The Holbrook news., 1914-11-28
WAR SHAT- TIERS KING COTTON'S
 THRONE
FLEEcY STAPLE MUST PAY RAN. SOM INTO THE cOFFERs OF
 WAR.
Nation Rlnss With Cries of Stricken
 Industry.
By Peter Radford


 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 a bale"; bankers have been formulating hold ing plans; congress and legislative bodies have deliberated over relief measures; statesmen and writers have grown eloquent expounding the inalienable rights of His Majesty" and presenting schemes for preserv- ing the financial integrity of the stricken staple, but the sword of Flu 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 and markets decimated by the battling hosts of the eastern hemisphere until the American farmer has suffered war loss of $400.OOO,O ,OOO, and a bale European port must pay a ransom of half it's value or go to prison until the war is over.
 Hope of the Future Lies In Co-opera-
 ton.
 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 as grave a 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 bending the constitution and straining business rules in order to lift portion of the burden off the backs of the farmer, for unless something is done to check the invasion of the war forces upon the cotton fields, the pathway of the European pestilence on this continent will be strewn with mortgaged homes and famine and poverty will stalk over the southland, filling the highways of industry with refugees and the bank ruptcy court with prisoners.
 All calamities teach us lessons and the present crisis serves to illuminate the frailties of our marketing meth ods and the weakness of our credit system, and out of the financial an guish and travail of the cotton farmer will come volume of discussion and a mass of suggestions and finally a of this, the biggest problem In the economic life of America, if, I indeed, we have not already laid the for at least temporary re- lief
 More Pharaohs Needed Tn Agriculture.
 Farm products have no credit and perhaps can never have on a perma- nent and satisfactory basis unless wS build warehouses, cold storage plants, elevators, etc, for without storage and credit facilities, the south is com pelled to dump it's crop on the market at harvest time. The Farmers Unions In the cotton producing states have for the past ten years persistently ad- Vocated the construction of storage facilities. We have built during this period 2,000 warehouses with a ca 1acity of approximately 4,000,000 bales | md looking backward the results | would seem encouraging, but looking | we are able to house less han one-third of the crop and ware 70 per cent of their usefulness. The | problem is a gigantic one-too great | or the farmer to solve unaided He must have the assistance of the bank l 1T, the merchant and the government. |
 In production we have reached the | nigh water mark of perfection in the worlds history, but our marketing methods are most primitive In the lawn of history we find agriculture blowing with forked stick but with system of warehouses under govern mental supervision that made the Egyptians the marvel of civilization, |. or who has not admired the vision of oseph and applauded the wisdom of 'haraoh for storing the surplus until by the consumer, but in his age we have too many Josephs zhn drna m md rnA nr,n,,rI,