The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1914-12-10
EUROPEAN WAR SHAT.
TIERS KING COTTON'S
THRONE
FLEEcY STAPLE MUST PAY RAN
SOM INTO THE GOLFERS OF
WAR.
Nation Rings With Cries Of Stricken
Industry.
By Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers Union.

Lecturer National Farmers Union.
King Cotton has suffered more from
the European war than any other ag-
ricultural product on the American
continent The shells of the belliger-
ents have bursted over his throne,
ing his markets, and, panic-stricken,
the nation cries out God save the
kingi"
People from every walk of life have
contributed their mite toward rescue
work Society has danced before the
king; milady has decreed that the
family wardrobe shall contain only
cotton goods; the press has plead
with the public to buy a bale;
bankers have been formulating hold
ing plans; congress and legislative
bodies have deliberated over relief
measures; statesmen and writer's
have grown eloquent expounding the
inalienable rights of ''His Majesty"
and presenting schemes for preserv-
ing the financial integrity of the
stricken staple, but the sword of Eu-
rope has proved mightier than the pen
of America in fixing value upon this
product of the sunny south. Prices
have been bayoneted, values riddled
and markets decimated by the battling
hosts of the eastern hemisphere until
the American farmer has suffered
war loss of 100000 600, and bale
of cotton brave enough to enter a
European port must pay ransom of
half its value or go to prison until the
war is over
Hope of the Future Lies in Co-opera-
tion.
The Farmers Union, through the
columns of the press, wants to thank
the American people for the friend
ship, sympathy and assistance given
the cotton farmers in the hour of dis
tress and to direct attention to CO
operative methods necessary to per-
manently assist the marketing of all
farm products.
The present emergency presents as
grave situation as ever confronted
the American farmer and from the
viewpoint of the producer, would seem
to justify extraordinary relief meas
ures, even to the point of bending the
constitution and straining business
rules in order to lift a portion of the
burden off the backs of the farmer,
for unless something is done to check
the invasion of the war forces upon
the cotton fields, the pathway of the
European pestilence on this continent
will be strewn with mortgaged homes
and famine and poverty will stalk over
the southland filing the highways Of
industry with refugees and the bank
ruptcy court with prisoners.
All calamities teach us lessons and
the present crisis serves to illuminate
the frailties of our marketing meth
DDS and the weakness of our credit
system, and out of the financial an
guish and travail of the cotton farmer
will come volume of discussion and
a mass of suggestions and finally a
solution of this, the biggest problem
in the economic life of America, if,
indeed, we have not already laid the |
foundation for at least temporary re-
ief
Wore Pharaohs Needed In Agriculture.
Farm products have no credit and |
perhaps can never have on a perma- |
lent and satisfactory basis unless W. |
build warehouses, cold storage plants, |
elevators, etc, for without storage and |
,redit facilities, the south is COM
,elled to dump its crop on the market /
It harvest time. The Farmers Unions |
n the cotton producing states have
or the past ten years persistently ad-
'ocated the construction of storage
ABILITIES. We have built during this
'eriod 1000 warehouses with a ca
'acity of approximately 10000 bales
nd looking backward the results
you'd seem encouraging, but looking
onward, we are able to house less
han one-third of the crop and ware
ouses without credit system lose
0 per cent of their usefulness. The
roblem is gigantic one-too great
or the farmer to solve unaided. He
1ust have the assistance of the bank
r, the merchant and the government.
In production we have reached the
Ugh water mark of perfection in the
Torld's history, but our marketing
lethods are most primitive In the
avn of history we find agriculture
lowing with a forked stick but with
system of warehouses under govern
rental supervision that made the
gyptians the marvel of civilization,
IT who has not admired the vision of
oseph and applauded the wisdom of
haraoh for storing the surplus until
smanded by the consumer, but in :
lis age we have too many Josephs
no dream and not enough Pharaohs
ho build.