The news & observer., 1905-12-03
(Editorial CorrespondenceD

to change that old familiar tune:
Wash me and 1 shall be whittier than
snow" and let us from the Potomac
to the Rio Grande begin to sing:
wash me and L shall be whittier
than cotton
For cotton-King Cotton-rules
the destiny of the South more
today than at any time in the
history of the world. 1t is more than
a king-it has almost as complete
power as the Car had until the reac-
tion after the Japanese war, forced
him to give the people a voice in gov
ernment. Cotton is nearly the whole
thing. When cotton is low, the
South is low spirited financially, men
tally and it is a flickering sort of
spirituality that is barely kept alive.
In 1S93-94-5-6 when the Southern
farmers were forced to sell their cot
ton at less than the cost of cultiva-
tion, business in town and city was
'stagnant, education languished,
churches could not be repaired and the
people were SO hopeless that if they
didn't lose their faith in God they
neglected the affairs and seemed to
take as little interest as if religion did
not concern them greatly. When cot
ton was low, there was pickering and
dissensions in churches, preachers
had to accept big scaling in their SAL
aries. and what they got was paid
grudgingly, and the church seemed
to be losing it's hold on the minds
and hearts of men. People are gen.
orally honest and they love to pay
their preacher, though most of them
are in no hurry about it, but when
cotton sold for five or six cents there
was such pessimism and lack of faith
as to touch the church and to injure
Of vii
cotton took turn upwards, the dead
hope of the people was born again.
Dying faith caught new life, and the
churches felt the change in the tenn
per of it's membership as well>as in its
Golfers.
AT a Methodist Conference they
keep up the old practice, adopted
when there was but a handful of
preachers and no newspapers TO print
the proceedings, of requiring every
preacher to give in his personal re-
port 1t was a rare thing in cent cot
ton days to hear circuit preacher, or
a man from a small town or village
come to Conference with col
lections all up in fulP' and a good
report. On the contrary, there were
deficits, loss of membership, gloom
i'm all small districts, and more preach
ers came to Conference wearing old
clothes than since the poverty of war
and reconstruction.
But all that is changed now. The
preachers have come up to the an
nual gathering, which on it's financial
side is also a clearing house, bringing
up full purses and good reports, re-
joicing in a good year, and confident
that the best days are ahead. There
is note of triumph, a note of hope,
note of progress in the air. 1t is seen
i'm the bouyant steps of the old, in
the public reports, in the private con-
versations. BEST year in my life" is
a common ending of a report. Col
lections in full is SO uniform as to be-
come monotonous. New church
built and paid for" is frequently
heard, and there is good cheer and
hope in all the reports. For the first
time the full amounts assessed for
home and foreign missions have been
paid in full, showing that there is
new prosperity and hope in the land.
What has caused it? Cotton. The
cultivation of cotton is a clean busi-
ness from start to finish. You plant
IT in the day; you till it in the light
of tie hot summer time; and you
pick 1t in the crisp days of autumn.
There are none of the demoralizing
influences. about its cultivation that
you find in the production and curing
and marketing of tobacco for exa-
mple; and, when put on the market,
it cannot be converted into anything
except what will bless mankind.
No wonder Henry Grady went into
raptureS when he spoke of cotton. Ii
he had been here to see what eleven
cent cotton had done for the Method
list church-(for he was of the Wcs-
leyan persuasion) Ibis prose poem on
n
which he would have said in his OWN
inimitable way that cotton was the
money dependence for sending the gos-
pei to these who sit IN darkness. Last
night when Dr. Lambeth, the mis-
Sionary secretary, was taking col
lection to, bring up the full assess
ments for missions, Wilmington mer-
chant sitting near me sent up word
that he would give 500. | congratu-
lated him upon the prosperity tnat ma
enabled him, after giving lib
orally at home. to give so
large a sum, and he replied: Il have
had a prosperous year and collec-
tiops haye@lbeen good. Cotton has
brought good price and the farm
ers can buy and pay. That's why [
can do it, And most of the others
who gave here for any cause owed
their ability to do SO to the good
cotton. Give us every year in the cot
ton world like the last three, and the
South wilI5not only build greater fac
tories, finer homes and endow col
leges. but it will build splendid
churches and double and treble its
gifts to missions and every good cause.
Put cotton's back to six cents and not
only will the Industrial enterprises
languish. but fewer churches will be
built and fewer missionaries sent out
to foreign fields And the beauty of
cotton prosperity is that it is wide
spread. 1t extends from Mexico to
the Potomac. and blesses thousands of
homes 1t goes evenly to all who toll
and is not monopolized by the few. 1t
enables men to help themselves and
to pay as they go. and not be depend
ent for largesses upon, the bounty of
the few over-rich. who have garnered
to themselves the wealth that should
be more widely distributed. And so
the church can join Henry Grady in
his paean of praise to King Cotton
and wish him a long and prosperous
reign. fs
The report of Greensboro Female
College read by Mr.. L. L. Smith. of
Gates. had peculiar interest. for it was
h. or nf what the women