The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1912-02-29


New York Cotton Exchange puts tn,
difference at 215 points, graft Of III
points. Say in last falls crop 100000
bales classed as good ordinary, there Il
a loss Of $6s,5OO,OOO going ont Of the
| just earnings Of the hard working men
and women into the Golfers Of the la
mentable. This goes in one season.
Enough to buy several hundred farms,
clothe several thousand, lift q multi
tude Of mortgages, enough to furnish
the orphans Of this American republic
food and shelter for time, enough to
erect ten great colleges for the now un-
educated young men and women. Where
is the SOS, 5O0,OOOa win it be expressed
back in the presents or will it come
back in the shape Of great collegesG
But it is gone, uniustly gone, never to
return. Moreover, where are the mill
lions gone in the last decadeq Moreov-
or, if the South had her just millions
where would she be in the next half
secret Besides the graft in grading
there is squeeze down Of about 3 to
4 cents a pound. Who gets thisf 1t Isl
not the producer It is not the spin
ner. In last falls crop the slide of Of
cents pound on the 100000 bales
amounts to loss Of $210,OO0,OO0. The
loss caused by the cheat in grading
amounts to $l0O,OOO,OOO or more. APP
the loss to the South, much
less the other part Of the cotton belt, is
a third Of billion dollars. This is hard
earned money gone. Oh, whore is it
nowf Win it make the Stars and Stripes
autter in more gloryG VIII it make our
blood-stained soils give up a greater
yields win It make our nation greater
or better9 oh, no, mol It only makes
the great South lament louder. And
this nearly half billion has evidently
eloped with the New York Cotton Elk
change to build up the walls Of the N.
Y. G. E. Prison higher, which is the
Southern States. Go back ten years /
and come up that dreadful avenue Of
the cotton market again, and count the
losses caused by the dendish game. They |
20 into the billions. just where this
section would measure in civilization,
Wealth, opportunity, etc, nobody knows}l
if only her earned billions were here.
Those notorious pirates on Cotton
Highway are rich enough. They still
do their bold game, while their helpless
victims look on in dread, apparently
without power. We are robbed 8, 4
and cents a pound on cotton. The
spinner gets little or none Of the spoil,
and we lose again to get the same arti-
Gle in another form. We lost selling.
We lose buying. The speculation is the
trouble. The Southern States Cotton
Corporation takes his place and gives
the producer the benefit Of the price.
That is, give the 10 cents for the COT
ton, which the spinner is ready to give.
The spinners told Mr.. Barrett, presi-l
dent of the Farmers Union, that they
were willing to give the IS cents il he
would get the cotton. The late corpora
ton s plan gets the cotton.
What are you nowf Strong men have
made a sacrifice and a fight. Are we
going to stick to themf If this compa-
ny's plan don't make things square up,
put an end to the schemes to make the
farmer plant more, put an end to the
scheme to make the producer sell in q
slump, make an end Of the injustice in
the cotton market, what wills It win
have to be another taken out Of the
identical molds that shaped this one,
and the other organizations that are
succeeding.
THOMAS E. THURMoND.
Forsyth, Ca, Feb. 2, 1912.