Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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0 C 41' 'Three Friendly Gentlemen Made We have smokers of With this < "411 1"-'" world's thr l 1 We named home offi Hav 1; SOME ASPECTS OF Ti By BERNARL I The whole rural world is in a fer ment of unrest, and there is an un paralleled volume and intensity of de termined, if not angry, protest, and an ominous swarming of occupational conferences, interest .groupings, poli tical movements and propaganda. Such a turmoil cannot but arrest our attention. Indeed, it demands our careful study and examination. It is not likely that six million aloof and ruggedly independent men have come together and banded themselves into active unions, societies, farm bureaus, and so forth, for no sufficient cause. Investigation of the subject conclu sively proves that, while there is much overstatement of grievances and misconception of remedies, the farm ers are right in complaining of wrongs long endured, and right in holding that it is feasible to relieve their ills with benefit to the rest of the community. This being the case of an industry that contributes, in the raw material form alone, about one-third of the national wealth pro duction and is the means of livelihood of about 49 per cent of the popula tion, it is obvious that the subject is one of grave concern. Not only do the farmers make up one-half of the nation, but the well-being of the oth er half depends upon them. So long as we have nations, a wimse political economy will aim at a large degree of national self-sufficiency and self-conta inmient. Rome fell when the food supply was too far removed from the belly. Like her, we shall dlestroy our' own agriculture and extend our sources of foodl distanttly andl precari ously, if we' do not see to it that our farmers are wvell and fairly paid for their services. The farm gives the nation men as wvell as food. Cities derive their vitality and are forever renewed from the country, but an im poverished countryside exports intelli gence aund retains unintelligence. Only the lower' grades of mentality and character will remain on, or seek, the farm, unless agriculture is capable of being pursuedl with contentment aind adequate compensation. Hence, to embitter and1( i mpoverish the farm er is to dry up and contaminate the vital sources of the nation. '['le wvar showed convincinmgly how dIependentl the nation is on the full pirodluctivity of the farms. Despite herculean efforts, agricultural produc-i tlion kept only a few weeks or months| ahead of consumiption, and that only by increasing the aereage of certain stale crops at the cost of reducing that of others. We ought not to for get that lesson when we ponder on the farmer's problems. They are truly common problems, and there should be no attempit to deal with them as if they wvere purely selfish dlemandls of eclear-cut group), antagonistic toi the rest of the community. Rather should we consider agriculture in the light of broad national policy, just as wve cornsider oil, coal, steel, dye stuffs, ari so) forth, as sinews of na tional strength. Our growing popula tion and a higher standard of living demand i ncasinig food suipplies, and more wool, cotton, hides, and the rent. With the disappearance of free or cheap fertile landl, add~litionalI acreage aind increasedl yields can come only from costly effort. '[his we need not expect from ani impoverished or un happy rura'iil popl ationi. 666 is a prescription for Colds, Fever and LaGrippe. It's the most speedy remedy we know.. ie eleven garettes to SuitYourTaste ror years catered to the cigarette America. %-perIence, we created One Eleven MLlade to Suit Your Taste," of the se greatest cigarette tobaccos -TURKISH, for Aroma -VIRGINIA, for Mildness -BURLEY, for Mellowness them One Eleven-the address of our e. We are proud of their success. e You Tried Them? *111 FIFTH AVE. n ORE CITY FARMERS' PROBLEMS M. BARUCH It will not do to take a narrow view of the rural discontent, or to appraise it from the standpoint of yesterday. This is peculiarly an age of flux and change and new deals. Because a thing always has been so no longer means that it is righteous, or always shall be so. More, perhaps, than ever before, there is a widespread feeling that all human relations can be im proved by taking thought, and that it is not becoming for the reasoning ani mal to leave his destiny largely to chance and natural incidence. Prudent and orderly adjustment of production and distribution in accord ance with consumption is recognized as wise management in every business but that of farming. Yet, I venture to say, there is no other industry in which it is so important to the pub lic-to the city-dweller-that produc tion should be sure, steady, and in creasing, and that distribution should be in proportion to the need. The un organized farmers naturally act blind ly and impulsively and, in conse quence, surfeit