Title Registered In U. a Patent Office.)
Vol. xxiu. no. m
RALEIGH, N. C, OCTOBER 15, 1808
Weekly: $1 a Year.
SHALL THE SOUTH SURRENDER $150,000,000 IN GOLD !
That is What Will beD one if the Cotton Crop Goes at Present Prices These Prices are Lower Now, Comparatively, Than in the Days When
Six Cent Cotton Covered Our Farms With Mortgages Every Loyal Son of the South of Whatsoever Calling Should Strike Hands With
the Farmer in His Fight for a Better Price for His Cotton.
The flippant way in which some people speak of
the present yilUc Ui wituu- aiuca vua. iucjt xj
not fully appreciate the gravity of the situation.
This is intensified when they say that the farmers
have put the price of cotton too high and that it
is now seeking its natural level. Such people
leave the impression that they are not looking be
yond their personal interests and therefore fail to
?pp the stream of gold that annually comes to the
South from foreign countries in exchange for her
cotton crop this amounting to hundreds of mil
lions of dollars, which is the mainspring to all
business life and activity in the South. Curtail
this inflow of gold and we at once cripple every
industry in the South. Augment it and at once
the electric effect is seen and felt in every line
of industry. '. " , .:
A Loss That Will Paralyze the South.
The price of cotton is to-day 2 i cents per
pound less than it, was one year ago. ; If this de
pression in price is to continue throughput" the
season it will mean a loss to the South on a 12,
000,000 bale crop of 1 5 0,0 00,0 0 0, a sum equal
to more than -halt of the capital invested. in, the
cotton mills of the entire South; likewise a muh
greater sum than will be spent in the South this
year for public education.
These illustrations are given to more forcibly
caused by the present depression in prices, and
irv on A ad -trrvn r o rrvit c?rv o A Ckt ty n Q t"l fY Q TYlrtTl G? nil T
people, irrespective of vocation, that it shall not
be so. -
What Causes the Depression?
For the past few years the South has been en
joying an unprecedented prosperity due entirely
to the good prices received for the cotton crop.
It seems that the cotton-buying world has decreed
that this age of Southern prosperity shall not
longer continue. As evidence qf this there was
during the summer a report sent to the cotton
factory centers of the world stating the Southern
cotton cron would annrrwrimatft 1 6.000.000 bales
and the prediction made that the price would go
to eight and possibly as low as 6 cents per pound.
Such a report very naturally demoralized the cot
ton trade and everv manufacturer wantine to get
in on the ground floor was unwilling to lay up
stock, and so curtailed production and bought cot
ton from hand to mouth, continually looking for
lower prices. Another factor in depressing the
price of cotton is the closing of the Lancashire
mills in England. These mills are said to repre
sent half the spindle capacity of that country;
consequently their closing will very materially af
fect the prices of cotton.
Xet the Farmers Stand on Their Manhood and
Hold for Better Prices.
Such briefly is the situation. What are the
remedies? An easy question to ask, but a far
-more difficult one to answer. : ;
In my opinion, the first thing necessary is for
the .cotton farmers themselves to determine in all
their might and manhood that they will not sell a
kale of Cotton at present prices except to satisfy
existing obligations; and then first endeavor to
store the cotton and get advances on it to meet
the necessity of the occasion. As long as suf
ficient cotton to meet the requirements of the
n"lls k offered there will be no need for them to
advance prices. Therefore hold the cotton off the
market until the surplus is worked off. If the
cotton mill men can not sell their goods .they can
not be expected to buy cotton at its full value, so
the thing to do is to not offer any cotton for
sale until the trade wants it at a price -that
will justify the farmer to sell.
Price Lower Now Comparatively Than in the Days
of Six-Cent Cotton!
At present prices the purely cotton farmer is
making no more money on his cotton than he was
ten years ago when cotton was selling at 6 cents
I
V - .
, . .. .
i
T B. PARKER.
