Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TVAVIS EMBARGO OS COTTON, f i KIT HIGHER PRICES i t from an Address of Hon. Jno. 31c- : Laurin at Stj. Paul, Minn., Sept. j < 19, in Which He Refutes Sen- j \ ator Smith's Export Statis- ] tics - ! . Hr. President and Gentlemen: j I consider it an honor and a priv- j , iiege to address a body of men so j lepresentative of the bone and sinev?! ( of America. I come from the cotton fields of the south to the wheat fields, of the west, and it is borne in upon' , me by the discussion which I haw', heard upon this floor that all of us' 1 are patriotic American ciuizens, reau^ to spend and be spent in the caus^ of ^ -democracy. ^ Economic War ] We realize that the present war is an economic contest and that it is to be lost or wcp on the farms of Amer-j ica. It is a question of the conserva- j ( lion of natural resources, and there ( can be no such thing as defeat if a' ^ "square deal" is given to all, rich and ' ^ boot, high a<nd low. ! ^ S. Autocracy Admitted ! 5 I live heard and read in the public i 4 ( much about our country becoming an ^ autocracy. The word does not frighten ^ me because I know that the democ- , racy of Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow, "Wilsc^n, Thomas Jefferson and Theo-j dore Roosevelt is fully able (for Its' own salvation) to convert itself into , an autocracy, and then when the time; of need is past, resume its natural , ehapev Theta Democracy Will Perish If this country is so dominated ay ' selfishness as to be unable to mobilizt f its men, money and products into an '< economic as well as militaristic war j ( machine, and then after the war is f over not to be able to agaio maiuuuu . democratic liberty for the individual, our armies at the front are of no ' avail, and democracy is doomed to perish from the face of the earth, j ( Republics have come, lived for a "while and then died, because they irere.ufiable to do less. May Become Democratic Again j The United States is entering upon the boldest experiment ever attempted aad I for on believe that she has the poorer to become an autocracy to save . * . \ the life of a democracy. j ^ We can (not conduct this war without consolidating power, because pow-' ^ er is only effective when it is concen-, trate^ We are giving our representa-' tires napreced?(jfce<l power of doubtCul constitutionality, but 1 have eon- ^ in this covernmeat. and I be t lieFe that those in authority will not! 1 f knowingly abase the powers confer-. 1^ red upon them by placing unequal Hp* burdens upon the various classes wfto to iz^&o ap the body poHtic. It *8 f great bodfes like this to speak out and make their watela known. The Task Wc Are At j 2 This war has brought civilization to * its climax. Tremendous transitions fere upon us. Fruitful fields are given over to graves, and entire natictns are 1 vanishing like unset shadows in an in- 1 finite oce;\n of sorrow. However, out on r\f thie terror. .blood and death, Wi VI V??Q W. , cot a nation engaged in the war but ^ will come out of it with oew visions of service to be performed by the gov-* eminent for the individual. War-Made Millionaires ' All of the nations have been forced to take charge of food supply and regulate pricey. They have not, however, coined their efforts to raw material, at the expense of the. pro<kicer thereof. The foreign govern-' meats are purehasng the raw material and other neeessites and turning ? *onrnnvaHnnn U A *il ^TCI IU jjl i T CI CO V/Wl i^vi WHVW7/ vw ? W ( manufactured?the government fixing t*;? prices at which, the finished ar-j( tidf is to be sold to the public, aa 'wetl as the rate of wages. This fufrio j, tioa of government is firmly estab-j linked in Europe, but here ia Amer-j toa the war has greatly increased a I very numerous class of wealthy per- :, sons, who were already tb<* greatest , danger confronting this country.1, Roosevelt calls them "malefactors of great wealth." o v j Never Touches Them I do not believe that the income and Inheritance taxes will reach these war-made multimillionaires. Some-; thing must be done to leave more money in the hands of productive la bor so as to have burdens and benefits more evenly distributed!. The time is upon us when the government