The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1919-07-17
COTTON INTERESTS
ARE ORGANIZING
MOVEMENT TO BRING ECONOMIC
FREEDOM TO THE SOUTH.
Changes Already Noted by One Who
Has Recently Travelled
Over Belt.

can Cotton Association gives ont Tho
can Cotton Association gives out the
1oliow1ng for publication:
AFTER long years of absence from,
the South the writer was traveline .
lew years ago In midsummer through
part OF the State of Alabama. It
was dlscouraging experience. The
oiisterlng heat of the July sun burn
Gu uoWn on scene of unremunerat-
ins ana unprogressive toll. From
that stretch of railway little could he
seen save the endless fields of cot:
ton with here and there a small field
VI corn and the cabins of negro far
mers and share croppers' surround.
ea Dy the cotton fields with the shade
OF a Pride Of India tree under which
the dog could find shelter while he
snapped at the flies tormentine him
or the little black children PLAYED
lnthe sand. Very different from the
pictures one enjoys in Pages story
or Old Virginia, when the wealth.
planters of the South kept high state
and upheld traditions of Merry Eng
land.
The white fleece of cotton used to
form the basis for that life in the Old
south and the wealth it created has
not yet learned to settle down large
~ IN England and New England. Fhe
Southern planter had hand in the
government Of the nation and could
defend himself and his section, He
was also economically independent.
He could finance his own operations.
produce on his own plantations most
OF what was needed by his people.
and sold his surplus crop, cotton,
when the market suited him. But
conditions had now altered for the
worse. A great portion of the farm
ers OF the South had never recovered
from the staggering economic disas-
ter of the defeat in the Civil War.
They were no longer influential in the
government of the nation and could
not defend their interests. They were
economically dependent; could not fl
nance their own operations, and had
to sell their cotton on market fix
ed by interests outside of the South.
There was no prospect of return to
the freedom of the ante-bellum days,
because money could be borrowed on
ly on cotton, and then only to be re-
paid promptly when the cotton should
be harvested, no matter what the
state of the market. The long contin-
ued effort to bring about diversi-
fled farming, both for the sake Of
saving the soil, and also in order to
free the South from dependence on
the West for its food and feed and
on New England for ready cash, had
always largely failed for the reason
that the dependent small farmer had
to have money to grow each years
crop, and this money could be had
only when he planted and mortgaged
cotton.
South Realizes its Strength.
But such conditions could not last
forever. The writer has recently
Travelled through large stretch of
the cotton belt and has been reading
the papers of the South. There is a
'Hsw+Rote in these papers and new con-
ditions are coming to pass on the
farms. No region can afford to leave
it's economic fate in the hands of an
other region. The self-determination
of nations must have it's counterpart
in the elf-determination sections OF
a country which are economically :
homogeneous. So long as the South
was forced to leave 10 another section
of the country the fixing of the mar
ket upon which it could sell its mon
ey crop, cotton, and so long as it fail
ed to feed itself and must sell this
crop hurriedly in order to buy food
from the West, it was inevitable that
the wealth created by the cotton far
mer of he South would find itself in
the pockets of the corn growers OF
Kansas, the meat packers Of Chicago
and the cotton spinners Of New Eng
land. The explanation behind the pres
ent change and the prospect Of greater
changes in the cotton States lies in
the fact that the South has now taken
it's economical fate in it's own hands
All interests of the South have come
to realize that in their union there
is not only strength, but strength
enough to break the adverse fate and
obtain liberty.
No one who reads the news of
economic happenings needs to be told"
LUdI IIe ClllSl puciOluOhou JuSS nv"
in the South is the advent OF the
American Cotton Association. Spon-
sored by all classes Of business men
of the section the farmer, the mer-
chant, and the banker, this organiza-
ton proposes to open up opportuni-
ties for the cotton grower Of the
South equal to those of any farmer
in the world. All that these farmers
need is a fair opportunity; all that
the American Cotton Association pro-
poses to fight for is such an oppor-
tunity.
First of all the cotton farmer OF
the South must have access to full and
correct information concerning the
cotton business Of the world. No
man can farm scientifically and prof
itably when he is necessarily in the
dark concerning important phases of
the business in which he is one single
unit. The agricultural colleges and
experiment stations Of the South have