The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1914-09-30
SENATOR McLAURIN'S ACT.

desire to point out what would bt
the value OF a State Warehouse Act
> in this emergency, so that members
may be considering the problem.
Cotton is the corner stone of IN
ternational finance and no plan thai
does not take this into consideration
will reach far enough to be of much
practical value.
1t is idle to depend on the Federal
Government to go further than it has
Let US depend upon ourselves and
work with such tools we have. There
is no use in looking to New York. She
has always made advances to produce
the crop, so as to be in position
demand gold from Europe. When wal
conditions force Europe to sell Amer
lean securities and start flow of gold
from instead of New York, and the
lack of ocean transportation makes
cotton useless to start the annual i'm
port of gold, then cotton to New York
banks is a worthless commodity.
1t seems to me that the key to the
situation in its broader aspect lies
with the English mills. Let US sup
pose that the last general assembly
had pasesd the warehouse bill and
that South Carolina had In sight one
mlllion bales of warehoused cotton.
The chairman of the board would 60
20 England and say to the president
o. the Federation of spinners, con-
tro. ng in an area but little smaller
than Marlboro county one third OF
the spindles of the entire world:
''Mr. President am here represent
ing officially the State of South Car
olina, which will produce this year
| !, 100000 bales of cotton, Here is
copy of the Act Of the general as
sembly under which I am proceed
ing. The domestic mills are not
taking our cotton except at sacrifice
prices. The ocean channels are
closed to you by reason of war. The
New England mills propose to take
advantage of this to drive you out
of our domestic, market and South
America where you shipped last year
$500 900, 900 worth of cotton goods.
If they succeed in buying a two
year supply at one year price your
trade will be gone. You can't get
the cotton or only at twenty cents a
pound, because legislative enactment
in some states; coupled with neces-
sity in others, has cut the acreage
so per cent. .- ....
Here is a copy of our warehouse
receipt. The. sovereign state OF South
Carolina guarantees the grade and
weight. 1t guarantees the title and
that the identical bale Of cotton will
be delivered only on the presentation
of this receipt Here is one million
bales of cotton. Mr.: President, that
you can impound until you need 1t.
Neither Georgia nor North Carolina
have a warehouse system. We can also
corral the bulk of those crops If you
will make it to our interest to do
The president would reply: "Our dif-
ficuity is that we cannot command our
usual supply of gold We are having
to finance this war. Russia and Bel
gium are constantly drawing upon cur
gold reserve, and to supply that we
are sending over American securities
and selling them at a great sacrince.
The reply would be: "Mr. President
YOU do not need one dollar OF gold
Under our new currency law these Sc
curities can be discounted by the cor
hespondents Of the banks of England
in New York. Our debts for making
the crop are ultimately due In NE"
York. You control in England over
three billion dollars Of these securl-
ties have your correspondents to give
the state ware house board credit III
New York for these certificates at
1-2 cents per pound for one million
bales of cotton on the basis OF mld-
ding and will leave the certlfcates
with you. We will not demand gold'
but only credit in New York, Wnere
our debts are, and as they owe you'
the entire matter can be arranged oy
a transfer of credits, with only the
trade balances to be settled in gold
when we agree on a selling price LOT
the cotton" This, Mr.. Editor, Is about
what 7 outlined in a speech I made TO
the state senate in February, 1918
and again last winter. still think the
nlan sound and 1 believe that the Key
to the situation lies in deal with the
Tn q,;sh SINNERS. 1t is entirely prac-