Evening star., 1934-07-01
BUSINESS BOOMING
ON EASTERN SHORE
Survey of Delaware, Maryland and
Virginia Counties Reveals Section Is
Leading Other States in Prosperity.

q wholly different gauge Of sentiment
from that existing elsewhere, and the
answer Is not far to seek.
What the Western and Southern
farmer apparently has never been able
to learn the farmers OF the peninsula
have realized through all the three
centuries since the original settlement
by Swedish, Dutch and British i'm
migrants Peninsula farmers have
learned that If one crop fails another
may prove q real bumper and that
rarely do all of them fail.
At a recent gathering Of agricul-
tural and business leaders here-and
only one of the group was poll
tician-the remark was made that
My county has not known such pros
perity as this in a dozen years"
Here's our situation" said this
man, a bank director from George
town, county seat of Sussex; the
peach crop was Winter-killed; there
isn't a carload of that fruit in the
whole county. The apple crop is away
of, too But look at our wheat,
waist high, full cared and golden;
they're harvesting 1t right now to
sell around a dollar a bushel to COM
pare with about half that year ago.
Corn is coming on amazingly; sweet
potatoes are doing well and the grape
crop-never big money-maker, how
ever-is promising. All around the
Delaware farmer is in a position to
strike handsome balance on his
books this year."
The politician-a United States
Senator-entered the colloquy. saying:
Il haven't the figures for the whole
State but our county relief rolls have
shrunk 40 per cent since June, 1888.
This reduction in the census of the
involuntarily idle applies at least to
the agricultural area Of the State and
includes the minor towns and bor-
oughs southwark from Newcastle.
1T was not until the Federal Gov
ernment barged into the relief field
that anybody down here ever thought
that organized governmental relief
was necessary interposed a Kent
County banker. You can call cur
rent conditions prosperity or Just
the persistence of normal conditions.
the Peninsula has never known the
depression since 1929, except for the
industrial shutdownS in Wilmington,
our only big city
In this whole period, we've lost
only two banks. They did not fail, but
were taken over by the stronger flnan-
cial institutions and liquidated. dollar
for dollar Were it not for our poll
ticians. this with a wink at the
Senator-"for they are always eager
to horn in on the distribution OF any
Federal largesse, Delaware, and prob
ably the Maryland and Virginia coun-
ties. too. wouldn't have needed
penny from any of the alphabetical
agencies at Washington"
Touring the Peninsula by the broad
du Pont highway, or through the su-
perb linking system of concrete roads
which gridiron the whole area like
the interstices Of big jigsaw puzzle
the farmers are to be seen working the
healthy looking fields. The home.
steads and outbuildings have q we'll
kept look. the country stores are
crowded with buyers and, in the little
towns, the chain-Stores,. cash empo-
RUINS always, are thriving.
Ask any farmer on the Peninsula
why his region prospers and you will
get the instant answer: I'VE fellows
are farmers, not one-crop producers.
We farm IL months in the year, with
our homes for our headquarters. We
pay as we go. both our private obliga-
tions and our taxes. We eat the
produce Of our own fields and gardens.
The suit case farmer as the West
knows him. spending three-fourths of
his time outside the planting and har-
vesting period in Kansas City. Den
yer, Omaha or Minneapolis. and trek
king OFF in his flivver to Florida or Los
Angeles for the bitter weeks Of jan
uary and February, doesn't show in
our census at all
Copyright, 1894. by the New YORK
Herald-Tribune.l