The Abbeville press and banner. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, February 25, 1919, Page FOUR, Image 4
ESTABLISHED 1844
The Press ?nd Banner
ABBEVILLE, S. C.
Wm. P. GREECE, Editor.
The Press and Banner Co.
Published Every Tuesday and Friday
Telephone No. 10.
Entered as second-class mail matter
at post office in Abbeville, S. C.
Terms of Subscription:
One year $2.00
Six months 1.00
Three months .50
Payable invariably in advancp.
TUESDAY. FEBRUARY 25, 1919.
=!
THE PROPER WAY.
. |
The Press and Banner finds itself
in thorough accord with those whodesire
to make the South commerci-l
ally independent. It finds itself in
accord with those who desire to help
the farmers of the state and of the1
county towards prosperity. It is in
:accord with those who 'believe that|
the fanners of Abbeville County, of/
the state and of the South, should,
^ whefre they may, produce on the
i farms all the essentials of living and
-?????> -fai-mc nnri in that
Ui tanjitiig u? ?
way discourage the planting of cotton
only, and the purchasing of. all
supplies and of all farm necessities
from other sections of the country.
But the Press and'Banner believes!
that before prosperity comes some;
other things, and among other things, j
the right of every man to run his own
business. If we desire to plant cot-1
ton, we deny the right of a few in- j
dividuals, or of many individuals, to!
band themselves together and to undertake
to coerce us into doing something
which does not appeal to our;
judgment. The people of the South j
will not be driven, nor will theyi
stand to be published as recreant to!
a trust because perhaps the interest
of one group of the people of the'
county runs contrary to the interestj
of another group.
The Press and Banner is asked to
support in its editorial columns a
movement to take pledges from farmers
to hold all cotton now on hands
for thirty-five cents, to take pledges
from farmers to plant thirty-three
and a third per cent less cotton than
last year, and to use fifty per cent,
less fertilizers, UNLESS THEY ARE
ABLE TO PAY FOR WHAT THEY
BUY (Please keep that in mind.)
The Press and Banner cannot do
go. We believe that the people of j
the South should have sold cotton as'
long as it was bringing thirty cents
per pound. We do not believe that
the farmers in the South who sold
bneir cutiun at uuriy ten is pei
pound, (many of them selling for
this price in order to pay pressing
debts, while many sold because they
ffere satisfied with the price, and de
sired to buy government securities
and help the country), should now
be called on to cut their throats in a
commercial way in order to help people
wh<K did' not sell at least some
of thei?., cotton when it was
thirty, thirty-two, or even thirtyfire
cents per pound. If these people
jrho are holding cotton, desire to
hold it for either thirty-five cents, or
on* dollar and eighty-nine cents,
then we say that they have a right to
go to it. But when it is proposed
to get the names of the people who
will not subscribe to the proposed
pledge, tb publish the names as,.a
qoercive measure, to call on the
banks of the state not to help those
people whose interest conflicts with
cotton-holders, and otherwise to make
slaves of a portion of the people of
the state in order to help the holders
of cotton, we demur.
The man with a hundred bales of
cotton, or two hundred bales of cotton
or even a smaller amount, would
no doubt make a great deal of money,
if the scheme proposed to be
put throjigh would materialize, because
a man who is able to hold this
amount of cotton will be able to get
money from the banks, if he has not
already money laid aside. He may
call in some from his neighbors which
is loaned out, and which they might
V otherwise use to purchase fertilizers
for cash. Having the money on
hands, he is not called on to cT5t his
fertilizer bill, oh, no! not he; but he
will buy fertilizers and plant cotton
on his fr.rm as heretofore. In order
i
/
to keep within the letter of the
pledge, he may buy an extra mule
or two and work the same land with
more stock, thus cutting the acreage
to each mule, but working the same
land, with the same, or more fertilizers,
with his additional horse-power,
and more help perhaps than last year,
and he will make the same amount
or more cotton.
