Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1920-07-21
Lever Favors Liberal Ware.
house Aid.

Asbury F. Lever, member of the
federal farm loan board and fol
many years representative in con,
gress from the Seventh district, hint
ed strongly last night that if q
staunch leader for the movement to
establish cotton warehouses by lib
eral state aid was not found in the
next two years that he would feel
called upon to canvass South Caro-
lima in the gubernatorial race with
this as his principal issue. Such
course would be great sacrifice to
himself, he said, but he added that
he was determined to see to it that
cotton farmer should be given all
the advantages of the warehouse act.
Mr.. Lever was in Columbia for a
few hours, en- route from Kershaw,
where he spoke yesterday, to Lex
ington, to spend Sunday at his home.
Mr.. Lever is speaking at a number
of meetings in the state conducted
by the South Carolina division of the
American Cotton Association, the
extension service of Clemson Col
lege, the state warehuse commission
and the United States department of
agriculture for the construction of
warehouses, the employment of cot
ton graders and for new members
of the cotton association
In these speeches Mr.. Lever is ad-
vocating a system which will, he
thinks, remedy the situation in the
form of warehousing arrangement
whereby the state is to furnish at
least half the cost Of the warehouse
and the community where it is built
the other half. To raise these funds
he believes that the state should is
sue 20 year bonds. He says this will
result in cotton being given credit
value under section 13 of the federal
reserve act.
"The problem of distribution of
cotton so as to bring to the farmer
its real intrinsuc value is not alone
the problem of the famer," says Mr..
Lever, "but likewise that of every
man, woman and child in the state
and of all classes, and, therefore,
every one should be interested and
should help bear the burden of Great
ing such agencies of distribution as
shall bring to the producer the real
value of his product by an adequate
system of warehousing. Exeprts have
said that storing capacity for $780,
600 additional bales is necessary to
give the state system which will
care for 35 per cent of the cotton
produced. This would cost $500,O0O.
This could not succeed by voluntary
cooperation, as the South has not
learned this lesson, and can only do
so if the state puts back of it its
great resources, as it is problem of
the state"
He advocates the state furnishing
at least one-half Of the necessary
funds for the warehouse system to be
raised by the sale of 20 year bonds.
The state, under the direction of the
warehouse commission, would select
the stragetic points for the location
of the warehouses, of which the pub
lie would be given notice. When any
community became able to provide
one-half the state should be able to
furnish the other half, he says.
eff the state through legislative
action should hold out this induce
ment to the communities enough
warehouses could be built in two or
three years to meet the demand, and
cotton will be given credit value un-
der Sec. 13 of the federal reserve
act, which at present it does not and
can not enjoy, and to make cotton
good collateral" says Mr.. Lever
The State.