The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1920-10-01
UNFAIR TOFARMER
follower PRICES
so SAYS COMMISSIONER OF AG-
RICULTURE.
Holds They Are Taking Advantage
of Situation-Says New York
is Blood Sucker.
That it is an outrage to start prices


skidding downward now, after farm
ers have bought their fertilizers, ma
chinery and farm equipment at high
prices, is the opinion Of B. Harris,
commissioner of agriculture Of South
Carolina, who, in statement given
out yesterday, pours hot shot general
" into the spectators who, he claims,
are trying to force farmers to sell
their cotton at ruinous prices.
Commissioners Harris statement,
in full, is as follows:
t'South selling here persistently-
that's what we read in the dis
patches telling how the price OF cot
ton is being manipulated. There isn't
a word of truth in it. The South IS
not selling. The only selling that is
being done in the South is by the
cotton mills, who are selling futures
to protect themselves. This is an
other of the mean efforts at decep-
ton. It has worked-as far as put
ting down the price of futures is con-
cerned, but I don't believe the South
is selling any cotton.
Some of the great dry goods
houses, they tell US, are cutting prices
so to 20 per cent. They are jesting
with us. What is a miserable little
cut like that? Why, shirt or other
garment that cost around $3.50 to S2
in pre-war times is now selling for
$3.50 to SIS. What would a little
cut of 20 per cent. amount to? The
manufacturers and dealers are yet
making handsome profits and are not
deserving any praise from the public.
Nor should the farmers receive any
blame. For they have been getting
none of these big profits.
Take Advantage Of Situation.
The spectators realize that. the
farmers must and wish to pay their
debts and they are trying to force
them to sell their coton now. 1t IS
an outrage to start to debating"
costs after the poor devil of farm
er has paid all of his costs. He has
paid the trusts high prices for fer
tilizer, high prices for machinery,
high prices for this and that and
everything that he has put into the
crop-and now that his time to en-
joy the fruits of his labor has come,
the prices are Debated! Why was
this not started Immediately after the
arnnist; ce? Why is it being done at
this late hour?
/ see that million and quarter
bushels of wheat were exported last
Friday, perhaps the biggest days ex-
portation in the history of this coun-
try, and yet the price fell II 1-2
cents bushel! Was that right? Was
it fair by any rules Of commerce?
The same day $4,000 bales of cot
ton were shipped to England, the
greatest one days expectation in the
history of cotton. And yet the price
fell cent a pound and has fallen
three cents since then. If cotton were
not moving across the water, the bear
spectators would say there is no
market for it. When it does move,
they put the price down anyway.
This crop has cost our farmers 81
to- 43 cents. Nearly half of the spin
dies of the world are in Great Brit
ain and yet the spectators of this
country are unpatriotic enough to
wish to see foreign spinners get our
cotton below cost of production and
Southern American farmers go upon
the rocks Of distress. 1t is shame
upon the name of fair trading. But
the farmers of the South are not eX-
pecting fair dealings any more.
Upon the island of Manhattan is a
gigantic mass of brick and mortar
and stone and steel; this thing they
call the city of New York. 1t has
sucked the blood of this country for
generations. In all Of its area there
is not enough produced from the soil
in the course of year to satisfy the
appetite of a canary bird. Yet, how
does this city become great? 1t is
because it feasts upon the rich things
dug out of the ground by the farmers
of this country.
Calls 1t Graft.
They may call it brains, they may
call it commerce, they may call it
anything they wish, but I call it
graft. They are blood suckers and
nothing else. They add not one cent