Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-03-11
EUROPEAN WAR SHAT
TIERS KING COTTOKS
THRONE
FLEEcY STAPLE MUST PAY RAN
SOM INTO THE GOLFERS OF
WAR.
Nation Rings With Cries Of Stricken
Industry.
BY Peter Radford

Lecturer National Farmers Union.
King Cotton has suffered more from
the European war than any other az
r~icultural product on the American
continent. The shells of the belliger-
ents have bursted owe his throne,
frightening his subjects and shatter-
ing his markets, and, panic-stricken,
the nation cries out God save the
king!"
People from every walk Of life have
contributed their mite toward rescue
work. Society has danced before the
king; milady has decreed that the
family wardrobe shall contain only
cotton goods; the press has plead
with the public to buy a bale;
bankers have been formulating hold
ing plans; congress and legislative
bodies have deliberated over relief
measures; statesmen and writers
have grown eloquent expounding the
inalienable rights of His Majesty
and presenting schemes for preserv-
ing the financial integrity of the
stricken staple, but the sword of Eu-
rope has proved mightier than the pen
of America in fixing value upon this
product of the sunny south. Prices
have been bayoneted, values riddled
and markets decimated by the battling
hosts of the eastern hemisphere until
the American farmer has suffered a
war loss of $500, OO0, 900, and a bale
of cotton brave enough to enter a
European port must pay a ransom OF
half it's value or go to prison until the
war Is over.
Hope of the Future Lies In co-opera-
tion.
The Farmers Union, through the
columns Of the press, wants to thank
the American people for the friend
ship, sympathy and assistance given
the cotton farmers in the hour of dis
tress and to direct attention to CO
operative methods necessary to per-
manently assist the marketing of all
farm products.
The present emergency presents as
grave a situation as ever confronted
the American farmer and from the
viewpoint of the producer, would seem
to justify extraordinary relief meas.
ures, even to the point of bending the
constitution and straining business
rules in order to lift a portion of the
burden off the backs of the farmer,
for unless something is done to check
the invasion of the war forces upon
the cotton fields, the pathway of the
European pestilance on this continent
will be strewn with m~ortgaged homes
and famine and poverty will stalk over
the southland, filling the highways OF
industry with refugees and the bank
ruptcy court with prisoners.
All calamities teach us lessons and
the present crisis serves to illuminate
the f~railties of our marketing meth
DDS and the weakness Of our credit
system, and out of the financial an
guish and travail of the cotton farmer
will come a volume of discussion and
a mass Of suggestions and finally a
solution Of this, the biggest problem
in the economic life of America, If
indeed, we have not already laid the
foundation for at least temporary re
lief.
More Pharaohs Needed In Agriculture
Farm products have no credit and
perhaps can never have on a perma
nent and satisfactory basis unless we
build warehouses, cold storage plants
elevators, etc, for without storage ant
credit facilities, the south is com
PEELED to dump its crop on the marke'
at harvest time. The Farmers Union:
in the cotton producing states hav'
for the past ten years persistently ad
vocated the construction of storage
facilities. We have built during thi,
period 1000 warehouses with a ca
pacity of approximately 1000, 900 bale
and looking backward the result
would seem encouraging, but looking
forward, we are able to house les
than one-third of the crop and ware
houses without a credit system los
80 per cent of their usefulness. TIL
problem is a gigantic one-too grea
for the farmer to solve unaided. H
must have the assistance of the bank
or, the merchant and the government
In production we have reached tn
high water mark Of perfection in tn
worlds history, but our marketin
methods are most primitive. In tn
dawn of history we find ~agricultur
blowing with a forked stick but wit
a system Of warehouses under govern
mental supervision that made tn
Egyptians the marvel of civilization
FOR who has not admired the vision q
Joseph and a%pplauded the wisdom c
Pharaoh for storing the surplus unit
demanded by the consumer, but |
this age we have too many Joseph
who dream and not enough Pharaoh
who build.