Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1940 THE NEWBERRY SUN PAGE THREE Lemonade Spring is Lure To Farm Son of Slaves Succeeded in Renewing Racial Pride, Dignity • of Labor Log Cabin, Ga., Nov. 10.—City- wise negroes who scoff at farm life will raise an eyebrow anon when they slake their thirst at a spring of pure lemonade which pours right out of mother earth. It will be a clear, free-flowing spring, and its stream will meander through a tree-shaded recreation area. Dr. Benjamin Hubert may not dis close the big barrel and pipes he will use to feed his lemonade spring. But he will have taken the first step in obtaining new concerts for farm life and the joy of toil. Dr. Hubert, whose parents were slaves, eight years ago quit trying to talk his friends back to the farm and set out, instead to lure them back by making the rural way of liv ing so attractive the big city could not offer competition. His view is that nothing is more desolate than the life of a poor man in a rich city. Even the poorest farm families have advantages over their city brethren, if they but knew how to utilize them. Hubert ar gues. ' Carried to Classroom So ho went into- Hancock county, near Sparta, Ga., and purchased for $2 an acre the same plantation his father had worked. (Today he would n’t sell the trees on the p’ace for $10 an acre, and nothing could buy his pleasure in the trees set out on the rolling land for miles around him.) President of a nogro college near Savannah, a unit in the university system of Georgia, he carries his en thusiasm for farming as a way of liv ing for his race into the classroom. His purchase of the old plantation war partly for sentimental reasons, but the combination of avocation with his regular job worked out nicely. He decided to demonstrate to the community just what could be done with the materials at hand. Boys from the college spent a summer holi day building “pine rest”. They cut logs off the Hubert place, shaped them and fashioned them into a dwelling which they finished inside as a modex for city as well as farm folk. Beginning of Campaign “I chose logs because logs once were associated with slavery,” Hu bert explained. “The boys simply took material right at hand and show ed the older folks around here what could be done with a little effort.” This was a beginning of Hubert’s campaign to divert the interests or the farming communitv around the log cabin center from distant points. Even the name lettered neatly at the entrance of “pine rest” had a pur pose. “Once you get these people to name their places, it’s surprising the changes that will come about,” he explained. “Just the fact of having named the place stimulates them to the next step of making it attractive. Flowers are planted. Kitchen gard ens appear. Next a flock of chick ens. And each is a step to better liv ing as well as a source of pride.” Into the community center went stone masons, taking the rock from neighboring fields to construct an enormous barbecue pit, where the tastiest pork and chicken is toasted and seasoned—(pork for the working folks, chicken for the visiting bishops and newspapermen, Hubert said). Set Among Trees Then a community hall was set among the tall 'trees, and a commun ity school across the mad from a co operative store. Hubert also is credited for a boom in the bathing suit business in a dus ty section where dozens of Negro boys and girls hadn’t even heard of such a thing. Some enthusiastic hat oar cudtomeri tell ud— Our Invisible Half-Soling Has no “repaired look" no ridge or visible seam. Your comfortable phoes restored to new appear ance at popular price*. Dennis Shoe Shop HWE S' i SWPUES rsl POLISHES friends of the project scooped out a big hole at the foot of a hill an 1 in the path of a stream. Water filled the hole. Soon appeared a few venture some lads, clad in home-made swim trunks. By the second season, how ever, there were dozens of good swimmers in the community and the merchants’ stocks cf swim suits at Sparta had to be replenished. Hubert’s problem is two-fold. He said the farm population was un balanced, included the very young and the very old. “You don’t see many of the folks in between,” he insisted. “They have all gone to the city. Now the need is to make country life such that the young people will want to come back from the city. And the very young will want to stay in their home com munities when they grow older.” Boredom Causes Exodus The reason for the exodus from the farm, Hubert said, is “simply bore dom.” “You can’t keep energetic young sters if they have nothing to break the monotony,” he asserted. “You must have amusements, you must keep something doing in any rural community that wants to keep its young people away from Boston, Chi cago and New York.” “That’s where the log cabin com munity center fits in, because we encourage the young people around here to use it for recreation. They can use\he building for dances. They can come here to swim, they can pic nic in attractive sun fundings, and they can bring their dates here and find couples to enjoy an evening.” Besides aiming at the young peo ple, Hubert has enlisted the churches —“the church is still the most power, ful factor in the lives of my people,” he explained—and already a score or old preachers are established in homes provided for them by their churches. Some 12,000 acres of farmland are owned by nearly 100 families in the Night Photographic Shot Portrays Automobile Manufacturing Activity r< -o Night and day the great Chevrolet plants are speeding production of the 1941 models. Here, in a remarkable night scene taken recently, several buildings of the Flint plant are shown, while in the foreground and right center a group of new cars are under way to the shipping division preparatory to release to the company's dealer organization. community. The process of teaching has gone so far that the community now produces its own ham, bacon, syrup, potatoes, and white wheat flour. Fruits and vegetables are pre served for home storage. One farmer boasted to Hubert, “I could have crop failure for two years and still have plenty for me and the old lady and our children to eat.” There is a community canning plant where the beans, squash, and soup mixtures are put up at cost. Luscious peaches and plums are grown for home use as well as for market. Hubert bought some first class