Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1911-12-22
ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SUBJECT.
COTTON AND COMPULSORY SCHOOL
LAW

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE SUBJECT.
COTTON AND COMPULSORY SCHOOL
LAW.
The newspapers are full of methods
to reduce the acreage and advance the
price of cotton. The Governors conven-
ton to devise a plan to help the farmers
hold their cotton, asking a pledge to re-
duce the acreage Is per cent was wise
movement II carried out. I can remem-
Der the days of 4 and scent cotton; then
the cost of living was not half what 1t
is today. So after all and Scent cotton
may prove as ruinous to the south as the
gloomy days of the nineties. All my life
have heard the cry that the acreage
must be reduced; conventions would meet
and resolve that it must be reduced, and
every fellow would then go home think
ing that his neighbor and everyone else
was going to cut down and this is the
year for me to make it. In spite of
everything every available acre possible
has been planted and Providence is the
only cause OF Il and -f5-cenf cotton. not
anything that man has done. Last year
with freezes and frost and all kinds OF
providential disasters, causing very
short crop, we received far more for it
than this year with the very earth burst
ing forth with the heecy staple. 1t is an
evident fact that with a half crop we
would get just as much money for It,.
But instead we go on continually increas-
ing the acreage, bringing lower prices,
wearing out land and letting 1t wash
away, until the situation in the south is
appalling indeed. What shall we do?
Something must be done. There is no
law except the law of nature to reduce
the crop. / mean in yield. Such laws
would be dificult to pass and hard to
enforce. There is but one solution of the
problem as 1 can see it, and that is for
all the southern states 10 pass compulsory
school laws Place the children where
their minds can be developed, instead of
growing up in Ignorance with cotton
sack around their neeAs, which has been
a milestone around the neck of southern
progress and prosperity. Take the chill
dren from the cotton fields. and what
grown-up people will pick won't glut the
market. 1t will reduce the acreage near
ly half and we will get just as much for
1t as we would though from Virginia TO
the Rio Grande were one continuous cot
ton field. This reduction would mean
lands to be put in other crops. The
washed away and worn out hillsides
would be reclaimed by crops Of hay and
herds of cattle, peas and corn with plen-
ty for hogs instead of a smoke house in
the north and west, 1t would mean
healthy bacon and pure lard at
home 1t would mean no, more
millions spent. for provisions, cam
ned meats to destroy, health. 1t would
mean no more millions for fertilizers,
for stock raising would solve that prob
lem But this is not all. Cotton, corn
and hay are great crops. but the south
greatest crop is her boys and girls Take
the cotton sacks from around their neciSs,
which has held them down., and cultivate
this crop into thinking men and women
Then will development, progress and pros
perity bless the oppressed south; her sons
win be heard in the counsels of the
nation.
I do not mean to say that children
should not work in the cotton Aelds, but 1
do say they should not be compelled TO
exc out a miserable existence there and
especially when it Is of no pront ana
dwarfs their life for usefulness.
IT is the educated sections that prosper,
rules ana TSdpS pACAbJg
rant pine in poverty. The north and east
have made and enforced compulsory
school laws almost from their beginning,
and 1T is where nearly all the teemlng
millions of this nations wealth go. The
soil of New England is sterile, but the
brain of her educated children fertile,
her wealth untold, while the south, blessed
with all natural resources and sunny
cline. the purest Caucasian blood, still
she is poor and needy, bound in debt ana
always will be so long as the great mass
es of children toll on with bent forms
and tired hands In the cotton fields year
in and year out with no time to develop
the mind Just so long VIII worn OUT
fields. heavy debt and crime be the stock
in trade to curse the children OF Dixie
land.
Dear readers, do not claim that com
pulsorv education is a panacea for all Ills,
but IT discovers truth and leads to re-
form and solution of all great problems
and will make the south blossom Ike the
rose.
Menlo, Ga.