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ickens Setie 0-Journal UIDMBHED EVE-RY TIJURSDA "AORNINO. -BY The Sentinel-Journal Company. TvOmPSON & RICHEY. PRoPs. J. L. 0. THOMPSON. EDITOR. Subscription $1.00 Per Anuum. Advertisiug Aates Reasonable. Entered at Pickens Fostoffice am Second Class Mal Matter PICKENS, S. C.: THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 1908. SOME CHANGES. For twelve years,'through evil as well as good report, THE SEN TINEL has been under the pres ent management, and in that time many changes have taken place in the county, nearly, or quite all of which, have been for the betterment. ipbuilding, :ement of weeks this ir home, as hope, and has rejoiced with you in y1.ur joys and sincerely consoled with you in your sorrows. It has al -ways cron1mic(-d the hoppelings pIf the collilty as it col catch them1 - th b irths, da ths, ' ma'rrhiges. 1 i. Iimm(Ig. and 4toings f its people. It has noted lie moral and relig ious npliftilg of its citizens, it has watched with pleasure and pride the financial and hidustri al development of the county and rejoiced exceedingly at the material advancement of the conionwealth which it served, and it sincerely hopes the mate rial prosperity of the next 37 years may be at least four-fold greater than that of the 37 years It has witnessed, and, in Its fee ble way, helped to bring to a successful fruition. The pI)aper has always stood for what it conceived to be the right and for the best interests of the county atlarge,eschewing the needs or desires of the indi vidual wherever it conflicted with the best interests of the commonwealth. It has made siue enemies nd many staunch .Aends, for. ich it is glad-a manl'tIgt~ doe~ not have some enemies is not nmuch of a man, nieither' is he any good1 without friends-so we ayerake' up wvith the miost of men. WVe have made mistaket; tut who hasn't, for which we are sorry anid we hope our friends will ascribe it to the head rather than the heart, andl( help us to build on those errors. io the good of the mriultitudle, rather than to the de'trimen(t ot the in dividual. Thbe wvork has b)ecomIle too heavy for one0 perison1 to suc cessfully mnag~e and we have perfected a p)artnership w ith Mr WV. L. MathenylI, who) ser'ved conlscienltiouIsly ando faithfully with this papier' several ye'ars ago, an hsle will have charge of the buisinless and look care fullyv to ihe desires and wanuts of our loyal friends and( p)atrons. He is no( stranger to'the mlajori ty of our readers and needs ne introduction at our hands. For the most jpart our timel will be taken up wvith visiting our subscribers and getting bet. ter acquainted with themi and collectiong what we have on omi books, trying to collect the oddi and ends of what we have mnad( in tho past 12 years, which, ir round numbers 'amounts t< about $5,000. We ask you all to be prepared to settle up wher ,we call onyou, New machinery will be put ir and Mr. Matheny will fit up one of the best jobplants to be found anywhere an'd if you cannot get suited at THE SENTINEL-JOURNAL office you need not try any IW.e else. TN slogan of the new man agenient will be "Pickens coun ty in the front row of the pic ture," and everything that can be said or done for every inter est that will push her forward will be done with a vim, ever bearing in mind the farming in terests first, last and all the time for "The farmer feeds us all. Thanking our readers and patrons for their support and patience in our shortcomings we wish for them a better, more prosperous and happier year in 1909 than ever before. J. L. 0. T. A Common Economic Error. For many years it has been the -custom of Southern farmers to make their crop upon the "advance system" and while this has been regarded as an economnic error on the side of the farier, by Iany lerchants it has been thought that it was a very profitalfe wav of buyN-ing0 cotton. The'c farm' re'nlizeI that as iatter of safety it wi,s-; better tO make the food consumed by hisi family and his stock upon the farni rather than to purchase it and especially when he had to promise payment out of a crop which had not as yet been made. I have been watching this phase of country life in thel South for many years and have come to the conclusion that the "advanced system" is just as great a mistake on the part of the merchant as it is on the part of the farmer, for the following reasons: First, the merchant takes great risks, which, of course, he tries to cover by increased char ges. But even thouht these charges are increased, the stap les of life are not such articles as a high percentage of profit will adhere to, and the merchant is practically trading gold for a promise to pay. If the crop fails, he is obliged to carry and carry and carry and possibly may ultimately, as in thousands of cases, be obliged to take the farm, for which he has no use, and( under boll1 weevil conditions is difhicult to handle profitably upon a tenant system. Under a cash systemi there Iwill be a great reductioni in the sales of some staple foods such as ba con, plota toes, beanus, lard1, vegetables, canned goods, hay, corni. etc., all articles that carry low profits. Th~le farmer is rare ly a hoardler of money and'if lhe saves two hunldre'd dollars or more by produicini. all his foodl suple at home lhe has that much more to spend( when his crop was made, and( it is cash. UTnder. a cash system the farmer will buy with-his surplus more (dry goods, clothing, shoes, furniture, etc. for his family, lbetter teams, farm implements, wagons, buggies, etc., on which there is a much greater profit for the merchant than on stapleI articles of food. The merchant can turn his money in thirty days, instead of a year. Ten per cent clear profit turned m')nthly is better than 120 per cent gain annually. Some of tI e farmers increased income g es into permanent improve nent to enable the farmer to pi duce more and spend more ait nually. 