The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1921-12-09
HIT, BUT NOT HOPELESS


junfavorable and dolorous reviews
of the cotton situation that eminate
from time to time from the financial
centers of the north and east.
AS a typical illustration of this
type of depressing propaganda, we
,ite a recent issue of weekly mar
ket letter distributed far and wide
among it's patrons and correspond
ents by a leading brokerage firm with
headquarters in New York and a
branch office in Chicago, in which,
under the head of "Cotton Review"
lis a portrayal of conditions in the
states of Georgia, Alabama, North
Carolina and South Carolina.
After :expatiating upon the effect
of the boil weevil in reducing the
;"review" informs its readers that
II"the land in these cotton producing
states is: by nature poor and has been
further impoverished by continu-
Gus planting of cotton in the same
old SOIL" and that now, due to the
virtual impossibihty of, growing cot
ton, even blythe aid of "an extraya-
giant use of highly essential fertili-
zer," the very possession of this land
by the farmer becomes liability
instead of an assetF'
cat the present time," the letter
continues
eve are reliably informed that the
morale of the farmer in these four
old cotton-producing states has been
absolutely destroyed under the bur-
den of unpaid obligations dating
back more than two years for fer
tilizer along with his failure to pro-
cure from his energy, industry and
activity enough money from his
farming operations to even repay
him for the actual money expended
leaving him today discouraged, dis
satisfied and in a state of mental
physical, financial and moral col
lapse"
Such ill-advised exaggeration can
only be depressing and harmful.
It is true that the farmers of the
"cotton belt" have been hit and hit
hard, by the boil weevil; that they
particularly those who were so short
sighted as to have placed all or most
of their eggs in the cotton basket
this year-are experiencing difficult
ty in financing their operations, and
that some of the more improvident
of them are facing actual hardships.
But it is one thing to be down
temporarily, and quite another to
be down and out!
By the same token, widespread
rural financial difficulty, or even ac-
tual hardship, is one thing, and the
absolute" destruction of the rural
morale is something else!
The farmers of Georgia, the Caro-
liEas and Alabama, are long, long
way from being down and out; and
the morale of the cotton belt" is
equally as far from being absolute
" destroyed"
They are going through trying
period, just now; they are battling
with a difficult situation, but they
are going to win out.
This is not the first hard test to
which their spirit and their power
of endurance has been put; and as
for being discouraged and ready to
throw up the sponge, the farmers of
the south are not made of that kind
of stuff!
1t is notftrus that their land "is
by naturerpoor."
Some. of it is, perhaps, run down
and impoverished by repeated and
incessant cotton cropping; but it
is "by nature" fertile, and can cas-
lily and quickly be built up by a
process of systematic diversifcation
and crop rotation, and made richer
year by year.
Comment to the effect that these
farmers. are hopeless and disheart-
ened and utterly discouraged is all
bosh.
1t is well-meant, perhaps; but it