The Tupelo journal. (Tupelo, Miss.) 1876-1924, 1907-12-06
BIZ q. 4. BLAKEsLEE. JAcKson.
The financial tronbles Of the "


ulators of Wall street, while Mississippi
has felt the effect of the same, have not
Troubled the ma jority of our people to
any extent. Not a bank has failed yet,
and the commercial assignments are
probably not ahead of the average. Our
cotton crop, worth, approximately, $780,
10000, with seed, is still largely in the
hands of the planter, and with this
splendid asset there should be little cause
of uneasiness on the part of our people.
The senseless disease of wild specula-
ton has not reached us to any appre
ciable extent, and so long as our people
have the necessaries of life at home they
can rest without alarm while the high
financiers work out their own salvation.
The cotton crop is short to a consid-
cradle extent, as absolutely proved by
the ginners report, and the world is
bound to have the raw material for man
ufacture. This is conclusive evidence
that the South will get Is cents for her
cotton by holding. Of course, Mr.. Theo-
dore Price and his allies are endeavoring
by every means to force the cotton on
the market to save himself and others
who have sold what they never owned or
had a right to sell, even trying to infu-
ence Southern banks to aid in his scheme.
but it won't work at this day and time.
The warehouses are proving the salvation
of the cotton planter, and organization is
working out this salvation.
The gamblers are in hard lines, as
they deserve, and while the turning loose
of American cotton would bring three or
four hunGyed million dollars of foreign
gold to the United States and relieve
the situation, the planters are under no
obligations to them whatever, but, on the
contrary, are pleased at their predica-
ment. They have made hard lines for
the cotton raiser at will during the past,
arbitrarily fixing the price on his staple
without consent, and now that a move
to make their own price, the fix in which
these same gamblers find themselves is
amusing to him.
Business is affected to some extent,
even here in Mississippi, but some incon-
venience is necessary to win fight of
such great magnitude, and each man,
woman and child must make up their
minds to take what comes and stand face
to face with the condition as it exists.
Once won, the trouble will be over, and
millions of dollars will be saved to the
South each season.
Right now is the time to plan for next
season, and if all the necessaries of life
possible to raise at home have not been
raised in the past, Gee that they are pro-
yided next year. When our people raise
what is consumed on. the farm and in
the home, Mr. Price and his cohorts will
have little power in fixing a price on the
cotton as a surplus crop.
The writer has many times had occa-
sion to mention what was being done in
and around Crystal Springs as an exam
pie of what Mississippi was capable of
doing in a general way. Again there
comes from this enterprising community
a record that the world should have. 1t
came through statement made by R. E.
Lott, of Crystal Springs, to Capt. j. T.
Merry, of the Illinois Central Railroad,
and is remarkable statement, indeed.
Yours received, and in reply take
pleasure in stating that Crystal Springs
shipped from about 5000 acres the fol-
lowing number of cars of vegetables for
the season of 1907: