The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-03-10
Speech Of Warehouse Commissioner
John |. MCLaurin,
To The Farmers at Sumter Last Friday.

Southern States. The great 1inan-
ciers of this country understand this
thoroughly, and the cotton crop Of
the South has been used by them for
the past thirty years to hold the
balance of trade in favor OF the
United States.
The business of this world-ninety
per cent. of its done on credit, and
where not on credit per Sc, by the use
of paper money redeemable in gold.
New York, which is the financial
centre of this country, furnishes the
South the credits upon which to pro-
duce the cotton crop. Then, in the
fall, instead of selling our cotton
crop for credit money Of the same
character that was used IN its pro-
duction, the two-thirds OF the crop
which is exported is sold 5or gold.
This gold is controlled in New York,
and as the amount of gold in the
world is limited, it keeps the float
ing gold used by the nations in set
ling their trade balances, under the
control of the New York banks. 1t
is not that these people are the enc
mics of the South, or that they wout,
not like to see US prosper, but TO-.
their own self interest, and to main
tain the supremacy which they have
acquired through the sale of our
cotton, they must control that gold.
1t is for this reason that anything
like a holding movement is bitterly
fought by the New York banks, and
all OF the banks and financial inter
ests in the South who are dependent
upon New York.
It goes without saying that if the
farmers of the South place them
selves in a position where they can
hold their cotton, and only market it
when it shows fair profit, that
they can always get whatever price
they choose to ask for it. If any fact
was needed to show the enormous
power that the cotton crop OF the
South holds in the financial world,
we have Just seen it. When wal
was declared last August, if it, had
not been for the efforts of such men
as Mr.. Dabbs, Mr.. Barrett, DR.. Stack
house, Walter Clark, of Mississippi,
and others, cotton would never have
recovered-and gone back up tc
eight cents a pound. AS 1t is, the
farmers Of the South have had at
least $4O0,O00,00O taken from their
pockets. The men who have held
their cotton, and resisted every
pressure and influence to sell it, are
the patriots who have made market
and enabled others to sell at eight
cents a pound. If, last August, we
had been able to put away and abso-
lutely retire 100000 bales of cot
ton, and the consuming world had
realized that fact, the other 10000
200 bales would have brought more
money than the entire crop of 49,
100000. And yet, from the rate at
which cotton is being consumed, /;
looks as if there would be a market
for every bale of cotton in the South
The cotton which was forced out OF
the farmers hands in November and
December, at from five to six ano
one-half cents, has been exported
and is bringing from twelve cents in
England to thirty cents pound in
Russia.
/ nave contended all the time thai
here was, Immediately after tie de-
claration of war, a conspiracy in this
country and abroad to stampede the
farmers and make them sell their
lotion at whatever it would bring
rha treasury department of the Unit
ed States shows, as a matter Of fact
that more cotton was exported IN
January and February than for the
same months last year. Instead OF
decreasing the consumption Of cot,
Ton, war seems to have found new
uses for it. The uniforms worn by
all the armies in the world now, in.
stead of as in former days being
composed of wool, are made from
cotton. A soldier in the field only
wears a uniform about thirty days
and then it is thrown away and re-
placed by new one. Cotton is alb
solutely essential to the manufacture
Of explosives. Every pound of pow
der means the consumption of a
pound of cotton. One of the German
42-centimetre guns consumes SOC
pounds of cotton every time it is
ired. The smaller guns, such as
the 14-inch guns, consume about
three hundred pounds Of cotton
every time one of them is fired; one
of the large battleships burns uE
ten bales of cotton every minute its
batteries are in action. That is what
is going with the low-grade cotton
as for linters, you don't see any OF
them in this country, and it. would
be a very interesting thing to know
what these linters have been sold
for since this war began, because the
linters. being of shorter fibre, are
better adapted to making of ex.
plosives. So it seems that, after
all, if the channels of the sea were
opened, that there is a market fol
even this large crop.
1t is not a question Of there being
demand for our cotton, but OF 9th
er people, who have nothing to dc
with the making of the cotton, reap
ing all the profits. Every bale OF
cotton has, standing between it and
the mill in England or Germany
from six to eight middle-men, who
must have a profit out of it, and that
leaves nothing but a loss for the
man who made the cotton. What
the farmers of the South must do,
and what they are going to do, once
they understand the situation, is not
only to have State Warehouses, but
to sell the cotton from the State
Warehouse direct to the mill that is
going to manufacture it. Of course
those who are proftinG, and divid-
ing between them more money than
the farmer gets for the actual cot
ton itself, object to change of this
kind, and will resist it to the death =.
v e are not trying to rob them, but
we are trying to keep them from, TAX
ing from US that to which they are
not entitled.
1t is a manifest impossibiiity to
market 12-months supply Of cotton
in three months, and as the debt
contracted for the making Of that
cotton comes due in the. fall, we
must place ourselves in position
where we can get the money to pay
our debts and hold the cotton. The
first step in that direction, my