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0)1T?N Fldfit IS SOUND ?ND RIG R. H. Edmonds States Broadh Principle at Stake and How It Affects South. PRESENT SYSTEM A CURSE TO ENTIRE COUNTRY Healthy Sentiment Everywhere Would Back Acreage Reduc tion Movement if Advised St. Matthews. March 30.?The fol lowing is a copy of a letter just re ceived by Mr. J. S. Wannamaker, chairman of the South Carolina Cot ton Association, from Mr. Richard H. Edrnphds, editor of the Manufactur ers' Record of Baltimore, who in the strongest terms and on the highest economic and moral grounds, en dorses the fight which is being made in South Carolina and the other cot ton states for acreage reduction and a fair price for cotton. Baltimore. Md.'. March 27, 1019. Mr. J. S. Wannamaker, Chairman. South Carolina Cotton Association, St. Matthews, S. C. Bear Sir: As I wired you in re sponse to your telegram. I greatly regret that it will not be psosible for nie to accept the invitation to deliver an address at your coming meeting | on April 3. . T am in hearty sympathy with the! effort that is being made to secure j higher prices for cotton. As f have! repeatedly "said, every man' whatever his business or wherever he may live, North or South, who seeks to break j dojiyh the price of cotton to a figure j which will not give a fair margin j of profit to the grower after the! groyi-er has paid a good living wage to j k ti&e farm laborer is. to the extent of his ability, forging the chains of ceo- j nomic slavery and poverty around the ! cotton industry. I have often heard j ftkjding cotton manufacturers of I\Vv { England, who are generally Charged j with trying^} beat down the price of I cotton, say that they are perfectly; willing to pay a good fair price, pro -. vided tney could have a fairly u.ni- | form price from year to year. The! wild fluctuation in the price of obi-! t?n makes the cotton manufacturing! business exceedingly ^dangerous be-; cause ?ie cotton manufacturer never' Imtrlra what may be the sudden : nd; great changes in the price of his r'awj material. This makes his business! something of a gamble. I know of j no other manufacturing business sub-f ject to such serious vici&Stt?do in i rapid fluctuation in raw materials es; the cotton n&nafacture'r has to ine??r. j It should; therefore, be borne in'mm'u \ that these very fluctuations prac- \ tically compel the cotton matiu.iV.:- j t?rer wherever He may be located to! Desire TOW Prices for the raw mater-j ial because .the fluctuations then do.; not count s? heavily against fctdj production costs. . ??> j If. any way could be devised to sta-i bilize the price of cotton so that the] fluctuations . Would not be so wild. [ I believe that the grout mafcrUy: of i cotton manufacturers everywhere* would be entirely satisfied v.tth a! price which would yield a good profit to the grower. The wild fluctiutims; to which the cotton trade has always j been subject have in effect practically j compelled manufacturers to be beers j in Jh'eir J.desft* for a low price. This: is not because they seek to imp>>ver-! ish th< cotton grower, but because! when prices are high the wide flue-; tuations endanger the very GnaneLul; life of many mills. ' ! A fair degree of stability by the: establishment of warehouses is one; of the prime essentials in.? bringing ] about better 'conditions in the cotton] industry. These -warehouses should j be able to issue receipts, or certifl- \ eates. which* w?u?d* be good at any j bank in America, for there is no j other agricultural product- com para- j l>le to cotton" as a basis for safe link ing. Cottort dees not deteriorate in Quality even when kept for years. Tn, this respect it i?t unlike wheat or, corn or other agricultural pVodL ts. Unfortunately there hasl been in \ the South as well as in other sec tions many cotfOn speculators who j care nothing for the welfare of the, grower and who are only concerned j as to their individual profit in trad ing in cotton. "uohg accustomed to.] the low price of wages on the farms! of the South the:jo speculators. end \ many others who have not understood-j the situation, have oeen entirely eon-i tent to see farm wages continue ' what have been an almost *-?taTvat;on { ba.^-is. Neither the white nor the ne-j gro tenant, nor the laborer on the'! farm in the South, has ever bad a ; fair living price for his work. And j this has necessarily meant, that the: landowner, whether he produces the] cotton himself or rents out his land,] ha,s never had a fair profit on his in vestment. This crop should rightfully brim; to' the South a far larger profit than wheat or corn should bring to the Western farmer, because the South; has'far more of monopoly in cotton growing than the West has in wheat ! or corn. The conditions which have prevailed since have, however; constantly burdened the cotton grow- ? ing interests of the South, and the. struggle to g:-t a living wage for the . farm laborer and a fair protit for: the landowner has never been intelli gently and. persistently carried out. y "We-.have had many spasmodic at-.: tempts to act higher prices for cotton;* bm these haw- been short-lived and : win-never the South has seen what,1 looked like daylight in the raising'1 of ?