That is not the man who will have
his crop cut. There are others, however,
who are to be considered. Perhaps
half the lands in this county are
worked by small farmers, who have
bought their homes on credit, and
by renters. These people, in order
to get guano with which to grow
crops, and to get supplies for making
the crop, will buy this year on a,
credit, they will be forced to go to j
the bank this year again for money
with which to farm, and in every
other respect they must proceed as
in previous years. Now what is to
become of these men if they are to
be coerced into using only one-half
the fertilizers formerly used, and
into planting only two-thirds of the
amount of cotton formerly planted?
Everybody knWs that there are lands
in this section which will not make
cotton without fertilizers, and which
will not make corn with fertilizers.
A great many people look to these
lands for the rent upon which they
are forced to live. A great many
people on the farms, white and black
alike, cannot live upon the farms
unless they grow a full crop, under
the most favorable circumstances.
The living expenses of these poorer |
farmers will be the same as hereto-j
fore. If they use one half of the
fertilizers which their cotton lands;
demand, and plant one two-thirds of;
the c<5tton they have . heretofore'
planted, they will make less than
half the cotton they have previously,
made. They must pay the rent they
have already contracted to pay, or
the. interest and principal which will
be due and which will btf demanded,
and if the cottQn crop is cut and the
price does go up, they will find
themselves holding the bag and paying
the expenses of putting cotton
up for the benefit of those people
who are more fortunate, who havej
produced as much cotton, as hereto- 't
fore, fertilized as heretofore, and.
worked more carefully perhaps with
the intention of making a big crop.'
There is nothing to be gained for
these people in advising them to
throw away a year's labor for the
benefit of ^ few people who are now
able to hold cotton for tihrty-five
cents.
Calamity Howler* and Politicians.
We take no stock in all this talk
about the South being ruined by the
present price of Cotton. Any man on
the farm who cannot make money
rit the present price of cotton, with
the prices of other things remaining j
as they are at present, should be j
" bored for,the simples," as the ex-|
pression goes. He is no farmer., AI
man who produces on the farm the
things which he should produce, (and
we favor encouraging not only the
farm-owner to do this, but co?
Vi flifl tonant rlass to!
updating yiiun vuv WUWM.
enable them to do the same thing,)
may produce cotton as a surplus crop
and make inoney on the farm at
much less than the present price of
cotton. The past demonstrates that
to us beyond question? We have
seen it done.
It is stated that all other sections
are prospering, while the South is
being enslaved by a few designing
people who are hammering our products.
The people who buy our cotton
are business men and quite
naturally buy as cheaply as they may.
And if these people who desire to
buy our cotton organize to buy it as
cheaply as they may, are they doing
less than the farmers are undertaking
to do when they organize to obtain
all /?an inr flip nroHuct. A feW
"*** > X
years ago the farmers of this sec-j
tion, believing that bagging was sell-1
ing too high organized for the pur-|
pose of fighting the "jute trust," asj
it was called. They had a right to |
do this as long as they followed legit-!
imate lines. Now all people do jfiotj
produce cotton. The great majority!
of the people in the world buy cot-1
ton pi*oducts, but produce no cotton.
If they believe that cotton is,
now at too high a price, and decide
not to buy in order to force the price
down, are they more blame-worthy i
than we are when we undertook by |
co-operation, or banding together to
do the same thing. As long as cot-j
ton is produced for sale, the pro-1
ducer will obtain all he can for his
product and the buyer will buy as
cheaply as he can unless he is a fool,
which we do not believe ?he is. If
the price of cotton is being forced
down by means which are illegal,
then some of the politicians and office-holders
who are in late years always
on the cotton platform, should
take measures to put all criminals behind
the bars, and to see that they
are kept there. Illegal methods
should be stopped by the heavy hand
of the law.
The South Not Poor.
?
