Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

MISSION OF THE 1S THE I State Warehouse Syntem in I Board to Establish Min Address of Hon. John L McLaurin to Chick Spring Gentlemen of the Press Associa tion. I appreciate the invitation to address the newspaper men of South Carolina. I feel that it is one of the most distinguished honors that has ever come to me, because I knoW that it is not the custom of the Press As sociation to invite politicians on tins occasion, and I feel that the invitation extended to me is an indication that the newspaper men of South Carolina agree that-I have, in some measure at least, passed in my career the stage of mere. politician. I have been more than once stung to the quick by your shafts of lightnmig, but I have never underestimated the real protection that the press is to the country, in exposing sham and humbuggery, or destroying graft and corruption. It is your mision to throw light into the dark places and tell the people hat they ought to know. *J.have learned the truth by pxperience of the observation of the-&greatNapoleon,. that "four newspapers are more- to e dreaded than one hundred housand bayonets." Napoleon fought the freedom of the press because he had no higher ambi ion than personal glory. He ealied that the freedom of the -pe -and the liberties of the people must stand or fall to pther, the press could ultimate 6 overthrow the mighty, fabric e xt gigantic brain had created. 'rhe said to one of his minis linust dazzle and anton . AW _ifwIere.to give the liberty O press,, my power could -A'"s_ three da~s." Sdiferent, the sentiments -ThomasJefferson, who gave th otd a'constitutiori based pe reedom and equality. ~-~~eronsaid, "I would rather n4~ a country with newspa ~reswithout a government, than incountry with a government, ~bt ithout newspapers." k~>~mit~men of the Press AssO yon have a tremendous Uperor weal or woe. Yours h~c igh calling. Thought budscivilization; thought de 4 qs civilization. Through peryou drdp the silent, ble thought into thousands idsat the same moment, thought and molding ~ Mpaper comes to me each ~- adviser spiritual and ma keeping me in touch with wlhistory asit is made, col. and forming my opinions .~mtycontrolling my actions. Phillips said. "The - have no school, and al ~m~~6pulpit, but the press. - nenian inten reads books, ~'btevryone-of us, except the hplesspoor, .poisons himself meyday with a newspaper. It i~paent.school, teacher, thea kre, example, ,counsellor, all in one.. Let me make the -news iippers. and I care not who aesthe religion or the laws."~ It ismy purpose to try to pre -~e he State Warehouse Sys K ia such a way to command drconfidence, and secure the ,upport of the newspapers of aoth Carolina in establishing a stmof mnarketing and hand *ugcotton which will revolu *i~ that industry and inaug ~uaea prosperity among the 4~resof the South which will >estable and lasting because upon correct business During the last one hundred ears the inventor has trans l the de material life of this Sation. Time and labor saving o ppliances have multiplied be ~ odcalculation. We are living m a~new commercial '~nd scient tfcera infinitely advanced be yond-the socialkand economic status of our gandfathers. Con trkast this for a moment, if you pease, with the realms of gov ernent. Find, if you can, in npolitical seence the improved de ~vices in government that cor ~respond in importance with the inventions of Fulton and Whit ne-y, Edison and Marconi. 'You mdthem not. If there had been ~omore progress in applied enmis than in applied pol t we would now be using genius, and with no vision that enables it to comprehend an ev olutionary development that be comes more and more complex as the nation is lifted into loftier and larger spheres of being. This is what primary elections mean-the initiative, referendum and recall. These can not be sneered - out of existence, and some machinery must be devised to permit a full expression of national opinion on public ques tions as often as it may be need ed, without the trouble, r pense and demoralization of such elections as ,we now have, de pressing business, and throwing our citizenship into confusion. Our elections have become al most a national curse. There is no reason , the postoffice de partment 01 this government couldnot do all of this work with no more trouble to the average citizen than is required to write a short note. No real reform has ever been attempted along this line, and the masses of the people until recently have ac quiesced in the unchanging stat us of the Republic, and the po litical barnacles will never sug gest any change which would in terfere with the methods of franchise which keeps them in power. Our political mechanims