must openly and effectively concern itself with industrial and financial questions upon large lines? when it must not only deal justly ana strongly with the labor problem, but also with the farmers of this country. Half measures and sickly palliatives will only irritate and make matter.? I worse. If we are to have price-fixing, let it be effective or nothing at all. Cotton I ave been asked to discuss cotton fSTe are a one-crop country, and the ndirectly on the price of cottcn. ( v We have a practical monopoly i he production of cotton and it has c 11 ways been a political as well as an r economic issue. I think cottqn was 1: :he real cause of the war in 186^ ; v Public seitiment north was ovef-1 v tvhelmingly in favor of the abolition t Df slavery, while the south was a unit s In the belief that we could not main-! 'ain that monopoly without slave la- j t bor. When Lincoln was elected, se-, 1 :ession was a natural sequence. j s Cotton is almost as important a war <3 J * - - ?"? a nrn #? #?*+ r* material as wneai. iue> can set w wheat all over the world and there ( f ire many substitutes for it, but cot- j ton is the prime necessity in the 1 manufacture of explosives, tents, unl?orms, bandages, automobile tires amd ^ thousands of things too numc-rous to mention. Think Germany Has Our Cotton It takes one poumd of cotton to' make a pound of modern powder. One Df the big guns consumes a bale of 11 :otton every time it is firedj. When 'he embargo was placed on cotton to 0 3 :he central powers, they claimed to Q lave found a substitute in cellulose, made from wood. T have always ioubted that for recent revelations ] j [ lave shown that cotton was going in- ^ to Germany all of the time through Sweden and other neutral countries. 1u England May Have Conquered. | Early in the struggle Great Britain undertook to cut off the cotton supply from Germany, and I .believe if sTit :ould have succeeded that the war i c would have be($n over now. j The present price of cotton is abo'it ^ 20 cents per pound and on the ?ov | srnment estimate of the coming crop.! together with the seed, it will bring 51,750,000,000. Its value mainufactur-j . ?d can not be estimated The cost of, ! < the production of cotton before the war was about 12 cents per poun^. It? present cost, I would say, was not less than .20 cents per poujid. j L think that the military demand for cotton is about equal to the antebel- j , [um consumption of Germany and ^ Austria). j ^ Before the War j * Before the war dne-third of the col- ? d ;oa crop was manufactured in this ~ jountry and two-thirds was exporter. 8 is the price of the export crop de-,c ermines the price oi the product :onsumed at home, we have been up _ 'ft Lg^.|ast a serious proposition since .914. |? Tn. iai4. we had 5,000,(KK) >ales of the old crop, and a Dew crop, 0 .7,000,000 bales ready to be marketed n addition to heavy stocks of goods ^ Jp to that time we depended upon the p vest for 76 per cent of our foodstuffs, * l&4 while your corn, meat atod flour p *as st war prices, we had to b-ay sup- ^ >lie? from cotton sold at famine prlc-. 4 We will never be caught that way u igain and today there is more "hog ^ i ' " r+ssttnn Kp3t than ** LZKl CU1Q1U/ iu tut M?v. )r^t before in its history. j State Warehouse I 0 In correction with others, I proposed a state warehouse plan, whicb neant that the state stood behind the f receipts for cotton on storage. This ' transformed the bale of cotton into 9 . 1 negotiable instrument that passed in the mctaey markets like a bond or a C ahare of stock. Under tms ptan we economized, borrowed money, paid [>ur debts and held our cotton off the market. j Last June the price of middlii>g cot- . ton went up to 27 c^nts a pound ami there is no grander example of what mar be done by cooperation tnaj what was accomplished in the south Cor cotton in 1915. I Protectory CUsi What I wish to see now is for the farmers all orer this country, north1 - iv frtffofVior * n/1 nro-; 3.DQ UlIIj iu aiauu m/^wuv. ? s tect themselyes against the predatory^ classes, who, from the beginning of 3 time, have fattened upda the wealth J created by others. - Cotton Rt 26 1-2 cents per pottad,( ( the highest price reached so far, i? ? nominally higher than It has been for' 1 50 yearsf. .The spinners are now try-; * ' f ing to tell us that we ought to be * satisfied with this price because it i?