Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1938-08-21


social experiments the New Deal is con-
Quoting in different parts of the coun-
try. As applied to farming it is being
tried in Pine Mountain Valley. Ca Viii
1t prODe economically sound? In the
JoAo'D1ng' story John Lear. Associated
Press reporter, gives you description OF
1phat is notU happening there.J
n1NE MOUNTAIN VALLEY, Ga.-A
s ,s gastp 1: for o A%s, ri n farming 1s.;
just over the hill from the Little
White House"
Its basis Is cooperation.
Its hope. as expressed by Farmer
FRANKLIN D. Roosevelt, who watches it close
ly from Warm Springs, IL miles off, is to
prove people can be transplanted from un-
happy unproductiveness on city street to
happy productiveness ON small farms. Its
theory Is that success is possible by working
together where failure would be probabl,
by working alone.
In Pine Mountain Valley, the test is
taking place under one big handicap and
one big advantage.
The handicap is that many Of the 200
families on these 10000 fertile acres
know more about city life than they do
ABOUT filling the soil. Twenty-seven per
cent OF them never lived on farm. Eleven
per cent lived on farms only briefly. The
Others for the most part. gave up farming
as failure and moved to the cities where
the New Deal found them unemployed
and moved them again.
Can Buy Farms and Equipment.
The advantage is that as human guinea
pigs in resettlement experiment, the 200
families are established on completely mod
ernized farms which they can buy from
uncle Sam, along with animals and equip
ment, on an easy payment plan.
Under the terms OF the contracts on
which the farms can be bought, it will
take at least 80 years to demonstrate the
final success or failure of Pine Mountain
Valley.
1t takes a while to shake. the loneliness
OF this pine country out of your eyes and
realize that the valley is not just scenic
view. From Franklin Roosevelt highway on
the top OF one purple ridge, picture post
card houses dot picture postcard land fol-
miles to the opposite ridge and for 8
miles up and down the trough between
Red dust swirls about you as the car
turns downward toward the postcard
through the trees. You pass the grocery
store, where the profits are shared among
the customers. You pass the canning
factory, where wives and children of the
settlers can the produce which is to be
sold in tins-for the cooperative COM
munity needs small home industry to mar
ket its wares. You pass the grading
plant, where the product of the 200 farmers
hens are pooled and sold in bulk. You
stop at the Administration Building to pick
up the overseer of the valley, w. Tapley
Bennett, known to all as TAP"
You turn off into the side roads and
begin to actually see the farms. Three
to So acres they are with neat, squarish-
looking houses to make the most of spac,
and light. You see the barns and the
fields and then you get curious about
the people.
What have they Accomplished" you
ask Tap" Bennett. Not the very sue
cessful ones, but the average fellow? What
good has it done the Government to ad-
vance him all this money!"
You are thinking of critics of this ex
pertinent like former Gov Eugene Tai
madge of Georgia, New Deal critic, who
charged:
The Government has spent more
money on these resettlement projects than
it would cost to allow the people to
homestead every abandoned farm In
Georgia"
"TAps big, rid faes, furrowed deeply