The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1915-09-16
likely bring II or Is cents.

An able and eminent committee
on arbitration ought to be named at
once by England and America, to
make a fair and just estimate of the
damage in price per pound resulting
from the "orders in council and
contraband order, and England
should then be required to pay this
amount per pound as bonus to ev-
cry American cotton producer this
fall.
| confidently believe that if Eng
land should change her contraband
rules so as to inf1ict corresponding
injury upon any strong American
manufacturing interest, some such
settlement would be required; and
Southern farmers should rise up and
demand that the same recognition
be given an agricultural industry as
would be given a manufacturing in
dustry.
The practical lesson clearly taught
by present conditions then is
VI.--Farmers Should Hold for Twelve
Cents and Bankers Should
Help Them Hold.
Of course we must be reasonable.
Don't expect bankers to lend on cot
ton not stored or insured, nor ex-
pect them to lend the full market
value. Land-owning farmers of good
character who have been depositors
in banks, however, will frequently
be able to borrow without such re-
strictions.
The thing to do is for farmers in
every neighborhood to organize, for
mally or Informally, for standing to-
gether in holding and marketing the
crop, and find out just what the local
banks will do. Last year it was re-
peatedly stated by the minority of
bankers who were willing to lend
money on cotton, that few farmers
applied for such loans. Let not that
be said this year. We must keep the
crop from being rushed to market at
present prices, and that means that
farmers must avail themselves of all
the cooperation afforded by banks
for many owners must have advances
in order to meet pressing obliga-
tions. And let every farmer remem-
Der this: 1t hurts prices just as
much for your neighbor's crop to be
rushed to market as for your own
crop to be. Consequently we should
have neighborhood action every
where, with the stronger farmers
and plantation owners Joining to
help the weaker ones to hold, grade,
warehouse and sell together.
Only by the most thoroughgoing
cooperation of all forces can we save
to the South the full quarter of a
billion dollars of hard-earned wealth
that will otherwise go into the hands
of spectators and foreign interests.
Nor must we fail to realize that the
worst and most dangerous "bear" Of
all, the man we have most to dread
right now, is not. the Wall street
speculator-devil who has been so Of
ten cursed and denounced, but the
bear" farmer right here in the
South who is willing to prove traitor
to the cause by offering to give away
the crop at present prices .-or the
bear merchant or bear banker
who forces him to sell. Yesterday
mornings report of the New York
cotton exchange, for example, an.
nounced that prices would have gone
higher the day before but for the
fact that -,
"Some of the reports received
from Georgia and Alabama predict
ed that farmers would sell freely at
eight cents
And again in the earlier reports
of the New York cotton exchange
just two days ago we also read that
prices would have gone higher but
"there was more Southern selling" "
Four Final Suggestions.
Let me conclude this argument for
twelve-cent prices with four specific
suggestions:
1. Let press and people spread
the news that the crop is really
hort-certainly 100000 and pos
sibly 100000 bales short of the
worlds needs.
2. Hold for twelve cents without
borrowing if you can. But remem-
Der lit is committing business sui
eide" to refuse to borrow if you can
thereby hold your crop.
3. Not only should cotton bring
twelve cents but cottonseed prices
should break all records. Our ex-
port trade in cottonseed oil has
;,,,oDod ouor SiYtv nor cent in one