The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1896-09-24
"KING COTTON's SLAVES"


"KING COTTON's SLAVES"
Such is the heading of an article III
the New York Independent July 30
1896, by Wallace Putnam Reed, OF Con-
vers. Ga. The writer declares that the
Southern farmer is slave to cotton, or
rather under cotton as the medium he
is a slave to the merchant. He repre-
sents the Southern merchants as mer-
CHESS Shylocks, grinding the farmers OF
that section under the wheel of intoler-
able oppression. He says the South
ern farmer has only one cash crop and
that the merchant takes advantage OF
1t and conpe1s the farmer to produce
cotton for six cents even if it costs ten
cents to do 1t.
Some parts of the article are true.
The farmer in some sections OF the
South certainly has no other crop that
will bring him as much ready money
as his cotton crop but there is no such
general state of affairs as the Indepent-
ent's correspondent describes. The ar
ticle has tendency to prejudice West
ern and Northern farmers against their
chances in the South and thus may
serve to hinder them from coming here.
All of which is very wrong and unfair
both to the great possibilities of the
South Itself and the opportunities it Of
fers farmers in other sections for i'm
proving their condition.
The article has been thoroughly and
answered by Mr.. r. H. Ed
munds, editor OF the Manufacturers
Record.
We give the concluding paragraph
of Mr.. Edmunds' reply to Mr.. Reed:
Gas to Northern farmers in the
South, for ten years or more colonies
ana individual settlers from the North
and West have been moving to the
South in constantly Increasing num-
bers, and to-day scattered all over the
South there are many thousands OF
prosperous and happy Northern tami-
lies living we'll and making money.
The writer has had within the last
three years many hundreds Of letters
from Northern farmers who haye
lived in the South from one to
fifteen or more years, who bear eager
and enthusiastic testimony to the Won
derful agricultural advantages OF the
"cotton territory OF the
South-in soil, in diversity OF products,
in early maturity of crops and cheap
ness of producing them, In length OF
growing season, in low cost OF living.
They have proclaimed that they were
Infinitely better off than they would
have been if they had not moved South,
that they were contented and happy,
and that on no account could they be
induced to give up their Southern
homes. Hundreds of these letters have
been published, with the names and ad-
dresses of the writer's of them.
'The space available for this article
is limited. It is Impossible to make
any enumeration of successful and pros
porous Northern farmers and commu-
mites of Northern farmers in the South,
or do more than point out one or two
facts in the great mass OF evidence that
might be brought out to prove that the
farmers in the cotton territory are no
longer, as class, the "Slaves OF King
Cotton ;" that such of them as still re-
main In this bondage have open to
them abundant avenues of escape at
+ led by great variety OF profitable
G IDS that the cotton region Is mar
" ously rich in conditions favorable to
successful agriculture Independent Of
cotton, and that these conditions are
being more and more every year real
lied and profitably availed of by farm
err. from other parts of the country.