The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1908-12-02
The WAY OUT
And the ou|y Way Out For the
Farmer.
SOME PLAIN TRUTHS

SUME Plain BKUlHS
Corn, Wheat and took Farmers 0
the West Regulate Prices by III.
: ing at Home, and Southern Farm,
ers Can Do the Same Thing i
They Will Try to Do 1t.
Hon. John M. Parker, of New
Orleans, discussed the methods o
cotton farmers in plain, hard words
that evoked much applause durin:
the forenoon of the last day Of tn:
Farmers Union Convention at New
Orleans. He spoke as follows:
1T is much more pleasant anc
safe to hand bouquets than it is tc
throw brick, and, for that reason
most speakers at farmers gathering
adopt the former course, and give
the hardy sons Of toll such sur.
felt Of fatterly as to make blunt
statement of existing conditions
most unWelcome.
"a number of personal experiences
have satisfied me the majority are
like children, and prefer sugar
coated pill to quinine. Sometimes i!
is necessary to give your medicine
straight. Due to low prices and the
boil weeYil, already over large Sec
ton and certain to spread further,
the time has come for the farmer to
take his dose like man.
my excuse for this preface Is hav-
ing addressed 2 number Of farmers
gatherings and having been hootso
and Kissed at, too, now ask rs a
personal favor that you hold up any
demonstrations until my short talk
is finished, as it IS decidedly unDleas-
ant for a speaker to be interrupted
with the shout Throw him out and
then again, it is apt to interfere with
this argument.
There is no more improvident
man on earth than the average cot
ton planter. In those good old days.
before the war, Of which the orator
tells US, history says every farmer
had his smoke-house packed with
bacon, his crib filled with corn, the
grist mill hummed regularly, and
the farmers wa1ed fat and prosp-
erous.
To-day not one cotton farmer in
ten raises meat. Not one in FIVE
raises corn enough to last him, and,
shameful to say, thousands actually
buy the hay necessary to sustain
their stock.
Annually now for some years the
cotton farmers meet in convention,
listen to some good political speech
es, and occasionally new joke, then
vigorously applaud the fervid oratory
denouncing all trusts, and finally or
ganize the biggest kind Of trust r,
regulate prices, agree to decrease
acreage and diversity their crops, to
raise what they need. at home, AMI
be Independent Of bank, cotton fac
tors or merchants.
Their final resolutions are en-
Enthusiastically carried at the conve1-
ton hall, and all conveniently for
gotten, for by the time they return
home, they decide to plant a little
bit more cotton, and they keep Oh
in the same old way.
do you ever hear the wheat
grower, or the corn grower, or the
oat grower, or the mule raiser cal
conventions to regulate prices?' Not
on your life. He goes ahead.
skimps close until he gets out of
debt, then asks the value Of his pro-
duct and holds it until he gets it.
He don't sit on the fence and cry
for either moral or financial sympa-
thy.
1.-The curse of our cotton planter
is debt, and until he gets out Of deb
he will never realize his dreams OF
independence.
Have you ever thought that in
the great chain Of the credit system
the cotton planter forms one OF the
important links? How the tenant
borrows from the planter, who ber-
| rows from the merchant or factor,
who, in turn, borrows from the local
bank, which borrows in one OF the
great financial centers, which, in
turn, borrows from the financial cen
ters of Europe, and how in return
both from the picking OF the cotton
to the final sending of the bill OF
exchange to reimburse the European
center completes the chain?
Credit is the whole system, with
the high prices and excessive charges
which must be made to cover the
risk involved.
Have you ever been through
Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, or Iowa, and
seen the farmers Of those sections:
Great. splendid barns filled with ha,
and corn and oats and silage. The
toasture with sleek cattle and sheer
and hogs, the too1-house filled witt
well-kept implements, everything
neat and orderly, and some profit OF
every article raised. They rotate
crops In those sections, and keeI
their property up, and have monel
in bank.
"Why do our planters still adher'
to the razor-back hog and scrub cat
tie when at a less expense the.
could raise fine stock, which vii
improve the farm and go a long way
/ | ThI