The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-01-12
PEOPLES FORUM
How Farm Training Pays,

| To the Editor of The Age-Herald: After reading your editorial, Farm Training, Pays" in The | Age-Herald of January g., I thought the following facts might interest you: SHoward Maddox, a member of. the class in vocational. agriculture at the State Secon- dary Agricultural School at AL bertville, Alabama, cleared $2o6.65 on one acre of cotton during the past season. - Another student, Harold Strickland, made $322.9S on two acres of cotton. The entire class of twenty-nine boys aver aged a net profit of. $209.71 each. though the projects were not all cotton and some of the boys cuI- tivated more than one acre. In addition to the above, twenty-fiverl ex-servfce men and twelve night school men conducted projects from which the financial returns were equally as good.
 J. W. .LETSON, Principal State Secondary Agri- . cultural School.
 Albertville, Ala. Jan. g, 1924. iS
 ~ahts FoWcE Cbeu In SOutm
 To the Editor, of The Age.Heraid:
 Tn reading your editorial this morning regarding the bid of the water power companies for Muscle Shoals, it occurs to me that the worst feature of giving these or- ganized water power companies, whose stock is owned by people who do not live in tho South and really have not the interest of the South at heart, is that the design is>; ultimately to.pwireL out of the South this-fine%and cheap power to the East. Tn other words, to make the South onlySfhe power station for the East. This scheme is fos- tered and fathered by Hoover, who you will no doubt recall, has. pro- posed 8 1systen or chainage of wa ter power for the entire country. This scheme would be all right if fthe' South was fairly treated by s4this super. power system, but you ' and I know that the South will not get a square deal. We never have. We have always been discrimi- mated against in freight rates- and always will, so long as the owners and directors of the railroad com panies live in the East
 1t makes my blood boil when I consider that, there, are two sepa- 2 aratehrates on the same commodity from the, South to the East and Middle West and half the same rate from the same points up there to the South. I had occasion once to ship some furniture to Chicago and learned that the rate on the same from Birmingham to Chicago was about double the rate pn the same furniture from Chicago to Birmingham. We have a monop- oly on such mineral deposits as beauxite manganese, kaolins, ful- lers' earth. pyrites and many other materials, and even with our cheap water power, we cannot raw materials, and even with our finished goods on account of the discriminatory rates in freight. The Pittsburg plus Is another ex- ample. The Interstate Commerce Commission itself in my opinion has shown itself prejudiced against the South. With an ab- solutely fair deal the South would 7 be the garden spot of the world.
 IT these nine powers are allowed to get Muscle Shoals you will see that they will ultimately join in with gigantic water power sys- tenn, and the rates of same and patronage will be handled by few men in New York City. There Is no question but that this is the end in view. The Muscle Shoals will then do the South no good. for, the reason that the industries using this power will be built in the East. whereas if we can force the use of it in the South the South will be built up. The press of the South should stop this scheme in the bud. WILLIAM SAYRE
 Birmingham. Ala, Jan. 10, 1924.