is so cumbersone and so wrapped up in red tape that the average bus iness man can not do his duty as a citizen without a degree of sacrifice that he refuses to sub mit to. Here is where the pro fessional politician romes in, and with his pirate code of ethics, governs the country. Just as the Pretorian legions sold Rome's imperial sceptre to the highest bidder, so do the ma chine politicians in the great centers of population barter away the rights and prosperity of productive labor for trust made gold in this Rupublic. IS FARMER TO BE FORCED. There has been a great com plaint about the high cost of liv ing. That is all very well; but what about the profits of pro ductive labor? The only way to cheapen the cost of living is for more people to live on the farms and they will never do so'unless the profits are made more at tractive. What is there to keep the energetic and ambitious boy on the farm? The cry, "back to the farm," is a mockery. The city calls, and the lights of the ''great white way" blind his eyes to the beauties of country lanes and blooming fields. He hastens to find fortune in the market place, where traffic makes gold by its very touch. The farm is abandoned as the last resort and fixed fate of the dullard and in competent. History teaches us that na tions draw their true wisdom, unselfish patriotism and untaint ed virtues from the .deep wells of a contented agriculture; from those who live-in the quiet coun try places of the land, who have the time to think soberly, who live temperately, and commune with God in the. temple of his untarnished skies. These are nation builders and nation savers. How can we'maintain this mighty fortress in the soul of a people, if .we destroy, or permit to be destroyed, lhe com fort and poise of mind so de pendent upon a fair reward for toil? We hav'e no standards set by noble birth in America. It is all based on the individual. Our government is absolutely origi nal in this respect, and we have reached a point of complex com mercial and political life, where we mast either take a step for ward or backward. With the problems confronting us. it is impossible to stand still. The purely selfish appropriation of the comforts and blessings of material life for the use of fav ored classes is the rock upon which other nations have found ered. Culture, refinement and education will not save us. Marie Antoinette was more ele gant. possibly, than the most fashionable woman of today,and yet this did not save her from the axe. The best thought of America today should be, how to use our land and its products, our labor and its fruits to devel op good living and sweet pros perity tor our people as a whole, The figures of the census show that the urban population is in creasing 23 per cent faster than the country population. The citities have already andanced in political power to where they not only out-wit and out-talk the rural population, but out-vote them. A great work is being done by our agricultural departments, both State and national, to en courage'the production of food stuffs, but the most that can ev r beaonmpished is to make 0UTH TO CLOTHE IORLD. ach State and an Inter-State [mum Price for Cotton. the South Carolina Press Association, , S. C., 1915. instead of reapers and binders, automobiles and aeroplanes. To deny the need of improved appliances in governmental methods is to affirm that the government is already perfect. It is to declare that political cor ruption. the evil power of con centrated wealth, and the deep complaints of millions of wealth creators, exist only as phantoms in the minds of visionary re formers, while to recognize the facts of these wrongs is to prove incompetence and neglect of duty on the part of law-makers and people alike. It is either this, or to adopt the pessimistic belief now so rife in certain quarters that the toiling masses are so ignorant that to erect a righteous ond efficient system of government is beyond our power because the st-eam can not rise higher than its source. We have mane locomotives, reapers and binders, and per fected submarines, air ships and wireless telegraphy, that work perfectly up to their planning, because 'great inventors have thrown their powerful intellects and abundant energies into the task, impelled thereto by the certainty of large pecuniary re ward. But. my friends, those of us who have been in public life know that reward there is a hollow mockery, that true ser vice is met with ingratitude, and that no.wage of golden millions awaits the successful experimen ter who might discover the most beneficient principle in govern mental mechanics. The steel beam plow, reaper and telephone made swift demonstration of their substantial advantage to the body