Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1915-07-11
THE SOUTH AND IT'S PART !.
IN GREAT WAR IN EUROPE
hehectionS as to Why Cotton Grow
ers Suffered Last Year and
How They May Again.
WAR AND BUSINESS CONSIDERED
story Worth Reading. but No
reader Is Required to Take Sides
hither WaS-War Talk and Bust.
ness Talk Taken Together.


year misled the South and bo,r.d 20
make ii appear before the world as
peESar section. in their wild scram-
'ie 10 secure public favor by holding
wy 'his region as so stepped in nov
ertN and so lacking in backbone as IN
-. "osoiuteiE helpless and hopeless un-
the nation or the business people
; OF other sections in charity c,n,e ~
Us rescue, are again much in evil
: dence" '
win the above as an introductory
paiaSraph: the Manufacturers Record
| reads a timely lecture to the bcon,o
OF the South and. as for that matter
me people of the whole. country.
continuing. the Record saws:
NcNer was section more seriously
injured by false work of politicians
; seeking only their own advancement
or else without recognition of the
injury they were doing TO the South
, or indifferent to that injury provided
! theE could win public applause, than
was the South by the work of poll
t,cians III the campaign last fall in
me puS.a bale" movement. and in
similar efforts TO pose the South be-
,ore the nation as hopelessly bankrupt
I pE reason OF its Inability to market
AT proht cotton crop which had
. loiiowed five or six large cotton crops
Sold at splendid prices. Unfortunate
ceivinS the inevitable effect OF such a
I taise position. Joined in this campaign
win more energy than Judgment.
When backbone WINS Needed.
NO one more fully recognized the
disadvantages under which the South
Iah"red In this situation than the Man
ufacturers' Record but never WAS
there time in the economic. histor,
OF country when strength of char
acter. backbone. self-relance and
initiative were more needed than at
that time. Unfortunately we dis
played almost none of these things.
The South is still paving the fearful
penalty necessarily imposed upon it by
the politicians and by well-meaning
people who did not lock far enough
ahead to see the effect of their work.
We are again approa ching a time
when. unless the leaders in the South
come to the front vigorously, this sec
ton may again be cursed by another
campaign equally as disastrous and
equally as unjustfied. Every cotton
grower and every merchant. banker or
landowner who has encouraged the
planting of this years crop by adj
vances. unless the grower bound him
self 10 raise his own grain and meat.
has deliberately said TO the public that
he was individually able to look after
his own financial operations without
regard TO what others might say. or to
economic conditions: or else he was
willing 10 gamble on the chance OF the
war being over before tho crop ma
tured. and was. therefore, taking IL
gamblers chance. In neither case has
he amy right to appeal to public sem
timent for help at the present time. 1t
is difficult to see how any man of
even ordinary intelligence could have
expected the war 10 be over in a
year.
LESSONS or LAST YEAR
ARE BEFORE Us
Last year ii was known that the
South had raised its largest crop Of
cotton. and that necessarily a very
considerable proportion Of il must in
cNijably lie carried over into the prcs
CT, season. 1t was known that tho
W"rldS demand for foodstuffs would
ne eXorbitant, and that the VOLTS
demand for cotton would necessarily
be- limited Therefore. only hopeless
l=rorancc or an entire willingness TO
take Il gamblers chance justified an"
advances against the present crop un-
less the grower would produce his
o.rn foodstuffs and cut his cotton
acreage proportionately. As matter
Of ,act the acreage in foodstuhs has
been somewhat increased. and III" cot
ton screaGe has been somewhat de-
,...tsed. but irif,ingly small a. con-
pared with what ought to have been
its decrease. Instead Of 3l.000.01o
.,.res this year devoted TO cotton. 20 (
o." rrr ought to have been The out
side cure. Having made tn. ono
u,i hlunder, the South must fac the
situation calmly, courageouslE and with
determination to avoid such wholly
unnecessary panicky conditions AS IL
permitted TO develop last year in the
pirkius and marketing OF its crop. II
it can rid itself Of the work cf INC
political schcmers who try 10 .'Iise
false issues. and IL its business people
and it's newspapers viii meet the situa
tinn squarely and fairly. thee need
he no serious disturbance even :iuui;h
the south may not he able 20 mnriIe
tic Stock carried over and the new
crop promptly and at profitable iic:nres.
A>DTHER FOOL MOVEMENT
TO BE NIPPED IN THE: BIDi
Ia this CONNECTION. a movemcn: az
unwise a. that which created the
movement buy Il bale AT :=n cents"
ana which p!aCardcd the whole roun-
tiy ith appeals to "Help the south"
Is being stirred UP is some Of the same
politicians VINO last year uislcd the
!-nuta - To th. handling Of rs cotton