The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1919-09-18
HOLD TIGHT AND WIN THE
FIGHT

COllOli SlONihS SS@SSS Wv
pledge themselves to use their bes!
efforts in aiding the officers Of the
American Cotton Association to eS-
tablish in each county in their re-
spectiye States a corporation with
large enough capital to buy all short
cotton offered for sale at less than
the minimum price fixed by this con-
= vention and to pay for the same at
least one-forth of cent per pound
more than any other buyer will pay,
up to said minimum price, and to
hold said cotton and not sell the
same at any price less than such
minimum. The officers of the Ameri-
can Cotton Association are hereby
instructed to forthwith proceed to
form said corporation and to employ
force enough to establish at least
sixty per cent of said corporations
by October Is, 1919. The capital of
these corporations to be called for
when sixty per cent of all the coun-
ties of the Cotton Growing States
have stock subscribed. Said corpora
tions to cop1mence the buying of cot
ton as soon as each have collected a
sufficient amount of their subscrip-
tions to do business"
The plan outlined in the above resI
oluticn adopted at the New Orleans
meeting of the American Cotton
Growers Association will prove the
wise, expedient and practicable solu-
ton Of the problem if carried out, and
will bring complete success in fixing
and guaranteeing profitable prices to
the producers This plan should re-
vive the spirit of every doubtful
farmer, merchant, banker, doctor,
lawyer, or what not. who may have
grown dispondent over the prospects
of higher prices through organization.
The plan is simple and feasible
Il is the elimination of the thought
c. .ho-, who in the past have been
working constantly for the better
ment of the agricultural life in the
South. 1t was offered o: Mr.. L. D.
Jennings of Sumter, who is sue
cessful combination OF lawyer, I'M
er, banker.
Every citizen whether engaged in
agricultural, professional, Industrial
or commercial life in our county, and
in, every other county in the cotton
growing states, who appreciate the
opportunities offered by existing
conditions and who have the power
conception of duty one to an other
will, we think, endorse the plan, not
only by supporting it with his means,
but in service and by sacrifice.
1t seems to US that he who wilful-
ly refuses is either incapable of ap-
preciating the truth of the crisis
through which we are passing, or he
must be an unmindful man, so COM
pletely absorbed in the interest of
personal persuits of selfish endeavor
that he has forgotten the ideal hu-
man principle which was Divinely re-
vealed, and which teaches that we
are our brothers keeper, and that no
matter how prosperous one may be
he is no better than his unfortunate
neighbor, or even worse, unless he
seeks to help and uplift.
The South has been in industrial
slavery since the war between the
states. OT commercial doom was
one of the punishments heaped upon
US by the victors, and we have suffer-
ed much and WE have suffered long.
The time has come, however, when
Just God, who through world war,
is liberating his people nation by ma
ton and section by section, has not
overlooked the South. In our efforts
to halp our selves~H He has made the
task easier.
At last awakened and thoroughly
aroused, we began by acreage reduc-
ton, and if as it were for the sake
of our righteous endeavor and as an
endorsement of our determined attl-
tude. He has sent rains, boil weevil,
and numerous other insects, and has
given us crop so small that it can
be handled to advantage by those
who produced it, without the assist
ance of the trader to whom hereto
fore we have sold our birth-rght
for mess of porage.
This fifth short crop offers the
Southern farmer an opportunity that
will never come again. 1t is possible
to make another such crop, but i'm
possible to make it under such condi-
ton as exist today throughout the
world. All Europe and Asia are bare
of clothing, even the raw cotton from