and dearth, accompa nied by disconcerting price-variations, harass the consumer. One year pota toes rot in the fields because of excess production, and there is a scarcity of the things that have been dlisplaced to make way for the expansion of the potato acreage; next year the punish ed farmers mass their fields on some other crop, and potatoes enter the class of luxuries; and so on. Agriculture is the greatest and fun damentally the most important of our American industires. Trhe cities are but the branches of the tree of na tional life, the roots of which go (deep I yinto the land. We all flourish or decline with the farmer. So, when we of the cities read of the present uni versal (distress of the farmers, of a slump of six hillion dollars in the farm value of their crops in a single year, of their inability to meet mortgages or to pay current bills, and how, seek ing relief fromi their ills, they arc plan~ninig to form pools, inaugurate farmers' strikes, and demand legisla tion abolishing grain exchanges, pri vaite cattle markets, and the2 like, we ought not hastily to brand them as economic heretics andl highwaymen, andl hurl at them the charge of being seekers of special privilegi. Rather, we shoul dask if their trouble is not ours, and see what can be (tone to imp~rove the situation. Purely from ueif-interest, if for no higher motive, we should help them. All of us want to~ get back permanently to> "normal &"; but is it reasonable to hope for lhat condlition unless our greatest and most basic industry can be~ put on a sound and solid permanent founda tion? The farmers are not entitled to special privileges; but are they not right in demanding that they be plac ed on an equal footing with the buy ers of their products and with other industries? II Let us, then, consider some of the farmer's grievances, and see how far they are real. In (doing so, we should remember that, while there have been, and still are, instances of purposeful ab~use, the subject should not be ap proachedl with any general imputation to existing distributive agencies of de liberately intentional oppression, but rn..ther with the conception that the marketing of farm products has not beenl modlernizedl. A n ancient evil, and a persistent one, is the undergrading of farm pro (ucts, with the result that what the farmers sell a. of one qluality is Te sold as of a hrgher. Trhat this sort of chicanery should persmist on any im pdrtant scale in these ays of busi ness interity wouldlseem nlmnni- in credible, but there i0 much evidence that it does so -persist. Sven as I write, the newspapers . atInourtee the suspension of several firns fren the Now York Produce Exchange for ex porting to Germany as No. 2 wheat a whole shipload, of grossly inferior wheat mixed with oats, chaff and the like. Another evil is that of inaccurate weighing of farm products, which, it is charged, is sometimes a matter of dishonest intention and sometimes of protective policy on the part-of the local buyers, who fears that he may "weigh out" more than he "weighs in.' A great grievance is that at pres ent the field farmer has little or not control over the time and conditions of marketing his products, with the result that he is often underpaid for his products and usually overcharged for maiketing service. The differ ence between what the farmer re ceives and what the consumer pays often exceeds al possibility of justi fication. To cite a single illustration. Last year, according to figures attest ed by the railways and the growers Georgia watermelon-raisers received on the average 7.5 cents for a melon, the railroads got 12.7 cents for carry ing it to Baltimore and the consumer paid one dollar, leaving 79.8 cents for the service of marketing and its risk an against 20.2 cents for growing atid transporting. The hard annals of farm-life are replete with such com mentaries on th.: crudencas of pres ent practices. Nature prescribes that the farmer's "goods" must be finished within two or three months of the year, while financial and storage limitations gen erally compel him to sell them at the same time. As a rule, other industries are in a continuous process of finish ing goods for the markets; they dis tribute as the yproduce, and they can curtail production without too great injury to themselves or the commu nity; but if the farmer restricts his output, it is with disastrous conse quences, both to himself and to the community. The average farmer is busy with production for the major part of the year, and has nothing to sell. The bulk of his output comes on the mar ket -at once. Because of lack of stor age facilities and of financial support, the farmer cannot carry his goods through the year and dispose of them as they are currently needed. In the great majority of cases, farmers have to entrust storage-in warehouses and elevators-and the financial carrying of their products to others. Farm products are generally mar keted