The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1922-04-24
NO TURNING BACK.

Lately we have been reading john
sons "Life of General Nathaniel
Greene" We have been impressed
with the difficulties under which, as
commander of the Southern army,
General Greene kept up the fight
against the British. Oftentimes his
soldiers went into battle as naked as
they were born; at no time did they
enter battle. equipped to fight as were
their antagonists. The soldiers of
Greene's army were largely from the
militia, and these came and went al
most at will.
And, although General Greene won
no decisive battle in all his engage
ments as the chief commander in
this section, yet he rid the up-country
and finally the low country of the
British and confined its army in
Charleston. He ~persevered under diff
ticrties, and although at times great
~ disheartened and dispirited, he
kept up the fight.
American independence was at
length gained, and although it is
stated by all the historians that in
South Carolina the loyalists in a great
many sections outnumered the wings,
few men in South Carolina today
boast that in the great conflict for
the liberty of this country their fore.
fathers fought with the king.
A Parallel.
There is a kind of parallel to
Greene's progress in the fight which
the farmers are making just now for
the establishment of cooperative
marketing. They have fought these
many years under great difficulties.
They have met many defeats. They
have not won a single decisive vic
tory, but somehow they have contin-
ued to fight, continued to study their
problems, and have continued in
some measu to improve their con
ditions. Greene did not win the bat
tie at Camden, but the British found
it %eXpedient to move soon afterwards
towards Charleston, and while the
Farmers Alliance, and other farm
er's movements have not brought the
farmers industrial independence, yet
there has been progress and when the
battle is finally pitched Alright dein-
mite results will be achieved. And
that is what is now being done, un-
less we mistake the signs. We have
tried the politicians until we are sick
of them. Even those who are honest,
and who have tried to help, have
found that the government cannot
make the people prosperous. The
people may only prosper by their own
efforts, by their own good hard work,
their own good business management,
by attention to their own business.
From the politician we, therefore,
turn to the businesslike management
of our own affairs. That is what CO.
operative marketing means.
It means that we have at last form
ed a line of battle where we shall
succeed. There may be temporary
defeats here and there, but in battle
right always prevails in the end, and
good judgment in business affairs al
ways pays. We have begun the fight
to be the masters of our own destiny,
the trustees and administrators of
our own affairs. We are going to sue
coed. There was really nothing IN
patriotic in q man sticking to his
king IN the Revolutionary War, that
is, if he wanted to be the subject of
a king, and there is no blame to be
attached to those who honestly be-
heve they will prosper more by being
the subjects still of the cotton-buyers
and the cotton-users of the country,
but if we mistake not it will not be
five years until the man who does
not go into cooperative marketing
will either be ashamed to own it, OF
willing to admit that he was mis-.
guided either through ignorance
selfshness, or a general inclination
to do nothing but look backwards and
1.-. 1T xulak 1,e loon &c o.c