The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1915-09-17

en- manufacturing industry.
vi. Farmers Should Hold for Twelve
Cents and Bankers Should Help
Them Hold.
Of course we must be reasonable.
Don't expect bankers to lend on cot
ton no tstored or insured, nor expect
them to lend the full market value.
Land-owning farmers of good char
acter who have been depositors i'm
banks, however, will frequently be
able to borrow without such restric-
tions.
The thing to do is for farmers in
every neighborhood to organize form
ally or informally, for standing to-
gether in holding and marketing the
crop, and find out just what the local
banks Will do. Last year it was re-
peatedly stated by the minority of
bankers who were willing to lend
money on cotton, that few farmers
applied fer such loans. Let. not that
be said this year. We must keep the
crop from being rushed to market at
present prices, and that means that
farmers must avail themselves of all
the cooperation afforded by banks
for many owners must have advances
In order to meet pressing obligations.
And let every farmer remember this:
1t hurts prices just as much for your
neighbor's crop to be rushed to mar
ket as for your own crop to be- Con-
sequently we should have neighbor-
hood action everywhere, with the
stronger farmers and plantation
owners joining to help the weaker
ones to hold, grade, warehouse and
sell together.
Only by the most thoroughgoing
cooperation of all forces can we save
to the South the full quarter of bill
lion dollars of hard-earned wealth
that will otherwise go into the hands
OF spectators and foreign interests.
Nor must we fail to realize that the
worst and most dangerous "bear" of
all, the man we have the most to
dread right now, is not the Wall
street speculator-devil who have been
so often cursed and denounced, but
the bear" farmer right here in the
South who is willing to prove traitor
to the cause by Offering to give away
the crop at present prices-or the
who forces him to sell. Yesterday
mornings report of the New York
cotton exchange, for example, an
nounced that prices would have gone
higher the day before but for the fact
that
Some of the reports received from
Georgia and Alabama predicted that
farmers would sell freely at eight
cents"
And again in the earlier reports of
the New York cotton exchange Just
two days ago we also read that prices
would have gone higher but "there
was more Southern selling"
Four Final Suggestions.
Let me conclude this argument for
12-cent prices with four specific sug-
geBions:
1. Let press and people spread the
news that the crop is really short
certainly 100000 and possible s.
100000 bales short of the worlds
needs.
2. Hold for IL cents without bor-
rowing if you can. But remember
fit is committing business suicide
to refuse to borrow if. you can there
by hold your crop.
8. Not only should cotton bring IL
cents, but cotton seed prices should
break all records. Our export trade
in cotton seed oil has jumped over 60
per cent in one year-from 192,0OO,-
600 to 318,000,000 pounds. And if
good prices were paid for seed a
100000 crop, what sort of prices
should we not demand for seed from
crop of only 10,000,O00 or 12,0OO,-
600 bales?
4. With $5OO,OOo,OOO for her new
cotton crop, the South will. barely
"pay out" With $75O,OOO,O0O the
whole section will have jubilant and
abounding prosperity. Bankers, mer-
chants and all classes, therefore,
should join our farmers in the fight
for 12-cent prices now and for State
warehouse system in every State to
help insure fair prices in future
years.