Newport daily independent., 1914-09-26
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Country Correspondence. sts
ISLAND NEWS.

MT. and Mns. Ape Pipkin of Vil- lage Township, passed through here
 Sunday, en route to the Dawson neighborhood to spend the day with relatives.
 Charley Webb is very sick at this
 writing. Dr. A. L. Best is attending him.
 MT. and Mrs. Sam Junior spent Sunday on the Island with friends. W. D. Runyan went to Ingleside Saturday on business.
 R. L. Gillian and John Pickett were in the Remmel neighborhood Sunday.
 ] Joe Thrift went to Newport Mon- day.
 One of the greatest reasons why this fair Southland, the garden of the Western hemisphere, is dependent is the fact that cotton is, and ever has been, King, and credit, the result of its enormous production. Why does credit attach to the production of cotton? Because it requires the entire twelve months in the year to produce 1t for market. Hence the producer does not have any time that he can call his own with which to grow something to live upon. Conse- quently he must buy his living from the North and the East on credit till such time as his crop of cotton is ready for market. Then he must take his crop to market, and after asking the merchant what he would take for the meat and bread he ate while mak- ing this crop, ask him what he will frIX "a ha In1t a4o Thus the producer gets the "buzzard" both ways. This state of affairs does not only keep the producer depend ent, but it keeps the merchant and the landlord dependent. They as well as the farmer are depending on this same crop of cotton to pay their summer bills. Cotton. being the on- ly product of the South, they all, alike, are forced to keep their sup plies in the Northern markets, paying some other man to ship them out in such quantities as he deems best. And again, it will not be disputed the South is the largest consumer of it's own produce-cotton- in- stead of manufacturing it in the land where it is grown, we ship it to England, the King of the Cotton market, the one place looked to by our buyers from those who buy hun dred bales, to those who buy tens of thousands, for each morning quota tion's before they make bid, paying the freight, paying interest on the money advanced to us by the buyer, besides paying commission to two or three others before it reaches the factory. Then we pay for the man. ufacturing and have it shipped back at an enormous expense for freight, commissions, storage, labor etc. Thus we are depending on foreign markets for what they raise, that we may be able to eat, and on these same mar kets for what we raise that we may be able to wear. You see we are the 1 most dependent people on the globe. i Can the South become independent? l The answer is, yes. We have the | soil, we have the climate, and we have the people-people with brain and 1 What else do we need? Just united | effort on the part of all the people, and not on part of them. It is evil dent that cotton will not make us in- dependent, it is evident that the pro- QucerS cannot reueem us, WoTklHg | alone and against such overwhelming odds; neither can the landlorl or the merchant redeem us alone, but the f united efforts of them all is required. They must come together, make con- | sessions to each other, whereby one { common benefit may be derived by all, if we would free ourselves from the clutches of Europe and the Eastern speculator The farmer is willing to produce living for his whole South land and if you will let him, he will raise meat for you and himself; he will raise bread for all, and various other necessities of life, besides a bale or two of cotton with which to make clothes if you will only give him chance. He doesn't care for | doing the work, he don't care for you resting while he works-all he wants is to be allowed to work in such a way as will profit you and him and not force him to do the very thing | that has ever kept him in abject slavery and ignorance, and is impov- erishing you daily
 Slim Jim.