The Opelousas courier., 1892-01-16
correspondence.
HAAsvILLE, la, December goth. 1891.
EDITOR COURIER:

HAAsvILLE, La, December Goth. 1891.
EDITOR COURIER:
The subject now agitating the minds of th'
cotton planters-that of growing more or less
cotton, will We think require more thai
the formulation OF a few set resolutions TO re
dnce the acreage to be planted to cotton.
There must be a means by which the acre
age caA be reduced. No set of preambles car
or will do it. 1t is a plain fact that the pe0
pie have to liye-bread and meat must come
from somewhere for the farmer to live-worb
and grow bis crop, how is he then to get hi:
supplies unless he grows cotton. No merchant
or other for that matter will advance the
farmer on a corn or potato crop. What athe
result-slmply this aud nothing more eaol
and every one who to day is engaged in plant.
ing cotton, will continue to do so, and instead
of shorter crops. the acreage will be iuGreas
ed from year TO year, until cotton will sell as
low as it did in lS45-in which year, upland
cotton sold for five cents per pound.
As we said above, no set of resolutions can
ever help the cause. No convention of plan,
tiers will produce any effect. The country
needs more than conventions. 1t stands III
need, above all else-of factories. In a word
the cotton should be manufactured where it is
grown. There and then only will relief come,
Senator Blair of N H, in a speech before
the United States Senate in 1886, predicted
that the time would come, should the South
continue to pursue in the 'tsingie crop idea of
all cotton, it would bring ruin to them - the
Senator urged "the manufacture of the staple
where it grew" for said he England is iu-
creaslng the cotton acreage, in India and
Egypt, and will in ten years time force the
Southern planter to find a market for his
product, III some other land"
/ quote from memory, but think | have
given very near Senator Blair's exact words
which it is clear to be seen is coming to pass.
Is this the New South, of which so much
has been written and said in late years. There
is yet q want, and that rant is more factories,
not only OF cotton, but factories aud machine
shops of every description. 10 work up the
raw material produced in the South. Let us
suppose for instance that in the town of Opel
ousas there were to-day cotton, and other, tno
matter what sort,l plants being erected, that
would give steady employment to two, three
or more Thousand people, wouldn't it create Ii
lively movement in real estate aud building.
creating a change and putting a new face on
everything. In q few years Opelousas would
be d place of $1,000 Inhabitants; the country
fort miles around the city would, instead of
growing cotton, be planted in such produce
that the city market ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS farm.
ing, gardening, HORTICULTURE, dairyinge grain
and hay, meats and poultry-in d word untold
industries would be taken up and carried for
ward to completion.
Precisely what we have said above will ap.
ply equally to thousands of places in the South.
Factories mean working people and towns,
and d consequent change from growing SO
much cotton TO chat of something else.
The South has very few large cities and
towns, therefore We are placed too far from
market for anything but cotton. Il may be
said THAT there Is no money with which to
build factories To which we answer, use
the thousands of acres of land laying around
everywhere idle doing no Que any good, as
capital.
Let me ask you, for instance should Opel.
ousas grow in ten years or lees time to IA
place of $4,000 or more inhabitants, if land
values would loom up as they have in Kansas
City aud other places. On the other hand
Opelousas stands still; you have only the
broad desert looking surface as far as the
eye can reach without any improvements.
Now Il word TO conclude. The whole subject
rest with the journalist controlling tue papers
in the South. What has the COURIER to say
for itself. Yours, ILLINOIS.