Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1914-09-23

THE COTTON CONGRESS PLAN
Meetings to BE Held in Every County
in the State October 1st,

hereby call a meeting of the
Southren Cotton Congress in each
county in South Carolina, at the
Court House, II a. M, October 1st.
I request that these meetings be call
ed in addition to any others that may
have been held. | hope before that
date each county will have been or
ganized; that in each county hun
dreds Of people will be wearing our
badges, indicating they have paid 81
to help boost the price Of cotton, and
that we have their support in trying
to hold one third Of this cotton crop,
and for reducing the 1915 crop so
per cent. We are going to use your
dollar to help us organize. While we
shall be glad to have you contribute
81 to the organization, we are not
going to let that keep you from our
meetings or from receiving all the
benefits we can secure. If you work
one-horse farm or a fifty-horse
farm; If you make one bale or 500
bales; rich or poor white or black,
we need your influence.
We stand for the poor man as well
as til ) rich in asking that our cred
itors will take that which we have
"A cotton warehouse receipt-and
withhold collecting his notes and ac-
counts as long as he possibly can, in
order that we may obtain cost, or
above, for this cotton crop. We wish
the cooperation of farmers, NOR
chants, bankers, fertilizer companies
and all other persons doing business
in the South. We wish every farmer
to sign our pledge. We request you
to hold, If possible, one-third of your
crop for one year, unless you can
sooner sell it for twelve cents per
pound. We believe five million bales,
or one-third OF this crop, cannot be
used by the mills Of the world before
September 1st, 1915. We believe
two-thirds Of the crop, or ten million
bales, can be sold at about ten cents
or above, If you will slowly sell as
the mills need It.. We can sell the
ten million bales, If properly market
ed, for more money than we can the
whole crop, and have five million
bales on storage next September.
Will you do You r art or q you fsSs
pect your neighbor to hoid your
third as well as his? If you and your
neighbor were serving with Lee in
Virginia, would you expect him to
face the enemy like the brave man
he is, while you ran away to make a
few dollars out Of his manhood?
Suppose you and your neighbor
both hold the third Of your cotton
crop which both Of you agree is nee
esSary, Will you not pledge to cut
your cotton acreage SO per cent in
order to give value to the surplus
YOU hold, as well as fair value to
the 1915 crop? If your neighbor
planted but four to six acres to the
horse, don't you think it would be
fair to let him risk his full acreage
and let you who planted 90 acres to
the mule cut 60 per cent? When the
canvass Is completed, see that some
one in your county is holding one
thlrd as much cotton for one year as
was made in 1913, according to gov
ernment bulletin 1875. If the farm
ers have not pledged that much, ask
the business men to put up the neces-
Sary balance. Refer to a similar bull
letln and see that the total acreage
to be planted in your county in 1915
is only 80 per cent Of the 1914 crop
Every cotton farmer, small or
large, is playing game OF chance.
The stake amounts to hundreds Of
millions of dollars. If we put cotton
up four cents per pound, we will save
the South three hundred million dol
lars. Are you willing to do your
part? Come to your county meeting
October 1st and be prepared to in
struct our Legislature your wish as
to State warehouse bill; also whe-
ther you endorse State control Of cot
ton acreage. Wade Stackhouse,
President South Carolina Division of
Southern Cotton Congress.