cattle and started a competition which produced some fine herds of pure bred herefords. There is a seven-teacher school, -with a small farm shop and cannery. Lester Kennedy, Hancock county ne gro farm agent and Mary Blount, home demonstration agent, cooperate in the community program. There is a cooperative threshing machine, a com mill and even a com munity pasture. “We also plan for cooperatively Give That Girl or Boy a Portable Typewriter for Christinas owned tractors and a sawmill,” Hu bert continued. “The farmers, will cooperate in a terracing project and in the purchase of fertilizer.” On their own iniative, the people have formed a society to care for the sick and afflicted and to provide burial for the dead. This society, locally controlled, has about 200 members at a fee of only ten cents a month. Yet this society has enough money ahead to be able to lend to members to ex pand and develop their farming pro grams. Hubert is proud of a rural health center, and the fact a negro physician lives in the community. The center serves negroes from three or four nearby counties, with free physical examination for anyone. The fine breeds of rabbits out of log cabin co-mmunity are attracting attention over Georgia. In the last 12 months, the negroes have purchased 1,109 acres of land to add to their original holdings. There are nine beef calves being fat tened by boys for the state fat stock s-hows. Son of Former Slaves The farm security administration has made a study of the community and is applying some of the effec tive ideas to other rural communi ties of the South. Hubert is one of seven brothers, sons of the former slave, Zack Hu bert. Zack came here seventy years ago with his brothers, David and Floyd, to build their homes with nothing but their own physical strength. It is their spirit that is caught in Hubert’s statement: “We want to create and develop one community out in the country that will so appeal to the imagina tion and good commonsense of ne groes that it will inspire them every, where to want to live, to work, and die (when they cannot live) out in the open country.” Such as the coHege boy Samuel Williams, majoring in agriculture, who started his own farm during his junior year and now has a garden, a hundred fryers, and a harvest of corn, peas, soy beans and cotton. Or Lucius Skrine, whose wife this sea son put up 275 cans of fruit and vege tables from her garden. MOLLOHON SCHOOL PAGEANT CHAMBERS RETURNED TO CENTRAL CHURCH Rev. H. O. Chambers has been re turned to Central Methodist church for anothef year by action of the up per conference of the Methodist church. Rev. M. M. Brooks was re turned to the O’Neall street Metho dist church for the sixth consecutive year. Rev. C. W. Brockwell was re turned to Newberry circuit, and Rev. R. W. Wilkes succeeds Rev. Glenn Smith at Epting Memorial, Mollohon. Rev. A. E. Holler and Rev. T. C. Can non, both well remember :d here, were returned to Bateshurg and Un ion, respectively. The Question “The question is not how to recon struct aristocratic society, but how to make liberty proceed out of that democratic state of society in which God has placed us.”—De Toqueville. Romantic Suitor: I would lay the world at your feet. Gladys: I wouldn’t care for it, in its present mussed up condition. One of the most entertaining pag eants this reporter has seen in quite a while was the one given by the Mollohon Grammar School Monday morning, in commemoration of the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918. At the beginning of the program, each pupil marched on the stage and pledged allegiance to the American Flag. This was followed by “Star Spangled Banner and prayer by Rev. James Mitchell. The members of the first grade formed a line on the stage, each with a flag and gestured with the flags as the sang “The Flag Song.” After the student body sang “There’s a Long Long Trail”, down the aisle came a parade, headed by two boys carrying a banner, announcing, “THE WAR IS OVER.” This parade was typical of the kinds held when news came in 1918 that the war was over—every person carrying balloons, blowing horns—ringing bells—ladies and men, soldiers and sailors—all rejoicing that the war was over. The entire group sang “America”, and “God Bless America”. Among the selections sung after this curtain were “Long Way to Tipperary” and “Over There.” The next scene was Flanders Field, in honor of the known and unknown dead. On the stage were white crosses, a soldier on one side, a sailor on the other. “In Flanders Field” was recited by a student, “My Buddy” was softly sung, while a wreath was plac ed on one of the crosses. The third scene consisted of sold iers, and a group of girls dressed in white with red cross nurse caps on singing “The Rose of No Man’s Land.” The last scene was “PEACE”. In the center of the stage, just under the placard Peace, was a girl Bress- ed in white. On either side were boys, who spoke in the voice of great men of the past. The first was of Presi dent Warren Harding, in a message made in 1921, in which the main sen tence was “It must not be again.” Others were voices of Woodrow Wil son, Henry Wadsworth Longfellov'-. The prayer of peace, made by Harry Emerson Fosdick, was then recited. After a poem, “Ring Out Wild Bells” the entire group sang Ameri ca The Beautiful” and ended the pro gram with “Faith of Our Fathers.” The teachers at Mollohon school are Mrs. F’rank Brown, first grade; ■ Miss Marguerite Burns, second grade; Mrs. Bill Turner, and Mrs. Pelham, third grade, and Miss Sara Caldwell fourth grade and principal. The growing popularity of cotton in the high style field makes cotton gift articles particularly appropriate for Christmas gifts this year. Stores are ready with a wide variety of cot ton wearing apparel, as well as cot ton household articles suitable as gifts for the entire family. “Wouldn’t you like to be so fam ous that you had your face on a thousand-dollar bill?” “No, but I’d like to he lucky enough to get my hands on one.” • c Kraut CABBAGE $ 1, 25 per loo pounds Make Kraut while Cabbage Are Cheap C.T. Summer, Inc. YER FAMILf WENT ON % AHEAD T TH' PICNIC 6R0VE!' .YER T MEET EM AT TH' .-—- ——— -—■ ■■ ■ ■ O K. JOE.. MAKE UP l ICE CREAM CONES... ILL GIVE THEM A LITTLE TREAT., /vou WERE WAITING UNDER THE WRONG TREE..' WE'RE ALL OVER THERE HURRY UP FVPf THEY'RE SERVING tCE CREAM now!