Tabor City tribune. (Tabor City, N.C.) 1946-1991, 1956-01-25
BY w. HORACE CARTER

Communities in North Carolina that are totally
Daniels editor of the Raleigh News e. Observer re-
ehtIy SAID III public address.
No truer words have been spoken even if the state
eht Is terse and pessmsc It's Just this thought that
me Tribune has been trying to get across for over
'l!eG years. Inc future of tobacco is anything but
oflght and Tabor City along with hundreds of other
!i owns must look to industriazation and dversi-
l'c"Iioh or expect economic disaster
Much has been said of the movement Of the nm
employed farmer other areas. 1t is an established
act and at the present trades, services and industries
'ooacco growers III Columbus County.
Thus the ctzenry must concentrate its efforts on
additional industry face the inevitable loss of rev.
s-1e' FeoPie and prosperity.
\ Few years Of agricultural famine might depete
'ooaeco stocks sufficiently TO get supply back in line
nm demand but the famine Itself would be disastorous
% ms area Furthermore, with the foreign production
II blGht leaf tobacco on the constant increase, it's
unlikely that production here will suffer enough to
"Sucally alter the surplus, during several poor
seasons.
Farmers who grow tobacco have enjoyed decade
or unprecedented income increase. All concerned
would ike nothing better than main ain the status
4uo OF this past decade and maintain high crop
production and thus good tobacco
prosperity mas displaced hundreds OF implanted shacs
Ind IN their place brought modern homes, electric
~Eplances, teieVison seIs, and automobiles.
, But there IS little to expect continued
tIgn income from tobacco and there's Little time left
II Which TO ln%u9urAle the needed changes in the
economy.
Inc local IafMer has lived through and
lAe lie mas seen one crop after the other and
-aIi. lie can remember when 1t a Of
'nSh unby' and i good livelihood wa 70 be made
ro.H that forest
lie recall the era of cotton and its decline
lie Icnct"uerA Mncn noe uraI4oauo OI strawberries
We're shipped out of Columbus County almost daily
IL the spring. lie saw that market practically pass
at OF existence
The farA.e Of not many years ago coui1 count ON
!Ie financial help from snap beans, irish potatoes,
cucumDers, tomatoes and other crops. That
Aet has all but disappeared.
Those markets have disappeared for several rea-
sons he farmer saw in tobacco large income per
acre and was not content with minor profits from
production of other crops. Thus he curtalled his
planting. Several seasons flooded market in the
produce line and thus Little no buying demand.
This led to disgust of the farmer who had abored
to produce crop, and he has slipped into almost
1otal dependence on bright leaf tobacco
Now he sees the decline of tobacco
These statements only go to prove major
point - the farmer of the Tabor City grow
! continue to support him, but he must shift his
Phasis from one thing to another demand requires,
and there must ever be those persons striving for
accessible, profitable markets for the farm commodi
ties
The country is moving to the city. Statistics show
that i'll the IL Southern States in 1890, only 1S per
cent OF the people lived in towns. Today those
southern States have over AZ cent of the popua
zion. The time was when almost every Southerner
made living in agriculture. Today Only 81 per cent
Of the Southern population is employed in agriculture
and the nation has only II per agriculture.
Today 81 per cent of the Southern workers are
employed in trades and services and Is per cent in
manufacturing.
Highly mechanical agriculture and assembly line
production, has taken away the need for millions of
small farmers and they find themselves unable to
compete with big time operations That situation will
! continue to grow worse, not better
In the tobacco business itself, millions of dollars
nave been spent teaching farmers how % grow more
and more less and less while the nation stru o. oIed
to buy and store the production The production
itself speaks well for American ingenuity and know
how but it speaks of stupidity in the planning stage
This out-of-kilter production with demand has sent
farmers hurrying and scurrying off the farm One
out OF every five farmers in 1910 is city dweller
One of the other four is the way off the farm
ms is Southern statistic but it is true in Columbus
! Brunswick and Horny counties also.
Should production be cut up to SO per cent which
authorities say is necessary to bring supply in line
with demand at least two of the remaining four to-
1acco farmers, out of five in 194O will be out of
the bright leaf business.
As farmers have shifted from money crop to
another in the past, they face that task again
And not only must they diversity that production but
the area must provide more public work" for the
| hundreds of former no will fIood -