Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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?l}p lambrrg ISifralii 1 ??? ? " ??????? t / iQ, $2.00 Per Year ill Advance. BAMBERG, S. C., THURSDAY, JANUARY 5,1922. Established in 1891. . , ? ? ? ? s Mr. Jackson ' 1/ - (Copyright 1921 by International Magazine Company.) Reprinted from Hearst's International Mazazine for December by Spec H| ial Permission. By Frazier Hunt. H A tall, gaunt, grayish man of about B ' forty-five, wearing galluses and store W pants, came to the door of the^lin1 painted, weather-beaten shanty in re| spouse to my knock. ^ "Mr. Jackson?" I asked. "Yes, sir, my name's Jaekson. You waatin' me?" explained that I was a stranger ESuB6&L!S part of South Carolina and BHHHttks trying to find out first-hand HnKould about cotton. ^^H^^^There ain't goin' to be none this HHVyear," my host explained, with a brave attempt at a smile. "The boll W weevil, he et it all up. I got fifteen B hales off'n this here place last year n and I won't get six hundred pounds S of seed cotton?that's jes' a little ov er onev bale?this year." I ."A year's work gone for nothing," 9 I sympathized. W "Worse'n that. I'm owin' the store r |425 and I ain't even got enough cotv . ton to pay my rent with. Mr. Boll Weevil plum cleaned me out. I jes' don't' know what to do or what way r to turn I've owed the store mon. ?y at the end of the year lots of times before but I have always knowed that me and my family could work a little harder the next year and ketch up. But I don't feel that war no more. With the boll weevil here on us now I don"t know how I'm even a-goin' to make a livin\ let alone pay off what I owe. .... All my neighbors here is Jes' like I am?don't know which way to turn. Me and my woman and all the kids work hard as we ken and it don't seem to do no good. We jes' can't seem to get ahead." One or two bashful, half-scared children were peeking around the corners of the shanty by this time. They looked poorly fed and badly cared for. "How many children have you, Mr. Jackson?" I asked in an apologetic ? tone. * "Four head livin' and five head dead." . "And your wife?" "She's in there dressin' for to go to town." f "And do they help you in the ^ fields?" I questioned. "All except the youngest . . . They got to?I couldn't begin to make even my food off'n cotton if I didn't have Help." . * A boy of about fourteen, with fine black eyes and a simple, honest look about him, came out of the House at this moment. * "Do you go to school?" I asked him. - - ? He blushed ana snuiea ms wngm. "I can't go very mucfc, but I go some. I'd like to go all the time but I got to help." I wanted to apologize for my int sistency. I felt as if I were tearing aside the veil from some precious secret. I thought of my own little boy and the children of my friends with their education and** youth all laid! out for them. It was part of their heritage?part of their very destiny. And it should belong to every child In this great, rich, half-thought-out land of ours. t m "Won't Mrs. Jackson come out and talk, too?" I asked. He went to the door and called: V "Cindy! Cindy! Yon and May come ^ out for a minute/' We went on talking about the boll weevil and what its first year in the central portion of South Carolina had done to one of the great cotton-growing states of the south. It wasn't long Deiore mrs. jacason ana a uaaiiful girl of about sixteen joined us. They were dressed in their Sunday clothes?the mother in cheap black sateen and the girl in stiff gingham. I don't think I ever saw seen a that showed more plainly the marks of silent suffering, toil, hopelessness, failure, than that of this sweet, kind, ly, broken mother. She was old and worn out at forty. She had borne nine children, and seen five of them (die on accouni 01 meaicai maitentiou and undernourishment. And yet she and her husband were Americans who could boast of a half dozen generations of ancestors born in this land of opportunity and hope. \ .They were slaves as much as any 'slaves in the world?slaves to King Cotton. They were chained to cotton plows and hoes and picking bags. 1 Grows Cotton The disease of cotton had got intc their blood and they could not break its hold. The cotton state of mind had caught their imagination and t.'hev could find no way out. They were as much a part of cotton as the cotton boll itself. It was their very life. It was all they talked about, all they thought about, all they dreamed about. Mr. Derieaux, the governor's secretary, who accompanied me, talked a minute or two with the head