'Again, there -is somethig about raising cottn, toac co, etp. to pav a debt, that saps the vitality of the farmer affects the qnality of his tillage. It really lowers the grade of farming. If upon the other hand the merchants will join with us in urging farmers. to raise all their food supplies and try to produce by better tillage double the crop per acre they now produce, the result as it af fects the merchant will be this : All busirss will soon be on a cash b)asis and the volumn will be three or four times as large from the farmers alone. The advent of more money will bring diversified industries among the farmers and eventually will at tract manufactures to the mar ket towns. If there are idle farn)ms in the county, instead of calling meet ings for the purpose of raising funds to secure immigration, call meetings to encurage the farmers who know the country and are loyal to it, to uiiversally alo)t the following plan. First. provide their own1 food supplies from the farm. Seconl(. double the average product on every acre under cultivation and let 'ach worker on the farm by the use of better teams and tools, till three times as many acres. -I' al t, 1. (esclt, not inl Ihe one crop but in a variety of diversified a,ndl prfitable crops. This would :-ause an inme(liate deland for miore land and would provide the money to pay for it. This makes every man on the farm more than six times the indus Lrial power he now is and gives him a love of the farm. This is better than to leave him in discouragement. and secure im migrants to come and buy him out. I should not speak so p6sitive ly, only I have observed for a quarter of a century that where the Southern merchants have changed from an "advance sys tem" to a cash system, they have prospered very much more than in former years and the number of failures is immensely less. Of course, it. is not ment that there should be no credits, but practically there should be little necessity for them until the crop*' actually ready for the harvest, ~then trade becomes a cash transaction. Or better still, the farmer can get his money from the b)ank and pay cash in all cages, if there is a lack of ready niev. The advance system bears down upon the cotton farmer with pecial hardship. H is crop is either' sold at once or' is forced to the gin and the warehouse so as to secure loan, If the cotton farmer is not forced to sell to raise maoney or pay debts he will store his crop on his farm and market at his loisuire, which is in the interest of all Parties. It appears to mle, therefore, that the farmer will immeca sutrably gain when he produces what he has hitherto baught in the way of living, lHe is not compelled to sell his crop im mediately upon the harvest. When he does sell he trades for (cash. The greater amount of money he has is very helpful to the family but the stimulus to his self respect is perhaps the most important item to b)e con sidered. The merchants pros pers by the greater volume of business lnd by the quick re turn of his money. It seems t6 me that these points should be urged upon all the people. 'S. A. KNAPP, Spec. Agt. in Charge Farmers' Cooperative Demonstration Work. Thank You, We desire to thank our many customers ior their liberal patronage during th" year i 908. \We start the new year by hoping to merit a con tiquance of your patronage. We always try to cater to your wants, and it is a pleasure to us to serve you. Thanking you again for what you have done to make our business a success, and hoping 'to see you, as well as many new patrons during 1909, we are yours to serve, PICKENS DRUG CO, 7 More; Bargains Don't Fail to get some of Scrap Bundles at before they are gone. We have some very good bargains in differe Goods Ask to See the Ba%, CRAIGI One-Price Cash Store. WE HATE 1,0 Wine of Srdui Calendars for 1909 for free distriltion. Come in and get oneh.\ BOLT & CO., UP-TO-DATE DRUGGISTS, Pickens, S. C. STATEMENT OF THE CONDITION OF THE LIBERTY BANK, Loc'ated at Lilberty, S. C., at the Close of business Nov. 27th, 190* Loanas and D)iscounts... . .... .. 98l6 X84 Capital Stock P'aidi in........ ...... ..y ,0 0 D emand Loans ......................., ,137 50 Surplus lund -non............ Overdrafts ........ ..... ............6919 75 nliedPotslss urnt xj, Itonds and Stocks owned byv Hank- --none.ssadTxsiad.........,oos Ilanking Iliouse...... ... ..... i53 83 )et ak ~Trs o pne-oe Furntiture and Fix tures..............,666t -10jiiieds npi- o. ..... Other Real Estate--none ...iid ...poit Sbe..t..... 3,22i Dune from lianks and Trust Companies 16,991 35 SvnsIeoisnn...... Currencey.......... .... .... ... ...... ,250 00 lO adCriiae )pst..oe Gold.......... ................. .....250 00 Tm etfctso eoi.....i,1i : Silver find other Coin . ......... .. .....442 36 CriidCek-oe...... Cheks nd ashItes.............5 0 Cses CheTaeks.Pa.... ................5,710 sk Divte ndls pai-t.d-one.. ...... DilPbe,ma nd dn Cert Iflo ates f osrnoe Cerrwed.knn.............., . Totksand.. ash.. te.n...... ... .... ....147 5 06 oal.e's ..eck....--. .............. 740 6 STATE 014 SOUT CAOLINA, says the above an d foregoing saent is a i'e conditioni of said Bank, as show by th ebo oSworn' to anid subscribed before me this 5th day of Dec., 1906.H.C8 RLE Cerret--Atest:II. L. CLAYTON, Notary Public ~':~ ROAN, Ihrectors.