Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-08-13

John L. McLaurin, state warehouse
| commissioner, comes forward with a
proposition that the government
should purchase 1000, 600 bales OF
low grade cotton for the manufacture
Of explosives. He says this would sta
Billie the market and provide higher
prices for the remainder of the crop.
Mr.. McLaurin is a man Of intelligence,
and he knows better than to be ad-
vancing such a proposition as that. II
the government needs cotton for the
manufacture of explosives it will buy
it, but MI. McLaurin knows that the
government should not buy cotton
simply for the purpose of raising the
price Of the staple. He knows, more
over, that for the government to do
this would be the greatest mistake
possible. If the government should
buy 1000, 900 bales of cotton this year
in order to raise the price, there would
be a demand for the government to
buy 1000, 900 bales next year for the
same purpose, and so on forever, UNI
til the government would go broke.
And when Mr.. McLaurin advances a
| proposition Of this kind he tempts
those who know his intelligence to
question his sincerity. He knows that
his scheme would not work, and his
advocacy Of it will make many peo-
pie think that he thinks the people at
large are fools and easily gulled.
The Federal government is doing all
hat the government can do, and all
that it ought to do, to protect the cot
| ton farmers of the south. 1t has pro-
| vided an adequate and elastic curren-
cy system, under which cotton stored
in safe warehouses will be accepted
as collateral by national banks. 1t
| has refused to follow the demands Of
| unthinking people and force England
to declare cotton contraband of war
and prevent its shipment to neutral
countries, thus narrowing the market
| and lowering the price for the benefit
Of manufacturers in England and at
home. The Federal government, un-
der the Wilson administration, has
not Disseminated against the cotton
| farmers of the south. 1t has opened
| banking facilities for them, and it has
not closed the markets OF the world
for them. 1t has given them the
| same facilities for trade and business
] hat other people have. To attempt
4 to do more, to attempt to carry out
| Mr.. McIaurin's scheme, would be to
| do the farmers the greatest possible
| injury, for they would be the first to
| suffer from the collapse which would
\ surely follow. Mr.. McLaurin has been
/ entrusted with the management of the
| state warehouse system, which is a
-, business proposition and should be
| handled in a business-like manner.
| For this reason it is particularly de-
| plorable to see him espousing a clap
trap political idea which has absurdity
written in large letters all over it
| Anderson Daily Mail.
AS much as we would like to agree
with our good friend, the Daily Mail.
in this matter, we find ourselves I'M
able to do so.
The reasoning Of the Mail is sound
| enough in every particular except
that it evidently loses sight of the fact
that there is a world war in progress,
and that although this country is not
actually 1T war, it is feeling the effect
Of the extraordinary decentralization
in a way that seems to justify %extraor-
| binary methods of meeting the same.
At the breaking out of the war, 1t
| will be remembered that the British
bankers and merchants found them
| selves holding the bag to the extent