of the family; than we shook hands, stepped />or onrl ctgrtod nff illllS UUl VUi , MUU WVW* vv^. W?. "Pitiful!" I remarked. "The boll boll weevil has left them hopeless." j "Yes, but the odd part of it is that this same boll weevil that has crept up into their fields for the first time! and sucked the life out of their cot-' ton, will prove the greatest godsend! this district has ever had," my friend Derieaux declared. "The boll weevil makes the farmer of the south farm right. Terrible as it is, it's a blessing in disguise. It will break the hold of cotton?the disease of cotton, j It's terribly strong medicine but noth-| ing else will do it." And this was the diagnosis made and the hope held out that I heard "reiterated again and again, pretty much over this part of the south. There is a real future ahead for Mr.! Will Jackson and the hundreds of thousands of small farmers of his kind?fine, honest American farmers who have for generations been suffering; from this disease of cotton. And Jackson is going to break the chains that bind him and his wife and his children to the uncertainty of a one-crop harvest and a vicious credit system, poverty and disease. And those children will get the schooling they hope for and there will be better food and better homes, better churches and better roads and inr the J "nwr nvAcnArnno onnt)i CUU <1 gicai ucn piucpgiuuu uuuvu. Three things will break the hold of cotton: first, the boll weevil that will break the spell that cotton has cast over his country, second, the great cooperative cotton-growing and cotton-selling organizations that will change the evils of the present system of growing and disposing of the crop; and third, the gradual revival of Eu ropean trade and the ultimate opening of the great half-closed countries of the world that some day will clamor and pay well for this semi-monopoly that the south holds *on the cotton supply of the world. Already the boll weevil has taught its Expensive lesson to the major portion of the cotton-growing south. Like a .great, slow tidal wave it has swept across from Mexico across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, AlaKnmn Canpario an/1 frliAn O.lirvintT uamay vwa MU>& VMVMV -- ?- w northward again, slowly but surely overwhelmed southern and central South Carolina; and now it marches farther northward. Since 1892, when it first crossed the border into Texas, it has advanced at a rate of approximately fifty miles a year?inexorably, pitilessly, unquenchingly, as certain as the stealthful creeping of death. "* /lioAOOn rvf SO Q66p*bUI'lltjU W<??> 111XO UlOVawv vr *. i cotton that nothing short of a catas-j strophe could break its hold. Its sweep brought absolutely disaster? and then out of the hopelessness and ruin came the knowledge that not only enabled each particular district to ofTset the ravages of the pest but to lift itself out of the slough of cotton tradition that has kept the south backward for half a century?"Mr. ! Boll Weevil teaches the farmer to farm right." I Down in Enterprise, Alabama, in the heart of the business section of the little city, is a beautiful bronze fountain that bears this inscription: ************ * In Profound Appreciation * * of the Boll Weevil * * And What it Has Done as the Her- * * I aid of Prosperity * w i T_ * ,* l'flis iwuiiuiuem. xs * By the Citizens of * * Enterprise, Coffee County, Ala. * * ** ********* It is a monument to*the enemy? to the enemy that conquered and then pointed the way towards new prosperity and new hopes. Let one of the leading farmers of this Alabama county tell in his own words tne siory of the boll weevil and this striking memorial to it. "Before the summer of 1915, when the boll weevil first made its appearance in our district, the cotton crop of .Coffee county averaged around 30,000 bales. Cotton was king in every SWAVMWAVAWW.'.VAV j Cleaning 0 yWAWWWWAWWWW X \ M sense of the word. We farmers knew nothing hbout farming except to plant cotton and more cotton. .We didn't even raise sufficient corn or cane or potatoes or oats for our own use. We were strictly one-crop farmers. "In 1916 and 1917 the boll weevil unit our crop to less than half the normal yield and the whole country was wiped off its.feet. Every method ever conceived to fight the pest was. raise hogs and cattle. "Then slowly we begah responding to the advice to cut our cotton acre{ age way down and take up*crop diversification. Little by little it was drilled in us that we must plant peanuts and corn and sugar cane and haise hogs and cattle. "The boll weevil simply compelled us to