The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-03-04

= :
The Southern Farmer Tries
Cooperative Marketing :
* = = *
By SYDNEY d. RUSSELL
gsnserieas greatest nberty-lover Americas
6 greatest SAMPLER Americas gamest loser, the
who .endures Hardship debt and isolation in order
think himself the nonarch he surveys upon
his few acres. and clings at any sacrifice to his
3 knsdo dom-the Southern farmers waking.
s from dream
Cor q generation he has dreamed he was the most
Independent man on earth. through the hard
3 Years that have been relieved by flashes of
prosperity.
In the suGi len aafe Of high prices for cotton and
tobacco and with the first taste of prosperity
i hifherSo unknown.SWRe war demands brought 40
cenS cotton. dollar tobacco was common. thousands
and tobacco growers approached
standard OF living the Southern farms which
angh5 compare switiss1he advantages of city dwell
the fall of 1919 cottoa-fields held fortunes
s the log tobacco barns became the owners
ltouses. filed Nith golden weeds which yielded
from S5G0ssos S1sGga for curing, and the South
farmer. thinking he had come into his own at
6 last spent money like drunken sailor Tour
ms cars supplant &c. horse and buggy. Thousands
q who had gone afoot or ule-hack' began to race
upon the roads la: new and shining Fords.
Meanwhile q. solid gain made in thousands
OF Southern homes toward higher living levels than
: had hitherto been reached by the great majority
cotton anu tabacco farmers. Houses were paint
yards improved; children We're taken OF
cotton fields and log tobacco barns and sent to
school time while thousands of tenants pulled
themselves by oge crop into the class.
Prosperity had come. but only like a passing
dream, and Sonthsrn farmers felt again such
losses i8-eent cotton and 25-cent tobacco
= brought when produced with the high cost Of Ia
bor and fertilizer which followed boom times.
Il Isalie a.sakenin@
AFiIhn az year after the crash OF prices cotton
planters and tobaeco-srowers looked about and
@ f0Rnd themselves Staggering under crop mortgages
aeain. and Ia abering to meet their debts. In des-
8 p4saIion they took account OF stock.
The Southern farmer found The independence,
which he had made fetish. pitiful delusion. The
y rampant irdivid ualisrn which he boasted his
one ina ieniable right. he sees today as his most
n the game he called 2 gamble. and where he
took his losses Like sport. the cotron-Dlanter
iobaceo- grower found the dice were loaded. and
that the stakes which he PLAYED four times
eaS.ef i've 10 Others who organized TO Win.
Common to every cotton and tobacco market
the SoGth,@Where growers dump their products
& down public auction and take whatever price
the specuisIive buyers give, the following
cases which recently occurred in Georgia and
North Carolina
farmer selling a pile of tobacco on the Wilson
satisfnd he asked "a Wilson resident to sell il in
Che tobacco. for which 3 cents
svas bid when first offered. brought 67 cents the
day the same market when offered by ar
other man The market mentioned is the largest
bright tobacco market Of the south. but similar
instances could be multiplied BY the thousand and
occur daily troass,ot the cotton and tobacco belt:
recent letter 10 a leading Iarm journal OF
North Carolina shows clearly why the growers wish
& TO change the eotton-selling game:
About Ma. 1st dseafred bale OF cotton 10 town
w. %bS-a ehftye, hera Sta nr
the first one that shdnght. He had new man TO
grade it for him. He showed the sample TO the
grader and bid seven and quarter cents for
liz grabbed the ss.,np1e away from HIM and went
20 The nesf one He insisted that tell him what
81 ahad been hid It'd him while he looked at it.
Then he said it was worth eight cents all right
ssI went to the other He looked at 1T and
said would give ten and q half cents Tor
81 sold it TO him.
Now for the rest OF my experience The man
who ,onsFt my cstton at ten and half cents threw
if on his and that evening sold it TO the
sb..ser who first bid on it. and who only offered
me seven and a quarter cents. don't know what
the last man gotSfor it. but | have no idea that
he lost any money on It,
For years the souTaern farmer boasted Of his
skil IN playing a lone hand. but looking back he
sees that he has always paid the profits to the
s.reups that are eoIained against him in the game.
He sees that he has his children in the game.
has called his wife TO help him WIN. has worked
from dawn to dark. from year 10 year. and sadly
smiled ct losses when he let the other fellows VINO
have put their heads together make the rules and
6 take the winnings:
Seeking the Way Out
So IN Virginia and fhe carolinas with more than
,sys cotton and tobacco farmers carrying crop
n,orfeases the growers met in desperation al the
onening of the markets in the fall OF 1920 when
1fe~prsces of their product cut in half or to
third.
many places IN the south gins burning.
rrarehousesS c..osns.@ while farmers We're mobilz-
is, aI,r.os, every county in the cotton and to-
Haacco belt throughout the fall OF 1920.
With angry protests futile plans ahd confused
Il sa,,,sc, me farmers who gathered III meet
;nes seemed hopeIessly befuddled. Slowly. but
:,,.r.ac;,e, clearness some big ideas doomed