The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1939-01-26
Holmes County Council
Holds Interesting Meet
In Lexington Wed.
Fifty Members Attend;
Agencies Represented
And Give Reports

And Give Reports
About fifty members of the County
Council and the County Planning
Committee and several visitors at
tended a meeting at the Lexington
High School Wednesday afternoon
to discuss Problems in Holmes Coun-
ty, How They Are Being Met and
Possible Solutions to Problems Con-
fronting U.s."
Every agency operating In Holmes
county was represented and N. W.
Carr was elected president of the
group. T. NJ Williams was named
vice president and Miss Leila Selby
was made secretaryltreasurer.
Present to hear the discussion was
Miss Louise Chase, assistant state
agent Of Illinois, who has just re-
turned from a six months study in
England, Scotland, Whles, Germany,
Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Aus
tralia. sEes ~
Holmes county was recommended
as one Of the best set-up counties In
the state to Miss Chase by G. C.
Smith and Miss Olive Dowell, dis
trict agents at Greenwood, according
to Miss Kate Lee, specialist In pro-
gram planning at State College, who
was also present at the meeting.
Interesting to those present was the
talk on American trends made by
Mr.. Todd who lives in the center OF
the dust bowl in North Dakota. He
described in an absorbing way the
problems of the farmers of the north
west and showed where lack Of PLAN
ming caused most Of the catastrophes
that have overtaken them. Coopera-
tiyes was the answer to the western
farmers problem, according to Mr..
Todd, and he told how successful the
had been In his section
Of the country. =
The social and religious life vi
Holmes county was discussed by the
Rev. Judson Chastain, prominent pas
tor of Lexington, who said we need
more leadership from the Almighty
in the conduct Of our affairs, that we
should depend more on that leader
ship.
DR.. L. H. Eubanks spoke on the
work the health department is try
ing to accomplish and said that our
major problem was securing adequate
medical care for those who could not
afford 1t. The problem at present
is being met by our physicians who
do charitable work where funds are
not provided.
In connection with DIR. Eubanks'
talk, A. B. Archer, prominent Delta
planter, told of the health work done
on his plantation. First Of all the
tenant houses are built as well as
possible, said Mr.. Archer, with prop
err screening, etc. Mosquito control
has played great part in preventing
among his tenants. Health
clinics, held at regular intervals, keep
check on the physical condition Of
the tenants also. AS result of the
health work the tenants are in bet
ter shape. give more efficient labor
and have fewer doctor bills, the speak
err stated.
Holmes county's educational sys-
tenn was discussed by Miss Dorothy |
McBee who said our biggest educa-
tional problem was getting children to
school and training vast negro pop
ulation to learn to read and write. |
Miss McBee made the statement that
there are more negro landowners than
white landowners in Holmes county
and vast majority of illiterates
among the negro population. She
explained that she encouraged dhe
negro teachers to conduct night |
schools so that the adults might at I
least leaxn the rudiments Of reading !
and writing.
Social welfare and old age assist
ance were spoken on by Mr.. Rabb |
who said the requests for help are |
much greater than funds available |
can supply. He discussed in detail
the condition Of the blind people in
our county and said there were about
fifteen such persons.
N. w Carr pointed out some ,a-
lient features Of long time farm ere
dit and showed how it had worked
in Holmes, Attala and Carroll coun
ties. Over three million dollars have
been loaned in these counties.
c. c. Smith, district agent, told
about the large increase in gardens
and orchards in the 20 counties he
works with and stated that pros
poets for the next season indicate ?
garden for every tenant His depart
nent is making the gardens almos'
mandatory with the tenant. encoir-
aging him to raise his food and feed
stuffs at home so that he can have
a more balanced diet. and better
health for his family. Mr.. Smith said
that in five year period the feed
atuffs bought outside home distric:
have dwindled to about 200 cars
whereas they used to be nearly 1000