The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1900-10-04
ANOTHER SIDE OF FARMING
Spartanburg Free Lance.

| SpartanDurB free Lance.
The mercantile side of farming has
been too much overlooked. We have
been accustomed to think that others
should run that for us. We have been
30 much cngrossed in producing that
we have not given as much thought TO
selling rs we should have done. Thorc
arc 80 many sharp traders in every line
ready to manage that for us, that we
have quietly submitted to their man
agement, and, of course, they have
looked after their own interest. The
result is that all wo make is consumed
and yet we remain poor. More than
this, every class ls making more money
out of our produce than we make.
SELLING COTTON.
Take cotton, the most important
moncy-producing crop we grow. We
have given more thought to this than
any other, and how does this stand ?
Everybody gets better pay than the
producer. The picker gets good wages
for picking; tho giuncr gets good pay
for ginning; the bagging and tie men
get immense profits, furnishing the
covering; the warehouse men get good
profits weighing and storing, and many
of them have accumulated large for-
tunes in this business; the insurance
companies make very large money from
every crop; the sampler and street or
wagon buyers make good wages; the
railroad and ship companies make
larger profits than on any other class of
freight; the compress men got immense
ly rich squeezing the badly packed
bales; the larger buyers start in busi-
ness With little or no money and get to
be milllonaircs; bankers get handsome
profits, furnishing the cash and paying
the bills; the manufacturers double
their capital and pay large dividends; :;
lastly but mostly the speculators---a
vast army of sharp traders and schem-
crs who deal in cotton IN sight and out
Of sight, and gamble in options to the
ruin and hurt of thousands of honest
mcn--oftcn roll in wealth, whom they
should be toiling in chains.
Thus we see these fifteen classes of
men all making profits, sometimes i'm
mcnsc fortunes, and many others ill.,
cidcntally getting good living, while
we often sell at less than the cost of
production. Take manufactured goods
and follow them back to the consumer
and the man who grows The cotton is a
very liberal consumer, and find almost
as many profits attached. We sell Il
pound of cotton for from six TO eight
cents and sew on our buttons with
thread for which we pay dollar per
pound.
None of these people are to blame
for making what they can and do.
They are only looking out for sclf-in-
tcrcst, but we are to blame for selling
them our cotton without first getting n
profit for ourselves.
HOW CAN THIS BE DONE.
First we must own the cotton. We
can never control the sale of a mort
gagged crop, or crop made upon provls-
ions hought on time. We must raise
our own supplies and own the cotton.
This has been often said, but we have
not yet learned what il really means.
Then we must distribute the sale
through the twelve months. BY doing
this VIC will avoid the numerous go be-
factories. We can thus stop the forced
sale we have been making. We can
avoid the annual glut Of warehouses,
railroads and money markets. When
we have done this, we can have voice
in the price. We have Il practical
monopoly of growing this great and
essential crop of American cotton. We
lose all the immense advantage for
want Of business methods in selling.
When we got in this shape many Of us,
when we found cotton crop on hand
for which wo could not get satisfac-
tory price, would hold it and quit maxi
ing cotton and give our attention to
something else until the prico was
satisfactory. OF course this means n
great revolution III our methods, but
that is just what we need and must
have if we are evor to got fair prices
for farm products.
What l have said about cotton Is
equally true of many other crops. The
seed Of the cotton is another illustration.
Most Of us sold our seed last season for
about fourteen cents per bushcl or less.
a few who held Oh got twenty-five to
thirty-five cents. All could just az well
have cotton twenty-five cents if they
had waited. Cotton seed are worth
twenty-five cents TO us, they are worth
over that to the oil mill men, and why
should we sell them at fourteen cents.
trust that the farmers will read the
above carefully and heed it's meaning.
G.. A. WINGO.
Roebuck, S. G..
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