The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-03-24
Cotton King-Producer Slave.

Cotton King-Producer Slave.
1T is not their purpose to do any
person or any interest a wrong, but
they do intend to pursue policies that
are right in themselves and that will
result in placing the cotton industry
and the cotton producing people of the
South in the proper. economical rela,
tionship with the rest Of the world.
1T ought not to be expected that the
South should continue to raise cotton
at a loss, as she has done for a ma
JOrltY OF the years during the last four
decades. If it had not been for other
enterprises in this section during that
time the South would have been bank
rupt. Her bank accounts have not been
built up on cotton. Cotton has been
king and the cotton producer hds been
the slave, and no slave in the whole
history of the world ever had anything.
We now propose that the producer shall
be the master and cotton shall serve
the interest of those who raise it. II
we produce this year as much cotton
as we did last year we might reason
ably expect to have on hand unsold on
the first day of next January many
more millions Of bales than we had this
year on that date,
Even if peace should be concluded
at an early date, the factories Of Eng
land, France and Italy be opened for
our cotton, and the central empires be-
come orderly and composed so that they
could take their share of cotton, stiil
it is very doubtful If we could reason
ably and promptly dispose of a large
crop on account Of the lack Of bottoms
to take it across the seas.
Shipping Big Factor.
1T is authoritatively stated that at
the beginning of the war the merchant
ship capacity of the world was 60, 000. 600
tons, On the day when the armistiCe
was signed 1t was only %, 900, 900 tons.
Most of these ships are owned by Eng
navian countries, The United States
needs l6, 900, 900 of tonnage for her over
seas commerce, INC she has tonnage
only to the amount Of 1000 600.
1t will be seen, therefore, that she
must draw Upon the merchant marine
goods to Europe. These other nations
are not going to furnish the tonnage
unless it Is decidedly to their advantage
to do so, Great Britain will look after
her colonies and the British Isle first,
and we will necessarily be compelled to
await her convenience for tonnage. The
same argument is applicable to France
and the other nations of Europe.
1T therefore can be readily seen that
the cotton producers of the South
should get together and not raise any
more cotton than will be promptly CON
hiAi' ny AlC WI ~ hilN oA "a - = AllhA
carries a reasonable profit to the
farmer,
Ten Million Limit.
ut is said by some that the South
owes 1t to the rest OF mankind to pro-
cure all the cotton she can regardless of
the consequences, because the world
needs it. I do not subscribe to any such
doctrine, particularly as long as the
world will not take the cotton, II such
| a Snlf-daStrOVipu nripNinla he frIia than
how much. truer should we apply the
principle that the wheat growing sec
ton of his country should not produce
an enormous crop of wheat simply to
get the $2.26 guarantee from the gov
eminent, when the world will not need
the wheat at any shch price. Only three
or four years ago six hundred million
bushels. of wheat was the total crop
grown in the United States. This year
it will be practically twelve hundred
million bushels, and 1t will not be re-
sponsive to the laws Of supply and de-
mand, but because of the g~overnment's'
guaranteed price, which all Of us must
I'VE should not raise over ten million
bales Of cotton at the very most, and
the extra acreage should be devoted to
the cultivation Of corn, potatoes, hay.
velvet beans and many other products
home, and in raising plenty Of cattle,
try. We ought to adopt a system in the
South by which the farmer and his
family and his property could be sus-
tanned completely by the growth Of
enough land and time left over to pro-
duce cotton, then cotton should be
raised to that extent, and out Of it
should grow the bank account. In other
words. we should raise just the MAXI
mum amount of cotton that will still
compel the world to hasten to us to buy,
and not so much Of it as will compel us
to rush out into the world to sell.
Raise More Corn.
II wish to lay particular stress upon
the proposition that Southern farmers
SHOULD raise far more corn this year
than ever before for the reason that
much of the acreage of the wheat grow
tivation of corn will be used for the
purpose of raising additional wheat at
1925 a bushel, and therefore much less
corn han usual will be produced by
those states. If Southern farmers will
raise a big crop of corn, they will not
only escape a high corn market at which
they would be compelled to buy, but
they will also find a good corn and meat
market at which they could readily sell
most, II not all, of the discarded one
third cotton acreage in corn.
while the South is particularly
adapted, over the rest OF the world, to
the growing of cotton, still there Is no
other section Of the globe that Is richer
In all other respects combined than the
South, and II the world will not accord
the Southern farmer a good living, plus
a reasonable profit, as a recompense for
the raising Of cotton, then he ought to
give up the industry entirely, and re-
sort to some other enterprise that will
make him a competitor of other sections
and peoples in any lines he chooses"
Use War Organizations.
Hundreds Of large cotton growers,
bankers and men from the agricultural
departments of the state universities