( so much higher thau it was in the summer of 1914, befure the breaking i out o{ this world war. They under-, e took to remind us that we are get- t ting a tremendous price. I freely ad-j t mit that we were getting a fair price 1 for cotton in 1914. Then our prices ( t were on equality with othej prices. j< a t a-i'llinor tn aHmit that ( ?>Ul i am uui um.j, iv ? we are getting fair prices now?not t under conditions were a 60 per cent t excess profit tax oil our earnings of: i 300 per cent?raises three times as much revenue as a per cent on 15 c per cent excess itrolit. 11 Wheat too Low : c I know that the price they are of-'r ferftig you for wheat is hardly up ro \ the cost of production under exist-! 1 ing conditions, and I can readily un-( i derstand how wheat, which gave you s a profit at $1 per bushel three years f ago. will impose a loss upon you at j $2.10 per bushel. "We are willing to ] contribute our profits on cotton as\ ve know you arc willing to give your 'gi >rofits on wheat, provided all others I ontribute t'weir piofits on their va- p ious sources of income. Statistics, I towever, do not show that the people I ^ho are making the largest profits nHpr pvisfintr conditions are conrtl luting their fair proportion to the E upport of the war, and in order to iqualize things it seems to me that if |j hey are going to take your wheat at |j ess than cost of production they E hould so arrange as to make up th% gj! lifference to you by means of ade-,p [uate rebate collected from the more B avored interests. jfl MEANS TO FACE JURY Vaives an Examination and Agrees g to bo Bound Over to October ? Term Court j |j Concord, X. C., Sept. 25.?Gaston R'. ,'Ieans waived examination in the gj nidst of his preliminary hearing here 9 ate today and consented to be bound a * tVia rvntnhpr tprm of the Cab- B f> Ci L*- _ .rrus County grand jury on a charge 9 if having murdered Mrs. Maude A. 1 ting of New York and Chicago. Mag- E strate Pitts ordered him held without I tail. The grand jury meets October 1 j Counsel for Means stated they had 1 :heen informed that threats had bee "J | nade" that New York officials here I iad brought extradition warrants to 1 ake the defendant back to New York 1 >n "some undisclosed criminal 1 :harge" and that they felt "lie would I >e safer in the custody of the sheriff I >f this county." It also was announc- I sd that Means did not wajit to risk I acing any charges elsewhere with an I msettled murder charge against him I ii North Carolina. This charge, his | :ounsel contended, would be cleared fl iway at the trial. I Seeks to Recover Jfapers Agreement came after counsel for I deans had made an unsuccessful at- I empt to get possession of papers and I iOcuments seized by District Attorney B Iwann's representatives in Means' ? iew York apartment, a^d was accom- " anierd by a lengthy explanation bythe n efendant of his reasons for abruptly ^ tiding his fight in the magistrate's n ourlj. ; Mrs. Mary C. Meivin, sister of Mra. Ling, joined him in obtaining a writ ?? ^ tu.-Ipta Webb at Gastonia, P rum vuuuiv u rdering Assistant District Attorney S oha Dooling of New York and other 3< fficials who came here with Dooling H 3 aid the prosecution, to turn over} a le documents to the clerk of the sa- r< erfor court of Cabarrus County. Tne o * ?L?- ? Qn_' ? Tit is made reiurxmvw: wwk erior Judge Cline at Salisbury Oc-^ f? >ber 8. Officials named In the order ol xformed Sheriff Caidwell the docn- ol lents were in possession of Solicitor ( t? laments. The latter issued-a state- ft lent, saying: i * ta^e will keep the documents unless: tVio irt after the hearing j w I UCI cu u/ _ o give tv>em up." j d Seeoad Wiii Asa^ng Them j b Among the documents was the al-j 1 eged second will of the late J: C. o Ling of Chicago-, which if finally held ' egal would give to the estate of Mrs j t< Jaude Aj. King approximately |2,-' s K)0,000 more than the wife got when t. ier husband died. Mrsj. Melvin be- a ieves, according to the order, that o \ B. Ambrose, a department of jus-( c ice agent named in the order," is an p tgent of the Northern Trust Compaq > ly of Chicago and "is vitally inter-' ?sted in preventing the will being a >robated." The trust company hold.'