Year: 1878

little cotton talk. We have taken up this subject because 1t is one oi the greatest interests of the South and becanse not only oaF commercial interests arc involved in it, hut also the welfare and prosperi ty of our agriculturists--a class who are always complaining that their interests are overlooked, but Who have no ones to blame so much IS themselves for many of the ills and disadvantages under which they la bor. We will content ourselves this week, oG this subject, hy reproduc- ing the appended thoughts on this ladestion from the White Co. Record. We hope our people will peruse these articles which we shell lay be lore them from time to time, careful lv, and give the matter serious con siderution. Says the Record:

 Cotton ia low it IS true, but so is everything else. It is not ajwags the case, IS II is now, that bale oi cotton at eight or nine cents will buy as much of anything else as it used to do when it was worth twelve cents ot more. But have tne pro,lu cers of cotton an, right to complain that it is tow? Surely they can con tfol their own products If they will. Cotton has become a necessity-tbe world will have it. and will pay high price for it when it cannot be had fer q small oue. This was proved hy the price ofour cotton at the close of the war.

 No country can complete with our Southern states in producing this staple. During our civil war Egg pt tried it, aud sodid England in India, and other countries but their rlvairl has never seriously affected us and ncver will The farmers of the South are the most successful aHd the largest producers Of an article that the world is bound to have or thinks iS is which is the same thing What immense power this gives them, and what little use they make of 1t! To day they are completely Tn the power of the Eastern Gotten spectators, who lut the price np or flown as they please. King Cotton has given away his kingdom, as King Lear did, and has consequently iallen as low as he.

 We of the South have been going to school long time now to the hcst school teacher in the world Expe rience. Have we learned nothing? We See that we are no better than serfs and bondsnien, working for q hard master. We know that we could burst our bends as easily as Sampson did his. but we continue to toil on in handcuiis. How shall We free ourselves? By concert of action on the part of the Southern farmers, and in no other way. The power is thers--let them assume and use it.. Let them unite aud agree to raise all .he neeessaries of lie at hone, plant less cotton and huld it until they can get remuneratiye prices for it, and then they will be independent Of cot. ton spectators and of erybndy else. Let them get out of deht and stay out, and then they will not he compelled to sell their cotton eysry t.s,,, tI s,F ing it. Cotton will always be, and ought to be, the principal staple of the South, but let it he a surplus crop-that is, a crop only to be 1t tended to after the main business, the necessaries of life. are fuily pro vided for otherwise. Half the crop BOW made would bring as much, fl held, as all Of It now does. But tbe world wants all we can make, and would pay us good prices for 1t if we had the matter in our own hands.

 How to bring about the necessary concert of action is the question of the day. It IS of far more impor- tance to the South than any other question. In discussing the matter the other day with Mir. Coody, one Of our Representative elect, and others, he suggested the idea that primary elections be held all over the South to choose delegates to County con veptions, and that they shculd send representatives to State conventions, ann they to a grand southern Cotton Convention, to be held next spring at Memphis, whose business it should be to devise ways and means to bring ahout a concert of action upon this subject on the part of the Southern farmers, so that they may act to gcther for the purpose ol controlling tleir cotton crop themselves. instead of allowing Cotton Exchanges and spectators to control lt, as they have hitherto been doIng. We think the idea an excellent one, and We hope our exchanges will discuss the matter and thus bring the matter before the people. Something must be done or we will continue to be Giheonites forever.

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