*?Uon. and a pr?-!it to the grower N it has drooped the <-,!mpa.i-i> Cor bet- 1 tcr handling methods and thu.*; per-.,; mitten the industry to sink nacl; Into 1 it former chaotic condition. ?'< In talcing up this question ? ????? ?<?-; riously again, as the South is doing, ? it ? important that t&* ?nifr? cotton ? handling system should be changcil. The present method or shipping cot ton from the gin to a centra! com press is wasteful in the extrem?'. It wastes car space, it adds to the cost of the cotton in reaching the con sumer, and it burdens the grower with unnecessary expenses and never should have been permitted to con tinue to the.present time. Improved haling of cotton should Ixj devised. American cotton is more bar barously baled and handled than any other cotton produced in the world. It [is a lamentable fact that even in India and Egypt the cotton baling and cotton handling methods are far and away above the methods used in the South. "We have made practically no mate rial progress in handling the cotton trade in. the last 100 years, while the handling of every other product in the world has been revolutionized. After the close of the civil war money lenders fastened upon the cot ton interests of the South with the I curse of the all-cotton system, by lending money freely to cotton grow ers even in advance of the seed being ?put into the ground, and yet refus ing to lend money On any other crop. ! Connected with this a large propor tion of these moneylenders were in terested in supplying foodstuffs and ifecdstuffs to the cotton growers, and [thus they were doubly interested in forcing the South to grow cotton and in keeping It from growing its own foodstuffs. In this way they could lend money to the cotton grower at an normb?s rate of interest and com pel him to depend upon them for foodstuffs and feedstuffs which were sold at an exorbitant profit as com pared with cash prices. With such a. system of slavery tied around the cotton-growing interests, a slavery which in effect was almost as bad as the slavery of the negro, :t was for many years well-nigh im possible for the South to turn to the conditions existing prior to 1S60 *in which a very large proportion of this section was self-supporting in the matter of foodstuffs through a well rounded agricultural development. The production of cotton ' which should be an exceedingly profitable business for the South has for l?? years proved a curs? to this section. It lied the South to slavery from the beginning of the cotton industry until 1SC0 and after 1865 it tied the entire farm interests to the slavery of cot ton which ft has been well-nigh im possible to break. I believe that the South should so organize its cotton industry that it will be able to pay a good living wage *o every Farm hand, and provide for these, hands comfortable homer, in place of the almost uninhabitable hut;; Ih which many of them now live. This Is the primary step toward the up building and the betterment of the moral, educational and financial con dition Of white's and blacks alike who are tenant farmers, or as farm laborers.'have, had to bear the bur den- of raising cotton through the help of tho'ir wives and children. :ind sef! it at a price which gave them only a bare existence. The world muri bo educated to these facts. It must be made to knew that, the criti ir.sms aimed at illiteracy in the. South should be. aimed at every cotton buy er wherever he may be located whu has sout-'ht to hold down the price Of cotton, for the cotton bear i? re sponsible for th" Routh's illiteracy, and the impoverishment of its poorer classes, and for its inability to main tain adequate educational facilities. The cotton bear has done infinitely more harm to civilization than the slaw owner of olden days war? ever guilty of doing. If we can thus thor oughly impress upon the people of the North and West and upon every body in the South, that low-priced eotton means continued illiteracy, continued poverty, a poverty as gall ing as Was slavery to the negro, there will com:e a revulsion of public sentiment, and people everywhere will begin to recognize that he who has sought to beat down the price of cot ton has sought to enslave the body and souls 'of millions of people. This Is a part of the fight that the South must make to bring, about a better understanding of the meaning of low-priced cotton. It must in this tight present the- moral side of the Situation and its influence upon na tional life to the people of New Eng land and to the people of the West. The South has tried to cultivate too much cotton land. It needs to reduce Its acreage and at the s? nie time in tensify the fertility and the cultiva tion of tliis smaller acreage. There is far more profit in large yield on a small acreage than there is a small yield on a bi.u' acreage. Primarily the South should turn to the ante-bellum conditions of rais ing its own food and its feedstuff*, and the land given to grain and oth er crops should likewise be intensive ly fertilized and cultivated. 