The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-09-22

iIuSt IlSHl, ana OuSnt 10 WIN, Is TO
get prices back to ten cent mark INC
beyond. And to effect this result so
necessary to the South'S financial sal
walton there must be cooperation Of
all forces. The men who would like
to hold but can't must be helped to
hold.
The National Government is Under
Pledge to Furnish Help.
Right here is where the duty OF
the national government comes in. I
want this meeting to get right behind
the Farmers Union forces who are
going to Washington Monday and tell
Congress that the Henry bill is what
the South needs. At the same time
we can't expec our Southern repre-
sentatives to do the impossible, and
II they swear it is impossible for them
to get Northern, Eastern and Western
congressman to help them buy cot
ton, they will give an excuse it is
mighty hard for us to disprove, and
it may be they can escape RESPONSE
blllty so far as this matter is con-
cerned. But we must go after them
with a dOuble-barrelled gun and get
help n way if not another. There's
one thing they cam escape RESPONSE
bility for, and right there is where
we must pin them down-they can't
escape responsibility for failure to
"NCAoolC currency 10 enable
to borrow at least five cents
a pound on cotton; and l believe if
FARMERS could borrow ever five cents
a pOund. enough would be held to
force prices to the ten-cent leyel
And l hold that a definite pledge
from the national government to the
farmers of the South was made when
secretary McAdoo said just after h
COTTON season opened that he would
issue emergency currency to Is per
cent or the value of warehouse certifj-
Gates n that there was "adeouate
power under existing laws to issue
through the national banks all the
currency to meet any reasonable de-
mand that may develop in any part of
the country adding that:
State banks are actually deposit-
ing their securities with the national
banks and the national banks are get
tlng the issue against those securities
and turning it over to the state banks.
1T is perfectly simple t. get it. There
is no difficulty about that
In my view, I say, this constitutes
a pledge from the administration and
the national government to the cot
ton of our section, and yet we
nave discovered that under the re-
strictions imposed on national banks
only the meagerests fraction Of the
Souths possible warehouse receipts
may be utilized in securing emer-
gency currency; that here in the South
where national banks are few, all the
emergency currency they could obtain
would hardly finance the crop; and
that there is absolutely nothing To IN
sure that any part of the emergencv
currency must be user in financing
the crop.
Il repeat that / am not one to ask
impossible things, but we were told
mat the urpose of the new CURRENCY
act was to provide an elastic currency
TOT just such emergencies as this:
furthermore we have the specific
statements Of the Secretary of the
treasury | have just quoted; and the
of the South should not hold
Congress guiltle ssif it fails to provide
speedily, h means whereby ADEQUATE
loans may be secured for carving the
crop until better prices obtain. The
national government has this duty vet
to perform.
Each State Government Ought
To Do.
NOW let us consider the duty of
the state gOvernment-the duty of
each state government in the South.
l say that duty is to institute a state
VIDE campaign in behalf Of all the
measures needed in the present emer-
gency. L would have a "State Mar
ket1ng Committee" organized in every
state, consisting of the foremost agri-
ultura officials and leaders, and IN
DER It's direction l would have eight
instinct Ines Of work carried on.
FIRST, l would have the states in
tnls way canvass the whole South.
each state covering it's own cotton
area, for names of men who will hold
from one to one thousand
paies Tor ten cents a pound.
second, 1 would nave the commit
zee act as a bureau Of publicity and
prlnt press articles and posters to
COMBAT everywhere the ruinous false
hood that half the worlds cotton mar
kets have been closed.
Third. | would make this bureau
the headquarters for giving expert
official advice to every
lshln to build a l would
ADVISE as to construction, cost, in
%surance, rates, etc, out 1 would have
it follow the Knapp demonstration
method and send a man to the ground
to adopt this information to local
| na0dC -,0r1G howe onr