politic, and each citi zen could specifically note-is snare therein, while the profit from improv'ed governmental methods must ever remain vague and unsubstantial to legislator and voter alike, when consider ed only from the material stand point. NEW MACHINERY NEEDED. When the several colonies rat ified the Constiftution, and the United States stood forth as a nation. it was not unnatural that the architects of this Republic thought that they had perfected a sublime finality in government. It was only the pardonable ego tism characteristic of all traie builders. This Constitution has an enduring foundation because of the grand principles of uni versal equity upon which it is based. These principles can uot be im~proved upon, any more than new qualities of virtue can be added to abstract justice and charity. But the same thing has happened to'us that so fre quently occurs with systems of religion, visible forms and sym bols become identified in the minds of men with the sacred, invisible soul to which they are but passing conveniences, which should be changed ,as are the priestly vestments when ,worn out and rendered useless by the rack and tray of time. That gifted body of statesmen who made our -Revolutionary epoch forever illustrious would prompt ly have devised new methods to meet those new needs which have arisen out of the rapid growth and scientific de velop ment which mark the present. The fact is that the best brsin and talent in the United States have not been in political life. The strongest minds and intel lects have been devoting them selves to *material developments, science and literary work. I think that) as a whole, the pro fession of journalism has more intellect, and more character,'in its ranks today, than we have in all the politicians of the country put together. Many of the men--the so call ed great "captains of itidustry" -have not been after the acquis ition of the mere dollar,but they have honestly believed that the greatest good to this country lay along the lines of concen trated capitalism, and they have sipyoverdone this line of en deavor-to such an extent that one of them has uttered the sen timent that "to die rich is to die disgraced." This condition has left for the harmonious develop ment of governmental science a mediocre statesmanship utterly detitute of tru~e constructive yur farms self-sustaining. For tri money crop cotton is and must yo aver remain our dependence. da The Federal Government is ed to spend about $275,000 a year wl in this State teaching our peo- fal ple to grow food and stock. th There .is more money spent et teaching girls to can tomatoes wl than I have to organize the ma- Sc ahinery to handle a hundred mil nc Lion dollars worth of cotton. to Are the fiscal and economic se policies of this government go- w. iug to undertake to compel pro- w] ductive labor, at less and less re oost. to feed an ever increasing al: urban population? wi We are constantly reminded of and taught to emulate that my- su thological farmer who made two ju blades of grass grow whcre one pE grew before. The government fa is sending out experts to teach tr scientific agriculture. We are ti< urged to grow two bales of cot- se ton where we grew one before, d( but it seems to be taken for tb granted that the extra blade of is grass or bale of cotton must go se to the consumer, instead of to G, the man who made it grow. hi THE SOUTH'S MONOPOLY. se We have seen cotton, since di last August, go from five cents m to ten cents a pound, in the face a' of the largest crop ever made. t3 Our cotton crop for the last il thirty years has been the corner w stone of international finance. ei The South has a practical mo- V nopoly in the production of cot- g ton, and the needs of the world al each year call for more cotton. 81 There has never been a nation di on earth with such a monopoly 6 of a vital product-as the South - has on cotton. All in vain i Great Britain and Russia have c( attempted to break this monop- ce oly. Our percentage shows a tI steady increase with each de- tI cade. Egypt produces a beauti- tI ful staple, but the area fit for s' cotton is not more than one- rM fourth the size of South Carolina do and can not be increased. Eng- M land experimented in Africa, tI but the fibre is so coarse that it 1 has little commercial value. it Russia is growing some cotton h in Central Asia, but the erea is rE very limited, and in that dry 0o climate irrigation must be re- P sorted to. 0 No one crop has ever had so p: wide an influence, and its future jd power in making human history ja can hardly be exaggerated. jts Each fall a great tide of gold is is] broughtin from abroad, that en-|ti ables the financiers of this coun-|ti try to dictate to tlie balance of le the world. And yet the people b who produce that cotton, and ci the section in which it' is pro- Iti duced, are the poorest, per cap-|ti ita, in the United States. tin-|ti der present financial conditions p we have been forced to market In a twelve-months supply m three |p months, and then in the spring, g after the crop has passed out of it the hands of the producers, spec s< ulators and middle-men have el reaped a protit, as now, of sev- l enty-five per cent on their in- tc vestment.