1 believe it would be possible to produce under this sytsem almost as much as the South now produces of all farm prod ucts, using one-hitlf of the acreage that is at present under cultivation. Trusting that out of the present cot ton agitation there will come an en-; tirely new era in cotton growing and cotton handling and the financial and! educational benefit of every cottcir, ! farm laborer, whether he be white or j black, I am, Very truly yours, (Signed) Richard H. Edmonds, j Editor, The Manufacturers' Record j ?_ i Supervisors to Organize! Meeting to He Held in Columbia i Next Week Columbia. April 1.? The c??unty su-j pervlsors of the State will meet in Co-j umbia within the next t<m days for | the purpose of perfecting a State- ; ?vide organization. Arrangements for! .he meeting are being made by the, South Carolina State Automobile As- i i^eiatioit. which is intensely interest-: >d in tho securing of better roads for. ?outh Carolina. j Secretary Hawkins of tin- Associa lon recently sent out letters i:? 'b> rtipervisors asking if ihey would ^t-1 end such a conference. Practically <1! of them have replied ih the aff irmative" and have expressed hearty ipproval of the plan. Definite announcements as i<> the , late of the meeting will b<_- mad- in , few days. 1 Danger in Big Cotton Crop j Cotton Farmers in Critical Situ j atlon This Spring, Says Extension Work Chief i - \ Washington. March 29.?Cotton I farmers and business men of the j South are in a critical situation this ! sprint, TJradford Khappj chicr of (The office ''f extension work South, of [the Department of Agriculture, told j extension work forces recently m ! outlining some of the difiiculties of j farming in the South this year, and ; the importance of safe fanning. ??Jf the South plants as large an ?acreage to cotton as In 11'is and has \ a good season resulting in large ! crop. the. possible danger to South 'ern prosperity can scarcely be bver I estimated," declared Mr. Knapp. "A well-balanced system of agrl j culture is the best answer to this j problem, not only in 1910, but in any I year in peace or in war. The safety and security of the Southern people 'depend greatly on the production of I the food necessary for the people I and feed necessary for the increasing j live stock." x Mr. Knapp pointed out that the [exchange value of cotton in relation ' to the retail price of necessities of j life was no different when cotton was j worth thirty cents a pound in 1'.;1S I front what it was when cotton was I worth twelve cents in years before ! the war. j Reduction of cotton acreage was j' urged by Mr. Knapp, not so much ; by a level cut of a. certain proportion jof the acreage of every farm, as by converting every farm into a. self-sus '? taioing unit, lie urged getting on a 'cash basis instead of a credit basis, land selling the excess products ol the I farm to supply the living expense*. ' To Handle Wheat Crop Pr?sident Has Requested Judas I R. Barnes of Food Adminis i tration to Form Corpora tion j _ i Paris, March 31 (P,y the Associat ed Press).?President Wilson, .acting i on a recommendation of Herbert j Hoover, food administrator, has re ; Quested Judas H. Barnes, president of the grain corporation of the IJnit I ed States food administration, to [head an organization for handling the ;lDla wheat crop under the congrcs i "U'onai guarantees. ; The corporation's capital of $150, ! 000,000 belongs to the government and ) is intact for the new purpose. This comprises another step in the I liquidation of the food group of which ' relief and sugar equalizations and I food are the - principal factions now ; remaining. Mr. Hoover will continue ? to act as chairman of the sugar board or-til the sugar contracts have been ! completed and of the grain corpora ! lion until July 1. after which Mr. ! Parnes will become the responsible [director to Lhe president. Mr. Heav ier, of course, will continue as direc tor general of relief mi behalf of ihe j allied ami American governments ' until next summer's harvest in Eu ; rope when il is expected the whole j sale fee-ding of the famine districts j of Europe no longer will be nexos ! Columbia Canal I Litigation j Commission Issues Subpoena for Edwin W. Robertson j Columbia. April 1.?At a meet in'-; ;' of the canal commission today, a 1 subpoena was issued to Edwin