But the South is not poor. The
South is prosperous., There are in
the Abbeville Warehouse some five
thousand bales of cotton. There are
in the sheds, barns, outhouses and
lying in the open, in this immediate
neighborhood, five thousand more
bales of cotton, which at present
prices would bring into this money
market one million, four , hundred
thousand dollars?a sufficient amount
of money to pay off every debt due
in the three banks of the city of
Abbeville, and leave in them nearly
a half millions dollars beside. Should
this cotton be sold tomorrow, and
the money be so applied, the banks*
would find themselves with no loans
whatever, with the present deposit^
of about a million and a quarter dollars
and an additional one-half million
dollars in their vaults. Some
people may believe that under these
facts, the country is "broke," but
we refuse to so believe. /
It is true that other sections;of the
country have reaped ri<jh rewards
during the war, because in other sections
the people are engaged in
manufacturing enterprises, and have
on that account been able to take
over war contracts at big profits, and
have made money. But this is at an
end now. And instead of these people
being so prosperous as is stated,
our information is to the contrary.
No doubt some few people of large
affairs have accumulated big amounts
on money and are now riding around
in Packards, on "good roads," but
from reading the papers we gather
that the laboring people of these sections
are fast losing their jobs, and
many of them are already out of
employment and many more are likely
to be. Already we know of some
who went to other sections, and who
remained there during the harvest
time, wno are aiming DacK to tne
farms of this section, jobless and
moneyless.
But if all had gotten rich, it is no
more than any man in the South on
the farm might have done in the last
year. We know a man who has
about thirty acres of land, peVhaps
less, which he turned over to a sharecropper
last year to be farmed. We
do not know how much corn, nor
how much peas he made, but our
information is that he made twenty
bales of cotton on the farm. The
seed from the ten bales going to the
landowner would pay all the expenses
which he was put to, and if
he sold his part of the cotton at
thirty cents, he would have received
from that crop fifteen hundred dollars?the
equivalent of the interest
on more than twenty thousand dol
lars at seven per cent, whil? the land
at most would not sell for more than
three thousand dpllars.
We know a negro man who bought
a farm on a credit for fifteen hundred
dollars in January of last year.
He produced on this farm with the
assistance of his family twelve bales
of cotton, and enough corn, meat and
other products to run the farm another
year. The cotton and cotton
seed, if sold as they were gathered,
brought enough to pay for the farm,
the interest on the money invested,
and left enough to buy another farm
half the size for cash. From t)eing a
renter, without anything, he was
transformed within a brief twelve
months into a land-owner, with his
farm paid for, and with plenty about
mm.
These may be extreme examples
of what has been taking place in the
last few years, but either of these
men might have made half the crops
stated, and yet have been tenfold
more prosperous than they have
been in the years that have passed.
The many mortgages which have been
paid and satisfied, the number of
acres of land already sold, and still
being sold, which is being paid for,
the comforts and conveniences which
the people in the country arc having,
as compared with twenty years
ago, assure us that the South is not
nearing a condition of want and star
vation.
There is no place for the calamity
howler in this section. There is no
danger that the man who is holding
his cotton will go to the poor house
if he sells as long as the price is reasonable,
nor is there any reason, so
far as the public is concerned, why
he should sell if he does not desire
to do so. He should risk his own
judgment. . But he cannot hold cotton,
make money, pile up riches, and
then make the people believe that
the country is in bad financial plight.
What Should We Do?
But the question will be asked, i
What should we do under the call J
which has been made? Some people,
and a great many people think we
should take some action. We believe
so too. We believe that the
representatives of the people, when
they met on next Friday, should
adopt a resolution to the effect that
the best results on the farms in this
country are to be obtained by diversified
crops, whenever possible, and
in order to bring about the planting
of less cotton, all farmers should
be encouraged to plant corn, grow
hogs and cattle on the farms, and
i in this way to make the farms as far.
as possible independent. We believe
that the farmers of the county
should resolve among themselves
to do something along constructive
i lines to assist the less fortunate of
J the farmers of the county, who are,
| in fact, in the % majority when it
j comes to numbers. All the writing
and speech-making which can be emj
ployed will not help them. They
: must be shown.
We may reduce the acreage plai^
ed in cotton, if we assist these peo-l
pie at tne same time in proper ways,
. but we cannot do so by cutting down
the productive power of these people
without providing an equivalent.
| They cannot be asked to curtail at
their own expense, without some
| other means being provided for them
to earn an income.
j How may the farmers and landlords
bring this about?
j They may do this by financing
their own farms, loaning their tenLADIES
.
