The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-03-09

E-S6pCI AGLSS vi SUI use 4O4 AoA %
He then explained the method of op-
Grating the State warehouse system
and advised the farmers to build
warehouses and put them under the
State system and keep their cotton at
tome until the prices suited them.
He said that the warehouse was q
mere incident and part o.; a general
plan for financial relief to the farmers,
and explained the method by which
] the farmers were forced to sell their
cotton during t.e fall months, to be
bought up and held by others for the
advance that always occurred in the
spring and summer. ''It goes with
out saying" he said, that if the farm
ers of tie South place themselves i'll .
position where they can hold their
cotton, shat they can get any price
| they choose to demand If last August
We had absolutely retired 6,0Q0,u0G
bales Of cotton, the otter 100000
| would have sold .or more than the 49,,
100000. Twelve million bales of our
crop have been sold at not mucn over
six cents pound to the farmers. Five
and a half million bales have been ex-
ported to Europe, some Of it bringing
as high as 25 cents pound The spec
ulators and middle-men have made
more money out of the placing Of these
twelve million bales of cotton than
the farmers of the Soud3r received or
it's production. 1 believe that, from
the beginning, there has been a con-
spiracy to stampede the farmers and
make them sell their cotton for what
ever it would bring. We were told
Lat there would be no export demand,
and yet the figures show that during
tie month of February more cotton
was exported than in any month of
last year, and that the total exports
at present are only little over a
million bales behind w1-at they were
in 1913" He said that the war had
created new uses for cotton, especially
for tire lower grades, that were used
in the manufacture OF explosives. II
addition to this, he said, the, .soldia-
in tie field wore uniform n!sz~o rom
cotton, and when it got dirty it Was
thrown away and replaced with an
other one. Cotton is absolutely es-
sential to the manufacture Of eXplos-
ives lie said Roughly speaking, a
pound of powder means one pound o.
cotton One of the forty-two cent?
metre guns used by Germany consumes
bale Of cotton every time it is fred,
and a f1rst-class battle ship in action
consumes ten to twelve bales Of cot
:cn every minute. That is what they
need the low-grade cotton for, and
have no doubt that some of this low
grade cotton, for which we are get-
ting !.our and one-half cents, has been
sold in Germany at the highest prices. ,
Senator McLaurin said that the first
step toward financial freedom was to
produce our food supply at home, and
use more homemade fertilizer las
long as we depend entirely upon COM
mercial fertilizer he said, @'and naGe
our corn crib and smoke house in the
West, our debts will continue to be so
great that we must sacrifice tie cotton
in order to meet the debts There is
no system Of State warehousing,
finance or anything else that will re-
lieve us from sucn purblind folly"
'<Tte way we are fixed now, he said,
| "the bankers and money lenders have
| a rope around our Recks, and they can
choke US to death any time they choose
to pull it."
He explained the methods of lis
counting paper secured by State ware
house receipts, under tie national cur
rency act, and said that the paper
could not be presented except hrougn
member bank. He stressed the poin.
that the credits of the country were
created By the farmers, and then
turned over to tie banks, who charged
the farmers interest on their own cred
its. To get the full advantage OF tne
currency system, ne said, there Should
be farmers bank in Columbia, which
could easily be established by raising
the capital stock in the various coun-
ties Of the State, and then every farmer
should deposit tie proceeds from the
sale of mis- cotton in this farmers bank
Then branch banks, he said, would
naturally be established in thervarious