The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-03-27

Tallahassee, March 27.--"The gov
eminent estimate of the cotton crop
for 1918 Is in excess Of eleven mil
lion bales exclusive of linters," said
w. A, McRae, commissioner Of agri-
culture, today in commenting on the
editorial in the Times-Union entitled
Injustice to the Cotton Growers. ''Not
only have We a large crop produced
during the past season at cost great.
er than ever before. but there Is a
lsurplus of the crop Of 1917 not yet
disposed Of Thousands Of bales of
a crop two years old in storage in
Jacksonville and at other points in
the South mutely testify to errors in
our economic system, or else some
strong arm interest is throttling one
of our vital industries and the whole
South is suffering.
Premier Clemenceau is reported
to have said a few days ago to
Charles S. Barrett, president of the
National Farmers Union, who is in
Paris as representative of Ameri-
can farm organizations, that The
world needs cotton and it should 60
everywhere The impression is that
France is opposed to the admission of
raw material to Germany, where mills
and factories are intact, until after
that country restores her ruined in
dustries. If the spokesman for the
French people means what he says,
, why has not the blockade against
Germany been relaxed? Our recent
enemy must pay large indemnity.
The sooner she gets busy the sooner
she can pay Idleness is already
breeding disorder and confusion in
that country. Millions of men have
} returned to their homes from a war
unexampled in ferocity and they are
left to brood in hunger and idleness
"As the Times-Union says, it might
be generous On the part of the Uni
ted States to withhold cotton until
France is ready to begin spinning
! No doubt Of it, but in doing this, the
vanquished nation and the victorious
one jointly suffer- hut the suffering
4 here falls upon the producers of the
South, who have already made sac
rifices equally in every respect will
other parts Of the Union.
"Not only does the embargo con
tinue against product which hal
long brought America its balance II
foreign trade, but for some reason no
=. clear to the public Egyptian cottol
81 continues to be admitted to this coun
FL try, despite the protest of the grow
ers, and prices are kept depressed ant
in confusion. We have no sympath.
for Germany but we have for the pee
pie Of the South. Are we to wait I'm
til the mills of France are rebuilt, b,
which time the distant colonies of tn
allies have developed a surplus, pre-
duced by cheap labor, which mus
put our supply at its mercy?
"Over the torn and rutted fields 0
No Mans Land other springs vii
come with sun and rain and healin
and farmers again will look fror
peaceful doorways upon patient ca
tie and fruiting trees and the waivin
| banners of the grass, on hills altere
: by artillery, where men once croucl
ed in fogs of poisoned gases or fe
49, before the whitening blasts of gul
fire.
I'VE cannot altogether forget pas
horrors, but the future is before u
Americas entrance into the confii
brought the tragedy to an end. I'll
sears must be healed il full peace
to come and endure on the earth. B,
= the American people cannot and WI
z not be made catspaws of by desig
= ing interests in this or any 9th
< land. AS Premier Clemenceau h
z said, The world needs cotton and
4 should go everywhere! Germany al
: Austria alone of the destitute warri
V countries, could at once absorb h;
Z of our waiting surplus of cotton Al
2 restore the financial balance of t
3 South"
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