Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-11-18
JORDAN TO FARMERS
Noted Cotton Authority Speaks on
Cooperative Marketing.
SAYS 1T MEANS. FARMERS FREEDOM

!. Farmer Members in Oklahoma and
Texas Get More for Their Cotton
Than do Those Who are Not Mem
bers-Speaker Says Association VIII
Kill Cotton Exchanges and Make
Many Economic Chanses-Heard by
=. Representative Audience.
( Farmers Of Oklahoma who have
Joined the Cooperative Cotton
Marketing Association of that state
have sold their cotton at from $3.50
| to SIS more per bale this year than
have the farmers who do not belong
10 such association, declared Col. Har-
vie Jordan, secretary of the American
Cotton Association, who addressed a
number of farmers and business
men in the county courthouse We'd
nesday morning on the subject of Co
| operative Marketing. COL Jordan
who is himself a Georgia grower is
recognized generally as .one of the
foremost authorities on cotton in the
United States if not in the entire
world He spoke for more than a hour
Wednesday and he convinced his
hearers that he was thoroughly famil-
lar with cotton and other agricultural
problems. It was his first visit TO York
county, speaking in Rock Hill Tuesday
TO several hundred farmers and mer-
chants and in Yorkville Wednesday, to
smaller crowd
Col. Jordan who is touring South
Carolina in. the Interest of the South
! Carolina Cooperative Marketing AS
sociation now being formed, was in
troduced by DIR. ]. b. Johnson, of Rock
Hill. president of the York County
branch of the American Cotton Asso-
citation. His was a, plain, matter Of
fact talk, "a strictly business PROPOSE
ton without sentiment" as he put IT,,
that he wanted to bring to thp atten-
ton of his audience.
Introducing himself as Georgia
farmer who had studied nothing But
cotton in all his life, Col. Jordan eX-
pressed surprise that southern farm
ers who produce the greatest crop en-
the earth will continue to be content
live in agricultural slavery, a fact
that can be called by no other name,
when everybody realizes that every
agency that touches the cotton crop
with the exception of the producer
| oh
Poor Business Men.
orr trouble as farmers said Col.
Jordan, is not as producers but 1t Is III
the marketing end of the industry,
There we have made a failure. 1t has
been demonstrated during the past
! fifty years that the average FARMER
| knows nothing about the grade or his
cotton. lie only knows to- submit
absolutely to whatever value the local
buyer sees fit to put upon it and not
one local buyer in 200 knows anything
about the grade but judges its value
by color alone.
Now that the boil wcevil is invading
every section of South Carolina, ne
said. we have another enormous over
head expense and we in the south have
got to do what the farmers of some
sections Of this country and practically
every section Of Europe have been DO
ing for years. We must organize CO.
operative selling agencies or market
ing associations. You may be the most
successful cotton producer in YORK
county: but if you do not sell your
production proftably your years labor
has been in vain.
This cooperative marketing plan Is
going to be offered to farmers all over
the south. We are after cost plus "a
reasonable profit for farmers demand
which business men every where get
and deserve. We realize that we nave
got to give up our ideas Of individual
ism in marketing because it has been
) clearly demonstrated that as busl-
ness man the average farmer is totaI
failure.
Under State Law.
Ine SOulu Ndl OlIl6t SONN''
Co-opclrtive Association is ORGANIZED
under the laws of the state governing
the organization of such associations
II proposes to employ the best 'cottoh
eypcrts TO bc in charge that money
can buy. 1t proposes to market a cot
ton crop not in three or four months
as has been the policy of sou'hefi
farmers heretofore; but to take twelve
. months to market the crop. If it takes
twelve. months to spin a crop it shoulc
: take twelve months to market 1t.
Farmers Get More.
Already five yatcs have organize
associations similar to South Carolina
said Col. Jordan proceeding with hl'
exclamation of the cooperative idea
The state of oklahoma was the first Il
organize. That state produced 46O'oo'
ba'cs of cotton last year and approx
matelv So 900 farmers of the state
agreed To join together to sell thci
CROP They realized from $3.50 to 81
pcr bale more for their cotton than do
those Oklahoma farmers who were no
members Of tho association. The Stat'
of Texas has such IN association Will
nd In a.