The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-06-24

| Tells OF WORK
SENATOR SAITH PRESENTS III;
ClAIH TO REELECTION
tGAVE help TO FARMER!
Junior Senator Gives His Approva
Of the Work He Has Wone in th'
Senate, Making Strong Plea FOL
the Farmers Votes-Win HelI
Them in Future.
Senator Smith, in discussing his
work for the farming interest Of the
country both as private citizen and
as representative of South Carolina
in the fedc: al Senate. i part, spoke
as follows, giving a clear, compre-
hensive idea of she principles and
policies for which he stands:
Another election year has come
Six years ago Istood for election to
the United States Senate upon plat.
form whose main plank was in the
interest of the farmers Of the State,
particularly the cotton growers
They had rot had, as every one
knows, square deal, and after years
of work in farmers organization, !
believed that If the proper legislation
could be had to supplement the or
ganzatiors that relief coulS be given.
Cotton Exchanges.
"The cotton exchanges of the coun-
try, under the domination and con-
troll of Europe, were debating to
American producers what American
cotton was worth. These exchanges
made such contracts that they were
at liberty to put the price up or
down as they saw it. It made no diff
ference whether the crop was large
or whether it was small; that is,
practically no difference, because
because these exchanges could manip-
ulate the market to suit themselves.
Therefore, it is encumbent upon me
to show what have done in further
ance Of my promise made to the far
mers of the State.
X ..I am farmer myself, pure and
simple. tits the only means have
of making a living, ind cotton is the
only crop out Of which we can get
ready cash. Now, as l suggested
what have I done?"
'eIn the first place, during the Re-
publican administration I introduced
a bill to regulate the cotton e2-
changes to force then to give con-
tract which would be fair and just to
both the buyer and the seller. 1t
must be borne in mind that in the
Senate then, as now, there were
abaut Is lawyers, 13 manufacturers
or other professional men, three far
mers with other business and two far
mers pure and simple, Of which two,
I am one. Therefore, it can readily
be understood what an uphill busl-
ness it was to get this mass Of pro-
fessional men to understand the real
condition that confronted the far
mers. I recall one incident. After
having Iabored with a number OF
Southern senators on my bill, and
having used the words 'middling'
low middling,' strict low middling,
good ordinary strict good ordi-
nary strict middling' and good
middling' ono of these, coming from
one of the cotton growing States,
asked ME % explain just what l
meant by 'middling'. This serves to
illustrate the difficulty in getting the
proper legislation for the farmers OF
this country. Only five so-called, out
of the 96 senator's, farmers, three OF
them having other business which
seems to be more their real business
than farming, and only two directly
dependent upon farming.
Measure for Farmers.
"After laboring for two or three
years I finally passed in the Senate
of the United States the first bill, so
far as I have been able to ascertain,
that was ever passed through that
body to so regulate the cotton ex-
changes as to make them deal fairly
with the cotton producers. passed
this bill. without a dissenting vote.
The public can understand that in a
body Of lawyers, manufacturers and
professional men, it would take time
to demonstrate to. them, to educate
them to understand, the Injustice
done those who were producing that
upon which the whole world depend
ed. This was the task before me.
"As I said before, I passed this
bill. Again, it seemed to me that ii
one rain on cotton, staining it, could
change it's grade and made it worth
from s1.25 to SIS per bale less, then
four or five rains would make it prac-
mans vote"
He mentioned that it required