The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1912-08-17
Fellow Citizens:

Fellow Citizens:
At the annual meeting of the State
Union. held in Columbia on the 23rd
and Gath Of July, the undersigned
Were instructed to issue an address to
the people on cotton marketing and
to draft a bill for introduction at the
next session of the general assembly.
which will be in conformity with the
recent decision of the supreme court
on the state warehouse act.
We herewith submit measure en-
bracing not only State owned and
operated warehouse system, but also
intended to standardize cotton grad
ing and baling, SO that the stamp of
South Carolina will be accepted the
world over at its face value as a
guarantee Of merit.
1t Is recognized as a vital business
principle today. that consolidation,
not competition, Is the foundation Of
wealth, because it reduces the cost of
production and makes for efficiency
and economy in placing commodities
on the market.
Fellow farmers, it is only in our
business where the Oldtime brutal
law of "the survival of the fittest" re-
mains Of force. We alone are COM
petitors. one with the other, in the
markets of the world. With the SOW
ereign power Of the State government
behind them. let the cotton planters,
with due regard to the laws of supply
and demand, market their cotton only
when demand ensures fair profit.
taking care Of the surplus as do the
producers Of iron. copper, coal and
other standard necessities of life.
The marketing Of cotton is CT
worldwide import. because, since the
adoption of the gold standard, cotton
has become the very cornerstone of
international finance. 1t is through
cotton that the United States controls
the balance Of the worlds trade, and
the south. having a natural monopoly
of its production, has it in her power
through wisely directed effort, to
largely dominate the finances oe the
United States. instead of occupying
the subservient position she does to-
day.
Political economists are agreed that
the price of commodities always ad-
vances or declines automatically as
the measure of value increases or de-
creases. If the quantitative money
theory then be correct 1t means that
II the supply Of gold increases in pro-
portion to the increase in business
transactions, that prices hold steady
and prosperity reigns: per contra,
with diminishing gold supply, and
an increasing volume of business,
prices decline and hard times come.
Applying these basic principles to
cotton. what do We find?
lst. Cotton Is an export crop. the
surplus sold abroad fixing the price Of
that which enters into domestic con-
End. This being true, she price Of
cotton is fixed not in relation to the
supply of gold in the United States,
but in the cotton manufacturing cen
ters abroad.
There is no other great world crop
bearing just the relations to the finan-
cial system that cotton does. Wheat
grain. wool and meat are world wide
products, Il failure in one region is
by over production in
another. Worldwide consumption
and restricted area a production is
what makes cotton king"
After the panic Of 1898 and the set
element Of the free silver question,
the great financiers Of New York We're
quick to take advantage of the mon
OpOly In cotton advantage to turn eX-
ports of gold into imports. thereby
restoring confidence" and prosperity.
New York has steadily each fall
drained Europe of her gold reserves
by demanding pay for cotton in gold.
Watch the imports during September.
October and November. 1t is these
which within sixteen years have trans
ferred the center of the fiancial
world from the banks of the Hague To
the banks of the Hudson and made
Morgan. not ROthschild, it's king
Each year the foreign balance of
trade is just about equal to the value
of southern cotton sold abroad.
Has the time come when southern
genius and southern craftsmanship is