W. i Robertson." president, and Charles M. (Tew, auditor, of the Columbia Street Railway light and Power Company, requiring them to produce the books of the company April 27th. The sub poena is sir.tilar to one issued some time buck by the commission and {.resisted by the company in the courts. ?'The supreme court sustained the 1 cemmissibh and the now subpoena is ' .he result. j I Root Amendments Are Acceptable I Legal Adviser of Peace Confer ence Finds No Objection to Suggestions j Paris. April 1.?Commenting on the j six amendments to the covenant of ? the l^eague of Nations suggested by ? E/lihu Root, it was stated today by a j legal specialist associated with the; i American peace conference delega-: tion that he believed all the amend- . ments would be acceptable to the1 I American delegation. ; Anti-Jewish Outrages i - I Many Jews Wounded and Rob bed on German Frontier London. April 1.?New anti-Jewish j outbreaks have occurred at Kalis!; !r on the former border between Poland ! and Germany, according to informa tion receiv ed by the Zionist organixa-' tion here, a large number of Jews ' are reported wounded, and Jewish homes and .hops plundered and dam aged, j Counter Strike Started I Bolsheviki Labor Classes Givsn l Dose of Their Medicine | Stuttgart, April 1.? A Rourgeolso \ counter strike has been started le re j as a reply to tin- general strike of j workers. The meat shops arc el ^s- 2 e<!, railroad and postal services ?,: s- j pehded and the gas works and <?! c- J trie power plants shut down. J Paris: April 1. -Marshall " h g leaves Paris tonight for Spa to nv-et I ;\f:ithias Knthorger t<> discuss xhr - 1- J lied demand that Polish troops be 5 permitted io use the port of Da.nxig. 1 'on. Poch has full powers to ne.v.o ^ tlaie ?.villi, th..- Gorman i .-pi i .? ? . i t ? ? Look Into Labor Situation | I Assist Secty. o*' Labor Will Con- j fcr With Gov. Cwper Columbia. March 21.?Assistant Secretary of Labor Abercrombie will eome to Columbia Wednesday for a conference with Governor Cooper and .Mr. j. Skottowe Wannamaker, chair man of the central committee of the I South Carolina Cotton Association. 1 He Ls coming" for the purpose of dis ; cussing the labor situation in this j State on the farms. Reports to the South Carolina. Cotton Association in dicate that there is much unrest and dissatisfaction among the negro farm laborers, who are insisting on higher wages and on better houses in which j to live. Chairman Wannamaker' said today; j that the farmers ar<- not in a posi- ? ficn to grant the dema nds, because it ? is impossible for them to sell their! cotton at what it costs them to pro- \ ducc and Impossible for them to sell j their cotton seed at all. The seriousness of th situation was called to the attention of Secretary! of Labor Wilson and he is sending j ! Mr. Abercrombie to the State for the purpose of conferring with the gov- j erhor and Mr. Wannamaker. as the| [representative of the farmers, in an effort to remedy the situation. Chairman Wannamaker today is-j sued a statement; in which he deciar-l led that, a house to house canvass -i: a rechecking by the various State cot ton associations of the South shows ; thai the acreage, as reported by *.he i { United States Department of Agricni-i j tu re. is incorrect. He also annotmc-; I ed that the Southern Cotton Associa tion had completed permanent a; - ! rangemeuts for the taking of crop :tfc ' acreage reports, condition reports and reduction reports, j Mr Wannamaker said that two re I ports recently issued by New Tor!: i firms on acreage reduction. fertilizer 'and labor were referred to the asso ciation,, and that both had been in vestigated and found to be inecrtvvet. incomplete and simply guesses, anil : not estimates based on actual condl-i J fions. I It was declared by Chairman W.au I namafcer that a statement to be giv j 'en out'- by the South Carolina associa-j i'tion following n meeting of the con ic ral committee here Wednesday io. 'check over reduction' pledges would i j enuse a sensation. j Traitor to Be Arrested i ; Naturalized American Citizen Was Spy in Palestine j Washington, April i.?Secretary ; :>a.<er has approx'cd the reQUCSt of ; tin- British military authorities in j Turkey that they be permitted to ar I rest on charges of treason .lames j Spohr. w naturalized American citi ! 