100 YEARS AGO IN THE SARATOGIAN
Monday, April 1,1918. “After reading of the booster campaign for Saratoga Springs, Saratoga Springs industries, merchants, bankers, bakers, grocers and other Saratoga Springs folks, it seems to me the farmers of the vicinity of Saratoga Springs ought to be included in the great boosting campaign,” a local farmer writes to The Saratogian.
C. A. Paddock lives “out Jefferson Street.” His letter in today’s “People’s Forum” column urges city folk to purchase perishable vegetables from local farmers.
“In my short experience as a grower of vegetables for market, I have found that there are a number of merchants in Saratoga Springs, as well as other villages in this vicinity, who purchase their vegetables from dealers who buy from distant growers and ship into Saratoga Springs by auto truck, in preference to buying from the home grower,” Paddock protests.
“I have gone into Saratoga Springs in the early morning with a load of choice produce, fresh picked and of first quality, and have been forced to return to my farm with part of my vegetables unsold, or else peddle them from house to house, when my time was needed for the management of my business at home. And all because so many merchants gave me the answer, when I drove up to their place of businesses, that they had just stocked up from the auto truck.”
Paddock isn’t the only one losing out to outside competition. Last summer a fellow farmer picked eight bushels of wax beans after hearing that they were going for $2 a bushel in the city. In the end, Paddock relates, “He managed to sell two bushels of them at $1.00 per bushel. The balance he was forced to take back home and feed to his hogs. All because the merchants had stocked up with the surplus produce of distant growers.”
As far as Paddock is concerned, “It is the duty of Saratoga Springs people to boost the farmers of this vicinity, and purchase from them in preference of buying from distant growers, through auto truck dealers. And the farmers in turn will boost and boost with vim for Saratoga Springs and all her industries.”
What’s Happening
Douglas Fairbanks, billed as “The Highest Paid Star in the Movies,” stars in “The Man From Painted Post” at the Palace tonight. Also on the program is the next chapter of the serial, “The Eagle’s Eye,” reportedly exposing Kaiser Wilhelm’s “plan to rule the world.”
At the Broadway, The Melody Revue headlines the live vaudeville program, accompanied by the Cycling Jacksons, “piano-accordeonist” Rosario, and Miller & Russell in the comedy sketch, “The Lunatic and The Girl.”