The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1918-12-14
sG0yERNMENF RAILS ,ss -
p;a rs. cV%s TO HOLD. CoffoNAUP
cs Correspondent Complains That Due
.. Assistance Has Not Been Given
Farmers of the South %.

In 1914 the price Of cotton declined
to around seven cents. The South
asked the national government to give
financial aid in holding cotton, and
urged her representatives in congress
to enact such legislation as would fix
a price for cotton commensurate with
cost Of production. Nothing was done
by either the government or congress.
The cotton growing interests of the
South in the winter and spring of
1914 and 1915 in many instances could
not pay debts but suffered for the alb
solute necessities. The price Of ferti-
lizers and the various ingredients that
enter into their manufacture have
been on advancing scale since the
winter of 1914, and the cost of labor
has advanced by leaps and bounds.
The crops of cotton grown in 1915,
1916 and 1917 have not been large,
upon an average only medium, and
the crop Of 1918 by comparison will
prove to be almost a failure. Sta
tistical conditions from every angle
of vision call for higher prices on
cotton.
This fall when the price of cotton
was beginning to get in line with
cost of production, coupled with the
great equation of supply and demand
conditions, viz: around 36 to 81 cents,
the chief representative of the war
industries board, Barney Baruch, sug-
gested the government might have to
take hold Of and regulate the price of
cotton, with the result that the mar
ket broke two cents and cotton has
been steadily going down, until now
it is 10 cents below the then ruling
price.
Did Baruch try to stop the cotton
, manufacturers of the United States
from making profits, ranging around
80 per cent? No. Why? Was not
the raw material as essential for gov
ernment aid in the manufacture of
goods, as the manufactured article?
We do not object to the cotton man.
ufacturing interests making great
profits, but We do object to the gov
ernment using it's strong power to
throttle the interest engaged in grow
ing the most wonderful and essential
plant of creation, the plant that fur
njshes clothing for man and food for
both man and beast. The South has
been the burden bearer for this ad-
ministration and stands for loyalty
the peer OF any section of the Ameri-
can Union.
We have responded to every finan-
cial demand the government and the
great beneficient interests engaged in
war work have asked, and done so,
as the records will show in man.
ner most commendable. In the face
of all our efforts we have enjoyed no
help Of any kind from the govern
ment to stimulate the price of our
great money crop, On the contrary
what has been done by suggestion,
from those in position to act and
build us up, has been to destroy
values.
A meeting was held only few
days since in Columbia for the pur-
pose OF taking proper action to re-
Heve the depressed condition in the
cotton market and the committee ap-
pointed by that meeting to reach a
line OF action, when it approached
President Wilson for a conference
was put off for more convenient
season.
II may be fun for the boys but this
delay is death to the frogs, aptly rep
resented in the cotton growers of the
South. I would suggest three lines
Of action: Hold cotton; stop buying
fertilizer, contract for not one pound;
cut cotton acreage to one-third of
what it has averaged for the past
three years. If following up this line
of action does not bring us the legiti-
mate price for our cotton, then stop
planting cotton. am quite sure that
if we do not adopt policy such as
above suggested, and which at first
blush might appear radical, Mr.. Ba-
ruch, if he has then the position of
secretary Of the treasury, would ask
that new board be created to make
the poor cottontots plant more cotton,
more cotton, more cotton-legislatio
could be enacted in every Southern
State that would regulate the cotton
acreage, but whether Washington
would say such action was constitu-
tional remains to be seen.
7. G. Duncan.