Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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The Barnwell Sentinel, Barnwell. S. C WAKE UP! | Old Barnwell County is lagging behind in the cotton acreage reduction movement!' This is a situation that cannot and must not be tolearated! Figures com piled Monday, March 31st, by the Tabulating Committee show that out of a total acreage of 80,000 acres in 1918 (Government report), only 37,411 acres havp been re ported, with a reduction of 10,952 acres, or just a little over 29 per cent. The minimum reduction has been, fixed at 33 1-3 per cent, from the 1918 acreage and it must not be said that the county that first inaugurated the plan to reduce the acreage has fallen behind the other counties in the Cotton JBelt. • . The South, in its easy-going fashion, has too long allowed the world terfix the price of its* chief commodity, and the price that the world has fixed has kept our people imeconomic slavery, forcing our women and chcildren to toil in the fields in order to eke out a bare existence. Now is our best, and perhaps our last chance, to throw off this bondage and get a price commensurate with the cost of production. Now is our best, and perhaps our last chance, to put our women in the home amt otrr children in the schools where they belong, .instead or working from daylight until dark for a mere pittance. L_ Tlie time has passed for making ten-cent cotton. Cheap labor, that curse of the South, has gone, never to return. The cost of living has gone sky-high, with no in dication of an early return to thejire-war standards. Are you, then, going to submit to a price for your chief product that will not permit you to buy even the necessi- Worth i annually, or a shortage of. about three million bales a £ crops besides cotton. Putting everything in cotton has year. This shortage, of course, was offset by lessenck.de- mand from Europe. 7“ Restrictions on foreign trade are now being fast re moved. Freight rates have been cut and are almost nor mal. 7 England has removed her embargo. France and Italy frrill soon take off restrictions. And Europe bare of cotton. America is the only country that has the cot- Diversification is the salvation of the South. It gets back to the old principle that if one crop fails, you have the others to fall back on. Like a fi reinsurance com pany, jou distribute your risks. But above all you have this economic advantage, that you can raise your meat and food and feedstuffs for your own use on your own cheaper than you can buy them from somebody else who has to make a profit. Plant other crops—-cut your cotton acreage by one-third. You can sell your food and feed crops at prices that will be remunerative. _ ‘ - . » - 2.—Plant Less Cotton This Year You Are Entitled to Cost Price More and more the South ia going into live stock. In Miiuiissippi for instance, the value of farm animals has increased during 1918 $31,000,000. Milch cows increased by 8 per cent in numbers and 26 per cent in valuation. Hogs show a 20 per cent increase in numbers. The av erage farm price per head at present Is $16—an advance of almost 7 per cent over January a year ago. Hogs will continue to be worth money. Europe is short of fats and it will be a long while before pork gets so cheap that it will be unprofitable for the raiser. At present the price of $17.50 per hundred pounds fojr hogs, Qiicago basis, will probably remain in effect several months, liaise more hogs, plant more land in corn to feed your hogs, and you will make more money than by flooding the cot ton market with too much cotton If Southern farmers raise a large crop of cotton in You are entitled to get back the money you paid out to raise your cotton.. Aside from the rightness of your holding your cotton until you get what you think it is worth, facts all gq to show that you will get it if you hold it. If the holders of cotton listen to all the rumors and bearish “dope” of the spinners who are trying to scare the weak cotton holders and shake out enough cotton to give them a supply at cheap prices, of course cotton will go dow n. But if they sit tight in the boat and hold their cotton they will get their money. Foreign Demand is Opening Up. •Cotton is worth at least 35 cents a pound basis mid dling or more. The logic of the facts prove it. Before the war the world was taking from fourteen to fifteen million bales of American cotton. For the last four years the South produced from eleven to twelve million bales 1919 there is grave danger to the South's prosperity. Oc tober cotton is now quoted on the New Orleans Cotton Exchange at about 19 cents. It is well known that cotton cannot be procured at such a price, and it would be much cheaper and easier for the Southern farmer to buy fu ture contracts (if he is able to comply wfth the margin requirements) and put his land into feed and food crops that will pay more remunerative prices. If. aa the “bears” tell us, a 12,000,000 bale cotton crop should bring 20 cents or less, let us cut our cotton acreage one-third and raise only 9,000,000 bales of cotton, then we will at least get back the cost of production, lies ides getting a fair price for the 1918 crop still on hand. your land in feedstuffs and food stuffs, then you will be help ing to both feed and clothe the world, and you will make a reasonable profit for yourself. Do not put all your eggs in one basket, riant other The Man Who Is Opposed to This Plan Is Not a Friend of the South Ordinarily it is bad economy to advise farmers to restrict their production in order to maintain a price. Theoretically it is bad for the millions of people who are the consumers. The rights of the many are greater than the rights of the few. But the cotton farmer of the South until recently has never received his rights (and . 0 * * while the war advanced most commodities it was not the cause of the advance in the price of cotton—in fact, it held down the price of cotton which, with tjie acute short age of four years* might have gone as high as 70c to 80c a pound under normal conditions.) However this may be, the world has no normal right to ask or demand any building better roads and schools, ancKgetting some of the comforts and pleasures of life. The South demands the sam£_thing.—The Smith now demands-a living wage, something more-than a shack for a house, something bet ter than a streak of mud for a road, something better than the three “R’s” for its school children. Any man who says that the South cannot have tbdse; any man who says that cotton is too high; and any man who denies the clothes cheap and at the same time pay the Southern •£ fanner enough for him to have a decent living. The •£ world has criticised the South and has blamed it for illi- ? teracy and backwardness, and yet it does not want to al- ♦£ low the Southern farmer to have anything for his cotton £ except a mere pittance. The fanners of the Middle West, *j; producers of w’heat, corn, and cattle, have been riding in ]jj their automobiles, improving their farms and homes, Don’t wait for a member of the Canvassing Committee to-eall on you. If. you have not al read's pledge, cut out the one on this page, fill in the blanks and senfl or mail it to J. A. Porter, J.Ok I¥Uer: or B. P. Davies, at Barnwell. - —* " r T /z SMALL CROPS BRING MORE y { do NOT SELL FUTURE COT- £ TON. | Because there is such , a wide ? difference between spot cotton £ and future cotton, there is no 1 protection in selling futures at t prevailing discounts. We would y { advise all producing interests not 2 to use the future market as a £ hedge against spot cotton be- $ cause in the present position of X the contract market it is not a X legitimate hedge. — — MONEY STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA, No. Acres Planted in 1918__TLV___ County^of .-a No. Acres Planted in 1919 I hereby premise on my honor and agree to reduce my cotton acreage for the year 1919 as compared with the year 1918, 33 1-3 per cent., and to reduce my commercial fertilizer on cotton for the year 1919 as com pared with 1918, 50 per cen£. Witness: Signed _ ~ * * , • - ™- - — —v—191 , —— —Address. I'j." J. O. Patterson, Jr., Clerk J. A. Porter, C / rman