Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 26, Number 2, Fall 2014 Page: 9
This periodical is part of the collection entitled: Legacies: a History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Dallas Historical Society.
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bankers-with his clear, almost poetic message.
The subject for Exall was not just about farming
or food, it was "as sacred as the shimmering torch
of life itself." "In the fight between the acre and
the man," he said, "the man inevitably gets the
acre. He takes away more than he can return, then
the acre inevitably gets the man."15
From New York, Louisville, and Atlanta to
Quitman, Haslett, and Laredo, Exall spread the
word. His pamphlets filled mailboxes and his
message filled newspaper columns. "When the
farmer increases his net income without im-
pairing his capital," Exall explained to city folk,
"he creates new wealth, avails bank deposits, puts
more money into circulation and increases the
demand for everything that is for sale." "No other
one occupation or business is so valuable to ev-
ery other avocation as is profitable and successful
farming."16 To the tenant farmers, he preached
the tenets of scientific agriculture-selecting the
right seeds, rotating crops, and caring for the soil
-that could help them make a decent living fortheir families, with little extra effort.
But the keystone of Exall's campaign was a
purse of $10,000 in gold (roughly $234,000 to-
day) to be awarded for a range of crop-growing
contests. The top prize winners earned $500 to
$1,000. Exall aimed his efforts squarely at young
farmers, the ones most likely to leave for cities.
And it worked. The number of contestants grew
from 1,742 in 1911 to 4,030 in 1912 to 10,865 in
1913.17
The Texas Industrial Congress contests were
capped with large conventions in Dallas, dem-
onstrating and celebrating the huge increases in
production that were possible when using scien-
tific methods. At those annual conventions, Exall
personally congratulated the winners and coun-
seled them to "go and show your neighbors how
you did it and bless your country and your state."
"Never before in a long life," said J.F.B. Beckwith,
a Baylor professor of oratory, after the December
1912 congress, "has [this writer] witnessed the
spirit of progress so obsess a body of young and_will~
Exall at his desk. Note the portrait of Electrite in the background.
LEGACIES Fall 2014 9
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Dallas Historical Society. Legacies: A History Journal for Dallas and North Central Texas, Volume 26, Number 2, Fall 2014, periodical, Autumn 2014; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth586973/m1/11/?q=exall: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Historical Society.