The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1922-09-28
Would Skip Year In Cotton Crop.


! D. Smith Of South Carolina, announc-
es that he will introduce joint house
and senate resolution providing for
cooperation between the federal gov
ernment and cotton producing states
in making it possible for the South
to forego the planting and growing
of cotton for one year. The object
of the proposed resolution will be the
determination of the boil weevil by
eliminating the only plant on which
he feeds.
The proposed resolution will preci-
pitate extensive discussion provided 1t
| is ever seriously considered in con-
gress. Senator Smith denies that the
government has the right or power
to dictate to a sovereign state what
1T shall not plant. He holds, however,
that sovereign state may so dictate
to its citizens, or that its citizens will
voluntarily and unanimously agree to
grow no cotton with the understand
ing that the federal and state gov
ernments will pay q certain premium
on every acre planted IN crops for
which there will be no money markt.
The South Carolina senator holus
that if the states east of the Missis-
sippi river would plant no cotton one
year, and the states, west of that
river would plant no cotton the sue
ceeding year, the boil weevil would
suffer determination.
Government reports recently pub
lished proved that nothing has been
devised capable of coping with the
weevil. He destroys a third of the
crop at cost of S3,O00,000,000 per
annum. Senator Smith declares that
unless he is exterminated, it will be
impossible, in the future, for the South
to produce cotton and clothe the world.
He made the point that the prob
lem is not sectional but national and
international. He declared that if the
South is deprived of its only money
crop, the South would be eliminated
as a market for the manufactured
products of other sections. He be-
holds the South which has weathered
the storms of centuries, destroyed by
an insect.
Southern senators all admit that
something" is wrong. For the South
with a monopoly demanded by the
civilized world, is miserably poor as
far as its real producers Of that
monopoly are concerned: But South
ern senators have never been able,
in recent years, to define the trouble
in such wise that the world would
accept without question the definition.
The same is true respecting remedies
suggested.
Senator Caraway Of Arkansas,
THINKS the trouble is found in the
fact that the Southern producer is
at the mercy Of stock exchanges.
He would abolish the exchanges, but
would not regulate them as Senator
Dial of South Carolina would regu-
late them-that is, require them to
deliver that which they agree to de-
liver. Senator Heflin Of Alabama,
has cried, "Cut of the heads Of the
exchanges" But in the senate COM
mittee on agriculture, he agreed that
ESenator Ransdell of Louisiana, NOV
ing in the interest Of the New Orleans
stock exchanges, write the adverse
report on the Dial bill.
Senator Smith Of South Carolina,
deploring the condition of the South
en planter-and he is one, himself
opposes the Dial proposition on the
ground of his fear that a differentia-
ton as between grades would imply
difference in the value of cloth pro-
duced from different grades. In adj
vocating the abandonment of cotton
planting in the South for one year,
Senator Smith referred to the out
rageous fact that the price of cotton
is set by manipulators in Liverpool.
Dial says the manipulators are in
Mw YEk.
The idea exists that there are ma
nipuNors in both centers. Southern
As can not get together in determin-
ed effort to prevent manipulation.
There is no attempt on the part of
anyone to deny that for the failure of
Southern senators effectively to legis-
late in the interest of cotton, Southern
senators are solely responsible.
Senators from the West are will
ing to act respecting cotton just as