The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1914-10-07
COTTON UNIFORM PLAN,
"HtDSON PLAN" Is TO HAVE
EMPLOYEES WEAR KHAKI.
Adoption of Scheme to Have All Men
In Uniform Wear Cotton Cloth
Suggested by Railroad Man-WiIl
Absorb Cotton In This Way.

Hu6 uSId CnTOnlCle.
THE Hudson Pan" is the latest sug-
gestion for relief in the present gen.
eral situation. The several business
men with whom it has been discussed
express the opinion that it is the most
practicable and far-reaching, as we'll
as the most business-like yet sug-
gested, and the only one which has
been offered that would have behind
1t any sort Of sOlidity and no senti-
ment. 1t would necessitate the imme-
diate manufacture of millions and mil
lions Of yards of the very heaviest
kind Of goods made from cotton,
would absorb an enormous amount of
the present visible supply of cotton,
and would tax the goods beyond their
capacity. thus forcing other mills to
equip at least a portion Of their plants
for making this particular grade of
cloth.
1t would take in every steam rail-
road. every electric railway, every
steamboat line. every police depart
ment and every fire department in
the entire cotton belt, and in many
other States, outside of the belt. At
the same time it's adoption would mean
the saving Of very considerable
amount of money to the ultimate con-
sumner and the creation Of an entirely
new line Of business that would amply
take the place of that line Of business
which the plan would reduce. but not
eliminate.
The plan was conceived and its de-
tails thought out by Capt. c. H. Hud-
son, a passenger conductor on the
Georgia & Florida Railroad, running
between Augusta and Valdosta, who
lives at 1889 Walton Way. In his own
way he tells 1t is. as follows:
"Of course the idea behind the
buy bale plan is that not alone Of
aiding the farmer. but through the
farmer to aid everybody else. 1t is
said to be plan Of taking cotton off
the market in the hope that the
amount will be equal to that portion
which will not be exported and the
surplus. That so much will be ac-
complished is still a question, but, as
Mr.. T. I. Hickman has said, even that
Is but temporary relief, and buying
a bale Of cotton here and there on q
basis Of sentiment more than Of busi-
ness carries with it no insurance that
the same cotton will not again be
dumped back on the market. It re-
mains raw cotton anyway. and is
therefore an existing surplus, what
ever else Of the crop may be used.
Permanent relief is going to come
only through some method which will
permanently absorb the cotton. Peo-
pie are not going to throw it away
and they are not going to burn it up;
neither the producer nor the consum-
er. We have simply-if we are going
about this salvation Of the South in a
business-like way-got to find some-
thing to do with the cotton that we
don't do with 1t now.
THE pan originated by Miss Clark
and the ladies' in Washington. that
of trying to increase the use Of cotton
cloth for clothing, is a good one in
Its way, but 1t, too, has sentiment only
for basis, and there is nothing in it
to insure the use Of any fixed amount
of cotton. The manufacturers have
nothing on which to base their calcu-
lations beyond a fad, and there is no
fact, the chances are that, so soon as
the present condition is eased up a
bit, it will have become a worn-out
fad.
Il am not a producer Of cotton,
don't carry any mill stock, don't buy
or sell cotton-but do live in a cot
ton country. The situation got on my
mind, just as it had on the minds Of
pretty much all the other people down
here who have any interest in their
| community, l guess. An almost con-
slant thought on the subject has re-
suited in what l believe is a business
producing, practical plan, like this:
| There is a uniformed conductor
and tiagman on every passenger train
and a uniformed conductor on ne :rly
every freight train run in the States in
the South and Southwest; every street
car operated by electricity in the same
States has on it two uniformed men,
mOtOrman and a conductor; every
police department and every fire de-
partment in the entire southern and
of uniformed men, every steamboat op-