Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1908-04-08
Cotton,

DUH CoIIOH HlllS ana COCtOn grow
ers are now working a hot and hard
game Of bluff at each other. Grow
ers are pledged to cut acreage 25 per
cent and the mills are pledged to cut
their production rs per cent. We
know Of some mills that are cutting
only forty minutes per day, whilst
they are advertised for 25 per cent
cut on production. We also know
some cotton growers that are pledg-
ed to cut acreage that are blowing
to plant their usual acreage in cot
ton, but a large number are cutting
heavy. ~
Fertilizer trade was 10000 tons
short in South Carolina the first of
March. 1t Is to-day equal to last
year, but a larger proportion of fer
tiliZers are being used on grain this
year than ever before. But notwith-
standing all this, there Is evidence of
danger ahead for the all cotton
grower. The chances are that we
may look for something to drop or
fall on the all-cotton planter, and you
had best stand from under danger.
Cotton goods are now retailing at
price that would, we are told, make
1t profitable to spin cotton at Is
cents, and yet the mills are trying to
reduce prices by bucking and shut
ting down, which has caused produc-
ers of raw cotton to make calcula-
tions and seriously consider the wis
dom of manufacturing their raw
cotton. "
There are many counties in the
South now that spin from one to four
times the amount Of cotton produced
in their respective counties. For IL
lustration, l am told that Anderson
county, the second largest cotton
producing county in the State, spins
about four times as much cotton as
Is grown In the county.
! Now, the limit in this brow-beat-
ing and legal robbing of cotton
growers has been reached, and IL
those in charge of the mills will not
spin, there are others that can build
more mills and spin, too. In fact,
the Southern farmers before the war
did spin eight tenths of the goods
worn by the commonwealth people,
and when the necessity stirs them
up to this point they will do it again.
On one side of this grim and re-
lentless contest between producers
and buyers Of cotton Is the toiling
millions Of half paid farmers bat
tling for reasonable profits on his
labor, on the other side are the cap
tains of greed and graft, who have
assumed the privilege of setting
prices and levying tribute upon pro-
ducts that they have not spent a
days labor or a dime to produce
Every device that greed could plan
to outwit the cotton farmer has been
used to bear down the price of cot
ton, and the weaker have been forced
to take the cotton bear prices or
take to the woods. In their despera-
tion to rule or ruin, the recent made
to-order panic has caused the mills
and other manufactures to shut
down or cut time at the peril OF
bread riots. This drastic action of
the money power of Gotham is scnd.
ing out great armies Of tramps over
the country who will grow into law
breakers. The failure of our govern
ment to throttle these panic breed
ers, gamblers and destroyers of peace
and prosperity of our common coun-
try, are recruiting an army Of law
breakers and breeding anarchists,
and these same people talk about
shooting down with gattlin9 guns
the very people they have forced to
this extreme desperation.