The Winslow mail., 1914-12-05
War SHAT
TIERS EIH5 G]TT0H'S
THRONE:
-LEECY STAPLE MUST PAY RAM
SOM INTO THE GOLFERS or
WAR.
lation Rings With Cries Of Stricken
Industry.
BY Peter Radford
y ONDI Ets.O OT Y
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,
frightening his subjects and shatter-
ing his markets, and panic-stricken,
the nation cries out God save the
king!"
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 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
inalienab1e rights Of 'His Majesty"
and presenting schemes for preseTv-
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
hosts of the eastern hemisphere until
the American farmer has suffered a
war loss of $400. 1000, 600, and bale
of cotton brave enough to enter q
European port must pay a 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 SIS
crave 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 bendine ihe
constitution and straining business
rules in order to lift a portion of the
burden Off the backs az the farmer
for unless something is done to check
the invasion of tile war forces .upoa
the cotton fields, the pathway of til
European pestilence on this continens
viii be strewn with morfoaecd homo
and famine and poverty wiz STALK owe
She southland filing the highways
industry with refugees and the ban2
ruptcy court with prisoners.
All calamities teach Us lesson. ans
the present crisis serves to ilIuminat,
the frailties of orr marketing retn
ods and the weakness of our cradi3
system, and out of the financial az
guish ana travail OF the cotton farlne-
will come volume of discussion am
2 mass OF suggestions and finally
solution Of this, the biggest problem
in the economic life of America, il.
indeed, we have not already laid the
foundation. for at least temporary re
lief.
More PhaFaohs Needed in agriculture 4
Farm products have no credit and
perhaps can never have on a perma
nent and satisfactory basis unless ND
build warehouses, cold storage :pIants,
elevators etc. for without storage ana
credit facilities, the south is com
PEELED to dump its crop on the market
at harvest time. The Farmers Unions
in the cotton producing states have
for the past ten years persistently adj
vocated the construction of storage
facilities. We have built during this
period 1000 warehouses with ca
pacity OF approximately 100000 bales
and looking backward the results
would seem encouraging, but looking
forward, we are able TO house less
than one-third of the crop and ware
houses without q credit system lose
90 per cent of their usefulness. The
problem is a gigantic one-too great
for the farmer to Solve unaided. He
must have the assistance cf the bank
er, the merchant and the government.
In production we have reached the
high water mark of perfection in the
worlds history, but our marketing
methods are most primitive II the
dawn Of history we find agriculture
plowing with a forked stick but with
q system of warehouses under govern