The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1919-06-07
A Sane New England view of South
rn Cotton Conditions.
Manufacturers Record. Baltimore,


ern Cotton Conditions.
Manufacturers Record. Baltimore,
Directly contrary to the unjust crit
icisms Of some New England people
and papers against the South and the
effort of this section to develop It's
diversified agriculture instead Of con-
centrating it's farm activities so largely
upon cotton, is a recent address by
Nf. hufus R. Wilson, Secretary OF the
national Association of Cotton Manu-
tacturerS. representing practically the
entire cotton mill industry of the East.
WI Wllson mas very sane undef
stalo1ng OF the Southern situation,
ana the spirit of his address delivered
! pe1ore the Texas Cotton Association is
entirely different from the spirit epf
the statement recently issued by Mr..
Durfee. chairman OF the Cotton-Buy-
inS Committee of the New England
Cotton Association. We believe that
Mr.. Wilson, and not Mr. Durfee, rep
resents the intelligent views Of the in
teligent cotton mill men of New Eng
land. notwithstanding some Of the
unjust criticisms which the South has
to endure from few papers who
think like Mr.. Durfee.
After discussing the labor Situation
throughout this country. Mr. Wilson
said:
I This is why low-priced cotton islno
! longer to be looked for or advocated,
for its spells benefit for neither the
grower. the shipper nor the spinner.
Neither does it seem to us of the
North that the present is an oppor-
tune time to seriously consider re-
stricting cotton acreage. We believe,
instead, that the grower, will most ef-
fectively serve his own interests il
thereafter he makes cotton his > ser
want, not his master. One of your
ablest and most far-seeings publicists
| declared not leng ago, with careful
/ weighing of his words, that it would be
! infinitely better. for the South if it had
never. raised a, bale of cotton. He no
:doubt meant that, by permitting it
self to become a one-crop section, the
tSeuth had fallen into the habit Of
thinking in terms of cotton, of basing
its activities on cotton, and Of raising
1 cotton primarily for the purpose of
/ buying foodstuffs from other sections.
Fit is full time that such q. system
should join the things rejected, be-
cause they have been weighed in the
balance and found wanting.
What should take its place. Adop-
ton of the balanced, well-consid idered
methods which one Of your agricultur-
al leaders has aptly described as
safe farming BY safe farming is
meant the planting OF a sufficient
acreage of food and feed crops to sus-
tain the. family and the livestock, and
the remainder to cotton, where the:
latter can be grown to advantage ana
with profit. Thus the planter secures
a rotation OF crops on the same land,
and by so doing conserves and, main
tains soil fertility, which, as you
Know, is rapidly exhausted by plant
ing land continuously, to one crop. In
other words. have constant care for
the quality of your soil, thus growing
larger and better crops on fewer
acres. Produce on the farms Of the
South the food and feed of thesSouth-
The man who stakes his all on
single crop is gambler in futures.
The cotton. grower should guard
against the disasters which are the
penalty of such gambling by first Sc
curing from his land. the living Of him
self and family, and then devoting the
balance to that wisely equalized pro-
ductio7 which is the surest guarantee
of prosperity.
| Indeed. the policy which. in the
long run, will assure the largest
measure of profit for both grower and
spinner is the one which, with due re-
gard for the increase in consumptive
demand that keeps pace with growth
in population, will from year to year
make reasonably certain q crop of uni
form volume and quality. a bumper
crop one year and a small crop an
other means abnormal. prices When
it is followed by a bumper crop, the
spinner who has bought his raw pro-
duct at these abnormal prices faces
a demoralizing cancellation OF orders
or is compelled to fight for business
with competitors quick to take advan-
tage, of the slump in values, which in
= EktdUIy waits upOu dill .SAlidOi Oi1t<liy
!! crop. And then the grower poorly
rewarded for his time and labor,
blames the shipper and the spinner
because the bottom, soto speak, has
fallen out of things.
Let the growers first thought be
not the number of acres he shall Or
shall not plant to cotton, but the
quality of. the cotton he is to, grow on
his land Let him exercise the utmost
care in the selection of seed. Cotton
of less than seven -eighths of an inch
staple, as you know. is of about the
same spinning value as the bulk Of
the cotton Of India and China. When
you raise cotton of. this grade, you
place yourself in competition with the
inferior product. and the. under-paid
labor of the Orient. Is it not, there
fore. economic folly Of the first order
to grow cotton in America that, by
reason of its grade and staple. ranks
in the markets of the world with the.
nf 1rlS ~