Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1915-01-27
EUROPEAN WAR SHAT
TIERS KING COT1ON's
THRONE
FLEEcY STAPLE MUST PAY RAN
SOM INTO THE GOLFERS OF
WAR.
Nation Rings With Cries of Stricken
Industry.
By Peter Radford

By Peter Radford
Lecturer National Farmers Union.
King Cotton has suffered more from
the European war than any other ag-
ricuitural product on the American
continent. The shells of the belliger-
ents have bursted over his throne,
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 'His 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 100000 900, and a bale
of cotton brave enough to enter a
European port must pay ransom of
half it's 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
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 a situation as ever confronted
the American farmer and from the
viewpoint of the producer, would seem
to Justify extraordinary relief meas
ures, even to the point of bending the
constitution and straining business
rules in order to lift a portion of the
| burden off the backs of the farmer,
| for unless something is done to check
! the invasion of the war forces upon
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, filling the highways of
! industry with refugees and the bank.
ruptcy court with prisoners.
All calamities teach us lessons and
! the present crisis serves to illumina re
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 a volume of discussion and
mass of suggestions and finally a
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 an6
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 it's crop on the market
at harvest time. The Farmers Unions
etc
for the past ten years persistently ad
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 results
would seem encouraging, but lookins
forward, we are able to house less
than one-third of the crop and ware
! houses without credit system lose
W per cent of their usefulness. The
problem is a gigantic one-too grea
, for the farmer to solve unaided He
| must have the assistance of the bank
: er, the merchant and the government
: In production we have reached the
nigh 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 a forked stick but with
2 a system of warehouses under govern
mental supervision that made thu
Egyptians the marvel of civilization
. for who has not admired the vision O
r Joseph and applauded the wisdom, O
\ Pharaoh for storing the surplus unit
S demanded by the consumer, but il
3 this age we have too many Joseph:
who dream and not enough Pharaoh.
Who build.
9 An Obiging Enemy.
;, negro truck driver backed hi: