Greenwood daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1919-1926, 1919-12-06
THE RECOVERY OF THE SOUTH.

With the worldwide demand Tor 1t, assures nlgn p
prices for that portion Of the crop remaining I'M
sold and which for this time Of the year is unus
ually large. The farmers have been holding the
crops themselves, being determined that if high ),
prices are to prevail they themselves shall reap
the benefit Hitherto absence of storage facilities
and financing conditions has forced them to sell
as soon as the crop was made, accepting whatever
prices were offered to them, which usually left .
them little or no surplus after settling accounts !,
for the advances made to them during the year.
There has been a great deal of money made in !,
cotton, but not by the farmers.
Any one who travels through the cotton states
is bound to be struck by the evidences of poverty
on every hand, which emphasized when COM
pared with the smart looking towns and well kept
farm buildings in the northerly states. The most
striking difference is the large percentage OF ILL
teracy found in the South, compared with the
North, an illiteracy that is prevalent among the
whites to degree that fills Northerner with
amazement. The writer has met among the mill
workers in the South young men and women twen-
ty-one years of age more who could scarcely
read or write, but who were the grandchildren OF
families that held high estate before the war, and
who, though unettered, were not lacking in the
breeding which their ancestry foreshadowed. In
stances are cited of refined women who work
ers in the fields or renters of an acre two that
once formed part of their family estates.
The United States Commissioner of Education
stated that it was useless for the Department of
Agriculture to send literature to many Of these
farmers telling them how to improve farm cond-
tions when they could neither read nor write. The
North is not to blame for this condition. in the
sense that it is deliberately withholding from the
South that which rightfully belongs to it. It is
an outgrowth of the conditions following the Civil
War and an attempt to continue to sell cotton with
paid labor on as cheap basis as that produced by
slave labor. The world has become accustomed to
cotton selling at low price. In the North we
considered eleven cents a high price in former
times, but we have never stopped to consider the
elements that went into making black white
, much consideration and, as matter of fact, we
, not only do not understand the problem of the
South but we have not even known that the South
had problem.
In making comparisons between present prices
and pre-war prices must bear continually in
mind that the dollar today is worth AZ cents of its
prewar value, that spot cotton close to 40 cents
today should be compared with the price of about
:, Is IL cents before the We are therefore
called upon to consider whether cotton at IL IL
cents against II cents is fair basis for the 40
cents which the farmer recevos will buy on
ly as much as 18 1-2 cents would have done in
1914.
In the North, here, have driven out sweat
! shops in the clothing trade, where conditions OF
practical slavery existed and the people have been
content to pay something more for the clothing in
the knowledge that the higher price would provide
- living wage for the workers, making it possible
to eliminate illiteracy, to provide better sanitation
and generally higher standard of living. Yet
these clothing workers mostly foreigners OF
of foreign extraction. It is quite within reason
- to expect that wearers of cotton goods would be
willing to stand some increase in cost if it woulo
bring to large number of Americans who happier
to live in the Southern States opportunities fol
schooling, for sanitation and for better living con
ditions generally, including that which very
many of these poor Southern white women know
II nothing about-an opportunity for recreation.
. The prosperity which has come to the rest Of
the country means higher standard of living fol
the people generally, which is good thing for thu
~ community. The South is entitled to it's own share
% of that prosperity hich will insure higher
standard of living to it's people. It may mean al
increase in the selling price of cotton goods to thu
r. consumer but if the entire country is prosperous
- including the South, the consumer is bound to fee
that benefit and to find the additional money il
his pocket with which to pay that increased cost
- If supply and demand conditions have forced cot
>, ton to high price, it will be of decided economic
benefit to the whole country that the additions
money is distributed among the producers of tn.
- South where it be expended for substantial
\ benefits to thousands of Individuals rather thar
to find it's way into the hands of few who hav,
been fortunate enough to take speculative chan
Il ces.
= If the farmers of the South are able this yea
to cash in their success it will undoubtedly meal