The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1921-02-02
TOO MANY COTTON
DOCTORS JORDAN
Farmers Know Remedy - Can
not Be Legislated Into "a
Reducing Acreage.

In every great disaster OF depres-
sion OF any kind which comes sud
denly upon an unsuspecting and un-
prepared people, there Is always null
titudinous numbers of remedies pro-
posed. In the present cataclysm Of
the cotton situation there are num-
bers of well-meaning people propos-
ing all kinds Of plans for getting the
cotton growers out Of the pit hole
of low prices into which the value
of their staple has been precipitated.
A great number of Agricultural Doc
tors are diagnosing a case about
which they have no practical know
ledge and are prescribing theoreti-
cal remedies with which the patients
are asked to experiment. Among
the number. we nnd, of course, many
lawyers, who hardly know a cotton
stalk from an okra plant, but II Is
good time to get into the columns
of the press and let the dear old
"Hayseeds" know that they have not
been forgotten.
Some Of the guardians of our ag-
ricultural interests would force the
regulation Of cotton acreage this year
by the strong arm Of the law. The
acreage Of crops and the prices for
farm products cannot be controlled
by law In this country, which is the
home Of the free and the brave"
The cotton farmer wants to be a
sovereign when he looks over his
fields and pitches his crops in the
spring time. 1t is the only period
OF the year when he can be a SOW
ereign, unfettered and unafraid, and
he don't propose to have that short
respite of unalloyed rights, given to
him by this great republic, interfer-
ed with. He knows from past ex-
perience that in the coming fall,
when he takes the heecy white sta
pie to market-the result of his
years expenditure Of capital and la
bor-that he is certain to become the
most abjeet slave to the dictates Of
the buyers that exist in any country
Of the world.
When men grow from boyhood to
manhood in the cotton fields OF the
South and know that each year In
the future will copy fair the exper-
fences of the past. under their con.
tinued system Of all-cotton farming,
the change cannot be wrought by
law. Cotton farmers already know
the remedy which will relieve them
of the present depressed financial
condition. They know that fully
eighty per cent Of the cotton crop
from 1920 is still being held of the
market, with the cooperation of
their bankers and merchants. They
know that the heavy debts they owe
are for corn, meat. -four, hay and
fertilizers which were shipped into
their States to enable them to grow
big cotton crop. They know that
these supplies should have been rails
ed on their farms. They also know
that If another large acreage Is
planted in cotton this year, while
they are holding the 1920 crop be-
cause there is no normal market for
the staple, that disaster is certain to
follow in the footsteps of present A.
hancial depression.
The cotton farmers already know
the disease with which they are af-
flicted and they likewise know the
only spring remedy which will save
them from the financial undertaken.
That remedy is to cut cotton produc.
tion half in two in 1921 and to cor
respondingly increase the production
of food and feed crops. The REM
edy is simple. and instead of being
a sovereign only during the spring
time. it's adoption would make the
cotton grower a sovereign every
month in the year.
At the present rate Of limited cot
ton consumption, there Is now e.
nough cotton in the world to last the
spindles nearly two years, even IL no
cotton is planted at all this year,
SO there is no need to complicate the
proposition with all kinds of nos.
trums. A half crop Of cotton in 1921
and full corn-cribs and smoke hous.
es this fall Is the one and only So
luton of the problem, not only for
the present situation, but for all
time in the future. The cotton &C.
reage will be more heavily reduced
this year than ever before In the his.
tory of the industry.
Harvie Jordan, Secretary.
American Cotton Association,