FARMERS: Tylertown Gives Thanks

For the bounties of heaven and their red-clay acres the people of Walthall County, Miss, gave devout thanks last week, eight weeks ahead of more usual thanksgivings.

From crossroads and farms cut out of piney woods the farmers streamed at sunup to Tylertown (pop. 1,100), the county seat and only post office. They traveled afoot, in model-T Fords, in mule-drawn wagons, in school busses. They carried 5,000 fried chickens, 350 turkeys, enough pies, cakes, salads and bread to load pine tables 1,000 feet long and feed 5,000 people. The town was gay in bunting, flags and welcome signs.

This was their “Food for Freedom Thanksgiving.” Walthall County has sent 750 boys to the armed forces and scores of men to war jobs in Mobile, New Orleans, Baton Rouge. But the farmers who stayed behind pitched in and got barn-bursting harvests: 23% more cotton than last year, 146% more hay, 110% more eggs, 619% more truck crops.

Everybody, white and Negro, paraded from the school grounds to the ball park: seven bands, Future Farmers, 4-H Club members, New Farmers, school classes, cotton trucks, wagonloads of farm families, an infantry company packed with home-town boys. Everybody had fun, but everybody walked humbly in the sight of the Lord.

The Thanks & The Need. Hot in stiff Sunday dresses or galluses, the farmers clapped for their guest of honor: Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard. We have much to be thankful for in the year that is ending, said Claude Wickard—for brave allies, for the year’s good weather, for success in the battle for food. But there were many troubles ahead: more work, less machinery, less fertilizer, less help.

“At this season,” said he, “we have much to be thankful for—and much need for future courage and endurance. All of the nation’s farmers . . . join you in the resolve never to let up in the battle of production. The road ahead for farmers is long and difficult, but it is the only road that leads to victory.”

Afterward Mrs. J. E. Pigott, wife of a Tylertown merchant, helped the Secretary to dinner. On his paper plate she heaped fried chicken, chicken pie, potato salad, warm spice cake, two kinds of pie. “This is a great idea,” he beamed.

It was Tylertown’s biggest day; it was also the biggest day in the life of bony, dynamic Lester Williams, 40, editor of the weekly Tylertown Times. Williams got the idea for the community thanksgiving one morning at a revival service conducted by Brother Jim Sells, a Methodist preacher from Crystal Springs. For the great day, proud Editor Williams’ Times (circ. 2,350) appeared in a special edition of 56 pages.