~f The people of the South e] should all unite in an effort to n< place cotton upon a sate. stable pi basis. Then the manufacturer pc would know just wbat to do. tt No business can be protita ble with the fluctuations in price iz running from six to sixteen cents tt for this great crop.w IS- iT TO BE PATERNAISM OR - IMPOVERISHMENT? One of the objections urged t to the State Warehouse System ~ is paternalism. I say no, it is only justice. For 100 years the T protecting arms of this govern ment have been thrown around, not the producer, but the manu-e facturer of cotton. He has been protected by a monopoly in thea home market. There has note been a time in fifty years when you could not buy cotton goods cheaper In Europe than you s could in South Carolina, where S the cotton is grown. What ae condition we have every year in 0o the fall when the cry of over ei production is raised. as it was last August? This is the only ai country in the world where fain- 01 ne comes because of plenty. We 01 hear every few years of famine V in other countries because of sE crop failures. In the South tr every fall we face bankruptcy bJ and are threatened with ruin,h not because of crop failures, but because we do make a bountiful cc crop. Look at this country last i October, and look at the price er of cotton today, with a greatt war in progress and the largest ty crop on record, and yet with the di prices nearly 100 per cent above C( what they were then. Am I to starve to death, not because I have nothing to eat, but because er the table is loaded with food? If fai we make no crop it is ruin, and ex it we make a crop it is ruin, too. toi rt is the old predestina~tion dn.oc an ne. "You can and you can't: u will and you won't; you are mned if you do, and you damn if you don't." That is just iat the cotton planters are :e to face with every year at e marketing period. We mark our crop without any system iatever. . Beginning in the iuthwest, and running to the rthern-most limit of the cot n belt, there is a mad rush to 11. We are competitors one th the other-sell, sell for iatever you can get, debts and nt liens and crop mortgages pressing and shoving the !ak and. helpless. The laws any country which permit ch destruction of value are un st and unworty a Christian ople. I would not see onr rmers organize a piratical st or a predatory combina )>, but I do say that, as all em agreed that the trust is the vii of'modern commerce, tha e best way to fight the devil with fire. I do advocate a If defence trust with our State vernments behind it. We ve tried every other plan to cure a fair return for our pro. iets and interest on. our invest ents, and we are less than met d deserve the sting of pover , if we do not assert ourselves defence of our rights. Oui hole scheme of national gov nment for fifty years has re. )lved around protection by the )vernment to certain classes id individuals. Tariff, mone.) id transportation are the foun tion of commercial life. Thi ,riff laws under which we liv( -one of them the Dingley Act its very title, "an Act to en mrage and to protect Ameri 6n industries." Where doe: tefarmer get anything out o: s? He is compelled to buy it Le home market all that he cox imes, and he sells in the oper arket of the world. Wha yes he get out of the mone3 onopoly that has existed undei te National Banking Act sine4 63, except the privilege of pa: g high interest rates? Wha is he got except high freigh tes from the railroads buil it of the profits of selling thi iblic lands, really costing thi -iginal builders nothing? Thi -oducts of the farm must pa vidends on the watered stoci id over-capitalization. Cer inly legislation conferring >ecial privileges is the founda on of every great swollen for, inte in this country. The farm has contributed every time bought a plow,, hoe or trace iaip. These great trusts fia te price of every siungle thing tat is bought on the farm. L te farmer to have no voice ui icing what he sells? Our mo poly. however, does not de ind on special legislation. Go( sve it to us. He safeguardet possession by climate and b) >il. Let the Legislature o: rery cotton State follow the ad of South Carolina and say Sthe balance of the world tha1 om now henceforth and forev