!
; | 'gB6aMM
We have tabled for
Boots and Shoes, whii
prices. The sizes are
$8.C
5.(
' ' 4,
3.(
2.1
V
* rk
z.
4.(
| SILKS :
We are also offering
Voiles, Ginghams and
i
????i
| ALL WINTER RI
J
J. M. ^
J Two Stores
' i
ants money, and by agreeing in advance
with them that they are
to grow corn, small grain, peas and
other crops in addition to cotton, and
by taking care of the tenants in the
fall, instead of turning these tenants
over to merchants who want more
cotton raised, and who rush it on the
market as it comes in.
They may encourage the tenants
on their farms to raise their own
meat.. Encouragement is not enough;
they should assist them financially
in doing so. They may buy hogs, and
turn them over to these tenants to
be grown on shares, or they may sell
them on a credit, and take pay in
meat at current prices. The tenant
in this way will be encouraged to
plant crops of corn, cane, peas and
other products with which to feed
these hogs, and to raise them for the
market, if he has more than he desires
to keep.
They may encourage and assist the
tenant class to raise cattle and poultry,
to produce milk and butter and
to grow vegetables for the market,
but it is manifest that if this is to
be done a market musit be provided
for what is produced. When these
people are shown a way to produce
these things more easily than they
may produce cotton, and a good market
where they may sell them at a
profit, and learn that they make
more by doing these things than by
planting all cotton, they will cut the
acreage and look to other things.
They may be encouraged to grow
hay, 09 clovers, or other crops by receiving
proper assistance and by
being shown that 'these crops will
VULCA
HAVE your tires
are ruined. 1
\
time often doubles th
no risk. All work g
J.W. MARTIN,
I
' SHOES....
'quick disposal about fifi
3h we are offering a t
from 3 to 5 1-2?and tl
>0 Shoes, at ,......$5,9!
)0 Sh6es. at 2.91
? - /
>0 Shoes, at 2.7!
>0 Shoes, at 2.3!
)0 Shoes, at . 1.9!
>0 Shoes, at 1.61
25 Shoes, at 1.5!
)0 Shoes, at 2.5<
VOILES : (
? some big values in R
I Outings.
? AD Y-TO- WE AR AND
HALF PRICE.
lNDERSGP
At
bring in good returns to those who
produce them.
The people may be induced to cufc
the acreage in cotton, when it is totheir
interest to do so, but it is not
to their interest as long as they areasked
to throw away their labor on
half crops, with half fertilizers, and
with nothing promised or assured in
the place of the crops they have been
planting.
The farmers of this county, of this
state, and of the South are willing
to be shown, but they will not be
forced into anything.
The country will not live half free
and half slave.
AMERICANS IN BERLIN.
London, Feb. 21?American troops
have arrived in Berlin and been
quartered in different hotels, says a
I dispatch to the Exchange Telegraph
and Copenhagen quoting The Extra
Bladet's Berlin correspondent. The
troops are said to belong to the
"One Hundred and Thirteenth New
York Regiment," and their duty will'
be the protection of expected transports
of food.
Washington, Feb. 21.?War department
officials tonight were unable
to. identify the American troops ^
reported in Copenhagen dispatches
via London have arrived in Ber
lin. The designation of the troops
as the "One Hundred a^d Thirteenth
New York Regiment" puzzled officials
as there is no such unit of New York
troops in the army.
t.
B,?T . , i
NIZING I
repaired before they
\ casing repaired in
e mileage. You take
uaranteed.
at City Garage.
/
f fig (8
ty pairs of Ladies' jig
remarkably low S9
le low cost to you? ||
H Ml
5 1m
* . ! ? it * ' * *
> ,
5
9
I
??L???
JINGHAMS
emnants of Silks,
i MILLINERY AT iS
iT "111
1 \AJ. ||
?bevil!e, S. C. Ijfj