The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1913-03-11
POOR METHODS AND THE AID
VANCE SYSTEM COST THEM
S6,163, 900 EVERY YEAR.

WASHINGTON.-The value Of all
farm products of the South amounts
to two and a half billions of dollars
year to the farmers, but they cost
the consumers five billions.
The farmers of the South spend
most of their two and a half billions
each year largely for farm supplies,
food, clothing, etc, and one billion
of this goes each year into the hands
of all classes of middlemen.
Southern farmers lose an addition
al $4,000, 100000 each year because
of poor farming methods. They
could double their yield by crop di-
versification and other Improvements
if it were not for the advance sys-
TEN" under which the creditor forces
the farmer to plant cash crops, y
such as cotton and corn the year
out.
! Southern farmers borrow immense
amounts of money or secure credit at
great loss. The estimated loss to
/ them because of excessive interest
rates amounts to about $163, 900, 200
year.
So, all told, the farmers are out
! $6,163,0 100000 year, much OF
which they might get if they con-
| trolled their own systems of credit,
marketing and buying.
These are the figures of Prof. John
Lee Coulter, expert special agent OF
agriculture in the census bureau. He
arrives at this conclusion after years
| of study, which have made him a
! leading scientific authority in farm
| economics.
| However, plans are now matured
| looking to a cut which from the
very first will amount to millions OF
| dollars in the enormous discrepancy
| between the prices the farmer re
| ceives for his produce and the prices
! which the consumer has to pay
To Be Discussed at Richmond.
These plans are to be taken up al
the sixteenth conference for educa-
| ton in the South to be held at Rich
mond April SIS, and so epoch max
ing in their results on Southern pros
perity are they considered to be thai
thousands of Southern farmers anC
/ business men will unite in their con
sideration with school men, editors
and publicists.
In brief, the common remedy to be
1 proposed at the conference for mos
of the farmers ills is organization
and cooperation. 1t is proposed tina
he market his crops comparatively
buy his goods in the same name
and borrow his money from co-opera
tive societies Such a plan, it is con
tended, would harm no one, and il
the long run would benefit all classes
BY thus adding to the farmers in
come he will be enabled to spent
: more on the pleasant as well as o.
the useful things of life; to bull
better roads; to maintain bette
I schools, and to make country Twin
more pleasant all around.
This in turn would have the effec
s of checking the exodus from farI
to city, and with the increase in tn
proportion of country populatio
4 will come in time an increase in tn
4 amount of food raised, together wit
3 a corresponding decrease in the cos
& of living. If the farmer produce
Il more and spends more the railroad
II will have a larger tonnage to hal
= and consequently larger income
a both gross and net. The banker
y will benefit because prosperous farm
ers have money to deposit and invest
n the manufacturers, because tn
Southern agriculturist will furnis
more material to be worked UP int
finished goods and will cOnsum
more. while the business man wi
prosper as the farmers become bette
III and steadier customers.
Experts to Tell.
Experts in every form of co-operi
ton have been called upon to tie
a fhe conference precisely how to sta