The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-09-30
ONE BILLION
DOLLARS A YEAR
/. [. Willett. in Augusta
Chronicle)


On September the 18th. 1922. the
Congressional Record carried a
speech of Senator John Sharpe Viii
Iams, a big Mississippi Delta cot
ton planter, on the boil weevil and
comment on it below:
The weevil, in fact, is the only
force in America that is continue
ously at work and who never lets
up. The weevil's menance is an
Insects menance and the greatest
menace in the world is. not the hui
man menace but the insect menace
and this menace is one before which
science auails and falls down. The
weevil menace is not a southern
orsa national question but a ques-
ton that concerns the whole world
In. this country here cotton fail
ure affects the landowners. the Ia
borers, the merchants. the banks
and the manufacturers but in g
Still larger way it affects every cot
ton consumer on this round world
Ia consumer whose chief comfort
depends upon reasonably priced
cotton England herself could not
pay her debts without the Man
chester cotton industry.
= How quickly the weevi1 works is
shown by the fact that deteriora-, :,
ton in the first two weeks of Au-
gust amounted to a hundred mil
lion dollars or a dollar for every
inf1ab abitant in this country. Today
boil weevil rayages equal the
amount of cotton which this coun-
Try manufactures and consumes
Today cotton production is falling
far behind consumption and one
can easily see In the distance a
clothing panic ali over the civilized
and the; unci"ilized world. Con-
sumption today, in fact, is, twenty
five per cent above the years crop.
While the boil weevi1 today is de-
stroying annually one billion dol
siars Of wealth yet this nation has
been Indifferent to the question.
Our national agricultural depart
n1ent, our congressrnen, and orir
national and state governments
have been either blind or have
been asleep at the post. Without
any doubt if the boil weevi1 >tra:y-
edy had been one not Of the south
but one north of Mason's and Dix
on's line then this question would
have been solved long ago.
There never will be a personal. q
southern state or a national agree
ment as to. the limiting of cotton
growing by means Of a Sahattical
year. Tc make the Mississippi
river a dividing line and growing
cotton on either side every other
wear would solve the problem until
| Science can come to the rescue Of
the country but there will be no
agreement on any Sabatticai year
IN cotton growing. But science
could do this job! Science how
ever to date has seen no personal
profit in trying to solve it.. Tne
question is necessarilysa solyaDle
one. The government itself has not
tried TO solve this problem. The
pitifui SUM of less than one hun
sdred thousand dollars per annuin
spent on weevit control, and most
! " consued in salaries. shows that
1.-The government has simply been
making child's. play of this anaz-
ingly;- monsirous matter.
Senator Williams believes that If
a sufficient reward were offered,
then individual scientists wonid
soiyezthe question and he believes
THAT this is the only way out of this
exceedingly great difficulty But
why did not Mr. Williams, as sena-
tor, offer a national reward, say o.
a hundred million dollars for an
adequate boil weeyil remedy If
science failed to find the remedv
then the nation would not be out
anything. ff science succeeded this
hundred million dollars would be
the best spent money ever puts out
by the nation. Senator Williams,
by not offering this reward. has
sfgpally failed just as every other
man who has touched the weevil
problem has also failed. True it
is that the weevil still lives. She
defes the world and her menace
increases with the years One
hundred million dollars world be
Tie greatest reward ever known in
the world. but the world has never
had before any agent that DESTROYED
annually one billion dollars worth
OF wealth
sacincl in Haiti Becoming Pros
porous.
Jacmel. Haiti, Sept. s.-Eaiti is
fast Wrestling from the island Of
Curacao. in the West Indies. the
monopoly in the expectation Of sour
orange peel used for the ffavoring
OF Curacao. Amer Picon and 9th
er liqueurs made in France, Hol-
land apd Denmark.
. IN July Jacmei exported 1885,