we, too, intend to have a mo poly price for a monopol3 oduct, Place ourselves in sition to make this no idle reat, and the victory is won What chance have unorgan ed millions, scattered ovel irteen States, in a contes ith expert financiMi strategy ,ked by unlimited capital: 'hen the people can not do foi Lemselves individually is with the province and the duty of Le government to do for them. be government helps the cit en to help himself. This ih >t socialism, it is patriotism.] re not whether you call it pa rnalism or not. Better paterr ism than agricultural impov ishment. Better that cottor iould wear the crown of a kina an the shackles of a slave. aal we have the courage. tc rike one brave blow for a righi us system of political economy shall the South continue tc inge and cower to an ever-in ading money tyrant? Our lands e an unwidely, impossible sort security. but the product of tr land, cotton, is always con rtible into gold at a moment's curity. The remedy is to nsform cotton into a negotia e security. The State Ware use certificates are an ideal rm of credit, and when they me into general use th'ey will tpart an artificial value to ev y acre of cotton land and make e South rich in the next twen -five years beyond our wildest INTRACTION OF CREDITS, NOT OVERPRODUCTION. We ask no favor of the gov ment except a free field and a .r fight. We expect nothing cept what we earn by honest 1, but we do deny the right of y clas to use the credits which we create to destroy our market and to deliver us over to antagonistic interests. They talk to as about the law of sup ply and demand. Cotton sold in my town on the streets in Oc tober at five cents. It is now bringing twice as much, and this difference of 100 per cent. lies in the extension of credit, not in the demand for cotton. It is not so often overproduc tion of cotton, as contraction of credits and faulty distribution that make for lower prices. Statistics prove that the produc tion of cotton has not kept pace with the consumption. New uses are found for it each year. It has almost supplanted wool and silk. It leads in the great industrial advance, and it can be made to bring a fair return to those who produce it. From the socks on our feet to the hats on our heads, from undershirts to overcoat, it is cotton There are one hundred million people in the United States today. and if they were able it is rot ex travagant to say that they would each use ten dollars worth of cotton every year. This would consume the entire crop of the United States and leave nothing for the balance of the world. The farmers of the South hold the key to the situa tion. Wall Street can sell all the future cotton they please, but the mills can not spin the kind of cotton that Wall Street sells. You can't clothe people with paper contracts. We have the actual cotton, and it is spot cotton, not paper cotton, which is king. All that the South has to do is to put herself in a situa tion to hold the crop and demand a fair price for it. Sooner or later these millions of future con tracts that are now being sold in the cotton exchange of New York will fall - due, and then speculators must come to us for the spot cotton. SOUTH CAROLINA ALWAYS A LEADER. The population of the world is estimated at about 1.500,000, - 000 people. About 500,000,000 regularly wear clothes; 750,000, 000 are partially clad, and 250, 000, 000 go naked, and it has been estimated that to clothe the entire population of the e'n tire world at the present rate of pounds per capita would require 50,000,000 bales of cotton of 500 pounds each. It is therefore plain that the production of cot ton will go on extending until the inhabited earth is clothed with the product of our fields, for cotton at 25 cents is the cheapest clothing known to man. It is the mission, of the South to clothe the world, but if she is to do so there must be a reasonable profit for the land owner and the laborer. South Carolina, true 'to her traditions in the past, is leading this great industrial movement for itabilizing the price of cotton. Mr. W. P. G. Harding, of the Federal Reserve Board, in an address last Febru, ary to the American Banker's Institute, said Lhat out of the agitation which we had last fali -"that the only thing worth while was the excellent warehouse system in this State " Later he gave me letters to the leading fina'nciers of New York City. in which he stated that South Car olina was far in advance of any thing which had been attempted and her State Warehouse Sys em was a model for the other States to follow. I feel that I zan assure him that South Car lina will do her full duty. Oar little State has -a glorious his tory and has played her part well in every great national cris is. In 