The Dawson journal., 1883-12-06
FoOR BILLION DOLLARS.
rs what the South has Nysde
Since the War on
Cotton.
pertinent Reflections Thereon, and
Sound Reasons in Favor of
Our Section Being Self
Sustaining-Fatal
Use of Credit.
From Southern World.

From Southern World.l
The cotton crop Of 1923 an.
pears to be, in round numbers
. ,9s0,0O0 bales, which is larger b1
A,a6O,0u0 bales than the precedins
crop of 1872, and about $50, ,00{i
more than the greatest crop eve,
heretofore made that of 1851
that great crop of 1680-l was
6,0OO,00O bales, and the total valve
OF 1t, as actually sold, was 1856.
5zo,00O ( L give it in round nun.
bers which was an average value
of fifty-four dollars per bale. The
next crop of 1872 was 5,456.OOC
bales, and sold for $304, ,300,O0
being an average value of over
hfty-six dollars per bale. The Last
crop, 1923, being the largest
ever produced, 6,950,0OO bales,
sold for 1897, 7,938,000 bales, an
average of forty-seven dollars per
bale.
L we 60 back to the years from
1871 to 1875, the tables show the
crops ranged from about three
million to four and a half million
bales, and in that period the aver
age value was $1,000 to $4,000 Der
bale.
The story is the same through
out-the more cotton, the less
price; the more labor, the less
money.
In the past thirteen years the
south has produced, in round fig
ures, sixty-three million bales, the
total value of which has been four
billion dollars!-a sum almost in
conceivable. That is double the
present national debt of the Unit
ed States. 1t is admitted that the
present Immense revenues Of the
government are made necessary to
pay interest on the public debt.
Well, If the whole country-north,
west and south-feels the burden
of taxas levied to pay interest on
two billion dollars, what would be
the happy state if the south, en-
Joylng the proceeds of her thirteen
cotton crops, possessed the in
come from interest on four billion
dollars! Truly she would be the
richest land under the sun If sL-
had the fruits of her own labor.
In their introductory letter, lay.
ing open their admirable compila-
ton Of figures, those New York
financiers, Messrs. Latham, Alex
ander q Co., use the following
language:
Under the present system OF
devoting SO much land to cotton,
there is danger Of over produc-
ton; and boutiful crops may thus
be a source Of misfortune, rather
than of heneft. On the other
hand, if planters would raise less
cotton, and would make at home
the grain, corn and provisions
hey now buy, their cotton would
bring a better price, and the mon
ey received for it remain in the
South. The south would become
the richest country in the world,
for the sums received for the cot
ton crop are vast, almost beyond
comprehension, as may be seen by
the tables given in another part of
this book. Year after year the
crop sells for hundreds Of millions
OF dollars, and yet, year after year,
planters remain borrowers OF
money OF high rates Of interest
owing tn their present system OF
making cotton almost exclusively,
vt the crop they pro
duce has for years determined the
financial policy of the government.
Without the immense sums re-
ceived from abroad for the single
article of cotton, resumption of
specie payments would have to be
Indefinitely postponed. 4 n
Without the cotton crop the pres
ent wealth of the United States
would have been impossible.
The aggregate value of the cotton
raised in this country in the past
thirteen years was $3,938, 8,79s,670
dollars! The south, by becoming
self-sustaining, could keep abso-
Lutte control over this grand article
that the world must buy"
The admitted truth and facts of
the case, so often and so ably stat
ed, | have not seen better and
more effectively set forth than in
the language [ have taken the
liberty to quote:
"If the south would become
self-sustaining!'
LIS there any reason under the
sun why she cannot become SOP
Is there any land beneath the sky
where food can be more easily
raised? What can we not raise
if we will, that is in the way Of
staple food? But our policy and
our practice is yillfully in the
face of our most glorious oppor.
tunities. Not only oats, enc
grass, and corn and bacon do We
buy from abroad; but potatoes
butter cabbages, onions, and eva
turnips we buy. Every day, anc
ON every block of n11r streets here