The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1920-01-17
TINE re BUILD
WAREHOUSES;
Every County in the South
Should Provide Storage
For Cotton Produced


Columbia, Jan. Pr. NJ. Mixson.
president Of the South Carolina Cot
ton Association, has received a letter
from w. c. Turner. vice president Of
the Memphis Terminal Corporation OF
memphis, Tenn, in which he declares
that that foundation should now be
laid in every single county in the
South where cotton is produced, for
a local warehouse to care for the cot
ton of the producer as, fast as cotton is
sinned the coming season, conducted
under the laws OF the department OF
agriculture Of the United States, or
under the laws of the State in which
this warehouse is conducted"
Tribute is paid by Mr.. Turner to
the work that has already been ac-
conlplished by the American Cotton
Association and to j. Skottowe Wan
namaker, president Of the associa-
ton
|. The letter from Mr.. Turner 10 Mr..
Mixson follows:
The writer has followed very close
ly the cycle Of events in the cotton
business for many, many years.
He has been the rise and fall Of
the many, many attempts that have
been made throughout our glorious
Southland, to better the conditions
OF the cotton grower and to, in ev-
cry way. emancipate the South
ern producer from his absolute
bon dage, for the past fifty ears:
"Re has followed, step by step, the
efforts OF a great many people, and
has witnessed. as have you and all. OF
the other state leaders of the Amer
ican Cotton Association. gradual
setting aside Of each of these efforts
one after the other and has anticipat-
ed. long before the fall has taken
place, the gradual falling back, as if
in desperat tion, of those who have
made sincere efforts, on correct lines.
Therefore, when the American
Cotton Association organized, and be-
gan, Immediately at its birth, to CO.
ordinate and to blend and to assemble
all Of the interests connected with the
origin Of COTTON, from the planting or
lllS S6cU W ltiS COAottIttl|l&cAi So eANN
mill, Of this, Americas gold produc-
ing crop, the organizers Of this or
ganization, the merchant, banker, the
capitalist, the warehouSeman, and, IN
fact, every man and everybody living
within the belt. were suddenly
awakened to the fact that they and
each OF them, and all Of them, in all
of their waking and their sleeping
hours, depended for their means Of
stsstenance upon the work in the cot
ton fields throughout the surrounding
country. and an at once, ali of the
communities Of the South seemed to
have realized, for the first time, that.
after all, every morset that they and
their children consumed, every COM
Portable dwelling that they occupied
as; their home in the city, every
sehoel book from which their Children
were taught from the primer at the
country or city schools and, through
,heil. entire lives and through their
higher educational institutions, when
analyzed, the heretofore insignas-
cant little white fake Of cotton
was responsible for all they had in
this world to enjoy. ~
AT first, rany bankers and many
meschants looked ,upeI, this rorganiza-
ton as one Of the usual seemingly
fanatieal efforts OF certain irdivitt-
uals who desired notoriety or public
;ifyy for personal reasons
When Mr.. j. Skottowe.. Wanna
maker was made president of this as
seciation, as usual, many thought
that he, like Others, aspired to poll
teal emnence.
..llour hy hour day by day and
week by week, this idea was gradual
]y Gsslpated.
President Wannauaakcr's sincerity
in the eaase that he was chosen to
lead so permeated the minds and the
efforts of his able assistants, that like
the mighty avalanche, that Knows no
master. this organization has doomed
along. carrying everything before it
until it stands, where it rightfully be-
longs pre-eminently an integral part
of every Southern freside and master
OF. everything that is right in connec-
ton with the cotton production.
This is written to you and all OF
Won for the purpose, if possible. OF
irnpressing upon you and each OF you,
the Importance Of the fact, that your
presid dent. although great man,
must not be left alone in his efforts
10 brild up and create and perpetuate
so extensive an organization.
III is the privilege OF the writer to
assist a little, in his simple way.
i Each and ali OF ts must absorb
the fact that, rs leaders IN this glor-
ious cause. we must not stop one mo-
ment in creating and perpetuating