The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1915-04-02

has been a help to the people, nobody
is more thankful for it than I ain,
you seem to assume that l want to
put up the price, and you seem to
think this is all the bill is for. YOU
never was wider of the truth in either
case. But if it takes the same con-
ditions another year to get cheap ap-
Piles, potatoes and cabbage, / believe
when you really begin to think, Mr..
Orr, that you and every other man
in Union county, who with or without
reason, with or without any knowl-
edge of the bill as most of them who
have condemned it and it's author
are, you will join me in praying a
merciful God that those conditions
shall never prevail again.
You ask, "did you ever see these
things so cheap" No, and l never
saw cotton drop from 13 or ID cents
per pound to 6 and cents in two or
three weeks before, did you? I
never saw every industry in the
country tremble and totter on its
foundations as it has in the past fall
and winter, did you? l never saw
men with wives and children depen-
dent on them for living laid off by
the hundreds before, did you? 1
never saw two sets of hands eager
| and waiting for every job in our
mills, and those without jobs anxious
for those with jobs to go out
for the day, that the one who did not
have job might get days work
before, did you? l never saw cotton
drop from $40 to $50 dollars per
bale down to $50 to $40 dollars per
| bale in few days before, did you?
L never saw prosperous farming
producing people lose over four hun
dred millions of dollars on one crop
of cotton and that after it was made
before, did you? God forbid that any
man, woman or child now living
should ever see it again, and vet
friend Orr, the very thing that made
cotton cheap, the very thing that
caused panic, suffering and despera-
lion to every industry OF the South,
is the thing that made cheap apples
and cabbage and potatoes, and not a
| license or lack of license, as YOU
seem to reason. If the same condi-
tion prevails year from now, they
will be cheaper than ever and the
dealers, peddlers and venders, who
have heretofore enjoyed the special
privilege of doing free in Union coun-
ty, at the expense of the farmers
merchants of Union county, will be
glad to pay the license and sell them
cheaper than ever before my friend
DO you want cheap stuff at the price?
mat is your argument. The biggest
crop of cotton the world ever pro,
duced, with all export shipments cut
off for a time is what cost the South
hundreds of millions of dollars, and
reduced cotton from $40 to $35 dol
lars per bale, is what ruined and i'm
poverlshed hundreds and thousands of
our best people. The biggest crop of
apples and produce the country has
ever made, with all export trade cut
off and with this stuff rotting on the
hands of the producers is what has
| cost the producers of cabbage, ap-
Piles and potatoes millions of dollars,
and given you the cheapest produce
you ever had; a worldwide horror
| and debauchery of war, such as has
not been from the foundation of the
world, is what has impoverished hun
dreds and thousands of the producers
of the cheap cabbage and potatoes
you have been eating-my friend are
you willing to pay $35 to $40 dol
lars per bale reduction on cotton,
to have cheap produce? l know you
and the other democrats of Union
county are too fair to refuse to rec
ogniZe the truth when it is presented
and | know you neither can nor will
deny the truth of the figures, which
are based on government authority.
and you could not, if you would, deny
the actual facts that you have felt
here at home.
You say again, "that you believe
that ~ per cent of the people would
vote to take off the license, grant
that 1T is true, it is also true that
that same 80 per cent would vote to
take off all other taxes that they
now pay, until they saw the govern
ment turning to anarchy, the school
houses closing, and the wreck ano
ruin that would follow any system of
government without taxes to run it.,
until they needed the protection that
could no longer be had, because there
was no tax to provide for it.
I'll go further, friend Orr, and you
Will not deny it, following your same
line of argument, 90 per cent of the
people who have to have cotton and
| clothes made from it to wear and
who do not produce any for sale,
would vote today to make you take
cents or less if they had the chance
Tor all the balance of the cotton you
and the other farmers of Union coun
ty will ever produce, but that would
not make it right would it? And 90
per cent of the people who make cot
ton would vote to never sell another
pound for less than 20 cents per
pound if it would do any good, would
they not? Even if hundreds had to
go naked as consequence. So, |
think you will have to admit that