Mr. Parker teas a leader in the cotton holding movement
that culminated in the New Orleans Convention in January
1906, and it was upon his motion that the Convention took
Us stand firmly for ten cents although cotton tea then sell
ing far below that figure and won its fight, as all the world
now knows What Mr, Parher lias to say of the present sit
uatlon urill be read with interest throughout the South
per pound. At that time corn, meat, labor, 'and
other things that the cotton fanner buys was sell
ing at but little over half of the prices they are
now bringing. Six-cent cotton at that time multi
plied mortgages on the cotton farms of the South.
Notwithstanding the few years of good prices we
have had have enabled most farmers to pay off
the mortgages then incurred, a continuation of
present prices and conditions will bring about a
repetition of those days. For that reason the
manhood of the South should be against low priced
cotton. It is not yet time for the South to assume
the role of a philanthropist and sell cotton for a
price less than the cost of production so as to fur
nish the world with cheap cotton goods.
Stand as a Unit, "Loyal to the South, and Save
Your Own Prosperity.
Do we want farm values to increase instead of
decrease? Do we want factories of various kinds
to multiply and enlarge in the South? Do we
want to educate pur children and beautify our
homes? Do we want an air of prosperity all over
this Southland of ours, with new life, vigor and
activity into every line of business, vocation and
profession? If so, let us without regard to voca
tion be a unit, loyal to the South and her every
interest, and save to her this $150,000,000 an
nually by maintaining the price of cotton at a
remunerative figure so that .prosperity may con
tinue to smile on our people.'
Let not the farmers be fooled another year by
the siren songs of those who tell them the world
will take at good prices all the cotton they can
produce; but rather let them first see that their
crops are so diversified as to insure to each farm
er a sufficiency of corn, meat, and other products
(Continued on Page 4.)
SEED CORN.
Of course, if a farmer has not planted a seed
patch, and has not studied it and attended to the
breeding all summer, he should make the selection
in the field in the fall, but he will seldom get corn
like the ears he selects in this way, for the grains
have been fertilized by the pollen all around them,
and he will get more of the style of corn he re
jects than what he selects. I am glad that men
lik"eHenry Wallace are coming to agree" with me
in regard to corn shows. As now managed, they
only serve to show that one man has prettier
shaped ears than another. We learn nothing at
all about the plant that, bore the ears, nothing
about its ancestry nor the methods used in breed
ing it. And the bigger the ears the more likely
they are to get a prize, though these large ears
are almost Invariably the only ones on the stalk.
With the whole plant shown, we would learn
something about the corn more than the particu
lar shape of the ears. ,
W. P. MASSEY.
; A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK.
Let every youth aim, first of all, and most of
all, at self-mastery. Without it he must be base
and miserable. With it he can not but be happy.
Without it other things are but "gifts of the evil
genii, -hich are curses in disguise." P. W.
Farrar.
WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS WEEK'S
PAPER.
An Old-Time Corn Shucking. . 7
"Any Fool Can Raise Cotton" ...... . ....... 4
Rural Carriers and the Road Congress. ...... 13
Common Colics of the Horse and How to Treat
Them, Dr. J. C. Robert. . . . . . . . . ... .... . . 10
Deep Plowing Better Than Shallow. . . . . . . 9
Hogging Off Corn How It Will Pay, Chas.
M. Scherer 11
How to Harvest Peanuts. ; .... ... ..... ... 12
How the South May Win Leadership, Clarence
H. Poe ;. . . ......... . . 2
How to Improve Your Farm Without 2- 8 2 9
How; to Mate Brown leghorns, Uncle Jo. ... . 14
Let thiSun and Wind Through Your Bedding 6
Live ' Stock at the Virginia Fair, Prof. R. S.
Curtis v ..... .Tr. 5
$424.40 From an Acre. . . . . . ... .......... 15
Pecan Growing in the South, Prof. W. N. Hutt 15
Put in Your Underdralns Now, A. L. French . . 3
Shall the South Surrender $150,000,000 in
uoia r. a. rawer i
Sixteen Ways of Fighting Consumption . , . ... 3
Solving the Humus and Nitrogen Problem . . . 9
Two Greatest Lessons Europe Teaches . . . . . . - 2