The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-04-09

cure the peace and independence o..
France"
tain of company Of infantrymen in
the Thirtieth Division, whose position
was made untenable by enlladlnS
fire from the Germans said 'he just
held on until reinforcements were
brought up
My suggestion is that you hold
your ground until reenforcements
come" the governor continued. Ike
endorsements will come and the fight
can and will be won. y hard fight
! is ahead, but to- lose now would place
! in Jeopardy the chances Of winning for
years to come. We are not making
! the fight for one year, and we never
| had such organization as we now
/ have at our command"
f. D. Smith. United States senator,
also made brief speech. Circum-
stances naturally made it a hard
fight The men Of the Thirlieth Di-
vision. if they refused TO charge the
almost impregnable lines Of plutoc-
racy and gain and greed as the South
Carolina boys had charged the Hin
deaburg line While the war was on
the spinners were busy With war con-
tracts and he'd no time TO link hands
with the spectators to drive the
price of cotton below the cost Of pro-
duction. Now every force Of greed
was being marshaled into a solid
phalanx to. restrict the output OF
| mills and to manipulate the markets.
The farmers answer should be, of
you can spin cloth and fill contracts
on hot air, then God be with you.
But i you expect to sell cloth. then
you've got to give me my price
W 3. Thompson. Of New Orleans.
was then introduced.
Declaring that the holding move
ment IS matter of self preservation
with the cotton farmers and that 1t is
an economic necessity. W. 3. Thomp-
son of New Orleans in addressing
the cotton convention on the subject Of
The Cotton Republic said in part:
1--WE we'll know the proper remedy
for the present apparent malady OF
over supply. We require no advice
in the premises from authorities on
/
to lead us out of the wilderneSs.fT fThe
promptings of homely common sense
point the way. Sane common effort will
accomplish deliverance: If a merchant
becor- as over stocked by reason of
! boycott or conspiracy on the part OF
: hi scustomerS. Or for any other reason
the demand is restricted and he finds
himself burdened with a stock OF ne
cessities which in end his said custom
ers must have, he holds his stock in
/ tact and reduces his. orders to Jobber
to such an extent as will enable him
to work off the entire stock at a profit.
This is the situation in cotton today.
The business Of producing and mar
keting cotton, although it is transact
ed by q multitude of individual units,
differs in the fundamental principles
of operation from no other similar
business whatsoever. We simply must
hold our stocks, which for the moment
it seems nobody wants. and i'll order
that VIC may SO hold it is necessary
that We reduce production to point
which will enable us to market both
the old and new supply at profitable
figure.
eff we faithfully practice this policy
there is not the shadow Of doubt
but that we Will realize remuncrativc
prices not only for the supply on hand
but for the next crop as well. II we
depart from this policy by forcing our
cotton upon a laggard demand. pan
ic viii be precipitated. many farmers,
merchants and bankers will be ruined
and disaster will fall upon the cotton
South and hurt upon the nation, with
out any possible benefit to anybody
except TO a few SPECTATORS and tenn
porary profit to The spinners. who, to-
gcthcr with the whole cotton goods
using world will pay a heavy penalty
hereafter through tho inevitable cot
ton famin: which will in such case
prevail next Year and probably for
years afte:ward.
If we depart from the aforesaid
policy, not through the sacrifice Of
present holdings but by bringing about
anything like full production the
coming season. we are in no better
situation. Immediately ii should be-
come apparent that the cotton inter-
ests had failed to take intelligent con-
troll OF the production problem and
were like so many spineless and idiotic
sheep rushing pell-mell into the hands |
of the Shcarers our adversarics would /
grin and say | told you So and pro- !
coed at once to hammer the market
into a state Of panic.
Considering the inevitable lateneSs
Of the crop due to almost unprecc-
dented weather conditions and in view
OF the labor situation and the Xtra
ordinary boil wcevil menace to late
planted crop. l 90 not believe it poss
iblc to produce anything like q full
out-turn. But that is not the question.
AS far as the present emergency is
concerned it will do no good for the
world to find out next fall that a short
crop has been made. We must make it
impossible to make other than very
short crop. and VIC must make the
demonstration now. During the
s.