Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1914-11-13
THINGS MIGHT BE WORSE.

For persons to whom adversely has never come,
and who, from personal experience, know little or
nothing of the pinches of poverty and the woe Of
want, is easy to pirate of duty and preach the
doctrine that misfortune, when it falls to the lot of
mortals, should be met with philosophy.
To precept the wisdom of bearing the ills that
b. with christian resignation and fortitude, is one
thing; to practice the virtue, thus limited at, is
something quite different and inexpressibly more
difficult.
The troubles now upon the producers of cotton
in the Southern states are serious and hard to bear.
That much is undeniable and, what is more, un-
less relief soon comes in one form or another, the
suffering among our people is going to grow un-
til conditions become worse than at any time since
the passing of the evil days, succeeding close upon
the war between the states, in which the South
went to the wall and sustained heavier losses than
eyer before fell to a people.
Out of those days of sorrow and sore trial, when
there was cause for mourning in every household
and a dearth was over all the land; when our store
rooms and smoke-h0uses were empty, provisions
high, money scarce and only necessarles could be
purchased on credit, and then only at exorbitant
pISCo, ClC uIiC pCopiS, hCCplAS iCoIL, UTdV6-
ly set themselves to the task of rehabilitation, and
stuck to it, until through the exercise of economy
and persistent effort to better conditions, they so
triumphed over adverse circumstances as to estab-
fish confidence in the success of their e~xertions,
and win the esteem and admiration of the outside
world
And so it will be in the present crisis.
Although the lot Of the cotton planter is at pres.
ent hard, and the immediate future has small pro.
mise for him, he can at least find comfort in the
thought his fate could be worse.
Want, in more or less degree, is perhaps. at the
door of the majority of homes in our midst but in
few, if any, is there real danger of suffering from
cold or hunger.
Our condition is, to put 1t mildly. in happy con
trast with that of the heroic people of Belgium.
The columns of the daily papers fairly teen
with items of news from that country. The lates
pathetic story which comes from it and which
bears the stamp of authenticity, since it emanate
S from the representative of the American govern
o ment over there, IS the statement that not less thai
S 1000, 900 Belgians are facing starvation.
And worse still, the dangers of the ~situatio,
arel so imminent that the consular message con
r tains an additional statemen that many mus
starve before relief can reach them, even thoug
supplies generously furnished, free of charge
through Rockefeller's donation of millions, are no,
n on the way.
In the gloom through which we, for the pas
few months. have been cropping and finding it dill
l. fcult enough to keep hope alive in the face of tn
,r steady decline in the price of cotton and the Dis
G couraging outlook for another year, there is no,
shining a ray of light which to some extent bript
tens the path for the cotton planter.
There is an increasing spirit of optimism to b
"a found in the daily press and to be heard on tn
: street corners and in the marts of trade wbic
daily are becoming buster.
n Turn which way we may, there is to be hear
a more cheerful tone of talk than was the case
few weeks ago, and every thing seems to indicat