7sx\. and his wife. They are declar ed officially to have been "'closely as sociated with the head of the German ! spy systctn in Palestine and among j Xritish-Tndian subjects. Making a Fool of Himself This is Scarcely Possible in The Case of Gov. Allen?He Was Made So Columbia. March 21.?J. Skoitowe Wanna maker, chairman of the cen tral committee of the South Carolina Cotton Association, announced in a statement issued yesterday that he had received a very heated personal letter from Governor Aileu of Kansas regarding the hitter's criticism of the Southern cotton growers and -Mr. Wannamaker's reply thereto. Mr. Wannamaker declares in his state ment issued yesterday thai "Governor Allen in his letter plainly showed that he thought it was outrageous thai his dignity should have been ignored: that the great respect due Iiis distinguished personage was ab solutely lacking" and "that he seems to feel convinced that the South needs outside advice and that he is the only one who can give it." Following the receipt of the letter from the Kansas Governor. Chairman Wannamaker issued this statement: "A very lengthy personal letter from Governor Allen was received by Chairman J. Sk otto we Wannamaker of the central committee of the South Carolina Cotton Association today. A careful reading of this letter and a re view' of various statements isiie'-d by Governor Allen convinces me that he has made an alliance .with the ma nipulators an<l speculators of New York: that their interest is mutual and that the tremendous loss in or ders to Governor Alien's section for grain and other food crops, as the re suit of the South.'.; curtailment of cot ton acreage and consequent produc tion of these food crops at home, had gotten on the governor's nerves. ??Governor Allen, in his letter to me. plainly showed that, he is labor ing; as he suited. Under intense in dignation: that he considered it out rageous that his dignitary should have piaen ignored: and that the great re spect due his distinguished personage was absolutely lacking. "The Kansas executive will prob ably issue a lengthy statement in tin? near future. He seems to feel con vinced that t!n* South needs outside advice and ths! he is the one who can give it. If lie could only peep into the looking glass, and could only real ize what the South thought of him and h performances, he would doubt. .... eonrine his efforts and ad vice to his own State. He is drunk with power, and. therefore, of course nor accountable for doing what a man always does when he is drunk?mak ing a fool of himself/' To Frighten Allies Paris. April 1.?Reports to the French foreign office indicate that the Hungarian revolution was staged largely with tho purpose of testing the strength of will of the entente powers and was designed to fright en them with the idea that Germany might also rapidly disintegrate. When Seaif?Ming Falls at Ship yard Launching i risio^ fa., AiarCii 31.? forty persons were 1:tiled or drown ed late today when a temporary seaf- . l"cIdiiij.;. extending around the stern of a boat on the ways at the Mer- a chant shipyard at Harriman. neat" here, collapsed vrhdo nearly 100 per- | sons were standing en it to view the 1 auaching of the freighter War. kau. At a late hour tonight, only three bodies had been recovered. Twenty two injured persans were taken to the - Uarrlman hospital. An instant after the scaffolding Cell, the key piece of the Waukau, at v.ivch the workmen had. been sawing, . parted end the big hull slid down the { ways, the suction, it is said, drawing J some of the victims' down to the - bottom of the. river. Thousands had assembled /to see the launching and witnesses of the accident say the scaffolding seemed to turn over, throwing the people into twenty-live feet of water. Divers from Bristol and the Harri man police and firemen are grappling in the swift waters of the Delaware for the victims, but it is feared that the actual death toll may never be known. indemnity for Hun To Pay Pans Paper Says It Is Over 150,000,000,000 Francs ?'?ar:s. March ?Th? Tnlransi v.-? prints the r-.-port that the in- ; ..:ty wh'eh Germany must pay for the damages of the war has been - at figure between 150.000,000,-? ;yjv and 2j0.vOO.OOC.000 francs. The p..vr.:en:s will increase as - ? icrmany s economic i-.'e. revives., - Advances To EailroadLs Tot a! by War Finance Corpora-' ilan $?5,?OO,??O Washington. March 30.?Mere ths $10,000,000 in leans to railroads hav< brought the total advances furnish* by the war finance corporation tc $145,000.000. The Baltimore and Ohi yesterday received $4,600,000 on tl security of certificates of the "dire< tor general of railroads and.an addi tional $2,000,000 on the company's re? fui.ding and general mortgage 6 per. cent gcM bonds of series B. The Erie Railroad Company at the same time borrowed $2,500.000 and the Missouri Pachte Railroad Company $1,120,000 on certificates of the di i ?': tor genera!. Paris. April 1.?The Germans are concentrating large forces in East errj Prussia tinder Ohm. von Hinden ' arg. according to the Paris edition ci the v?-v.' York 11 ???raid. ? **** These forces are being assembly to defend the raHway line from JBaa yM Lo Pose::. ' / Do You Have 1 To Saw? It was good enough to be used and approved by the U. 5. GOVERNMENT! This 4 H. P. Engine drives a six-foot saw through any size log. It will cut from 15 to 25 cords a day. For a denionstra tion see