The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1919-11-13
cOrTON ASSOCIATION NEEDS
SUPPORT OF MEN OF EVERY
CALLING IN THE SOUTH.
GREAT OBJECTIVE IS PLANNED
The Price Of Cotton for Last Sixty
Years Based on Slave Labor and
Product Sold Below Cost.


South Carolina Division Of the Amer
tcan Cotton Association every farmer,
merchant, banker and professional
man who has not yet affiliated him
self with the organization.
The central committee Of the South
Carolina division has issued an ap'
poal to Join the association. Thousands
Of farmers, merchants and bankers
and professional men of the state
have already Joined the association,
the statement says, but there are
many who have not yet done so and
It is desired to secure membership
applications from all who have not
The American Cotton Association
il being organised in every state IN
tho belt, the statement says. North
Carolina expects to enroll one hun
dred thousand members. Georgia ex'
poets over 100000 members. Every
state in the cotton belt is being thor
oughly organized.
Means Much 10 Farmers.
The statement tells Of the plans OF
the association to force higher price
for cotton. The association plans
to take care Of "distress cotton" 80
that It will not flood the market in
the hrst months of the fall. It plans
10 establish warehouses in every sec
ton Of the belt in which the farmers
may store their cotton. It plans to
send agents to foreign countries and
arrange for the. direct sale Of cotton
abroad, thus eliminating the middle
man and the gambler.
Price Based on Slave Labor.
"The price OF cotton" says the
Abatement, "tor the last sixty years
has been based on slave labor, and
has always been below the cost OF
production.
consequently, the producer, large
", has lived on the basis OF laborer's
wages, and not on that OF legitimate
profit from supplying An essential raw
material.
LOW priced cotton has kept farm
ers I'D their families in slavery, their
children out Of school because they
must work in the cotton field. has
meant bad roads and undeveloped nat
ural resources.
The oaly way the farmer has
known to meet bis problem was to
make more low-priced material; vol
ume has helped him at times to exc
out an existence, without it he Is for
ever In debt.
The debtor farmer is today still
IN the majority. His children, from s
70 Is years old, are usually out OF
school, barefeoted and at work chop
ping cotton in the fields.
~The injustice, the unfairness OF 1t
cries aloud for remedy.
The American Cotton Association
is the remedy.
with cotton producers, business
and professional men, merchants,
bankers-aH the South-aligned in
their own interests, 1t will be easy
to apply it, and, with your assistance,
We are going to apply it.
Producers Entitled to Good Lvlqe.
"The American Cotton Association,
without organization. through various
agencies, has already saved the cot
ton producers Of the South s5oo,ooO,-
ooo-half a billion dollars.
But even that saving did not carry
them across the divide between profit
and loss.
1T was but a beginning, the pro-
ducer is entitled to profit over and
above his actual cost and must have
It.
"He Is entitled to a good comfort
able home; to decent and respectable
living conditions; to more than
cheap calico dress for his wife; to
reasonable schooling for his children.
Justice cries aloud for it. Prosperity
demands it.
'The same facilities, the same op-
portunities, yes. even the same lu3u-
ries, Just as rightly belong to the pro-
ducsr Of materials IS they do to the
man whe spins It into yarn and
makes It into cloth; or to him who
sells the finished product to the con-
sumner.
when the producer is enabled to
enjoy better living conditions, our
state and section will prosper as
they have never prospered before.
'It is the purpose Of the American
Cotton Association to see that these
rights are given-are restored to the
producer.
"How? Through his own organiza-
ton and the assistance OF the busi
ness men of the south.
Every business and professional
man in South Carolina, every banker,
eyory merchant, is vitally Interested
In the success Of the producer.
'Do you remember back in 1892 to
1894 when cotton went down to &c
o. nsunl!
nn,i-1- yo,, rocelI 1914 whAn