The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-04-12
THE SOUTH.

1t feels the paucity OF the Currency.
We find an interesting article in the
Joliet. III. News, (Pop.). copied from the
Atlanta Constitution. from which we
make the following interesting extracts:
Mr.. Hammond puts his finger on the
sore spot in the south After emancipa-
ton had swept away the available cap
ital of the south and when local and in
terror buyers had taken the place of the
factors at the seaports on whom the an
tebellum planters had depended for funds
the small farmers who took the place
of the old planters were compell-
ed to resort to indirect means for obtain
ing credit" They had no commercial
standing and could not borrow cash.
so they were compelled to mortgage their
cotton crops for the food and supplies
necessary to run them until the crops
were gathered This was the beginning,
and necessity has brought about its con-
tinuance.
The farmers, owing to their own lack
of credit and to the lack of credit notes.
have been compelled to make cotton their
medium OF exchange A currency system
we'll enough in its way for jewellers in
cities but infamous in its effects on the
agricultural classes has reduced them to
the necessity of returning to the primitive
methods of barter-methods that are sim
ply ruinous. but from which there can be
no escape, except in individual instances.
until orr currency system has been so
thoroughly reformed that all can share its
benefits. From the very necessities Of the
case people must have some medium Of
exchange. In old times it was tobacco,
indigo and the pelts of wild animals: in
the south today it is cotton. and that is
why the crop continues to increase in
spite OF the fact that each increase car
ries disaster in its wake. All this has
been going on for years, and every de-
mand of the farmers for more money"
for an equal chance in the matter of
currency-has been met in the money
centers by denunciation and by loss of
sleep on the part of the gold worshippers.
The constitution has described the sit
been criticised for it by those who are
either willfully ignorant or selfshly blind.
Mr.. Hammond. who seems to know all
the conditions, justifes every statement
the constitution has ever made. He SAYS
that the situation was so serious and so
disheartening the present season that the
tenant farmers in many sections deserted
their own crops in the field in order to
earn little money by picking cotton for
others. Could anything more clearly
show the results of a scarcity of money?
Mr.. Hammond also agrees with the
constitution in saying that the continu-
ance of the all cotton system is not due to
the obstinacy of growers. They would be
glad to diversity their crops if they could
get out of ''the clutches of the present
credit system" Leases and crop liens do
not contain any contract for diversified
ton They call for SO many dollars worth
of cotton, and the lower the price falls
the more cotton does the unfortunate
debtor have to pay. Mr.. Hammond ad-
mits that the per cent tax on the cir
culation of state banks has practically
sealed TIP the sources from which the
southern cotton growers could hope to
secure loans, and he adds that the de-
1nand for more money which has come
from the south and west" in the last 20
years has been due to a real need and
has not been based so much on ignor-
ance as some of our city fnanciers have
supposed.
As remedy for this credit system,
which is slowly eating out the heart OF
the south and destroying its most nee
essary income, Mr.. Hammond urges that
a bank be authorized to issue notes
against its general commercial assets to
the extent OF 20 per cent of its capital
at once, and ultimately to the extent OF
80 per cent of its capital, and. second, the
establishment of branch banks
The article of Mr.. Hammond, interest
ing in itself, takes no new interest as