a month was paid to A.
B. and A. employees living in Fitz-
gerald. 1t was sometimes d great
deal more than that. Under the
new wage scale which has not
been accepted and we sincerely
trust will never be imposed, these
same men would have only about
$4,000 to spend in Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald merchants and law
yers and bankers and doctors
would have to share among them
a loss of $4,000 a month, nearly a
quarter of a million dollars year
|---more than the estimated value
Of all the tobacco that will be
raised in the Fitzgerald district
this year.
That is a very narrow, very
small, and almost contemplate
way to measure Fitzgerald's in
terests, or any city's interest in
the wage question. When the
question of whether class of men
shall be allowed to live as gentle
men or as near-paupers is CON
cerned, the Leader dislikes to
speak in terms of dollars and
cents to its friends.
However, i, is easy to see the
force Of TINS fact: if a cheap wage
scale means a loss of a quarter of
a million dollars annually to Fitz-
gerald alone, in one industry
alone, cheap wage scale in all
industry will mean loss annual
ly to all American business stu
pendous in its proportions.
Here is another fact that is
easy to see: If the millions
of men who work with their
hands and who eat corn and
pork, and wear cotton clothes.
and smoke tobacco, and wear out
Georgia cowhides in their shoes
whose wives and children wear
clothes, and eat, have one-fourth
less food and clothes, or else in
sist on getting them one-fourth
cheaper, then the demand for the
tobacco and the cotton, and the
corn and the hogs and the cattle
in Ben Hill County is going to be
one-fourth less. 1t is gazing to sell
one-fourth less. 1t is going to sell
will, therefore, have one-fourth
less money to spend, and the poor,
worried. overworked business
man gets it in the neck coming
and going.
In the above discourse, the
Leader has tried to speak in words
of one syllable and in simple, cas-
lily understood word pictures and
ideas. We hope to enable the
most untutored reader to under
stand what we mean. If we have
not, it is evidence of fault of the
exposition and not Of the truth oi
the point asserted. The Leader
welcomes questions and criticisms
from any reader on any point OF
argument Of fact we try to make
The Leader does not want to per
suade its readers into any certain
line Of thought; it wants to con-
vince its readers that its line OF
thought is RIGHT.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
Flower Il lniana 81 bird.

Hungary grows a wild flower which
|ls the exact tloraI Image Of hum
ming Bird. The breast Is green. the
shroat yellew. the head ana beak al
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
A Thought for the Evening
A VERSE AND A VIGNETTE
By Dan CHECKERS
THE "oR" IN MORN"

THE "OR" IN MORN"
The time has for slowing down. for steadness al
chance,
For doing something worthy of the nation;
Wen put the accent the lex in mad "extravagancery
And emphasize the "serve" in Conservation
There's good excuse to go slow, avoid the reck-
less haste,
To knock the b1ighting q" out of slave;
Wen get as busy bees, make was past tense
in waste,
And put five dollar S worth of 'y' in save
In aorgy now is over and the party's at an end
The pper's to pay come give lift!
Well get right down to business put the "a ds in
SPEND
And we'll cut the blooming eff right out of thrift"
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
For Water, Light and
Bond Commission:
To The Voters of Fitzgerald:

I TO Inc V07eTS or Fitzgerald:
Realizing that the Water, Light, and
Bond Commission is one of the most
important departments of our city
government and one requiring as it's
directors men with the best possible
business experience and ability and
following the solicitation of some of
the leading b usiness men and
property holders of the city, hereby
announce my candidacy for election
as member Of the Fitzgerald Water,
Light and Bond Commission, subject
to the approaching primary.
If favored with this office through the Gift of the
people, pledge my best and unbiased service
toward business administration of the same.
Your vote and influence will be appreciated
Respectfully,
D A. Bragg.
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
HAYS FOR MANAGER
OF RAILROADS

Postmaster General Hayes us
es the following language: "The
Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-03-16
THE. WAsTER

There Spendthrift----
Who lived up to the first part of his name only
And realized that his family name was the important
end of it, though the first name neutrality-suspicious.
cssary!
The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1921-09-22
Benton County Farm Bureau
LEROY L. TODD
Secretary

Mr.. and Mrs. Walter Smith, of Wal
la Walla, drove over Saturday and
spent Sunday at the w. B. Elliott
home. They were accompanied by W.
H. Thomas who was a guest at the j,
Bryson Brown home.
Mr.. and Mrs. William Mason and
Mr.. and Mrs. Jack Mason former res
idents of the valley, arrived Sunday
by auto from Long Beach, California,
They are visiting at c. Puderbaugh's
but will go to their farm near Fin
ley.
Josephine, the two and half-year-
old daughter of Mr.. and Mrs. Louis
Petitjean, passed away Monday morn.
ing after an illness of a few hours of
spasmodic Group. Funeral services
were held Tuesday afternoon at the
home of Mrs. Petitjean's sister, Mrs,
A. Owen, conducted by Rev. Shaw.
The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1921-09-22
xxMx HMM x* xxxxxx
TX EAST KENNEWICK X
y Y X * X X * * * X kx IN

Georgia Wray has gone to Spokane.
Mrs. T. Marriott is on the sick list
this week.
Mrs. F. S. Scott entertained two of
her cousins, Sunday.
Miss Adele Lum was guest Sum
day of Miss Florence Mather.
C. s. Peck is down this week with
an attack of lumbago.
Mr.. and Mrs. s. L. McDonough were
guests Sunday of Mr.. and Mrs. Sam
Weigand.
Miss Gladys Motter left Wednesday
for Paterson to do some packing for
the Big Y.
Mr. ard Mrs. H. P. Aldricn Of Pasco
spent Sunday with Mr.. and Mrs. Viii
lar.l Campbell.
EDWARD Linn left TUESDAY, for Yak
ina where he will enter his garden
club products.
v. E. McEwen of Richland, was a
guest over night Saturday of Mr.. and
Mrs. B. I. Whitney.
Harold Motter, who has been laid
off with a sprained ankle, returned to
work in the hills, Tuesday.
C. E. Linn is harveting his crop Of
Winter Nellis pears this week. He ex-
poets about 1000 boxes.
H. L. Tucker and family were din
ner guests Sunday at the c. C. Chris
tenson home on River Road.
Rev. and Mrs. Strevey and Miss Mil
bred, were supper guests Saturday eve
ming at the H. w. Brown home.
]. T. Taylor returned home Monday
after months visit at Whitebird,
Idaho, looking after property inter-
ests.
] Mr.. and Mrs. Joe Osborn have pur-
chased 5 acres from Mr.. Terril, of the
Tom Melvin place, and will make their
home there.
Mr.. and Mrs. j. B. Vance and son,
OF Toppenish, old time friends of Mr..
and Mrs. n. L. Tucker, made them q
visit Saturday and Sunday.
The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1921-09-22
DON'T WAIT

Don't wait to have your heating
plant put in condition for winter until
everybody wants the same thing done
at the same time. You will need it
most and get the most out of it if
it is operating properly when the cold
wave comes and again you may need
something which is not in the city
and it takes time to get it. We will
be glad to look over your plant and
advise you as to the best plan for inn
proving the efficiency and giving you
the most comfort at the least fuel
consumption.
L. H. RAYMOND
Plumbing and Heating