The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-01-31
BUSINESS MEN AND BANKERS
MUST ACT QUICKLY TO SAVE
A BIG DISASTER IN COTTON

Editor COnSClIuLlou' OIleoo oOlIAS
thing is done to stem the downward
sweep of cotton prices we are gong
to face a very serious situation IN
the south-a situation fraught with
disaster as great as that which came
upon US in 1914.
am anti-cotton. All my friends
and all those who have read my cards
in your paper know how l feel about
cotton. We ought to quit growing 1T,
except in limited quantity. 1t has
kept us poor for sixty years and will
wreck US yet.
But while l am the enemy of cot
ton, l am the friend of the farmer;
but my friendship for the farmer is
not wholly unselfsh. All that | have
my business, my property, my fu
ture and the future of my children
depends upon the prosperity Of the
farmer. When he fails | suffer, and
when he succeeds l prosper.
The loss on the Georgia cotton
crop of 1918 alone must be close to-
hundred million dollars, nearly a.
million dollars for each county in the
state. Our public men, state and
national, and the farmers themselves
are fully alive to the dangers of the
situation and are doing what they can.
But l see nothing to indicate that
our business men and bankers and cit
liens generally are taking any inter-
est in the matter. We are all so
busy with our little money-making
schemes that we have lost sight of
the great disaster that threatens US
We are prone to look upon this mat
ter as one purely for the farmer to
handle.
When the struggle is over, as it will
be shortly, and the cotton crop has
been swept out of the hands of our
farmers for less money than it cost to
produce it, it will then be too late.
1t the south is to be saved from this
stupendous loss her bankers and bust
ness men must come to the rescue.
Some means must be found for en-
abling the farmers to>hold this cotton
until it can be sold for what it isl
worth, and it is worth fifty cents per
pound. Our business men have han
died bigger problems than this during
the past two years and they can ham
die this. For their country's sake
they have raised billions for war pur-
poses For their own sakes they must
save the farmers, and thereby them
selves from this impending ruin.
Because cotton has been selling
since 1917 for more than it formerly
brought, many people imagine the
farmers are rolling in wealth. l have
been in close touch with them for
forty years and they have never had
any money they could call their own
until last year and all this is now
about to be swept away. To one who
understands conditions and can see
what is going on, the situation isl
tragic beyond words.
l call upon the business men and
the bankers of the south to rally to
this fight If our finances are prop
erly and promptly modified we are
strong enough to control the sltua-
ton and save ourselves from this
great loss. The farmers cannot do
it alone. They need the help of every
banker and every business man. We
talk of a special session of legisla-
ture in Georgia to devise plans for
building roads. Here is money
enough, if we can save it, to build
good roads in all the southern states.
We talk of raising taxes and prop
erty assessments for the benefit of the
schools. Here is money enough, if We
can save it, to erect a high school
building in every county, university
in every state and double the pay of
every teacher in all of the states of
the south.
The streets and warehouses in every
town in the south are piled high with
cotton. The vaults of every bank in
the country are filled with cotton loans
at twenty cents a pound. What are
we going to do when they beat the
price down to that figure and below
it? And we need not think they
won't do it if they can. They have
picked the bones of the cotton farm