1787 John Rutledge de livered his ultimatum to the Con ventio-n which formed the Con stitution, and from that time to the day when her civilization was overturned by war her voice has been potent in the councils of this nation, God speed the day when, foi-getting petty jealousies and small pol itics, her statesmanship will again sL ape national policies. In 1835 she had the longest line of railroad in the world, and when the war came was preparing for the Blue Ridge Railroad to the West. In 1765, when the Colo nies were considering what course to pursue, South Caro lina led the way by declaring for continual unity. This was the real beginning of the Revolution and the foundation of the Fed eral Constitution under which we are today living. She was the first to take this bold step, and the first of the thirteen col onies to form a constitutional government. Bancroft, the great historian, dcclares that South Carlina formed the Union. The last blood of the Revolution was shed upon South Carolina soil, nd after the Breitish had ap~ tured Boston, New York and Philapelphia, from Camden to Cowpens and King's Mountain was the real bloody battle ground that ended in the sur render of Cornwallis and York town. When the war ended, South Carolina was the largest creditor State, because she had furnished more actual money to the cause ot independence than any other State in the Union. STATE SYSTEM A SUCCESS, When the South Carolina Leg islature, in its extra session, passed the State Warehouse Bill and I was selected to put it in operation, I was appalled at the magnitude of the task and the small means at my command. I feel tnat I can today say that it will be a success. because, through the aid rendered me by Mr. Harding. I have been able to command the attention of the great financiers of this country, who have expressed themselves as being satisfied that the State Warebouse receipt puts cotton into a negotiable form. There is no difficulty whatever in ob taining money at the lowest rate of interest on a State Warehouse receipt. I am encouraging the farmers in each community to build ware houses on their own farms, and then during the fall months, when the price of - cotton does not show a fair profit, to use these receipts to borrow money and pay their debts. If the sys tem can be extended, as now seems likely, into the other States of the South, an -inter State board can be formed and a minimum price agreed upon, so that it will not be necessary ev er to sell another bale of cotton below the cost of production. If the State Warehouse Bill had never done anything else except reduce insurance rates in South Carolina it would be worth mil lions of dollars to all the people of this State. I have had more trouble with the insurance rates than anything else connected with the operation of the system. There was a distinction made be tween a warehouse in the coun try and in a fourth-class town. On the country warehouse the rate would be $3.50 while in a fourth-class town, where there were no water works and no more protection against the fire than in the country, the rate would be $1.75 per hundred dol lars. Without going into the details, the insurance companies were all quick to realize the su perioty in the moral risk of a State Warehouse, and they were prompt to offer us a reduction of 10 per cent per hundred on cotton in a State warehouse over that stored in a -private or cor porate owned warehouse. But it was only after great difficulty that I secured a reduction of about 100 per cent on the coun try risk, and also from 25 to 32 1-3 cent on all cotton in State warehouses, and I have no doubt that in the future the rates on cotton stored in State ware houses will be further reduced. COTTON MUST BE SOLD FROM FARM TO MILL. One of the most important features connected with thd State Warehouse System-and it is this that has attracted me more than anything else-were the additional powers conferred by the last General Assembly authorizing this Commissioner to negotiate loans and make sales-of cotton direct. Fortu nately, with the assistance of Mr. Harding. I have made sat isfactory arrangements so far as negotiating loans is concern ed; but the great burden that rests upon the cotton planter is the many middle-men who net a profit between the farmer and the mill. 