The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1884-01-17
How to Make the South Self-sus
tanning,

New York, deserves the thanks ot
the consolidated people" for the
mass of cotton statistics so careful
ly complied and handsomely pre-
sented in their little annual report
of Cotton Movements and Fluctu-
ations."
The solid facts their figures pres
ent contain food for solid thought,
and the deductions derived ought
to be kept ever before the people of
the south. 1t is no new lesson, but
an old and oft-repeated one, yet it
is the unlearned lesson of the over
production Of cotton. In one form
or another, and in every phase, and
in every new combination of figures,
IL must be taught by the press, and
by line upon line and precept upon
precept, drilled and worried in. till
the south will not only see it, but
act upon it. The figures in detail,
as given in this report, have been
widely copied by the general press,
and / viii not offer them here again,
except briefly, in the way Of con
trast.
The cotton crop of18S2 3 appears
to be in round numbers, G,95OOOO
bales, which is larger by 100000
bales than the proceeding crop for
1872, and about $4,000 more
than the greatest crop ever hereto
fore made-tHat of ISS0-l: that
great crop of 188O-I was 6,5OO,OO0
bales, and the total value of it, as
actually sold, was 1856, 525, 600 (I
give it in round numbers) which
was an average value of fifty-four
dollars per bale The next crop of
1872 was 5,456, 600 bales, and sold
for 1904, 100000, being an average
value of over fifty ix-dollars per
bale. The last crop, 1928, being
the largest ever produced, 6,950,000
bales, sold for 1927, ,838,00O, an av-
erage Of forty-seven dollars per
bale.
If we go back to the years from
1871 to 1875, the tables show the
crops ranged from about three mil
lion to four and half million bales,
and in that period the average val
ue was from $40 to 500 per bale.
The story is the same throughout
the more cotton the less price;
the more labor, the less money.
In the last thirteen years the
south has pro duced, in round fig
ures, sixty-three million bales, the
total value of which has been four
billion dollars IA sum almost IN
conceivable. That is double the
present national debt of the United
states. 1t is admitted that the
present immense revenues Of the
government are made necessary to
pay interest on the public debt.
We'll, if the whole country-north
west and south-feels the burden of
taxes levied t. pay interest on two
billion dollars, what would be the
happy state if the south, enjoying
the proceeds of her thirteen cotton
crops, possessed the income from in
terest on fouc billion dollars! Truly
she would be the richest land under
the sun if she had the fruits Of her
labor.
In their Introductory letter, lay
ing open their admirable compila-
tion of figures, these New York
financiers, Messrs. Latham, Alex
ander d Co., use the following Ian
guage:
Under the present system of de-
voting so much land to cotton, there
is danger of over producing; and
bountiful crops may thus be made
a source of misfortune, rather than
of benefit. On the other hand, i'll
planters would raise less cOtton,and
would make at home the grain, corn
and provisions they now buy, their
cotton would bring a better price,
and the money received for it would
remain in the south. The south
would soon become the richest
country in the world, for the sums
received for the cotton 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 hun
dreds of millions of dollars, and yet,
year after year, planters remain
borrowers Of money at high rates of
iaterest, owing to their present sys-
tenn of making cotton almost exclu-
sively. Yet the crop
they produce has for years deter
mine ed the financial policy of the
government. Without the immense
sums received from abroad for the
single article of cotton, resumption
of specie payments would have had
to be indefinitely postponed. x
Without the cotton crop the
present wealth .and prosperity of
the United States would have been
impossible. The aggre-
gate value of the cotton raised in
this country in the past thirteen
years was 3,936,798,670 dollars
The south, by becoming selfsus-
tanning, could keep absolute control
over this grand article that the
world must buy"
The admitted truth and facts of
the case so often and so ably stated.
l have taken the liberty to quote.
'IF THE SOUTH WOULD become SELF
SUSTAINING! :!
Is there any reason under the sun
why she cannot become so? Is there
any land beneath the sky where
food can be more easily raised?
What can we not raise, il we will,
that is the way of staple foody But
our policy and our practice is will
fully in the face of our most glori-
GUS opportunities. Not only oats,
and grass, and corn, and bacon do
we buy from abroad; but potatoes,
butter, cabbages, onions, and even
turnips we buy. Every day. and on
every block of our streets here in
Augusta, and in all other of our
cities, are exposed for sale these
products that our soil and climate
. will give US so freely, if we had but
/ the mind to grow them; and we
buy them from New York, New
Jersey, Massachusetts, Ohio and
Michigan, where the ground is fro
, zen six months ont OF the twelve,
and cattle and live stock must be
housed and fed nine or ten months
out Of twelve; when an acre Of
these potatoes, cabbages and tur-
nips cost more than double what We
| pOuiI prntv be,, 90 - ,,l,. ,s.e