Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-09-23
MIR. HARRrs ISSUES ADDRESS.
Union President Wants Farmers to
~ Investigate Conditions.

6 5''uohSy-piOuuCihS CTOp VI tue Soutu---
cotton-is now being harvested. The
farmers should investigate conditions
and use good judgment in selling
this great money crop Of the South.
BY so doing many million dollars
will be added to her wealth.
First, we will look into conditions.
The supply of cotton Is less to-day
than 1T has been in twenty-five years.
The merchants shelves are scant of
i goods. The population of the world
Sis increasing every day, and they
have to be clothed. Again, the out
put of manufactured goods has
greatly decreased this year, from the
fact the 1907 crop was 100000
bales short. This shortage will have
( to be made good, as the world needs
the goods. AS to the condition Of
the 1908 crop, we have heard moth
ing for the last eight weeks but a
bumper crop. Who is, it that circu-
lates these reports? l see in Europe,
5000 miles away, statisticians are
freely predicting crop Of American
cotton this year of 100000 bales,
while many of the knowing ones on
this side are sending out literature
forecasting the crop at 100000
bales.
The South is now being flooded
with circulars of bear dope by specu-
lators and manipulators who are try
tho 70 VIZ ~ a.,
the influence of these bearish argu-
ments.
\ The wholesale jobber in the cotton
trade is demanding concessions from
the manufacturer in the price of
goods, while the spinner is holding
back as long as possible in order to
be able to lay in their supply as low
as possible.
Never before have so many inter-
ests combined to hammer down the
price of spot cotton. There never
was a time that the growers will be
called upon to exercise the full limit
of their strength in resisting the ef-
forts to depress prices as at the pres
ent time.
There was never a time that co.
operation was needed as badly as it
is to-day.
Our annual meeting Of the Farm
ers' Educational and Cooperative
Union Of America was held at Fort
Worth, Texas, on the first, and was
in session four days. The attendance
was large and all the cotton-growing
States were well represented by dele
gates. .., ...
The unanimous consent of the del
egates was to keep the minimum
price secret within the membership.
A national cotton committee was
formed, with a delegate from each
State, for the purpose Of handling
! cotton.
President Barrett will call a meet
ing the first Of January, as by that
time we will know the true condi-
tion Of the crop.
AS to the condition of the growing
crop. Every cotton-producing State
was represented and there we had
the opportunity Of getting true re-
port as to the condition of the grow
ing crop. Not q single State reported
anything like an average crop. Some
reported 40 per cent off, some 80 per
cent. some 20 per cent, some Is per
cent.
1t will be impossible for us to
make an accurate report at this time.
To begin with, we had Goods and
wet weather up to the 1Jt of July,
then not, dry weather. Rust and
blight and q dozen other pests we
had never heard OF before
East of the Mississippi river you
hear that Texas and Louisiana are
going to make bumper crop. When
you get west Of the Mississippi they
tell you Mississippi, Alabama and
:. Georgia are going to make bumper
nnSrops. When you investigate 1t you
find 1t Is false. In the last three
weeks / have been in seven OF the
leading cotton belt States, and in no
place did I find anything like an av-
erage crop. From the time I left
home until I reached the "Lone Star"
State ! did not see single field of
cotton that did not have blight, either
rust or black rot, and was poorly
fruited.
Farmers. all you have to do now
Is to just sit steady in the boat and
not out n bale of cotton on tho mar