The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1919-02-25

ducer will obtain all he can for his
product and the buyer will buy as
cheaply as he can unless he is fool,
which we do not believe .he is. If
the price of cotton is being forced
down by means which are illegal,
then some of the politicians and Of
fice-holders who are in late years al
ways on the cotton platform, should
take measures to put all criminals be-
hind the bars, and to see that they
are kept there. Illegal methods
should be stopped by the heavy hand
of the law.
The South Not Poor.
But the South is not poor. The
South is prosperous, There are in
the Abbeville Warehouse some five
thousand bales of cotton There are
in the sheds, barns, outhouses and
lying in the open, in this immediate
neighborhood, five thousand more
bales of cotton, which at present
prices would bring into this money
market one million, four hundred
thousand dollars sufficient amount
of money to pay off every debt due
in the three banks of the city of
Abbeville, and leave in them nearly
half millions dollars beside. Should
this cotton be sold tomorrow, and
the money be so applied, the banks
would find themselves with no loans
whatever, with the present deposits
of about million and quarter dol
lars and an additional one-half mil
lion dollars in their vaults. Some
people may believe that under these
facts, the country is "broke," but
we refuse to so believe.
1t is true that other sections of the
country have reaped rich rewards
during the war, because in other Sec
tions the people are engaged in
manufacturing enterprises, and have
on that account been able to take
, over war contracts at big profits, and
have made money. But this is at an
end now. And instead of these peo-
pie being so prosperous as is stated,
our information is to the contrary.
No doubt some few people of large
affairs have accumulated big amounts
on money and are now riding around
in Packards, on "good roads," but
from reading the papers we gather
that the laboring people of these Sec
tions are fast losing their jobs, and
many of them are already out of
; employment and many more are like
! ly to be. Already we know of some
who went to other sections, and who
remained there during the harvest
time, who are drifting back to the
farms of this section, jobless and
i moneyless.
But if all had gotten rich, it is nc
more than any man in the South on
the farm might have done in the last
year. We know a man who has
about thirty acres of land, perhaps
less, which he turned over to a share.
cropper last year to be farmed. We
do not know how much corn, MOI
how much peas he made, but our
information is that he made twenty
bales of cotton on the farm. The
seed from the ten bales going to the
landowner would pay all the ex-
penses which he was put to, and if
he sold his part Of the cotton at
thirty cents, he would have received
from that crop fifteen hundSed dol
lars-the equivalent Of the interest
on more than twenty thousand dol
lars at seven per cent, while the land
at most would not sell for more than
three thousand dollars.
We know negro man who bought
farm on a credit for fifteen hun
dred dollars in January Of last year,
He produced on this farm with the
assistance Of his family twelve bales
of cotton, and enough corn, meat and
other products to run the farm an
other year. The cotton and cotton
seed, if sold as they were gathered,
BROUGHT enough to paw for the farm,