The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1934-02-21
SHALL THE SOUTH BE SAVED?


The Monroe Enquirer says that OF the
nine townships in Union county New Salem
township is the most prosperous and Inc
ENQUIRER gives the secret of prosperity IN
that section of Union county in this SEN
Prosperous because for long
time the citizens of that section have grown
q minimum amount of cotton and a maxi
mum amount of foodstuffs for both man
and beast" ..-... i
The Enquirer then devOtes some space
to telling about the evidences of prosperity
found in New Salem township and closes
with the statement that this township fur
nished fewer persons for the CWA rolls
than any other township in Union county.
If the cotton belt as whole had adopt
ed the New Salem plan of farming several
decades ago and had continued the system
TO this time the people of the South would
be,enioying today much larger than the
present measure of prosperity; and there
probably would not be impending the
threat of Sovietization which throws sim
ister shadow over the section. At least,
there would not be now a reason or
shadow of an excuse for Russlanlzlng the
South by a federal force bill.
The Times-News is thoroughly famlllar
with the cotton belt and its problems, de-
spite the fact that it is not published III
the cotton growing country. This news
paper is familiar with the difficulties ana
valid reasons which have retarded dlVerSe-
fed farming in the cotton belt; and, a1ter
35 wears 3of study of the matter, and III
snite ofalI the reasons and excuses offered
nv cotton farmers for failure to diversity
and live at home, The Times-NeWs IS con-
fdent that every section of the South might
have been in the prosperous condition OF
New Salem township, Union county, N. c.,
if our people had willed to have it that
way. Z
If the federal government ultimately
Russianizes the cotton belt, the inhabitants
of the area will have brought it on them
selves and their section of the country. 1t
is true that the South was given Raw
Deal" in Washington for period of more
than sixty years, by legislation in the in
terest of great industries located in other
sections of the country and by tariff poll
cies that afforded special protection to fa-
vored sections and that were directly OPP
posed to the interests of the section pro-
ducing the country's greatest export crop !;
but that supplied the chief reason for a
change .inCthe South's agricultural policy,
when, 1T was found that there was no way
to break the hold of the protectionists OH
the United States government.
If the South had adopted diversified
farmifls-a live-at-home policy-25 or SO
years ago,~the production of cotton would
have been held to point so low that the
price, regardless of the export market,
would always have been satisfactory; the
growers would have received greater sums
for their cotton and having much less TO
buy in thesmarkets, would have been bill
lions efs dollars better off financially by
this time
However, it seems that millions of cot,
ton growers have not learned anything by
observation or experience. They declined
to adopt a better system of agriculture
after having tried the all-cotton system, ant
lost out with Notwithstanding the fac
that the SYSTEM was not new and untriec
bpt %as the system that prevailed in. tn,
South before the War Between the State