Americus times-recorder., 1919-10-23
A sLANDER ON THE SOUTH.

Under the caption Poverty in The South "
the New York Commercial probably the most
generally read finance and market newspaper oi
the country publishes the following SANDER or
the South:
Notwithstanding the high prices paid for
cotton in recent times the South is one section
of the country into which prosperity has not
reached, at least so far as a large percentage of
the population is concerned The small pro-
ducer and the laborer, whether black or white
are being held down to the soil in poverty that
is unbelievable here in the North. 1t seems to
be the rule rather than the exception for thse
small producers to barely break even when they
have sold their crop and paid their yearly bills
and in this is not reckoned the labor of the far
and his wife and children. Their sole aim
seems to be to get out of debt at the end of the
season, even though they must begin Immediately
to run up a new debt for the ensuing season.
The question therefore arising is What be-
comes of the money the spinner pays and why
is it so little reaches the actual growerp The
answer is that the present method of marketing
the cotton crop is economically unsound, and
being so, forces a compensation in the hardship
and suffering the part of some class in the
community. The price of cotton hitherto has
been based upon labor so cheap as to be almost
negligible factor. 1t is the aftermath of the
Civil War conditions in attempt to produce
cotton with nominally free labor on an equiva-
lent basis to slave labor. The big planters of
former days have given way in many instances
to numerous small planters who have farmed
in hand-to- mouth way without resources or
facJ iS f0r ell %h
crops as soon as harvested, and it has been hu-
nature for the buyers to take advantage of
their necessities in forcing the price down to the
lowest possible point.
Among the Southern growers a great deal
is heard of the pernicious 'middleman. of para
sites, of the thieves of Wall Street, and the
cruel speculation on the cotton exchanges 1t is
natural for those who are oppressed to fight
against those whom they deem to be their op-
pressors They are not able to realize that they
are really oppressed by a system which has
grown up out of conditions and not through any
sinister design the part of those who operate
il. The crop has to be sown and stored and f.
nanced and those who are unable to do it must
yield to those who can. A Northern buyer
seeking to obtain cotton for as low price as
he Con sees Wlthln the Dale nOtnlng Dut COttOn,
for the heartaches and drudgery and disapp oint-
ed ambitions also concealed therein are not vis-
bic to his unsympathetic eye. The producer
knows they there and cannot understand
why they are not taken into account.
The remedy for these conditions lies in
the reform of the marketing system, which will
have TO come about gradually and only when
the producers have learned how to analyze it and
to apply natural remedies. 1t will have its basis
upon the ability to hold the cotton for distri-
button throughout the year as required, instead
of rushing it to market at the earliest possible
moment. This function is performed at present
by intermediates whose profit comes for the ser
vice thus rendered, the bill fo, which apparently
is paid Fy the producer. The South has large
problem upon its hands, for in the wake of this
poverty comes iiteracy and with it all the evils
*or which ignorance is Responsible
In this editorial placing the South in a falls
light before the world is some slight truth Tb
small farmer in many cases, owing to adverse cro
conditions this year, has been hit rather hard n
has been hit not because he raised cotton, but be
cause inordinatey wet weather and boil ,veevi
were combined against him and did not permit bir
to raise fair yield of cotton. There is sound b.
sis for the assertion in the article that the Sout
needs a change in the marketing of its cotton. Blu
the American Cotton association is coming il
being and is about to remedy that
AS to the assertion that prosneritv has ~