The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-27
SUNDAY, MARCH a7, 1904.
eoME SOUND COUNSEL.

Tn another place The Advertiser re- prints from The Charleston News and Courier a most important communica- the State Grange of South Carolina, and calls the special attention of the farmers of Alabama to what he says. He is as- suredly a competent authority and his advice, backed up by facts end figures, should bear weight among those to whom his paper Is addressed.
 There has never been a time since Ala bama emerged from the wilderness when the farmers of the State had prosperity and independence so absolutely in their own hands as they have now. There has been no time when 1t was so certainly in their power to assure their own good as 1t now is. There has never been a time when 1t depended only on themselves to become self-suppporting and independent of all the world as Is now the case. Noth- ing but grievous Providential disaster, or their own fatuousness. can stand in their way. Almost nineteen hundred years ago Piiny used this language: Tt is maxim universally agreed upon in ag- riculture, that nothing must be done too late; and again, that everything must be done at it's proper season; while there is a third precept which reminds us that op- portunities lost can never be regained."
 That last sentence should impress itself on the farmers of Alabama, for if they fail to take advantage of the dpportuni- ties spread before them this year they may not again in years be able to make up for that failure. It seems to be an almost universal opinion among the best informed authorities that cotton will bring a good price next fall It may go even higher than it has been recently for there can be no doubt that there is a greater demand for the staple than ever before. and that demand is growing. Twelve million bales would not glut the market, or over-supply the needs of the world.
 But 1t is as certain as anything can be that the farmers of the South can pro- duce an over-supply and thus cause a sfagnation in the market and reduce the price to a figure that will leave them no profit Then if, in consequence of having 0GF0teQ all tneif tlAiie ana lanQ to cotton. they are forced to buy food for them selves and their stock they will find them selves helplessly stranded, and again de- pendent on others for help to make an- other crop. They will have plunged them selves Into the same difficulties and dis arrangements of former days and from which they are just emerging.
 All this may sound like trite repetition of what has often been said before, but 1t is none the less true. The farmers of the South can make a big cotton crop. with plenty of all kinds of food crops, and be the most independent people on Gods earth, OF they can neglect all the food crops, make enough cotton to glut the market and thus put themselves in the position of dependent drudges for the rest of the world. Which do they pre- fer, independence or slavery? The choice is with them and the result entirely with in their own control. To the farmers of Alabama we especially make the appeal. It Is not yet too late to take measures which will assure a bountiful food sup ply and yet make such a cotton crop us win fill their pockets next winter Will they do both, or neither? That is the question they must decide for thems elves and that very soon.