at a time when there is a con gestion of both transportation and finance-when cars and money are scarce. The outcome,, in many in stances, is that the farmers not only sell under pressure, and therefore at a disadvantage, but are compelled to take further reductions in net returns, in order to meet the charges for the service of storing, transporting, fin ancing, and ultimate marketing which charges they claim, are often excessive, bear heavily on both con sumer and producer, and are under the control of those performing the services. It is true that they are re lieved of the risks of a changing mar ket by selling at once; but they are puite willing to take the unfavorable chance, if the favorable one also is theirs and they can retain for them selves a part of the service charges that are uniform, in good years and bad, with high prices and low. While, in the main, the farmer must sell, regardless of market conditions, at the time of the maturity of crops, he cannot suspend production in tote. He must go on producing if he is to go on living, and if the world is to exist. The most he can do is to curtail pro duction a little or alter its form, and that-because he is in the dark as to the probable demand for his goods may be only to jump from the frying pan into the fire, taking the consumer with him. Even the (dair yfarmers, whose out put is not seasonal, complain that they find themselves at a disadvant age in the marketing of their produc tions, especially rawv milk, because of the high costs of distribution, which they must ultimately bear. III Now that the farmers are stirring, thinking ,and uniting as never before to eradicate these inequalities, they are subjected to stern econonuc lee tures, and are met with the accusation that they are demanding, arnd are the recipients or, special privileges. Let us see what privileges the government has conferred on the formers. Much has been made of Section 6 of the Clayton Anti-Trust Act, wvhich pur ported to permit them to combine wvith immunity, undler certain condi tions. Admitting that, nominally, this exemption was in the natume of a special privilege,--though I think it was so in appearance rather than in fact,-we find that the courts have nullified it by judicial interpretation. Why should not the farmers be per mitted to accomplish by co-operative methods what other businesses are already doing by co-operation in the for miof incorporatioA? If it be pro per for men to form, by fusion of existing corporations or otherwise, a corporation that controls the entire prodluctionI of a commodity, r a large part f it, why is it not proper for a group of farmers to unite for the marketing of their common products, either in one or in several selling agencies? Why should it be right for a hundred thousandl corporate shareholders to (direct 25 or 30) or 40 per cent of an indlustry ,andl wrong for a hundred thousand co-operative farmers to control a no idrger propor tion of the wvheat crop, or cot,ton, or any otheru product? The Department of Agriculture is oftenI spoken of as a special concession to the farmers, but in its commercial results, it is of as much benefit to the bunyers a nd consumers of agricultural products as to the producers, or even more. I (do not suppose that anyone opposes the benefits that the farmers dlerive from the edlucationaIl and re search~ work of the department, or the help that it gives them in working out imp~rovedl cultural mnethods andl prac tices, in deoveloping better yielding va rieties through breeding .nd selection, in introducing new varieties from re mote parts of the world and adaptIng them to om- climate nd ecnomaic con menthol cough drops ,price p straiht GIVE QUICK RELIEF Armous YMoW Poea.e 53 Sold the world oer dition and in devising practical meas ures for the elimination or control of dangerous and destructive animal and plant diseases, insect pests, and the like. All these things manifestly tend to stimulate and enlarge production, and their general beneficial effects are obvious. It is complained that whereas the law restricts Federal Reserve banks to three months' time for commercial paper, the farmer is allowed six months on his notes. This is not a special privilege, but merely such a recognition .of business conditions as makes it possible for country banks tq do business with country people. The crop farmer has only one turn over a year, while the merchant and manufacturer have many. Incidental ly. I note that the Federal Reserve Board has just authorized the Fed eral Reserve banks to discount export paper for a period of six 'months, to conform to the nature of the busi ness. The Farm Loan banks are pointed to as an instance of special govern ment favor for farmers. Are they not rather the outcome of laudable efforts to equalize rural and urban condi tions? And about all the government does there is to help set up an ad ministrative organization and lend a little credit at the