Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-05-11
Il Georgian's SerUices to
The SouthS Cotton Gr00Uers

The OOUth COTTON Gf01CerS
II produced from the Sylvania Telephone
A@ an article by Judge w. H. Roykin, =
Screven county, one of the States leading
planters and highly regarded citizens, touch
ing Senator Hoke Smiths services to South
ern cotton growers. Now that the dust and
heat of the preferential primary are over, so
that facts can be viewed in an impartial and
impersonaI light, the record to which Judge
Boykin draws attention deserves to be con-
sidered, not as a matter of politics, but Of
simple justice and truth. Those who in the
recent campaign opposed Senator Smith most
emphatically can join now with those who
supported him, in reviewing matter which
deeply concerns their common interests and
lies at the vitals of their States prosperity.
Whatever our politics, we of this region all
know that cotton as the South's chief money
crop plays decisive part in our business o.
well as agricultural welfare, and thus affects
the happiness of millions of human lives.
Given fair yield and a fair price, the grower
thrives; he pays his debts; he stimulates
trade and stabilizes finance; he improves his
farm and his familys living conditions; he
sends his sons and daughters to college; he
literally supports movements for the better
schools; he prospers, and business prospers
with him. But if the price is such as not
to pay the cost of production and leave him
margin of earnings for other needs he SUI
fers and business suffers with him. Hence
the farreaching Importance of a. fair deal for
the producers of this basic commodity By
falr dear we mean market free from IN
warranted restrictions, protected against par
as1t1c speculation, governed as far as posi-
BILE by the natural economic law of supply
and demand Surely none will deny that cot
t.anters, along with the vast range of
business and human interests dependent on
their good fortunes, are entitled to this
much.
But we live on a pulling planet, where
sometimes the best of motives are berated
and faithful service dashed by enVys
tongue. Because GeOrgia's senior Senator
strove for a fair deal for cotton at time
when it's growers and their associates were
threatened with grave injury, if not disas-
ter, he has been criticised and even abused.
Because he urged the removal OF certain
foreign barriers against our cotton exports
barriers which had no warrant under inter
national law and against which the State De-
partment acting at the Presidents instance
had lodged vigorous protest, he was charged
with pro-German inclinatiOns. And, because
he combated movement designed to fix for
cotton price which would have proved ruin
Gus to the producer, he was charged with
that in that very season his colleagues in the
Senate provided additional place on the
Military Affairs Committee for the express
purpose of placing him on it, so jealous and
able were his labors for winning the war.
1t is not with those baseless imputations,
however, that we are now concerted, but
with the value of Senator Smiths watchful
and effective care for the basic interest of
Georgia's agricultural and business affairs
In the article to which we nave referred,
judge Boykin, after relating how the Senator
captained the successful resistance to the I'M
fair and uncalled for price-fixing proposal,
declares that this service alone saved the
farmers in Screven county thousands of dol
lars, and the State and cotton-growing belt
millions" How true this is appears in the
fact that when it was proposed, in the au-
tumn of 1918, to fix the price of cotton at
twenty or twenty-five cents pound, the sta
pie was selling at from thirty-five to forty
cents. Moreover, the cost of its production
that year had been in some instances not less
than thirty cents a pound Senator Smiths
effective work at that critical iuncture marks
but one chapter in five-year record of in
valuable effort in behalf of rightful cotton
interests. Prior to 1914 he was prime
mover in legislation which effected needfuI
reforms in certain practices of the New York
Cotton Exchange, practices that tended I'M
fairly to depress the price of middIing cot
ton. From the outbreak of the war in Eu-
rope on through the aftermath of the armis-
tlce, Senator Smith watched and worked to
protect the market for the Souths staple crop
against illegal barriers and ill-meaning ma
nlpulators, against injustice abroad and folly
at home, against the thousand-and-one mis-
fortunes and disasters with which this base
Oh MS peoples prosperity was Threatened
Think what one may of his policy in par
ticular instances, honest-minded observer
can deny that throughout those earnes Ia
bors the Senator acted with an eye single
to the good of Georgia and the South, and
that if he erred it was in excess of zeal for his
constituents rights and welfare. He sup
ported every measure, whether military
or economic, Fundamentally and with tai
ents that contributed much to the winning
of the great conflict. He asked no special
privileges for the South, no undue exemp-
lions for cotton growers; all that he asked
was equal rights and fair deal AS mat
ter of justice, therefore, and of honor, his
right-minded fellow Georgans, regardless OF
the political past future, will accord this
public servant of theirs the need of credit
and appreciation which faithful and effec.
tive work is due.