Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 54, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 October 1920 — McCRAY IS NOT A FARMER [ARTICLE]

McCRAY IS NOT A FARMER

Claim to Title Proven False by i His Own Dope Sheet. { If there is anything that is more disgusting than to see a man seeking office pose as something that he is not in an endeavor to catch the votes of a certain class of people, we do not know what it is. , 1 ■ Looey says his man McCray is a farmer, and in quoting Mr. McCray on the event of his son’s entering Purdue to take an agricultural course a few days ago, Looey had the following in bis sheet Tuesday, the words being McCray’s, according to the article: “Farming today is a dignified occupation,” said Mr. McCray. ”1 have been proud to be a farmer and I am glad that niy son has made the decision to follow agriculture. ! Agriculture now offers such big op- ! portunities and has such possibilities for further development, that we must all keep’ up to date and take advantage of the scientific developments.

“The agricultural schools, with their short courses for those who can not attend longer, have been a big force in better preparing the young men to carry on farming along scientific lines. My message, to farm boys is to take advantage । of everything possible to learn even more about agriculture for there is yet much to learn. “Let farmers give their sons a fair chance on the farm and they will not lose interest in agriculture. Definite and regular hours for work, better housing, good horses, up-to-date farming Implements and a reg ular salary or a share in profits all. serve to encourage the farmer’s son , to follow agriculture as his life work J Keep the boys on the farm who are already on the farm and there will i be less need for the back to the farm movement.” Could anything be more sicbealng than the above to peogto wbe b»i* known McCray ail his lite ami ka«e ■ that he is not a tartaer ami was I ■ Looey ewrtataty is wwi emamgh ( acquainted with the ■■MBs* tambtoam* to know that the means precieety n * • ster says a farasee «• ■ farms; a tiller <4 -«» a** • fanner Is alw«»s • pewasstoNx Everybody up ia • ->• • towoods knows that Mi IMW * • * a practitioner and has *** In “boiler ptav « the Republican atai* - the Republican appeared In Übo»>A 4»4v stow* I Sept. 24. devoted rmnrety •* »'"*» an autobiography of Merv* this: "Mr. McCray was burn on Sr fiawa< near Brook, in Newton on—--1865. When be was eii'WQMMlb iky ; school his parents moveito Mena land in order that be satgbi aMMEi the public school of the town • • • During his high school jayh' be. »hna । been working before and after »« hours, and at night, in his father s bank. When he finish»-d hi* high school studies he was offered the, position of bookkeeper in the tonk which he accepted. He remained tn the bank in that capacity until hl* twenty-first birthday, when h*bought a half-interest in a grocery business, his friend, Willis Kirkpatrick. going In as a partner. “Later Mr. McCray acquired an । interest in a grain business which ! demanded all his time and he disposed of his grocery holdings.” I He remained at the head of this grain business, the article then goes on to say, “until 1919 when he sold ' the major portion of his Interest.” Not a word is said in the entire article about his bedng and having been in the banking business at Kentland for a number of years—having succeeded his father, Greenberry McCray, in the Ade & McCray bank, and which institution he has been president of for several years—nor of his connection as vicej president and large stockholder in the Sawers Grain Co. of Chicago, 1 a commission firm dealing in margins, it is said, and in which company Lee Kelley, late manager of the Farmers’ Grain Co. of Raub, Benton county, is alleged to have lost some $40,000 in dealing in margains and for which amount the said 1 Sawers Grain Co. has filed a claim' against the elevator company. i Neither is a word said in the article about Mr. McCray’s connection with the Newton County Stone- Co., .which operates a stone quarry east of Kentland and sells crushed stone to Newton county. Neither does the article state that Mr. McCray has always resided in , Kentland and has never lived upon a farm since he was a small boy, too , young to go to school. Yet such is a fact, as one may ,gather from the first few paragraphs, If he will take the trouble to digest it. All the “farming” he ever done in his life has been done by proxy. A high-salaried manager is responsible for the success of his big Orchard Lake farm, and it is to laugh at his advice to the farmers to keep the boys on the farm by providing up-to-date farming Implements,- when one remembers that the value of all his agricultural implements on his big Orchard Lake farm, as returned for taxation in 1917, was but $l5O.