Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1922-09-07
TO THE FARMERS
OF GEORGIA

piece of legislation ever submitted to
that body in your interest. l refer to
the bill providing for the establish
ment of State Port and Terminals.
This failure to act promptly and
lavorably on this measure can only be
attributed in main, to lack of under
standing of che conditions which con-
front the farmers of Georgia and of
the purposes that are to be served by
the proposed State Owned and State
Controlled Port and Terminals.
This great project was conceived by
men conversant with the conditions
now confronting the farmers of Geor-
gla an N sincere eagerness to as
sist them in solving their critical prob
lens and putting them upon the high
road to prosperity, where they will be
beyond the destructive work of the
boil weevil These farseeing and pro-
gressive Ceorgians realize, as all must
do who have studied the situation thru
out the cotton growing area, that Geor-
gla is facing a period of clamitous dis
turbance of agriculture and financial
depression among its agriculturalists,
as a result of the persistent inroads
made by the boil weevil.
From maximum crop some years
ago of 2,.00.G0G bales, Georgia has
shrunk to crop of less than 100000
bales of cotton, and the full effects
of the boil weevil are yet to be felt
Our farmers must grimly face the
respects as they are. Their attention
must be turned, as it has been in 9TH
er cotton growing states, to other and
more perishable crops. Georgia must
become a state of mole varied farm
products The handling and market
ing of these new classes of produce
VIII rcsiiahly require grea,er and diff
ferent facilities at some Georgia port
. for the economical, ard satisfactory
~arehousing and ST ~ Jig TO foreign
and domesti: ma.'ket. .riy by such
r advantageous methods, resulting from
the construction of thoroughly mod
ern equipment, can our farmers hope
} to be plared III a position where the
crops TO which they nus. turn can be
5 made remune, tive to L EN-.
: This is ret Savannah's fight. It is
i the fight of the fa' .ners of Georgia
l Savannah has done VIA, it could in
: this come" ticn in the las. few months
to rr' -; tte your i;1tc-ess. 1t cheer
fully expeu Id considerable money in
an effra: to enligl:tcn our legislators
and impress upon them the vital ne
cesslty of a favorable consideration of
the bill then pending ,fore the As
sembly. While the Legislature failed
to pass the bill in questin, the efforts
have not been fruitless. The atten-
I ton of the state has been aroused as
{ It would not otherwise have been, and
= consencrated on study of its gravest
problem of today. From now on the
State Port and Terminals will be a
topic of widespread discussion in
: Georgia. Those who have not been
} conversant with the entire plan and
its purposes will become informed.
and it is reasonably supposed that
those who have been opposed to the
measure will, through such alignment
become converted and give to its sup
, port their influence.
At the State Prt and Terminals,
which are to be designed primarily to
serve the needs and welfare of the
farmers of Georgia, adequate provis-
ions will be made for the warehousing
of your products in a safe and cheap
way. For your perishabte outputs
there will be cold storage facilities
furnished whereby you can become
stock grower and meat shipper, an in
dustry our state ispeculiarly adapted
to, and which all students of our ag-
ricultural conditions realize we must
turn to i'll a large way to offset the
devastation of the boil weevil and to
maintain our position as wealth pro-
ducing commonwealth. The facilities
for the storage and shipping of grains
will be such as to promote their cul-
tivation in Georgia on a scale hitherto
undreamed of. The expenses of ware
housing and handling these and all 9TH
er farm commodities will be so min
inized in the interest of the producing
farmer that he will enjoy hitherto I'M
known and udreamcd of advantages
the worldwide marketing of his pro-
duct.
This is vision, but it is the vision
of practical, hardheaded men, who
have seen and studied what has been
accomplished elsewhere along these
lines, and who know beyond question
that SO great state as Georgia can
surpass what has been done elsewhere.
The results Of cimilar State Ports and
Terminals in other sections demon
strate most conclusively that a Geor-
gla State Port and Terminals. con-
structed under the plans of an expert
port engineer. can be made, if prop
erly located, self-supporting as to op-
Grating expenses and provide for its
bond interest charges The selection of
the site for such a State Port and
Terminals should be placed in the
nf r