Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1914-12-17
EUROPEAN WAR SHAT.
TIERS KING COTTON'S
THRONE
FLEEcY STAPLE MUST PAY RAN
SOM INTO THE GOLFERS OF
WAR.
Nation Rings With Cries Of Stricken
Industry.
BY Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers Union.

Lecturer National Farmers Union.
King Cotton has suffered more from
the European war than any other ag-
ricuItura 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
kngl
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 writer's
have grown eloquent expounding the
inalienable rights of Ellis Majesty"
and presenting schemes for preserv-
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
and markets decimated by the battling
hosts of the eastern hemisphere until
the American farmer has suffered
war loss of s40Oo0O.O0O, and a bale
of cotton brave enough to enter a
European port must pay ransom of
half its value or go to prison until the
war is over.
Hone of the Future Lies In Co-opera-
ton.
The Farmers Union, through the
J columns of the press, wants to thank
4 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 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, filing 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
DDS and the weakness of our credit
system, and out of the financial an
guish and travail of the cotton farm er
will come volume of discussion and
mass of suggestions and finally a
solution of this, the biggest problem
in the economic life of America, If,
indeed, we have not already laid the
foundation for at least temporary re-
lief.
More Pharaohs Needed in Agriculture
Farm products have no credit and
perhaps can never have on a perma
nent and satisfactory basis unless we
build warehouses cold storage plants
elevators, etc, for without storage and
credit facilities tho south IS ,-s-.-