'There is a cotton ship now tied up in the French prize court whose owners recently stated under oath that they bought the vessel for $165,000 and that the fr-eight on this one cargo would pay for the vessel. The cottcn was contracted for delivery in Germany at twenty two cents a pound. The insur ance was about two cents a pound. I do not know what was paid the farmer for the cotton, but as it was bought early, I guess around six and a half cts. This would leave a net profit of about eight cents, or forty dol lars a bale; to the speculators, more than the farmer who grew it received. Three years ago I saw a Texas paper in which it was stated that a planter in Texas put a note in a bale of cotton, with an addressed enve lope, and requested the manu facturer to write and tell him what he paid for the cotton at the mill, and the kind of goods into which it was converted, and the profits he expected to make on it In a few months a reply :ame back from German. :a which it was stated that the mill had paid sixteen cents a pound for the cotton, and giving bhe class of goods into which it was converted, and saying that they expected to make a profit of about three hundred dollars on the manufacture of the cot ton. The farmer received about nine cents-so he stated in the letterfor the cotton; so that there was seveu cents a pound, thirty-tive dollars a bale, that went in profits and expenses to six or -eight middle-men stand ing between that farmer and the cotton mill in Germany. Now, there is no reason in the world why, with the proper facilities, I could not. as Warehouse Com missioner, sell cotton from a State warehouse on a plantation in South Casolina direct to a cot ton mill anywhere in the world. We have daily reports that come in from every ' warehouse in the State, which are laid on my desk every morning, that disclose the number of bales of cotton, the grade- of each bale and its weight. If there was a ship in Charleston, and we had a compress in Columbia, have it compress and go direct on board of the ship from the cars, and from there to the-cotton mill in Germany or England, and it would never be touched by any one else. All that I would have to do would be to see to it that the grades come fully up to the standard. and, in case they fell below, have a business system that would enable me to go back and make reclamation from the party for whom the cotton was sold. If that was done, I have made the calculation that in time of peace it would add at least three cents a pound to the value of every bale of cotton, and that would amount in - one yeir in the State of South -Car olina to about $15,000,000. Of course I realize the fact and ex pect that any system as far reaching as that. would meet with the most strenous opposi tion, because every middle man who is either directly or indi rectly concerned would fight'bit terly a change of that sort. They don't realize that in the long ruQ it is best for the entire public, themselves included, that we have some uniform system of handling and-marketing our. cot ton crop GEADERS MUST BE~ LICgNSED . There is another thing: The United States Government has established standard grades for cotton, and yet every year the cotton exporters and .buyers in every State in the South take millions of dollars out of the pockets of the people by syste matically under-grading cotton. I myself have shipped cotton from South Carolina to New York to be delivered on contract there, and in one instance the grades given me by the Ne w York Cotton Exchnnge were sixty-five points above, that of the local buyers in the town of Bennettsville. There must be ~some law passed that will not on ly adopt the definite and fixed standards of the United States Government, but the graders must be licensed and required to grade that cotton accurately. Why, think of the system of grades upon which cotton is bought and sole in the open markets in the towns of South Carolina, and the way it is prac ticed in the exchanges of this country. If you buy 100 bales through the New Orleans or New York Exchange, and that cotton is tendered to you, the man who tenders it is not - per mitted to grade it; you are not permitted to grade it. but they have sworn, disinterested grad ers and the graders do not know to whom that cotton belongs. It is carried to them on numbers, and they grade it without the slightest knowledge as to its ownership. Now, you take it in South Carolina, and every bit of the grading is done by the purchaser of the cotton. You have either got to let him have your cotton that way, or not sell it at all. When he goes to tend er it on contract it is done disin terestedly, and I doubt' exceed ingly if there is one bale of cot ton out of 1.000 that is bought in South Carolina in the open market from the farm that when the buyer comes to sell it to the mill he doesn't make a profit on the grading over and above the price that he pays you for the cotton. DREAMS, The South has it in her power by utilizing the vast commercial 3redit incident to handling this great monopoly crop, to make her self the dominant power in fi aance and ciyilization. I have mONrIrmD ON LOCAL PAGE.