The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-09-22
RaREs EXPLOSIVES HlA.
Sscaoction in Price of Seed and LIN,
HURTS People Least Able to Bcar IL.


Washington. Sept. iS:--A day or
two ago. while the house was consid
eTink the urgent deficiency bill. Con-
gressman w. r, Stevenson raped the
DUPONT power people hard for con-
racting with tho "cottonsecd oil trus
In the South" to buy up cottonscc,,
products at a sum much less than
their real value and then paradins
their patriotism before the people o.
this country by having this govern
ment buy Its powder from them at
= reduced figure. tho farmers paying
the difference. a.,s
My desire is TO use tho few min
u>es allotted to mo I'M calling attca-
tion 20 the fact that under the manir-
uiation OF some Of the dcpartmc..,J
of thesgovcrnment more of the. bur.
dcns of this war are to be laid upon
certain sections OF our people COM
Ing from the Southland country thar.
they are entitled to bear" Mr.. Steven
son said. I'm other words. as the tes-
timony shows on page 765 Of the
hearings on this bill. there Is state
mcnt made by the officer there tcs.
tifying before the committee that tn ,
powder 10 being bought for ten cent
q pound cheaper than 1t can be man
ufacturcd by the government In it.,
arpenais.
1T n said that II Is being bough
Tor 40 per cont less. and perhaps
more than that. cheaper than 1t has
been sold to our allies abroad Tha.
sounds very patriotic from the stand =
point Of Mr.. Dupont. who Is furnish,
mg the powder. but when we come
70 look into u we find this situation
Mr. DUPONT has contracted with
what p known as the members of tn
cottonsccd oil trust in the South, VIII
control Is per cent. OF the seed, anu
Of tho lintcrs that 60 into the manu-
facturo OF explosives. to buy their On
IRE output at sa.5o a bale less than
he paid for It last year: that is. re-
reducing II from an average of seven
and q half cents to 1--WE cents. Having
made that ARRANGEMENT. nc secured SO
Per cent Of the necessary mater;a.
for manufacture In these explosives
for tho government. The Independent
compsntes are all at sca. because the.
do not know what they can do. Tho,
come up here In panic to get mex
to Mr.. DuPont's men and then man,
OF them sell out at $3.50 bale or
their output cheaper than they were
Tho government. according to In
Testimony here. Is saving about $50.
100000 on Its ten cents u pound dc
ductioh for explosives. and after they
have made this arrangement the cot.
tcnsecd crushers yesterday reduced
the price OF cotton seed s11 a ton al
over the country They say the gov.
ernment has intcrfercd with the price
In tho market and proposes to rcgu-
late the price. and all over the South
as I gather from kilograms that hav,
come In. the price of the. cotton see,
has been reduced s11 a ton.
Let us look n minute to see how
much. to save the government th,
$4,000. 900 on explosives, they have
taken out of the hide of the southcr
farmer. You will find that II will
cost the Southern farmer s61,S75,O0'
TO reduce the price of explosives t;
the government $4,000. 900. That is n
pretty good slice of profit. They sd.
the government has reduced this. Th
government has gone Into the regula
tion OF matters. and therefore the.
reduce II. That Is the excuse the
have given. I went up to see Mr.
Hoover. who Is supposed 10 be ths
general administrator of all matters
pertaining to food products. becaus
that an acre OF land that produces :;
bale OF cotton In the United state
produces more foodstufrs outside o
tho cotton than an acre OF land pro.
ducing 40 bushels os corn. III yor
will ngure tho units of nourishmen
gotten from the oil and the meal pro
duced you will find that that Is n fact
! went up to see Mr.. Hoover. and Mr.
Hover said no. they had not regulat
cd the price OF cotton seed and O.,
not intend TO. but he said that the,
are going to squeeze the speculative,
profits out Of the business. That l.
what they are doing. They have don.
and they have not done. They hav,