Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-06-20
A COTTON RAISER TELLS
The Industrial Commission About Con-
ditionS at the South,

A1iNloOLl OHl0lS AMI ESf EIlAlr
LY THOSE WHO ARE DEPEND
ENT UPON THE COTTON CROP,
HAVE NOT SHARED IN PROS
PERITY-WITH COTTON BE-
Low SIX CENTS, NOT MORE
THAN So A MONTH WAGES CAN
BE PAID HANDS
BLAMED FOR BAD CONDITIONS.
THE WATERMELON AND vEGE-
TABLE SHIPMENTS HAVE BEEN
RUINED BY THE RAILROADS,
HE SAYS.
WASHINGTON, June 1s.-The In
dustrial commission has somewhat
changed its plan for the work of the
sub-commissions during the summer
months by revoking it's order for the
appointment of special commissions to
investigate the elevator trust and tho
mining industry west of the Mississippi
river, and instead of authorizing all the
regular sub-commissions to sit during
July and August Under this arrange
ment the agricultural commission will
take up the elevator question, going to
the northwestern states for this pur-
pose, and the mining commission will
go west for the purpose of looking in
to the conditions affecting mining in
that region. The latter commission
will hold its first meeting in Denver on
the 18th of July. The sub-commission
on manufactures will make tour of
New England during the summer.
James Barrett, vice president of the
Georgia State Agricultural Society, was
the only witness before the commission
to-day. He spoke upon the agricul-
tural conditions in the South, saying
they were worse to-day than they had
ever been in the history of the coun-
try. He said the cotton interest was
especially depressed, prices last year
amounting to a little over cents a
pound. At this price man could not
save himself if he paid wages amount
ing to more than SO month. Planters
generally pay about Sc a month for
wages and at such rates they could not
prevent loss if they received less than
8 cents per pound.
Mr.. Barrett said that nine-tenth OF
the cotton grown was mortgaged before
IT matured. Rates of interest and COM
mission were high and the merchants
were generally coming into possession
of the land
The banks charge 10 per cent for
money for three months time. He adj
vanced the idea that the national bank
act had done vast damage in outlawing
real estate as security for money loaned
to these banks. and that all told this
act was TO the South the most damag-
ing legislation that had ever been en-
acted.
The witness said that nearly all the
plantation labor was done by negroes.
and that there was practically no i'm
migration because of the cheapness of
labor and the social conditions.
The railroad rates were such as to
render 1t impossible to longer make
water melon growing profitable. and the
same was true of other garden pro-
ducts. The railroads are both the
daddy and the nanny of the trusts"
he asserted.
Mr.. Barrett said the census of 1890
had shown that Augusta, where he
lives, was the most illiterate place in
the United States, and he thought this
fact was due TO the presence of too
much politics in the schools.
The first witness to be examined
when the Industrial Commission re-
sumes It's full sessions here in Septem-
per, VIII be p. G. Boyle, editor OF the
OH City Derrick, Of Oil City, Pa. His
subject will be Industrial develop
ment and evolution in transportation OF
OIL, from historians standpoint" Mr..
Boyle is probably the best posted man
In the oil region on the history OF pc
troieum from its discovery to the pre-
sent time, and he is expected to give
the commission much interesting in
formation, based on actual statistics.
HIS paper, the Derrick. has been an
authority in oil matters for over a