Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-03-28
What's the Matter Wnh
The Gove1n0r of K ansas ?

1t is evident that Governor Allen, of
Kansas, has been sorely misinformed con-
corning the condition and the motives of
Southern cotton growers. Said the Governor,
in declining invitation to join representa-
tive public men at conference in South
Carolina to consider the curtaiment of this
years cotton acreage:
1T would be just as baleful for the
wheat growers of Kansas, the corn farm
ers Of Iowa, the hog raisers of Illinois,
the live stock producers of Texas to
deliberately combine to create a short
age Of foodstuffs, that the famine of the
world might pay them toll, as for the
cotton interests of the South to combine
for that purpose.
On perusing this indictment we are moved
to say, as did Dame Quickly to Ancient Pistol,
when he was roaring in his cups: "By my
troth, Captain, these be bitter words" Sure
ly, Governor Allen must have spoken in haste,
and upon sober second thought will with
draw the implication that Southern farmers
would seek to create world misery from which
to gather selfish toll. 1t is an implication
unworthy Of an official who assumes to speak
for the great State of Kansas and who is
Jealous of his own. distinguished record of
sane thinking and honorable dealing.
What the Southern farmers seek in their
plan for curtailment of the cotton acreage
Kansas farmers sought land bountifully OBJ
tained) when they insisted upon protection
against ruinous prices for their wheat. All
that the cotton grower asks is a price that
will cover the cost of production and leave
him a fair margin of profit; indeed, he would
now be grateful for assurance that even the
cost of production will be covered in the case
of his residue of the 1918 crop. 1t is only
upon the baldest sort of misinformation that
distant critics like Governor Allen get the
hot +{nS1 ~
profiteers' wealth. If they were profting in
proportion to the Government-succored wheat
growers of Kansas, they would have received
for their staple not less than forty cents
pound, instead of prices which, even at the
peak of the market, were barely moderate
compensation for their outlay in producing
the crop. If cotton farmers were now safe
guarded by Federal guarantees as grain farm
ers are, they could we'll afford, from the
standpoint Of their purely financial interests,
to follow Governor Aliens tartly given adj
vice, and in this one season raise cotton
enough to re-clothe all Christendom and
array every savage beneath the tropic sun.
But there such guarantees for cotton
growers. 1t was once proposed indeed, that
the Government should fix price for cotton;
but inasmuch as the price suggested was the
ruinously low figure of twenty-five cents a
pound, the South begged to be let alone, pre-
ferring the hazards Of an uncertain future to
being forced into bankruptcy by Congress
sional enactment. So it was that the Cotton
States, after having freely supported the plea
of the West for liberal guarantees of grain
prices, were constrained at last to content
themselves with escaping a measure of Gov
eminent regulation which threatened dis
aster.
The South rejoices in the trimming pros
perity Of Kansas and her wheat-growing
neighbors. The Southern people cheerfully
pay their portion amounting to some one
hundred and thirty million dollars, of the
huge bonus which the Government has vouch-
safed the farmers of that favored region
But we cannot see why the Governor of
Kansas should take the South so sharply to
task for her efforts to avert the calamity Of
bumper cotton crop, a crop produced at the
highest prices of labor and material and sold
at the lowest prices which cOnspirlng specula-
tors could bring about. 1t has been conserva-
lively reckoned that the cost of raising the
1919 cotton crop will be in the neighborhood
Of thirty-tWo and three-quarter cents a
pound, assuming an average yield OF two
hundred pounds of lint to the acre-and that
is above the average of the last ten years
The present market is much below that figure
and October contracts have sold as low as
liza cents. Now, if Governor Allen will
show the farmers of this region the magical
process (Which apparently he has in mind)
whereby they can sell cotton for less than its
cost of production and still have money to
buy Kansas high-priced, Government-guar-
anteed wheat, they will consider his injunc-
ton to go ahead and plant whaling cotton
acreage. But in existing circumstances can
the growers be censured for refusing to
plunge themselves and their region into the
jaws of bankruptcy? 1t is as imperative,
we grant, that the naked shall be clothed as
that the hungry shall be fed; but shall the
cotton farmers carry altruism to the point OF
clothing Europe with sheriff-sale cotton whilst
their own children go ragged and unfed!