Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-07-27
SOUTH HOLDS THE Bag
Effect Of. the War on the Cotton
Planter.
TO ORANGEBURG FARMERS
Warehouse Commissioner Discusses the
Situation as il Has Developed Up
to this time and Analyses the Proba-
biIities of tho Immediate Future.


to this time and Analyses the Proba
biIities of tho Immediate Future.
Orangeburg, July "a: The court
house was filled to it's capacity thi!
morning when farmers from all sec
tions Of this county met to consider the
. present cotton situation, at the invita-
ton of the Orangeburg county Farm
ers' Union. Hon. E. w. Dabbs, presi-
dent Of the state Farmers Union, ad.
dressed the gathering in very inter
esting and instructive manner, as die
Hon. j. A. Banks, state senator from
Calhoun. Hon. John L. McLaurin, state
warehouse commissioner, delivered the
principal address Of the day, setting
forth the importance of we'll estab-
lished warehouse system, and giving
much information on the general cot
ton situation and outlook. Two i'm
portant resolutions were unanimously
adopted. One endorsed the state ware
house system, with J. l.. McLaurin as
commissioner, and the other endorsed
the movement on foot to secure the
appointment Of expert cotton graders,
such graders to pass an examination In
grading by the United States govern
ment rules. Mr.. McLaurin's address in
part, was as follows:
1T is remarkable how little the
wisest men comprehended the far
reaching effect of this worldwide
war. The first impression that we had
in this country was that our export
trade would be absolutely destroyed
and all business practically at stand
still until the end of the war. We had
estimates from the greatest cotton ex-
perts giving figures to show that the
consumption of American cotton
would be less than ten million bales.
No one realized the new uses which
the war would create for the con-
sumption Of cotton. 1t is estimated
that three million bales Of cotton have
been consumed in the manufacture of
explosives. This seems to me an ex-
travagant statement but II you include
tents, uniforms, gun cotton, ETC., 1t
probably falls short of the figures.
According to an estimate that I have
recently seen, there are now about
100000 men under arms, not count
ing the armies of the neutral powers,
which are at the maximum in order to
protect their neutral rights. The
withdrawal of this vast number from
the productive walks of life has de-
creased the output of foreign factories
and created an enormous and con-
stantly increasing demand for Ameri-
can goods Of every kind.
1T is perfectly apparent now that
the United States could speedily have
ended the war last October by an en-
barge on the shipment Of food and
munitions This would have meant
the speedy triumph Of Germany, for,
strange as 1t may seem, she was the
only country prepared for war.
| "At the present rate, the trade bal
ance in favor Of the United States
will amount to one and q half billion
dollars, more than double. the highest
point which 1t has ever reached be-
fore. 1t is the generally accepted
idea that this large trade balance Is
due to the munitions Of war, but the
| department Of commerce in it's figures
shows that this Is not the case, as
foodstuffs occupy the most prominent
figure in it. Unless the United States
is drawn into the war with an ex-
. haustive. expenditure Of men and
! money. she will be richer at the end
| Of another year than all the nations
now at war combined. This enormous
trade balance constitutes a debt that
Europe must pay America either in
gold or products Of some kind. Some
of it has been met by sale at a low
price Of securities in American cor
porations. This money has gone to
| enrich Boston and New York. The
iron and steel industries Of Pittsburgh
and the west are reaping fabulous
profits. The western farmer Is grow
ing rich from stock and grain. Here
| in the south our people, who grow the
| greatest money crop in the world,
have had 1t forced out Of their hands,
and a few middlemen have pocketed
something like four hundred million
dollars out of the cotton crop Of the
south.
I'VE are confronted by an almost
complete embargo on the shipments
| of cotton. Is the south again to be
the only sufferer? The sinking of
the Lusitania shocked the nation to
| its depths; but, after all, the loss Of
120 human lives pales into insignifi-
canoe when compared to the freedom
of the seas for which our ancestors
shed oceans of blood and expended
millions Of treasure.
II have great confidence in the sa-
Il
| Wilson, and I fully realize the tre-
mendous problem which he has been
| facing for the past year in maintain
ing the neutrality of the United States
with the whole world at war. 1t was
as impossible for him as any for any
one else to have foreseen the great
| demand made upon the United States
for food and ammunition, and how
impossible it was for England to have
antagonized the United States and
conducted this war as successfully as
she has. So far as I am concerned,
my sympathies are with neither side
and with both. I regret impartially
| the bloodshed, carnage and ruin which
has visited all of these nations; but
I am for America, first, and for the
southern end of America primarily. l
do not believe that England has a
right to declare the whole North sea
closed to our trade, and run the ex-
ports to Germany down from four
| hundred millions to about fifty mill
lions, largely at the expense Of the
south, while our sales to France and
to England have run up from six hur-
dred millions to about one and quar-
ter billion dollars. Much Of this was
cotton forced out of the hands Of the
producer at from five to seven cents
|
to the sequestration Of another cotton
crop by similar methods I believe
that if, when England issued this or
der, the United States navy had been
assembled and a fleet of ships bearing
American cotton started to Rotter-
dam, that not an English gun would
ever have been fired, and the freedom
of the high seas been assured to every
neutral nation. There would have
been no sinking of the Lusitania by a
submarine warfare that has shocked
the civilized world. While England
was securing from the United States
guns, powder, and other contraband
Of war. she denied to us the right of
shipping food, cotton and other non
contraband to any Of the countries
with whom she was at war. 1t is well
for the people of the United States to
get these facts clearly and firmly in
their minds in order to draw correct
conclusions. Most of us in the south
! are Of Scotch and English descent;
we speak the English language, and
the heritage Of race inclines us to side
with England in a contest against any
other nation. But never before in the
history of the world has any nation