Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1915-06-30
the rural population, but out-vote

ana national, to encourage the pro-
duction of food stuffs, but the most
that can ever be accomplished is to
make our farms self-sustaining. For
money crop cotton is and must
ever remain our dependence
The Federal government is to
spend about $275,OOO year in this
State teaching our people to grow
| food and stock.
There is more money spent teach
ing girls to can tomatoes than have
to organize the machinery 70 handle
hundred million dollars worth of
| cotton
Are the fiscal and economic poll
cies of this government going to un-
dertake to compel productive labor,
at less and less cost to feed an ever
increasing urban population?
We are constantly reminded and
taught to emulate that NEUROLOGICAL
farmer who made two blades of grass
| grow where one grew before The
government is sending out experts to
teach scientific agriculture. We are
urged to grow two bales of cotton
where we grew one before. but it
se"ms to be taken for granted that
the extra blade of grass or bale of
cotton must go to the consumer, in
stead Of to the man who made it
grow.
The South's Monopoly.
We have seen cotton (since last
AugusD go from five cents to ten
cents a pound, in the face Of the larg-
est crop ever made.
Our cotton crop for the last thirty
years has been the cornerstone of
| international finance. The South has
a practical monopoly in the produc-
tiOn Of cotton, and the needs of the
world each year call for more cotton
There has never been a nation on
earth with such a monopoly of a vi
tai product as the South has on cot
| ton. All in vain Great Britain and
Russia have attempted to break this
monopoly. Our percentage shows a
steady increase with each decade
Egypt produces a beautiful staple.
, but the area fit for cotton is not more
| than one-fourth the size Of South
Carolina, and cannot be increased
England has experimental in Africa,
| but the fibre is so coarse that it has
I n oil
growing some cotton in Central Asia.
| Dut the area is very limited, and in
| that dry climate irrigation must be
| resorted to.
No one crop has ever had so wide
an influence and it's future power in
| making human history can hardly be
| exaggerated. Each fall a great tide
of gold is brought in from abroad
that enables the finaDciers of this
country to dictate to the balance Of
the world. And yet the people who
produce that cotton, and the section
IN which 1T is produced, are the poor
est, per capita, in the United States.
Under present financial conditions we
have been forced to market a twelve
months supply in three months, and
then in the spring, after the crop has
passed out Of the hands Of the pro-
ducers, spectators and middle-men
have reaped a profit, as now, of Is
per cent on their investment.
The people of the South should all
unite in an effort to place cotton upon
safe, stable basis. Then the manu-
facturer would fnow just what to do.
No business cf.n be profitable with
the fluctuations in price running from
to 16 cents for this great crop.
is it to BE Paternalism or Impover-
iShment ?
One of the objections urged TO the
state warehouse system is paternal-
ism. ] say no, it is only justice. For
100 years the protecting arms of this
government has been thrown
around, not the producer, but the
manufacturer Of cotton. He has been
protected by monopoly in the home
market. There has not been a time
in fifty years when you could not buy
cotton goods cheaper in Europe than
You could in South Carolina, where
the cotton is grown. What condi-
ton we have every year in the fall
when the cry Of over-producton is
raised, as it was last August! This
is the only country in the world
where famine comes because of plen-
ty. We hear every few years OF fam
inc in other countries because of crop
failnres. In the South eYerv fall we