The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-08-16
\ Cotton Bank,

For several years the Sunti has been
IN Il transition state, first with respect to
Labor and then with respect Ia IDEAS
lhc transition, II - sale To say. has NOT
been completed What is To come out
"l II nobody knows, but cvcryhody is
expecting the best and the worst, so thu,
whatever happens there will be people
To address cards to The various editors of
the country, with II told you So" writ
ten at both ends aud ACROSS the middle.
The labor problem is not by any means
settled, and ideas adapted to The new
condition of things :'re II little more com
posed, bu, scarcely less confused Ihan
when the sun set on the collapse ai Ap.
pOniattox.
Since that cvent!ul day, there has
been no end of suggestions; everybody
has Or prctends to have Il new idea the
inauguration Of which is calculated To do
away with commotiOn and confusion for
ever. On the whole, looking back into
the turbulence, it is easy to believe thai.
the situation has been more cndurable
than the suggestions. Some of these
suggestions are good, some bad, some
Indifferent, and some wilder than the
widest dreams Of the wild men of Bahl-
pohl.
The la,cst suggestion of auy impor.
lance comes from the great valley of the
Mississippi and is indorsed by no lcss
u parsonage than the yicc-prcsident and
Chairman OF the ways and means com
mittee oi the cotton planters association,
Colonel Sterling X. Cockrill. Ills sur.
gestion Is something more than sugges-
ton. 1t is stupcn,ious scheme by
which he proposes, according to all nc
counts, To largely arnclioratc the condi-
ton OF the cotton planter Of the South.
as the scheme has, or processes TO have,
TINS object IN view, perhaps an outline of
Its main features may be interesting to
our readers.
Colonel Cuckrill will submit to the
cotton planters association IL, its next
meeting report in which he takes the
gfound that part of the lands of the
Southern planters must be put in grass
and the grass fed to improved stock :;
that cotton mills must be started in the
cotton fields; and that congress must be
petitioned to charter cotton bank with
the privilege Of using Southern lands AS
security in this bank, which il to have
the further privilege of issuing silver
certificates of depusit when silver dollars
OF the United States are deposited in the
bank, redccmable on demand in silver.
The report of Colonel Cockrill argues
that tho cotton planters of the cotton
States must combine for the purpose of
sustaining tho cotton bank and the cot
ton mills He says that Arkansas.
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Geor-
gia, South Carolina and Texas, have
done comparatively little in the way Of
manufacturing, aud are better able to
start manufacturing in cotton than in
any thing else, cotton being the agricul-
tural product upon which the farmers of
those States mainly rely. He thinks
that I he can get the spindles, the looms
will :JllOw rs a matter Of course, He
says:
Our property is in real estate, 10000
900 acres OF said real estate being planted
in cotton. In national banks the use of
real estate us security is prohibited. We
have no bonds, and, of course, these
banks are of little value to us. We ask
congress for charter for cotton bank
in the cotton belt. where we can use our
real estate backed by cotton bales and
cotton plantations and cotton mills,
when we get the spindles in motion.
We don't propose to interfere with the
national banks in the North or South"
Colonel Cockrill takes his own county
in Arkansas as an ill..stration of the
workings Of his scheme This county
has an annual crop of3O,000 bales. He
supposes that these 10000 bales are con.
verted into yarn at a mill to be built by
the combination and &C, operation Of the
planters of that county. The yarn will
yield S75 bale, and realize $2,250, 900
in silver dollars in Manchester. This
silver is deposited in a cotton planters
bank in the county, and silver certifi.
Gates issued thereof. Colonel Cockrill
argues that in the series of transactions
that removes the raw cotton from the
field and deposits it in the bank in tho
shape of money, all middlemen and other
expenses have been avoided, and the
lint has realized $50 instead Of $S5 or
$40. He says that the annual deposit
of 81, ,25O,000 enables the bank to dis.
count planters paper at 6 per cent on
twelve months notes secured by real
estate. When the cotton is put into
cloth by cotton mills to be erected by
the combination, it yields $3.50 bale,
which gives capital Of S5,000,000 on
deDnait