Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1923-09-17

Jersey Cow. So why, the blues?
There's no earthly reason why
we should not have profitable
fall and winter business. There's
no sane reason for being "down in
the mouth" except that in our own
minds we keep figuring how much
more we should have had, but the
rains, or the weevil, or negro mi
grafton, or other excuses.
Life is never a bed of roses.
There is always that SOMETHING
which comes along to upset plans.
1t is the MAN who battles through
and the GUTTER who lays down.
Thai very delightful philosopher
down at Tifton, Colonel John Her
ring, says it is a habit of man
kind to make a scapegoat of some
thing, and that SOMETHING is
whatever happens to be most prom
inent in the mind of the public at
the time. Mr.. herring continues:
Gust now all of the finan-
cial troubles of the Cotton
States are laid to the boil wee
vii. Yet we had similar trou-
bles before the boil weevil came,
and doubtless will have some of
them after the weevil has ceased
to be a novelty. We have been
in Triton only a little over a
quarter of a century, yet during
that time we have seen cotton
sell at four cents a pound, we
have seen printing presses max
ing make-shifts for money, as
they are doing in Germany to-
day, and we have seen banks re-
fuse to advance a dollar on a
warehouse receipt for cotton. All
this before the boil weevil came
and yet, in a few months after
those things took place, people
were going along as if such con-
ditions were unknown. In short
while, we believe, we will look
back upon the early fall of
1923 and wonder why people
were so easily discouraged and
smile that the way out of diff
ficulty was so easy. This lesson
will have been worth its cost
many times over if people will
profit by it. The country is
neither bankrupt nor facing
starvation-nobody has ever
starved in this favored land.
Lets lay aside for a moment,
the idea of the boil weevil as the
source of our troubles, and see
how much better we would be
situated were there no such in
sect: To begin with, the dam
age from flooding rains in this
section was as great as the dam
age from the weevil, but suppose
the acreage planted this year in
cotton had Welded normal crop
where would we be? The acreage
was above normal; Judging by
weld in past years, there would
have been a reasonable expecta-
tion of sixteen million bales. had
not the weevil interfered. What
would we do with such a CROP?
Thanks in part to a high tariff
wall and to our policy of Nation
al isolation, as we'll as to cendi-
lions across the water, we could
not reasonably expect Europe i
ITO take over six million bales \
American consumption might
be stretched to seven million
bales, but not likely. That would
leave a surplus of four or five
million bales, and where would
the price 90? To the bottom We
would have a crop on hand that
would not pay the price Of pick
ing, hauling to market, ginning
and warehousing. At least, the
boil weevil has saved the cotton
grower the expense of harvest
ing and marketing.
$50 cheer up. We have no
reason to believe that conditions
would be any better were all the
boil weevils in purgatory-
where so many of US would like
to see them. The weevil is not
to blame for our bad fix; it is the
one crop system, and we will re-
main in a bad fix, with a few
elevations just frequent enough
to keep the light of hope burn
ing, until we get away from the
one-crop system.
Don't make the weevil the
goat-and believe it."
Don't make the weather or the
boil weevil or negro migration
the goat. No man is whipped
until he admits to himself that
he is down and out.
We have lots to be thankful for
and the future is bright. Spend
economically, pay your bills, and
lay a little aside for the rainy
day.