The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-08-26
THE COTTON CONGRESS
BODY MET IN COLUMBIA THURS
DAY TO PLAN ACTION.
Advised Farmers First to Hold Their
Cotton for a While and Second,
Plant Less Cotton Next Year.

A cotton congress was held in Co.
lumbia Thursday morning to which
attended business men, farmers,
bankers, and merchants from various
parts of the State. They met to con-
sider the cotton situation and take
what action they deemed imperative.
Among other things cali was sent
out to every one interested in the
State to form county organizations.
A meeting will be held in Orange
burg next Thursday to consider these
steps. Full particulars will be an
nounced next week.
Mr.. F. Mason Crum, farm demon
stration agent in Orangeburg county,
attended the congress, and issued the
following statement to the farmers
of O1angeburg county:
THE Cotton Congress Of South
Carolina which convened in Columbia
Thursday revealed some very definite
things regarding the cotton question.
First, that the producer of cotton
will have to do his part if the crop is
to be saved
1.-THE various cotton states are
holding meetings to devise plans for
holding the surplus and to make it
possible to finance the cotton after
it is stored. These state resolutions
will be passed on to the executive
committee of the national Cotton
Congress and from them uniform,
platform will be adopted to which
sll the cotton states will conform:
This is absolutely necessary, and
without it everything will be chaos.
Then every county and township in
the South will know what the other
counties and townships are doing.
The method will be the same, and
cotton will be the finest collateral for
credit in the country. But there is
something for the farmer to do and
he must do it right now.
First. Keep your cotton of the
market for while. Store it in your
yard until proper warehouse fscili-
ties are provided for. If you do not
need money, keep it housed there,
but do not sell it. If you have to
have money, you can soon put it in
warehouse which the State recog-
nizes and which the government will
approve, and then you will have a
warehouse receipt which the banks
will honor. It won't be long before
the banks will have emergency money
issued by the government, and you
can get It. Your cotton will in all
probability be graded by federal
expert and this with the correct
weight will be noted on your ware
house receipt, and this. receipt will
be as good as money anywhere in
the country. The bankers OF New
York will honor a certificate of such
character.
Second. You will have to plant
less cotton next year, or we will be
confronted with a more serious prob
lem next fall than we are now. With
our surplus stored, and the 1915
crop combined, we will have more
cotton than the world can consume.
Plant half your regular acreage and
make up the deficit with grain, hay
and live stock. There is money IN
these crops and we can make them
proftably, and we can declare divi-
dend more than once a year. This
is the salvation of the Southern far
mer, and the war is going to teach US
valuable lesson, even though 1t is
at great expense.
Lastly, hold your nerve, and hold
your cotton. The United States gov
ernment stands ready to help rs IL
we are willing to receive it. The
probability is that if we fail it will
be the farmers fault. The cotton
states must move abreast at this
crisis and if they do, the crop will
not be squandered.