do this?and almost immediate-, ly the miracle happened. \ In 1918 Coffee county broke the world's record for the cultivation of peanuts. That year we raised more than 5, 0000,OUU busneis ana ine wnoie country was rolling in prosperity. Those first years after the boll weevil taught I us to farm correctly our peanuts and hogs brought us in four times as much money as we ever realized from our banner cotton crops. "The boll weevil did it and so, to show our appreciation, we erected this monument to this God-sent pest that stung us out of our inertia and ignor ance." This is the new south speaking? the south that has gone through the terror and heartaches of a? boll weevil onslaught. My friend, Jackson, sees today only the ravages and death left by this attack; tomorrow he "Will be hearing the plea of "a sow to a plow" and following it he will pull himself out of the past by his own boot straps. Diversification, better farming, stock-raising, fruit-growing, mnpo r\f O Hr\7PT1 T)PW CLlky KJLLV^ \JJL iUUi Vi. Mi Vkvww*. .. things will lift him up and cure him of the cotton disease. And there are other things to help him out and up. Number two on the list is the recent growth of the great cotton organizations throughout the souh?he American Cotton Association and its foster sons, the different state Cotton Growers' Co-operative associations that will take over the grading, storing, financing, and sell ing of the cotton crop. Down in the little city of St. Matthews, South Carolina, there is a slight, thin-chested, anemic man?vociferous, emotional, with deep-set, piercing black eyes that burn with all the fire and faith of a southern evangelist. His name is J. Skottowe WannamoVAf Wa is president and in uauiMnvi t spirer of the American Cotton association; a fighter, a dreamer, a semipractical idealist, zealous, jealous, hard-working, determined, often dead wrong, hut unquestionably doing great things for the south. He has pushed and hauled and dragged the American Cotton association to Its present prominence and he has aided and abetted the formation of the several state cotton growers' cooperative associations that promise to break the disastrous plan that the farmers have - - * ii?I? always followed in disposing 01 ineir crops?and to smash the credit system that has shackled the south for half a century. The small "one-mule" farmer, growing his twelve or fifteen acres of cotton with the help of his wife and children, has year after year found V.WiW.WiV.WMV/AViU^ ?ff the Slate \ % kV.V.V.'.V.V.ViV/.W.V.V.'.'A i himself 'at the mercy either of the local merchant or of the local bank. He has never had enough money to keep a season ahead. Usually at the end of the harvest along in November he pays his landlord, in cotton?if a tenant farmer?and then is forced to sell the remainder of his crop immediately either to the merchant creditor directly or to the curb buyer in his nearest town. In good years he has enough to pay off the landlord and the merchant and enough left to run him to cotton planting time. Then the vicious circle of borrowing at exhorbitant rates must start again. At the end of the season he must sell at once to pay off the local merchant?and if not the merchant, the local bank. Not only is his crop thrown on the ; market at the very moment when , everyone else is unloading, but his I cotton is ungraded and undervalued. The new state Cooperative selling organization will handle his cotton from the moment it is delivered to them by the local gin, where it is baled as soon as it is picked. It is first of all corrdtetly graded by state inspectors, then placed in state-accepted warehouses. With a warehouse receipt the farmer can go directly to any bank and borrow sixty per cent. or toe raarsei vamauuu. The National War Finance Board, with hundreds of millions at its command, is back of this great selling machine. As I write, five of these state cooperative selling organizations have already gone over the top to the ex-1 tent that they will control from onequarter to one-third of the cotton crops in their respective states for at east the next five years. Texas, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Arizona, and Mississippi have signed up their quotas that apparently guarantee the success of the movement, and the other cotton states are closing up their membership drives. It is a great promise for the future I ?and there are others. At this par ticular moment the government estimate is for a 42.2 per cent, normal crop?due to small plantings resultng from last year's low prices coupled with