November 29, 1924
Editor of The Pilot, Vass, N.C.
Sir:--There was called to my attention in a recent issue of The Pilot an open letter by Mr. Roger Derby on the peach situation in the Sandhills. With due regard for Mr. Derby, a gentleman for whom I have always entertained the highest respect, I feel that I must again take issue with the tone of his communication.
Two years ago, at the time of an extraordinary crop, Mr. Derby constituted himself a prophet of evil, and since that time he has become so enamored of the role of Jeremiah that he has continued it to the present day. The situation is the more peculiar in that Mr. derby has himself a very large stake in the Sandhills, which he apparently thinks he is improving by prophesying the downfall of the peach industry. In support of his contention he marshals rows of figures and draws saw-backed charts of the type which we were told, in conjunction with thrift stamps, walnut shells and tinfoil would win the war. Well, the war is won, and now that the smoke has blown away it appears that what won it was what wins any battle: pep, endurance, adaptability, and the firm determination never to admit the possibility of defeat; in other words the spirt of 100 percent Americanism. Oh,, yes, we had obstructionists too, but they seem to be rather at a discount now except perhaps in Wisconsin.
Two years ago we had an abnormally large crop. Up to this time we had given all our energies to producing the best peach in the world without much attention to distribution. The result was inevitable; we found ourselves at a disadvantage in marketing. There were two ways to meet the situation. Either we could go after it with all the pep there was in us, or we could sit back and shout calamity. The second method was perhaps easier, but so far no one has ever built any cathedrals that way.
During the following year no one had a chance to tell whether we had perfected a marketing system or not. We had a killing frost, (the first in 30 years, by the way), and had nothing to market. Whether or not Mr. Derby blames this on his straw man, over-production, I cannot say, but it would go fifty-fifty with some of the reasoning this controversy has brought out.
Then came the past season. Due to weather conditions the Sandhills’ fruit, although still the best of its kind, frankly, did not come up to specifications. Even so some orchards made money. In other words, we have faced three abnormal years in succession.
Can Mr. Derby explain what would have happened in 1922 if we had not been caught unawares without a system of distribution? Can he tell us what would have happened in 1923 if we had had a normal crop? And can he draw a chart which will demonstrate how we would have faired in this past season if we had had the quality of fruit which we have produced heretofore and which the trade has a right to expect of us? And having done these things, can he show what over-production has to do with it anyway?
In a recent article in The Pilot, Mr. Butler cited the example of the meat packers who have managed to handle what was at one time considered an oversupply of meat. No one who pays 50 to 65 cents a pound for steak today will say that beef is overproduced. Mr. Derby takes issue on the aptness of analogy by saying that meant can be held in cold storage and does not have to be put on the market at once. Well, so far as I have yet to see, the cold storage warehouse that would refuse to handle peaches.
As I have remarked before, Mr. Derby is a gentleman for whom I have the highest respect. What he says, he says from motives of conviction. But in my opinion, which is perhaps not worth much, but which is serviceable to me at times, he is off on the wrong foot. Bankers, for instance, have a way of hunting cover when the skies look threatening. Is Mr. Derby going to rehearse his Pentecost of Calamity to his banker when he goes to him for help in financing his crop? Or does he think he is making it any easier for the rest of us to finance ours? No one enjoys putting money into a proposition which looks as hopeless as Mr. Derby thinks the Sandhills does.
Fortunately, we have men in the Sandhills who see things differently. Two years ago Mr. Ralph Page remarked that we must keep in mind the well known saying as to faith, hope and charity. That quotation is just as true today as it was nineteen hundred years ago. And if it were not presumptuous, I should like to add another Grace to the trio. Enthusiasm! We grow the best peach in the world. Then let’s let the world know about it. Let’s get out and hustle until it does know.
Mr. Derby has been at pains to explain in his recent letter that his ancestors did not catch whales. But he himself has thrown his harpoon in a whale which far outrivals those his forebearers did not catch; the prosperity of the Sandhills. I am far from expert on the art of whaling, but I believe that when the harpooner fastened on one that was in a fair way to swamp him, he cut the line. I hope for Mr. Derby’s sake tha the has a sharp hatchet handy. He will find it a more useful tool than his hammer.
Yours for more and better peaches,
Q.W. Erty
From the front page of The Southern Pines Pilot, “a paper devoted to the upbuilding of the Sandhill Territory,” Friday, December 5, 1924
newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073968/1924-12-05/ed-1/seq-1/
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