The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-01-01
buse Commissioner
rim Issues Stateme e11t

nave uSNSI UCSA cUlC W oNC, va.
when England and all the other, coun-
tries in Europe declared morftorium
the United States should not have
done the same thing by sUs pending
specie payment. Two hundred mil
lion dollars of gold was exported to
England in August and september.
This was equivalent to sSOdoOo,ooo of
paper money, enough to have bought
the entire cotton crop at 10 cents per
pound. Tie reason assigned for doing
this was that it would protect Amer
lean credit, but it seems to me that
American credit could have been bet
ter guarded by forcing a high price
for our export products than by de-
nuding this country OF gold TO protect
bonds and stocks in the New York
exchange. 1t is far more Mimportant
tl.at our domestic debts, due our own
banks and merchants, be met, than
that bankers and brokers IN New
York should receive all tie aid from
the federal administration to maintain
the price of paper securities.
Wade Plan MisuSed.'
The Wade plan was ''the tub thrown
to the whale" and instead of helping
the producer merely furnisneA fund
for tie cotton spinners to bu at re-
duced prices. l have positive knowl-
edge, that instead of lending this
money to farmers to mold their cotton
for an advance, it is being losned to
the mills to buy at present low values.
The only remedy 1 see is to refuse
30 part with our cotton and enlarge
the powers conferred upon the State
warehouse commissioner utder the
warehouse act SO as to permit the
commissioner to negotiate sales dire
With the foreign spinners. Their re-
serves are exhausted and taey are
obliged to have our cotton.
l have been watching the situation
very closely and 1 am satisfied. that it
is not so much the lack of ships as II
is taking advanta re of the war sltua
ton to diarge enormous freights and
that no concerted effort is being made
on behalf of the producers of cotton
but t1at all the efforts have been i'll
favor of the consumers.
1 see by the market reports that
cotton is bringing 25 cents a pound in
Russia, Germany and other countries
CT Europe They not only have to
have the raw material to keep the
mills going, but also to replen1sl their
reserves. If the farmers will hold
their cotton and reduce their acreage
at least 50 per cent. t>ey will have
time to study the situation and then
the crop of 1915 will reward them for
their prudence and intelligence. The
arm is the primary source of wealth
and We should not only practice diver
sification but, What is more important,
scientific cooperation. Cotton being o.
general utility should be under gov
ernment control for the benefit of pro-
ducer and consumer. Why should a
farmer market his cotton on grade
below middling wien it classes above
middling.
Why should he market seed at 81.
a ton in one town when it is bringing
$27 ton in another place? Why
should congresses, all mills and ware
houses make from 50 to 100 per cent.
on their investments, when the farmer
is not getting enough out of this crop
to pay for the labor? Why is it that
the mass of cotton farmers are i'm
poverished while the middIe people
are enriched?
The new currency law is arranged
or the banks to hep themselves by
cooperative and scientific nelpfulness
and We will never be augnc SaTe
hewers of wood and drawers Of water
until all of the cotton States, through
their legislatures, take control o.
acreage and the handling and mar
keting of the crop.
Sincerely,
IT, NIL