The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1918-12-26
SAYS GOVERNMENT
WAS HOODWINKED.
Commissioner Summers Comments
on Drop I'm Cotton.

and the unprecedented wages paid
artisans and common labor. lit was
particularly cruel and unjust that.
at this moment. the government
should have been hoodwinked by
designing persons who sought to
manipulate the cotton market for
personal speculation and private ug-
grandizement," will say the annual
report of a. G. Summers. State Com
missioner OF Agriculture, Commerce
and Industries. to the General Assem-
bly,
The report charges that the bit
ter and acrimonious fight being made
OH the South and the South's staple
crop, cotton, camouflagel under
pleas of administration favortism to
this section, is but an effort to beat
down the social and industrial fabric
OF the social section of the nation ami
to cause the South to revert to a
condition OF feudalism and great IS
tates."
This section of the report Will
say:
The industrial life OF the country
was metamoTphosed durin., the pc
iod of the war. 1t appears 10 have
been the policy of the government not
to establish new industrNls, but ia
convert the "mon-essent4 Is" to war
purposes and to enlarge existing
plants. For that reason there was
not a great amount of industrial ex-
pansion in ihe South.
Certain sections of tn" couEr:'
which rallied at the administration at
Washington because military CAMPS
were established in the South, ap
pear t. have been unmindiul was very
generous to the industries of other
sectio,.s OF the country. AID that the
ISoutk did not murmur because Of
any apparent sectional favoritism
thereby shown. Had the administra
ton been partial TO the South, new
Industries Of great magnitude would
have been located here.
LAS it is. tho building of military
camps has greatly upset labor condi-
tiohs in the South. The South's main
industry is agriculture. and removing
from :hat industry thousands OF
workers and giving then und, canned
OF wages interferred with crop max
inI ard crop gathering for the pres
ent. but also has given to a portion
! OF that class distaste for farm work
in the future.
This was the fortune of war anc
: we accept the result as gracefully a:
We may. yet it is fact that is wei
known and condition which mus
be faced. particularly here in South
! Carolina. This Is indeed a crisis il
! the agricultural history OF the State
While all branches of trade and in
dustry are naturally apprehensive, al
waiting for strong hand, stront
. head. u strong heart to give then
I directing, yet the conditions in th'
agriculture of our state are peculiar
ly sensitive At this moment.
For this reason ii was particular
y cruel and unjust that at this nom
ent the government should have beer
i hood winked by designing persons
who sought to manipulate the cottol
market for personal speculation am
Iprivate ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
There WIS at stake mere than tn
mere price of the crop of 1918. TIL
,aI its;ichin" effects of this dastardl
attack upon the Sonriah may be oh
served at glance when il fs>rHpder
stood that cotton is the South's ~
dustry as well as the South's crop.
If the South should be beaten down
and disheartened in this attack, the
South would suffer continuously.
The South's main industrial would be
discredited. The fight which leaders
of Southern thought have been wag-
ing would be doomed to failure and
the South. instead of enjoying indus
trial freedom, would revert to a con-
dition of feudalism and great es-
tates. The effort of the State Depart
ment of Agriculture and of other pro-
gressive agencies for the last fifteen
years has been to arouse the people of
the South to cause them. to get out
or the rut and to show them that
agriculture can be made profitable
and enjoyable. The rural South has
been the truest type of Americanism
To destroy the opportunities for de-
veloping the South by bringing fail
ure as the reward of service would be
very cruel indeed. and yet to those
who try to look into the future this
Is the sole conclusion that can be
reached. The South is fighting to
preserve the price of the product of
her industry. Is striving to save that
industry rather than to get rich hur-
riadly hocauco of apv fortufious cir-