The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1914-10-16
SHOULD HELP OURSELVES.

Department, has become tired Of 50
much talk and so little real work to
relieve the cotton situation.
According to his way Of thinking,
nothing has been done to relieve the
cotton situation excepting the aid ex-
tended by the government in furnish
ing banks with funds to be loaned the
planters Of the South.
lie is Disguised with the action Of
many bankers in trying to reap a rich
reward in interest on money belonging
to the government and with the
peoples inability to solve their own
problems, and has announced that no
further Federal aid could be extended
them.
National banks of the South have ap-
piled for only about one-third of the
amount Of emergency currency they
may receive, AMI having failed to fully
take advantage Of the aid offered by
the government, the Secretary thinks
it is up to the farmers and the business
men Of the South to get together on
some practical plan and do something
for themselves.
Replying to a letter Of Congressman
Henry Of Texas, who has been
e~ndeaVoring to get a bill passed
through Congress authorizing direct
loans by the government to the farm
ers of the South, urging the Secretary
to announce that he would deposit in
the national banks throughout the
South several hundreds Of millions of
dollars Secretary says that he will
do no such thing for the simple reason
that the government has not got "sev-
eral hundred Millions of dollars in its
vaults, and ever if it had, he would
have no authority to deposit it in the
blanks Of the South" to the exclusion
Of those of other sections.
The people of the South are not chill
dren. They are not entitled to nor
neither do they want any privileges
that cannot be extended to all other
portions of the nation. They are in
hard luck just now, but they are able to
take care of themselves. They have
worked out of a harder corner and they
will work out Of this.
Secretary McAdoo intimates that
what the South needs is not more
money, which its banks can get by
simply applying for it, but more work
and less talk; more food crops and less
cotton; more things to sell and fewer
to buy; more reliance upon their own
selves and less dependence upon others.
There is no reason in the world why
the South should depend upon anybody
or any other section. 1t has a climate
aud d soil adapted to raising many
things that cannot be grown in other
localities. 1t can grow almost anything
any other section can and a great many
things they cannot.
1t can grow corn and oats as well as
the West, but the West cannot grow
cotton like the South,
The South can raise as good cattle
and hogs as can be grown in Illinois or
Indiana, but these States cannot grow
sugar cane and rice like we can.
The South can raise just as good
horses and mules as Missouri and Ken
lucky, but they cannot equal us in
u vegetable and truck growing.
The South can manufacture just as
good cotton goods as can Massachusetts
and Rhode Island, but these States
must draw from the South for their
raw material even to surpass us in this
industry.
The fact is the South has the op-
%portunities right at her door to become
the richest and most independent sec
ton of the entire nation, but she has
failed to take advantage of them.
The present depressed condition in
the cotton market has impressed US
with the fact that we have too long
pursued a policy of dependency and
may be the means of starting us on
the road to prosperity and agricultural
and commercial independence. Jack
son Clarion Ledger.