The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1941-02-27
THROUGH
HAZ {
E Y
.
B BY
Hazel Brannon

OF fancy schemes to use the "cot-
ton surplus" and to reduce acreage
Of the fleecy staple.
The latest plan is to give away
to every farmer who reduces his
acreage $4,000 worth of cotton
stamps which he a use to get
cotton goods for himself and his
family.
The government plans to give a
way twenty-five million dollars
worth OF stamps to cotton growers.
Authorities admit that for every
dollars with of manufactured goods
there is only fifteen cents worth of
raw cetton used. Eighty-five cents
of each dollars goes to have the cot
ton processed, manufactured. trans
ported, wholesaled and retailed.
Thus every person handling cotton
goods makes more than the man who
grows it by the sweat of his brow
and the aid Of a mule. The worker
in the cotton mill, the railroad and
truck lines which haul the cotton,
the wholesaler who handles cotton
goods and the storekeeper who sells
them, all make more money out of
cotton than the man who grows it.
If President Roosevelt wants to
do something to stabilize business
in this country and do away with
relief organizations forever he
should try placing the price of cot
ton on a parity with the wages paid
labor. That would do away with de-
preston. And we wouldn't have to
be spending 35 billion dollars on an
armament program to keep business
and employment cup"
If the prices farmers receive for
their cotton had gone up as much
as wages of cotton mill workers since
1888 cotton now would be 27 cents
a pound instead of around nine cents.
Cotton mill workers are not over
paid by any means, either In 1888
they were working for the pitiful
sums of from even to fourteen dol
lars per week, most workers falling
in the bracket under ten dollars.
Now their wages start around twelve
and run as high as eighteen and
twenty.
Not being an expert we couldn't
say what effect acreage-reduction
in the supplementary cotton pro-
gram will have. 1t may make the
price of cotton higher and it may
not. But certainly the $4,000 to
100000 bales of cotton the govern
ment is going to use to make up
% billion dollars worth of cotton
goods is not going to solve the
problem of surplus. If is nothing
more than a small dole.
OF curse the farmer could be
a lot better off than he is now. He
can have a good living at home if
he will work at farming the year
round instead of half the year. He
can do a great deal to better his
own condition without the govern
ment setting parity for his crop at
all.
But if the President really wants
to solve our depression problems and
do away with SURPRISES he will try
to bring the farm level in line with
labor.
The government protects labor
with high tariff walls. But it does
little for agriculture.
There is something radically
wrong in u system when the man
who grows cotton cannot afford to
buy a dollar shirt and the person
working in the mill goes hungry for
the right kind of food.
Reducing acreage and growing less
isn't going to solve our problem of
jobs and plenty for the one-third
of our population in the United
States who are lifted, ill-clothed
and ill-housed.
A man who has figured u a
way to police the world and make
democracy possible for peoples all
over the world of all nations should
certainly be able to solve the prob
lem of an adequate living for all
the people of his own country, whe-
Their they be laborers or agricultural
workers.
We submit the problem to Mr..
Roosevelt.
a lady who has just returned from
Mardi Gras said that she did not see
as many drunk persons on the streets
down there as she does in her home
town on Saturday night.
Needless to say her home town is
in Mississippi.
Judge j. +. Barbour, Yazoo City,
in a speech before the Kinds county
Bar Association in Jackson Friday
night said "We are trying to enforce
a law that is unpopular and is not
favored by a large percentage of
our citizens. AS a result our citizens
have gone on a strike against its
enforcement"
He said in his opinion there are
only two things to be done. zone is