Georgia Southern University - Reflector Yearbook (Statesboro, GA)

Page 32 text:

Come To The Cabaret! Thursday evening, October 20, an estimated crowd of 800 people gathered in McCroan Auditorium to await the opening curtains of Cabaret. The Broadway musical, performed by members of On The Aisle, Inc., was the first in a series of Fall quarter productions by the Campus Life Enrichment Committee (CLEC). The musical comedy centered on the romance and disillusionment of two couples, one young and one old, in Berlin of 1929. As the rise of the Nazi Third Reich made Berlin an increasingly harsh and bitter place to live, the emcee at the cabaret reflected a very cynical humor laughing at the politics and social standards of the time.

Page 34 text:

Tractorcade Gains National Attention A massive rally and trac- torcade was held in Sta- tesboro in order to focus state and national attention on the plight of the farmer who was caught in a squeeze between falling commodity prices and rising production costs. The November 4, tractor- cade was the biggest demon- stration of farmer dissatisfac- tion ever in south Georgia, and the estimated ten mile line of farm machinery was meant to illustrate demands for higher product prices. On the courthouse square at 11:15 a.m. the first tractor of the day was cheered. For the next hour and 35 minutes, a crowd of approximately 6,000 watched as the tractors rolled by in single file, moving slowly up Main St. And the tractors kept coming. There were vintage tractors, large tractors, small tractors and farm machines which varied from a Red Belly Ford to a Red, White and Blue farm rig entitled Spirit of 76. The predominate vehicles in procession were the large farm rigs - the ones whose cost and operating expense was partially respon- sible for the farmer ' s money squeeze. i m m i || Hand-sketched signs were affixed to the tractors. These varied from a poke at President Carter - If Jimmy keeps being a dilly, I ' m going to buy myself a case of Billy - to a suggestion on foreign policy - Feed America First, the World Next. And, many signs hit at the farmer ' s chief complaint: We Don ' t Want Charity, We want Parity. Some warned Starve the farmer, starve yourself. And, one offered a prayer, God help us, because Washington won ' t. The tractorcade confined through downtown Statesbor- o, and turned right on U.S. Hwy 80 East. The exact number of farm vehicles involved in the mas- sive rally varied from one source to another. Two reli- able sources said they had counted tractors. One gave a figure of about 850 while the second said it was 950. City Councilman Lewis Bo Hook, chairman of the police committee, estimated over 2,000 farm vehicles paraded, while Larry Fields, president of the Georgia Young Farmers Association and a prime mover in the tractorcade, said the figure was over 3,000.