The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1907-11-20
THE FARMERS FORTIFIED.

OuT NOTCneTn 1TlenQS are COnSOllng
themselves that very soon the South
ern cotton growers will be forced to
sell their cotton. They don't under
stand-"they never can understand"
In Laurens county this year more
corn has been produced than at any
time within the whole history of the
country. Corn is today worth 95 cents
the bushel. People are ready to give
95 cents a bushel for it Tor were Mo
vember 15) and yet there is no corr for
sale. Ten years ago Laurens farmers,
or most of them, would have been
forced to sell their corr in November
for SO or 60 cents the bushel, and buy
it back in the spring at 80 cents the
bushel. They have learned the lesson.
They know that corn will be worth as
much next spring as now, and probably
more, and hard cash does not tempt
them to part with it. We heard of a
Laurens negro last week who refused
sixty dollars for sixty bushels of corn.
Many of the negroes are well-to-do. If
they can hold corn, which they can eat,
having it ground into meal and hominy,
they a surely hold cotton.
Thousands of Southern farmers are
independent. Here is a man with fifty
bales of cotton in the warehouse. His
credit in the stores is as good as Pier
pont Morgan's, 80 far as his wants go.
Merchants are glad to sell to him on a
p,nlii TI,, =, 49, -, l,.l 80 .-zI
to pay, no water rates, no electric
ligAt tolls; he can still get his fuel at q
low price, and probably has it on his
farm. He has some hogs, and some
thing to feed them on. The State and
county are not pressing him for taxes.
When he is determined to hold cotton
he can get on in this climate with
mighty few clothes. A hundred or
two hundred dollars will carry him
through the winter. How is hat man
to be forced to sell cotton, if he doesn't
care to sell it at present prices?
Of course the majority of our farm
ers are not in this condition. Many
must sell all their cotton. Others have
sold it; but Thanksgiving Day is nearly
here, and we may thank Providence
that the time has come that there are
farmers in strong business position in
the South who will be able to hold
three million or four million bales of
cotton from a market that Theodore
Price and his allies are trying to de-
moralize, "till the cows come home"
To do this may require some sacrifice;
may compel the little girls to get on
with a doll baby less at Christmas, but
in the long u it will put money in the
pockets of our people.
We do not pretend to say what the
price of cotton will be next spring.
Every man must bear his own burden
of risk. A distinguished citizen said to
the writer last week-the very same
whom we mentioned some time ago as
the man who would make a good
United States Senator, but whom we
did not name-that in some of the coun-
ties nobody was buying cotton. But"
said he, "when cotton is held, and not
sold at 10a cents at a time when no
body seems to be able to buy it at that
price, it proves that, were the finances
of the country in a healthy condition,
it would bring a great deal more than
1O3 cents-which is to say that it is
worth more than that figure"
Our friend is, of course, right. The
wonder is that, with buyers holding off,
cotton has not dropped to 8 cents; and,