* b he $2,000,000 in trust for a charita- e )le organization. J e "I don't worry about what they be J g ieve I am," said Ambrose. "J hav? e >apers showing what I am." Means claimed in the order for the ( \ v A -InAt.niflBfc fhat th UV i&pcrji a Liu. tiAMv vtsvj tecessarr for his defense. Solicitor Clement argued for a I ioflimitment binding >Mean3 over and rtating that evidence justified such ac- ! ;ion, while Means' attorney contended, hat the order should contain Means', eason for agreeing to be bound over, c Explanation 3Tot Admitted I a Magistrate Pitts signed the writ * itself but declined to sign the attach-, G >d explanation, which also contained * i statement that Means in no maaaer i: igreed that there was any evidence r vh Ha r-nnld have been held to a J J T>Uiv/t* ? ;he grand jury if he had seen fit to continue to fight the case and also n 1 escribed him as "fully believing V i; hat he would be "completely acquit- 1 ed and vindicated" of the charge of^. nurder when the case went to a jury, j C Assistant District Attorney Dooling F >f New York said counsel would rep-; v 'esent the men nam.'d in the writ or lering them to turn over the docu- ^ nents seized in Means' apartment 11 vhen the ease was brought up for, 0 )earing. The writ also orders those.1 lamed in it to show cause whv the? i ;hould not be permanently enjoined, v rom removing tho documents from urisdiction of the court. Besides s Pooling and Ambrose, Di| Schaltz^jt r.edical assistant to District Attor- p r, jj m I POWER ! EY ( i Half the farming prol Case dependable pow it. The remarkable p top place. They repr I modern machinery ca Case Tractors weigh les tractors of equal capacity not too light in coristructi to make them duraf "e. '1 mean good traction anl packing. ? Ropp & CRC HMmnawi ey Swann in New York; John Cuniff, n filliam Jones and W. T. Jones, con- t ected with the New York police e >rce, were named in the writ. a Brings Hearing to End j fa Arguments on whether Magistrate itts should bind Means over to the s J rand jury consumed all the morning jssion of the second day of-the pre--! minary hearing and it had been an-! onnced that all the attorneys rep- t jsenting Means would make argu j fl lents for dismissal. . Arguments be- j t an after it was announced .the de-j aidant would not offer evidence. Two. q [ his attorneys had attacked .the case 0 I the Statp, wmcn cxosea nuo j w ?rday, and Solicitor Clement .had de- j g vered an argument for commitment ] g hen lunchear: hour intervened. J f nnrintr the noon hoar the writs j ere served demanding tie seized' ocuments and reconvening of court' * rough't the. announcement tiiat c bans would consent to be bound 3 ver. I 8 Attorneys for Means were expected 2 3 continue their efforts to get posession of the documents. None of hem, however, would discuss what I ction would be taken. E. T. Cansler I f Means' counsel indicated ijn open I ourt that no habeas corpus proroceedlngs would be started to get fleans out of jail. t f Solicitor Clement, Attorney GenerI Manning and others went to Saliamry tonight, where Solicitor Clemnt resides. A:ll announced they had 10 immediate plans in sight, pending ;rand jury action, which they could, nake public at present. OLB WINTEB COMING, _ [?AYS DCTCfi PROPHETj ! f?ch i&clemeat Weath?r Will Prepaid With Excess ?f Preeipltatfoa? j Fmt ei October 7 ' Jt is possible now to make a. foreast of wiater temperature wj'i > * - - iu - ~.. ! .mount of precipitation ror iu? pa-: od ending with the Ternal equinox ?f 1918," said the Dutch Weather j 'rophet yesterday. "A cold winter isj ndicated with a great deal of lncl?-, afyit weather which will begin to ppear November It. "The amount of precipitation will i nake up the deficiency of about ten j riches which now exists ana oy Apm , 1918, have an excess on record. "The forecast for killing frost ov> )ctober 7. (central date) for the( 'iedmont section is renewed here- ( nth. This period will be precederl j v an area of precipitation, followed - iv northwest winds. Severe irosi: nay be expected south of parallel 34, n the above central date. "It is scarcely possible with mucft j nclement weather indicated that the, winter will pass away without snow, i it least two snowfalls will occur, outh and east of the Blue Ridge since ( he old-fashioned winter is now to' >revail^a<^hei^nntj^ilH20^^ SaBSB^mBSaSBSSB ^--^,r*arcw*JM.