The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1914-08-01
BEEF AND CORN 20 NOT
BALANCE COTTON AND LUMBER
Export Lumber Contracts carrv War
Clause Which NuIlifies-Newman
Lumber Co. Calls Local Manaaer to
seranton-Farmers Worried Over
Cotton-High Prices Mean Distress.

~
today could discuss but one subject
and that was the effect on Hatties-
burg in the event of a war in Europe.
The consensus of their opinion is that
no good can come of it so far as they
are concerned. A gloom has been
spread over business such as has
not been felt since the depression of
1907 by the war cloud. Bankers, cot
ton brokers, merchants, lumbermen
and farmers were interviewed but not
one of them could see how any benefit
would come to Forrest county or to
the city of Hattiesburg from general
conflict in Europe.
The backbone of commerce in this
section they say is lumber and cot
ton. Export contracts to the extent
of hundreds of thousands of dollars
have already been cancelled on lum-
Der and cotton dropped $12 per bale
before the exchange closed.
1t has been predicted that other
business will be stimulated by the
: imminent war, but the business men
9here say that Forrest county does not
raise enough foodstuffs for its own
consumption and that the high prices
in meat and bread will cause much
distress here.
War Clause Discovered.
High corn and beef will not balance
low cotton and lumber because there is
not enough of the former and too much
of the latter.
A farmer in the city today said that
1t makes little difference to him how
high the price of corn scars because
he will not have enough of It to sell
and he fears that if he can not sell
the cotton he has raised he will be in
precarious condition because he owes
money and was counting on his cotton
to help him over the winter.
w. J. Haynan, local manager Of the
Newman Lumber Company, left today
for the East where it is presumed he
was called by the president of the com
pany to advise with him about the ex'
port business.
(, It was learned today that almost all
lspf the export lumber contracts carry
'fH Joker in the form Of a war clause
eYwhich nullifies, automatically, when
war is declared in Europe. This has
the effect of cancelling at once thous
ands of dollars worth Of contracts from
this county, which is not one of thu
largest export counties. The wal
clause was never before given much
consideration, because, in the present
generation, the lumbermen say, tht
present situation is without precedent
Need Of Cattle Raising Emphasized.
A prominent banker today said that
there never was time when there
was greater need or better. oppor
tunity for cattle raising in Forres
7 county. It is the best place In tne
world to raise cattle. he said, and TN
prices will be higher for beef tnal
thew have been in long time, pu
there are only three men in the county
who have as many as hundred hea'
Of cattle. The farmers, ne said' vii
be benefited little If any by the goo
nbrices on meat. They will have 70 Ou. y
the high priced beef to reed 'ne"'
Aselves. % N,
A lumberman called attention 70 .n ~
,.ot that with the foreign market CLOS
ed except South America and rans,u' "a !,
M s,, - the export mills will turn tnel
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