The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1913-07-10
TO THE FARMERS
OF THE SOUTH.
WHAT A MODIFIED BANKING
SYSTEM WOULD MEAN TO
THE COTTON GROWERS.

the press on the plans of cooperation
in marketing cotton which has been
adopted in Texas and it is one which
can be easily extended to all States
and to all products. If the plan is
not readily adjustable to conditions
beyond Texas, then | submit the
spirit of cooperation as worthy of
emulation by the agricultural and
financial interests of every commun.
ity in the United States.
In Texas cotton is the money crop
and the problem of marketing it in
telligently has absorbed the atten-
ton of the leaders of economic
thought for half a century. The
crop is ofttimes mortgaged and debt
is such hard taskmaster that the
farmer, in order to escape it, rushes
to the market with his products and
down goes the price and the anxiety
for the annual pay day causes many
others to seek an early market.
To relieve the pressure the bank
ers are advancing the formers S35
per bale at 6 per cent, payable when
the cotton is sold. The title to the
cotton rests with the farmer and he
can sell when he pleases and there is
no longer occasion for disposing of
his crop on a weak or glutted mar
ket. There is strong demand in
Texas for money at 8 and 10 per
cent on terms to suit the lender and
an offer to lend the farmers on de-
mand at s per cent is a concession
on the part of the bankers which the
farmers appreciate. estimate that
it will require approximately S4O,-
900, 900 to hold the distress cotton
off the market, and this amount the
bankers have made available to lend
on cotton stored in our warehouses.
1t will require a much smaller sum
to handle the business, as the money
the farmer borrows will be paid on
his debts or spent in his home town
and most of it will be Immediately
re-deposited in the bank. available
for lending again. We have $50
warehouses in the interior and ade-
quate storage facilities are provided
at the ports to take care of all cot
ton which cannot be accommodated
in the interior.
Many bankers in Texas have for
several years been lending money to
farmers without compensation or at
a very low rate of interest to buy
blooded livestock, build silos, etc,
and no usurer who ever bowed at
the shrine of the dollar received as
large returns on the investment as
these progressive bankers who made
loans without interest to uplift pro-
ductive industry. The spirit of the
builder which actuated the bankers
in these smaller transactions is now
extended into the financing of the
cotton crop on mammoth scale and
the returns will be correspondingly
increased.
The work has had its hardships
and has met with such obstacles as
all progressive movements invariably
encounter. It will have to break
the shackles of shiftless habits of
many farmers. melt the adamant
heart of many bankers and it has
become the target of ridicule and
suspicion of the near-sighted. |
want to here name few of God Al
mighty's noblemen who have coop
Grated in working out the plans and
who have given their time, influence
and loaned their money under this
arrangement to finance warehouses
throughout the entire State: w H
Eddleman, Ben O Smith. Fort Worth;
- n.lloo.