*w.,-WTTT!rTT1WlllHII MM HUM i lilinlW III II Ik ^ problems :ase tractc >lem has been solved by yoi ? i r r er. Urchard men cannot arr< >erformance of Case Tractors esent the best that experience n produce. s than other The quality of C; They are by farmers all ov n, however, years Case mac 'he wide tires standard. In pe prevent soil- my it cannot be < St-n/Iv thp rnsf hi i Workma SS HILL, SOUTH CAROL!! nixed up so much with spring as has i >eem the case in recent year4 Sum- c aer will also be distinct from spring < nd of course, the seasons will thus 1 egJn to turn 10 normal caudrtions." \ i ! ?i _ . ( TATE BOARD OF b EDUCATION HEET < i ^ Columbia, Oct. 1.?At the meeting of; he state board of education which11 i djoarned last night, scholarships in 1 he various state colleges were award-; < d. The lists of these awards for. i Jlemson, wintnrop ana university. i f South Caroiisa and the Citadel1 ier<i published in this correspondence } everal weeks ago, and the scholar I j hip beneficiaries have already re- ^ iorted for college work. j-j 1 There was ato appeal frota Spartan- j < tv.Tfc county in which the question < ft residence was involved. In June; < i young man graduated from a high, 1 chool in Gre<pville county, where he^ i md his parents and family lived. < rhereafter he moved to Spartanburg f Have your Old Shoes turned into repairs J. Lurey's Up-toNo matter how worn out they arc a neater job than you can get els< en heels *ith rubber heels put ba of rubber heels and the best leat the prices. Bring or send then J. LUREY'S 01 I j "yHE needs of the South are ide / ? +f the Southern Railway: the growth / , tkc epbulldiar of the other. ? A. i 4 The Southern Railway ukt no firar f t J acco.-ied to others. K # The ambition of tite Southern Railw: y J unity of interest that i? bora of co-opend / ? the railroads; to #ee perfected that fair and 1 metit of railroada which inritea the <x I amende*; to realize that liberality of trea to obtain the additional capital needed for t j ridajxed facilities incident to the demon 1 service: and. finally? jf To take its niche in the body politic f other prrat indu9triej, with no more, but j rijhti and equal oppoituauiej. " The Southern Servet ^uthem'Rail mm ii j 1 aa m rmm SOLVED M )RS ll li when you have | srd to be without nave pui liitm ill 5, money, time and ase machinery is known er the land. Fot 75 hinery has been the B rformance and econo- M tfore you buy. n V ilj Agents ra m in ind bad a guardian appointed, an<i claimed residenc In Spartanburg iountjj. This the state board disalowed. The ether appeals involved inancial ability to pay tor the edonation of those seeking scholarshipsn each icstance the parties inter- ^ >sted will te notfled by the statex>ard of the decision. The board discussed thoroughly the- , iistribution of the state-adopted text- I joolcs. and expressed its appreciation J| )f the co-operation of the depositories, ind the publishers in getting the new woks ifc the hands of the paWid "The unprecedented demand for :hese bocks/' said a member of the >oard, "is due in a large measure to &eir liberal use in independent eity schools, which have the right of iniep-mdent textbooks adoption. Of course, the congestion of railroads fa:ilties, because of the war demands, jH tvfll no do'rbt cc,use frequent delays 1 a deliveries, but in no case will these- 3 V ^ J/>? Innnna +V* r% -r\ HAAAft. Itl(I/O UTJ fcJ- via? cuau u^wo^ ?| ;ar>|" ^ New Ones [by having them V d at Date Shoe Shop ! we can do the work and do N jwhere. I can fix all wood- x ck on. I use the best kinds her. I have the drop on -> tia J W r Phone 393 1 a Record! Vy M ntical with the needs } ,/s 1 i . and tmaoem of *ae nuoaa ! \ < I?ao tfmriit! fririleee set ! if ? J J? t IT Company is to see that i loo between the public and , j frank policy in the ' J "1^1 mfldence of rorcrnmenal ' \ nnent vakb will enable It Jf be acquisition of better a*? A d for increased and better s J ^ of the Somth aloanide o* J wltb equal liberties. v&C f s the South." * A