the boll weevil and general unfavorable weather conditions. Like the boll weevil this short crop has been a blessing in disguise. It has practically doubled the price of a few months ago and- brought no less than $500,000,000 to the south ?which in turn has ultimately benefitted the whole country. Were it not for the unprecedented carry-over from last year?estimated at 8,529,000 bales?there would be a real cotton famine this coming year. As it is, with a normal consumption by American mills and anything like a fair foreign export, there will be practically no carry over next year. "In 1922 we confidently look for a greater decrease in acreage," one of the best-informed cotton men of the south explained to me. "Little by little Europe will assume its normal cotton importation. We can easily expect our European export in 1922 to be greater than this last year. This means that in 1922, with a very small, if any, carry-over ana a lcuuved cotton acreage, there will be a real cotton shortage for the whole world in *923. "The south will exercise its practical monopoly for at least another quarter or half century. And dur i / ; Many Federal The following statement is issued Dy tne acnng collector 01 mujmtu revenue, W.. R. 'Bradley, district of South Carolina. In response to numerous inquiries, taxpayers are advised that certain taxes, among them the so-called "nuisance" and "luxury" taxes, are repealed effective January 1, 1922, by the revenue act of 1921. Patrons of soda-water fountains, ice cream parlors and "similar places of business" no longer are required to pay the tax of 1 cent for each 10 cents or fraction thereof on the amount expended for sodas, sundaes, "or similar articles of food or drink." The small boy may rejoice in the fact that an ice-cream cone doesn't cost an extra penny. The tax imposed by the revenue act of 1921 is on "beverages and the constituent parts thereof" and is paid by the manufacturer. rne lax on ine iransyorumuii ui freight and passengers is repealed, effective January 1, 1922, also the tax paid by the purchaser on amounts paid for men's and women's wearing apparel (shoes, hats, caps, neckwear, shirts, hose, etc.) in excess of a specified price. Taxes imposed under section 904 (which under the revenue act of 1918 included the taxes on wearing apparel) are now confined to a 5 per cent, tax on the following articles: Cdrpets, on the amount in excess of $4.50 a square yard; rugs, on the amount in excess of a $6 a sauare yard; trunks on the amount in excess of $35 each; valises, traveling bags, suit cases, hat boxes used by travelers* and fitted" toliet cases, on the amount in excess of $25 each; purses, pocketbooks, shopping and g?????I ing those years the great half-opened I countries of the earth will have stretched out their arms and asked for the southland's cotton. Think what the demand will be when the 1,500,000 Russian peasants start shouting for new cotton shirts and dresses; think what it will mean when the 400,000,000 coolies of China demand two blue demin suits instead of one; think when the 315,000,000 poor of India demand clean robes instead of loincloths and filthy garments. "For sixty years we have toiled and slaved for the' world without fair return; our children have been cheat* ed of their rightful education; our women have been chained to plows and fields; our roads have been neglected. But that is of the past; the world must have what we alone can grow?and the world must pay us a living wage." The spell of Manchester and Birmingham (England) over the south is broken. No longer will Manchester, controlling the cotton surplus of the south, dictate the price that is paid Mr. Jackson. Conscious, at last, of their real control of their cotton and aware, for the first time, that they and not the speculators in Manchester can have a big part in the setting of a fair selling price, the new south, with diversified crops and a new economic basis, opens its eyes to the dawn of new days and new ' hopes. And what is true of the future of the south is true of the other sections of the country. The world must have American food, American raw materials, and American manufactured goods just as it must have American cotton. Once the markets of the billion backward peoples of the world are opened up and the trade with the 500, 000,000 of war snocKea niuroyt; revived?once civilization again takes up its march forward, a new America will follow the trail of a new south. A Wram Tribute. A business-man mayor of a small city had been elected, against his own desires, for his fourth term. Though he had wanted the chance to give all his attention to business, he greeted the announcement committee with as much cordiality as he could muster. "I'm mighty sorry, Mr. Mayor," said the chairman, "but they've put 11? A# AffiniaHntr sn. you 10 illO L1UUU1C U1 umwttuuQ V.u other term. A far worse man wonld have* been good enough for us, hut that's just the trouble. We couldn't find him?and it's my opinion he ain't to be found." ?Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Bricfcle and Mrs. R. M. Bruce visited relatives near Branchville Wednesday. . ' . : i'.;. Faxes Now off , J j" " || hand bags, on the amount in excess of $5 each; portable lighting fixtures, including lamps of all kinds, on the amount in excess of $10 each, fans, jj on the amount in excess of $1 each. These taxes are included in the manufacturer's excise taxes, and are pay- 4 ; :'fjm nKIn Krr tka monnfo fltnroi' nrrulitoor I cl UiC vjj ouu uiauui.uvbuivt, vuuwi ? or importer, and not by the purchaser, as required by the revenue act of 1918. The manufacturer may re- ! imburse himself, by agreemnet with the purchaser, by quoting the selling price and tax in separate and exact ' 1 amounts, or by stating to the pur- t " j chaser in advance of the sale, what i portion of the quoted price represents the price charged for the article, and what portion represents the tax. . I The taxes on sporting goods, (ten- I nis rackets, fishing rods, base ball and foot ball uniforms, fishing rods, etc.) are repealed, also the taxes on chewing gum, portable electric taps, j thermostatic containers, articles j made 01 rur, ana louet articles ana : musical instruments. I The tax on sales of jewelry, real or A imitation, is 5 per cent., and is pay- ! able by the vendor. The tax on the I sale of works of art (paintings, stain- j ary, art porcelains, and bronzes) is reduced from 10 to 5 per cent. This i tax, payable by the vendor, applies except in the original sale by the 1 arfiat nr fn an pdllirational institU- -3 tion or public museum, or a sale by a recognized dealer in such articles to *|j another such dealer for resale. I When payable by the manufacturer [ or vendor, taxes must be in the hands I of the collector of internal revenue on or before the last day of the month following the month in which the sale was made. HEN LOSES HER REASON. Could Not Protect Chicks Prom "Airplane Hawk;" , ' -fjjB Greenwood, Dec. 29.?Having lost her heason atfd deserted her brood / . -.jaH because she could not protect the little biddies from an airplane which ;|l she thought was' a gigantic hawk, an unfortunate hen in the poultry yards of Mrs. J. C. Self of this city has died. The tragedy dates from last spring, when two commercial flyers used a landing field near the poul- 1 try yards. They flew over the pool- I try every few minutes and each I time they passed the faithful mother hen rushed to hover the fluffy little chicks. But the plane fley over so often * that the hen was kept constantly in a state of terror. She clucked and ruffled her feathers and endear- , ored to look as belligerent as pos- J sible each time the huge shadow fell I on tne yara. .rmany cue ucuuuo . strain became too great, and the hen, - 'i bereft of her reason, deserted the chicks. . . d was never the same hen again. < She never regained her sanity andt she was beset with illusions of gigantic haws, running about the * yards in a distressed manner, hovering imaginary chicks. Finally the hen died in what looked like deli- ' ^3 WOMAN'S BURNS PROVE FATAL. I Before Dying She Says Husband Pat Her Into Fire. J Branch viile, Dec. zv.?Kacnaei Cunningham was burned here Monday night and died Wednesday. She claimed that her husband, Kivy Cun- m ningham, threw her into the fire. 2 Cunningham claims that sfhe had a I fit and fell into the fire while he was out in the yard cutting wood and when he heard he ran into the house and about the same time two other negro men got there and helped get her out of the fire. Magistrate Dukes, acting as coroner held an inquest over the dead *J body yesterday and the jury rendered the following verdict: "That Rachael Cunningham came to" her death at the hands of her husband, Kivy Cunningham, by throwing her | in the fire." J W. C. Martin, of Branchville, ap peared and prosecuted for the solicitor and W. M. Warren, who is an Augusta lawyer, represented the 4 ?Mrs. Sallie R. Owens attended services at the Lutheran church in Ehrhardt Sunday, new year's day, and also .enjoyed the day with her friend, M^s. Henry Ehrhardt, there, ? returning- to this city that night.