The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1915-03-10

situation; you would be in a posi-
ton then to put your cotton into a
warehouse and to hold it, and if you
got Is cents a pound for it, instead
of 1-2 cents, wouldn't it turn you
out just the same amount of money
land it would be your money!
as the 100 bales would at 7 1-2
cents? In addition to that, if every
farmer in the South was pursuing
that plan, and they were offering Is
cents for cotton, you could take your
State Warehouse receipt and borrow
Il cents a pound on it, and hold it
just as long as you pleased. With
the present price of food, clothing,
and everything else, middling cotton
in the South, under a condition OF
affairs like that, would be more
eagerly sought at 20 cents pound
than it is to-day at cents pound.
The way that you are fixed now, you
have got a rope around your neck
and the bankers and the moneyed
men have got hold of the other end
of the rope, and they can
choke you to death at any
time they choose to pull it. No man
who is loaded up with debt is free
man. He who controls your means
of substance, controls you. We
are the slaves of our creditors, dis
guise it as you will. Now, there is
one thing that is plainly apparent.
| This year will show more food-stufi
raised than ever before in the his
tory of the State. There is not
enough wheat planted to make al.
| the flour that will De needed fol-
South Carolina, but there is an enor.
| nous crop of oats, and we have the
chance yet to supplement the wheat
/ crop with corn, and plenty Of corr
means plenty Of meat and lard.
am glad that even the farmers Of
Marlboro County are going to show
more good judgment in the use OF
| fertilizers than they have ever be-
| fore. I have seen more compost
| piles than since ! was a boy, and i
the price of cotton stays down-anc
sometimes I hope it will even gc
lower until after the June acreage
report-our people next fall will be
in a position to warehouse their cot
ton and demand price for it. i
has been a very difficult thing to hole
cotton with the market price Of i
running from 6 to Z IL cents, be
| cause the borrowing power
of a bale of cotton depends upon it:
market price. But if you ever ge
cotton up to ten or twelve. cents {
pound, and can then borrow within
two cents a pound of the marke
price, you can get fifteen to twenty
cents a pound for the crop-and i
is going to take big prices to tide
US over the losses of 1914.
There is another thing: Undel
the old national banking system al
the reserve money Of this countr!
was concentrated in New York City
and the local banks all had to go tt
, New York to borrow their money
and they could not get extensions
because New York was determines
| that cotton should be sold abroad fo,
| gold, in order to maintain her su
premacysin the financial world. Th'
new currency law decentralizes tha
vast power, and the country is nov
| divided up into II districts, with :
regional reserve bank in each one o
the districts. These regional reserv.
banks will discount a farmers note
| secured by a State Warehouse re
ceipt, for six months, and it can b.
| renewed for another six months. Th'
only trouble about this is that it alb
solutely places the farmers in th'
hands of the local banks which ar
| members of the Federal reserve sys
tenn. The Act of Congress goes 81
far as to say, that paper of that sor
can be accepted either with or withou
the endorsement of a member bank
but can only be presented through
the bank, but under the rulings o
the board, they have steadfastly re
| fused to accept any agricultural pa
| per not endorsed by a member bank
Now, in order to get the full advan
| tage of this new currency law, it il
absolutely necessary that the farm
ers have banking system thorough
ly in sympathy with them. Wha
the warehouse system needs to maxi
it a complete success is chain o
banks-farmers banks-to handl
this agricultural paper. There ar
too many banks at present in Soutl
Carolina so completely under th'
| domination yet Of the New Yorl
banks, that they are unwilling 10 d.
| it. When the. emergency currenc.
was issued under the Aldrich-Vree
land Act, last fall, according to th'
statement Of the Secretary of tn
Treasury, it was issued to the bank
for the purpose Of enabling them tt
allow their customers to hold thei
cotton. 1t was let out to the bank
at three per cent, and in grea
many cases was used, not for ad
| yances to the farmers, to enabl'
! them to hold their cotton, but to pa.
up the debts of the banks to New
York, thereby defeating the yer.
| purpose that the Secretary Of thu
| Treasury had in view. The New
York banks did everything in thei
power to nullify the efforts OF Mr.
! McAdoo, and the money which h
issued found it's way into the New
York banks to still further strength
en- them, when, as a matter of fact
the only thing that would relieve TIL
situation was to increase the price
of our export products and bring il
fresh money from abroad.
would like to see, in this State
. bank in Columbia, with its capi
tai stock owned by the farmers O.
this State. If every cotton count!
in this State would get ten men wht
would put in $1,000 apiece, o.
twenty men who would put in S5J'
apiece, it would give it a capita
stock of s500,000. Then if ever!
one of the stockholders, and ever.
one whom they could influence, whe1
their cotton was sold, or when the!
borrowed money on the receipts
would deposit it in that bank, /
can readily be seen that the deposit:
would make it the strongest bank
ing institution in South Carolina
and it could handle the State Ware
house receipts-eyery one of then
and get you the money from the
Richmond bank, or other Fedora