start. Eventually the farmers will provide all the capi tal and carry all the liabilities them selves. It" is true that Farm Loan bonds are tax exempt; but so are bonds of municipal light and traction plants ,and new housing is to be ex empt from taxation, in New York, for ten years. On the other hand, the farmer reads of plans for municipal housing proj ects that run into the billions, of hun dred sof millions annually ant on the merchant marine; he rei. i that the railways are being favored with intreased rates and virtual guaranties of earnings by the government, with the result to him of an increased toll on all that he sells and all that he buys. He hears of many manifesta tions of governmental concern for par ticular industries and interests. Res cuing the railways from insolvency is undoubtedly for the benefit of the country as a whole, but what can be of more general benefit than encour agement of ample production of the principal necessaries of life and their even flow from contented producers to satisfied consumers? While it may be conceded that special governmental aid may be nec essary in the general interest we must all agree that it is difficult to see why agriculture and the produc tion and distribution of farm products are not accorded the same opportuni ties that are provided 'for other busi nesses; especially- as the enjoyment by the farmer of such opportunities would appear to be even more con tributory to the general good than in the case of other industries. The spirit of American democracy is un alterably opposed, alike to enacted special privilege and to the special privilege of unequal opportunity that arises automatically from the failure to corret glaring economic Inequali ties. I am opposed to the injiection of government into business, but I do believe that it is an essential func tion of democratic government to equalize opportunity so far as it is within its power to do so. whether by the repeal of archaic statutes or the enactment of modern ones. If the anti-trust laws keep the farmers from endleavoring scientifically to in tegrate their industry while other in dlustries find a way to meet modern condlitions without violating such statutes, then~ it would seem reason able to find a way for the farmers to neet them under the same conditions. The law should operate equally in fact. Repairing the economic struc ture on one sidle is no injustice to the other side, which is in good repair. We have traveled a long way from the old1 conception of government as merely a dlefenisive and policing agen cy; and regulative, corrective, or equalizing legislation, which appar ently is of a special natume, is often of the most general beneficial conse quences. Even the First Congress passed a tariff act that was avowedly for the protection of manufacturers; but a protective tariff always has been defended as a means of promot in gthe general good through a par ticular approach; and the statute books are filled with acts for the benefit of shipping, commerce, and labor. IV Now, wvhat is the farmer asking? Without trying to catalogue the re medlial measure that have been sug gested in l~is behalf, the principal pro posals that bear dlirectly on the im provement of his dlistribuiting and marketing relations may be summar ized as follows: First: storage warehouses for cot ton, wool, and tobacco, andl elevators for grain, of sufficient cspacity to meet the maximum dlemandi on them at the peak of the marketing period.' The farmer thinks that either pri vate cap~ital must furnish these facili ties, or the state must erect and own the elevators and warehouses. Second. weighing and grading of agricultural products, andl certification thereof, to be done by impartial and dlisinterested public inspectors (this is already accomplished to sonme extent by the federal licensing of weighors andI graders), to eliminate underpay ing, overcharging, and unfair grading, nde to facilitate the nulantion of the fripro OR che iinstaTh check Systen serviCa To cc 0r frauds this s tear of Geneit desire< thereb of chi should dishor OUR E o a g~e *Chec If you checkir in and E service all our XQUAL The Bank < JOSEPH SRROTT, Presid1ent JAMES SPROTT stored ptoducts as ,the basis of credit Third: a certainty of credit suffi :ient to enable the marketing of pro ducts in an orderly manner. Fourth: the Department of Agricul Lure should collect, tabulate, summa rize, and regularly and frequently pul lish and distribute to the farmers, ful information from all the markets of the world, so that they shall be a: well informed of their selling positioi as buyers now are of their buying position. Fifth: freedom to integrate the bu siness of agriculture by means of con solidated selling agencies, co?ordinat ing and co-operating in such way as t< put the farmer on an equal footing with the large buyers of his products Ind with commercial relations in oth 3r industries. When a business requires specializ 