Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1914-12-25
EUROPEAN WAR SHAT
TIERS king COTl0N's
THRONE
FLEECY STAPLE MUST 20 Fam
SOM INTO THE GOLFERS or
WAR.
Nation Rings Win Cries Of str'cks
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 throRe
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 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 a
war loss Of .s400,000,000, 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.
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
1 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 I'll {
viewpoint of the producer, would see n
to justify extraordinary relief met IS
ures, even to the point of bending 4hC
constitution and straining busin es
rules in order to lift a portion of The
burden off the backs of the farmer
for unless something is done to checl
the invasion of the war forces upor
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 81
industry with refugees and the bank
ruptcy court with prisoners.
All calamities teach us lessons and
the present crisis serves 70 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 farmer
will come volume of discussion and
a mass of suggestions and finally Q
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, the south is com
PEELED to dump its crop on the market
at harvest time. The Farmers Unions
IN the cotton producing states have
for the past ten years persistently 40
vocated the construction of storage
, facilities. We have built during this
period 1000 warehouses with ca
pacity of approximately 100000 bales
and looking backward the resElts
would seem encouraging, but looking
forward, we are able to house less
than one-third of the crop and ware
houses without credit system lose
, 30 per cent of their usefulness. The
problem is a gigantic one-too great
for the farmer to solve unaided. He
must have the assistance of the bank
or, the merchant and the government
In production we have reached the
high water mark of perfection in the
worlds history, but our marketing
methods are most primitive. In the
dawn Of history we find agriculture
blowing with forked stick but with
a system of warehouses under govern
mental supervision that made the
Egyptians the marvel of civilization
for who has not admired the vision OF
Joseph and applauded the wisdom OF
Pharaoh for storing the surplus until
demanded by the consumer, but in
this age we have too many Josephs
] who dream and not enough Pharaoha