Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-09-07
COTTON IS AGAIN king
Senator MCLaufln Makes Eloquent
Speech at Spartanburg.
APosTROPHE TO CROP OF SOUTH

McLaurin, state warehouse commits
sioner, read the htter Of President
Wilson and the statements Of Secre-
tary McAdoo and Mr.. Harding in re-
ference to the lending of money on
cotton, and strongly commended the
action Of President Wilson in saying
that the banks could afford to lend
money at six per cent to the farmer.
and that the farmer should feel free
to exact from the banks what the
farmer has right to expect"
Senator McLaurin continued his ad-
dress by saying that President Wilson
had said in effect, as matter OF
right, that money should be issued not
against gold, which is a mere measure
Of value, but against the products OF
the country-the things that feed and
clothe mankind; it should be issued as
nearly direct to the people as possible;
the money of this country belongs to
the people Of this country; 1t Is made
by their agent, the government, whose
fiat imparts the legal tender duality
without which it is not money. The
true function Of money Is as measure
Of value in exchanging the fruits OF
labor, and when its subtle power Is
used to oppress and extort, it Is no
longer blessing, but cursesto peo-
pie.
The wealth Of any nation does not
consist of it's gold, its stocks and its
bonds; real wealth Is the products Of
labor applied to the soil, mine and
factory The business Of this great
world Is done on credits based upon
product, not gold. Credit is the real
money, and ninety per cent Of the busi-
ness Of the world Is done on credit,
which carries on commerce and main
tains civilization.
There Is no more important or high
er calling in our industrial life than
that Of the banker. The true banker
recognizes it as a. high duty to con-
serve the credit Of his community for
the good Of all. He is merely chan
mel Of distribution for money and
credit, and interest rates are the car
rying charges, just like freight to the
railroad or tolls to the telegraph and
telephone companies. When a bank
exceeds a fair profit as a carrying
charge it Is no longer a bank. That is
usury. Charging twenty per cent in
terest on loans Of from fifty to two
hundred dollars Of which there Is too
much in South Carolina is not the
business of a bank; that is for the
pawn broker, who must have three
brass balls in front Of his place of
business. so he who enters may know
what to expect.
| A sum in excess Of a fair carrying
charge for the extension Of credits
which come from the government Is
not interest; it is declared by the laws
Of God and man to be usury, and the
only being upon whom the gentle
Jesus ever laid his hand in anger was
the usurer whom he scourged with
stripes from the Temple Of the Lord.
There is a great opportunity now for
the country banks, which are generally
the main-stay Of their communities,
and whose officials are usually farmers
as we'll as bankers. The state receipt
puts them on an equal footing with
| the metropolitan banks. l am conf
dent that they will make a proper re-
sponse to the request Of President
/ hof oriu
money at four per cent, they will be
perfectly willing to let the farmers
have it at six per cent.
When war was threatened between
the states in 1860, one Of our statesmen
startled the world by the declaration
that there could be no war, because
cotton was king" He was only fifty
years ahead Of his time. Today man
kind is under the complete domination
Of cotton. There could be no modern
war without cotton. No nation can
maintain a civilization without cotton.
| The war last year overturned prices
ducers, and yet without cotton there
could have been no war. Liege could
not have been demolished, Louvaine
destroyed, Antwerp captured and Bel
gium devastated, without cotton. The
Allies could not have protected Paris
from seizure; England would have
been invaded; democracy would have
been overthrown, and militarism would
have triumphed, without cotton. The
great battleship. Queen Elizabeth, Is
a floating cotton product, from the uni
forms Of her marines to the terrible
shells for her sixteen-inch guns. The
Germans great seige guns. each
throwing one thousand pounds Of
deadly explosive into Antwerp, the
second largest import city Of the
world, burned up a bale Of cotton at
every shot. The soldiers in the trench
es have thrown away wool, and fight
their battles clad in the product Of our
fields The tents that shelter them are
cotton; antiseptic cotton soothes their
wounds, bandages their shattered
limbs, and shrouds them in the burial
trenches.
In peace, from the socks on our feet
to the hats on our heads, from under
shirt to overcoat, 1t is all cotton. 1t
has supplanted wool and silk as a
clothing for mankind. because at
twenty-five cents a pound it is the
cheapest clothing known. When Peary
stood beneath the northern lights, and
the eyes of man gazed for the first
time on the axis whereon turns the
world his fur clothes for warmth were
lined with cotton. When Teddy Roose-
welt, in the heat Of tropical journey,
first spied that unknown River of
Doubt he wore cotton, because it
was cooler. Automobiles consume a
million bales for tires; electric plants
use it for insulation; and every day
there is a new use found for the pro-
duct of our fields. For thirty years
1t has been the corner stone Of inter-
national finance. The balance of trade
ia due to the tide of gold which yearly