3d talent, it has to buy it. So will the farmers; and perhaps the best way foi them to get it would be to utilize som< f the present machinery of the larg est - 'ablished agencies dealing ii farn. , roducts. Of course, if he wishe the farmer may go further and en age in flour-milling and other manu ractures of food products. In my opin ion, however, he would be wise t< stop) short of that. Public interes may hie opposed to all great integra tions; but, in justice, should they b< forbidden to the farmier and permit ted to others? The corporate form o: association cannot now be wholl, adapted to his objects and conditioni The looser co-operative form seem: more generally suitable. Therefore hie wishes to be free, if he finds it deC sirable and feasible, to resort to co peration with his fellows and neigh bors, without running afoul of thi law. To urge that the farmeri should have the same liberty to con solidate and co-ordinate their peculia eonomic functions, which other in rlustries in their fields enjoy ,is not however, to concede that any busi ness integration should have legisln tive sanction to exercise monopolisti, power. The American people are a firmly opposed to industrial as to po litical autocracy, whether attempte< by rural or by urban industry. For lack of united effort the farnm era as a whole are still marketinj their crops by antiquated methods, o by no methods at all, but they ar surrounded by a business world tha has been modlerniz~ed to the last min ute and is tirelessly striving for effi ciency.' This efficiency is clue in larg measure to big business, to united bu siness, to integrated business. Th farmers now seek the benefits of suc] largeness, union and integration. The American farmer is a mnoder: of the moderns in the use of labo saving machinery, and he has Mad vast strides in recent years in scien tific tillage and 'sfficient farm man agement, but as a business in contac wvith other businesses agriculture a "one horse shay" in competitio with high power autonsobiles. Th American farmer is the greatest an most intractable of .individualist While 'industrial produstion and a phases of the huge commercial me chanisma and its myrald accessoric have articulated and co-ordinate themselves all the way from naturs rawv materials to retail sales, th b~usiness of agriculture has gone on 1 much the one man fashion of the be woods of the first part of the nin( teenth century, when the farmer wa self sufficient and did not depend uI on, or care very much, what the grer world was doing. The result is the the agricultural group is almost a much -at a disadvantage in dlealin with other economic -groups .as th~ Jay farmer of the funny pages in thi hansds of sleek urban confideonce mei who sell him aceae in Central Par ecd our depositors with igaccounts, we have d thi' new sten of knowns the Proteetu as an added improved mbat the numerous causedbyraisingchecks, stem enables you to F your check at amount I like a money ordet), y insuring the amount ck from being raised it get lost, or into Lest hands. ANK ' PROTECTU k System. , are considering opening a g account, by all means come ce this additional improved that we are giving free to citomere. LY PRACTICAL P0k POciT. B8K AND PAY ROLL USB ?f Manning T. M. MOUZON, Cashier; , Assistant Cashier of the Chichgo city hall. The leaders of the farmers thoroughly understand - this, and they are intelligently striv ing to integrate their industry so that it will be ofi an equal footing with other businesses. As an example of integration, take I the steel industry ,in which the model F is the United States Steel Corpora tion, with its iron mines, its coal mines, its lake and rail transporta tion, its ocean vessels, its by-product coke ovens, its blast furunces, its open hearth and Bessemer furnaces . its rolling mills, its tube mills and other manufacturing processes that are carried to the highest degree of finished production compatible with the large trade it has built up. All this is generally conceded to be to the advantage of the consumer. Nor does the steel corporation inconsider (Continued on page seven) NOTICE The books for making tax returns - for 1922 are now open. All real - estate is to be returned this year, time expires F'ebruary 20th. Fifty per cent will be added after that date for any one not making a return. All returns to be made -at Auditor's of - fice. H. A. PLOWDEN, 1-4t-e c County Auiditor. SProfessional Cards JNO. G. DINKINS Attorney-at-Law r MANNING, S. C. DuRANT & ELLERBE Attorneys-at -Law' MANNING, S. C. r R. 0. Purdy S. Oliver O'Bryan PURDY &O'BRYAN ' t Attorneys and Counselors at Law - MANNING. S. C. FRED LESESNE Attorney-at-Law MANNING, S. C. tMONEY Tro LOAN ~OlRehfl Estate-SiilI and Large Loans. Long Terms. -J. W. WIDEMAN Attorney-at-Law (I MANNING, S. C. n 1H. C. CURTIS k Attorney-at-Law 5 MANNING, S. C. s J1. A. Weinberg Taylor HI. Stukes \VEINBERG & $TUKES e Attorneys-at--Law k MANNING, . C.e