Show EUROPEAN WAR SHAT KING COTTONS THRONE FLEECY STAPLE MUOT PAY R RAN AN SOM INTO THE COFFERS OF WAR nation rings with cries of stricken industry nd by peter radford lecturer national farmers Far mera union king cotton has suffered buffered more from the european war than any other ag rl cultural product on tho the american continent the shells bhella of the b elliger ente have over hta his throne frightening his subjects and ob atter ing his markets and panic stricken the nation cries out god savo save the kingl people from every walk of life have contributed their mite toward rescue work society has danced before the king milady has decreed that the family wardrobe shall contain only cotton goods the press has plead with the public to buy it a bale bankers have been formulating holding plans congress and legislative bodies have deliberated over relief measures statesmen and writers have grown eloquent expounding tho the inalienable rights of ilia his majesty and presenting for preserve pre ins ing the financial integrity of the stricken staple but the sword of europe has proved mightier than the pen of america in fixing value upon product of the sunny south prices have been bayoneted values riddled and markets decimated by the battling hosts of the eastern hemisphere until the american farmer has suffered a weir war loss of and a bale of cotton brave enough to enter a european port must pay a ransom of halt half its value or go to prison until tho the war Is over hope of tho the future lies in co opera tion th the ar union through the columns of the press wants want sto to thank the american people for the friendship sympathy and assistance given the cotton farmers in the hour of distress and to direct attention to cooperative methods necessary to permanently manent ly assist the marketing of all farm prod vets the present emergency presents se is gravini grave a actuation as ever confronted the american farmer and from tho the viewpoint of the producer would seem to justify extraordinary relief drifts measures even to the point of bending the constitution and straining business rules in order to lift a portion of the burden off the backs of the farmer tor for unless something Is IF done to chock check the invasion of the war forces upon the cotton fields the pathway of the european pestilence on this continent will be strewn with mortgaged homes and famine and poverty will stalk over the sout southland bland filling the highways of industry with refugees and the bankruptcy court with prisoners all calamities teach us lessons and the ll present resent crisis serves to illuminate the frailties of our marketing methods and the weakness of our credit system end and out of the financial anguish and travail of the cotton farmer will come a volume of discussion and a mates mass of suggestions and finally a oo solution lation of this tho the biggest problem in the economic life of america if indeed we have not already laid the foundation for at least temporary relief more mora Phar sohn needed in agriculture farm products have no credit and perhaps can never have hae on a permanent and satisfactory basis unless N 3 build warehouses cold storage plants elevators etc for without storage and credit facilities the south Is compelled to dump its crop on the market at harvest time the farmers unions in the cotton producing states have for the past ten years persistently advocated the construction of storage facilities we have built during this period 2000 warehouses with a capacity of approximately bates bales and looking backward the results would seem encouraging but looking forward we are able to house less than one third of the crop and warehouses without a credit system lose 90 per cent of their usefulness the rho problem Is a gigantic one too great for the farmer to solve unaided TIP he must have the assistance of the banker the merchant and the government in production we have reached the high water mark of perfection in the worlds history but our marketing methods are most primitive in tho the dawn of history we find agriculture plowing with a forked stick but with a bontem of warehouses under governmental m supervision that made tho the egyptians egyptian the marvel of civilization for who has ban not admired the vision of josepp joseph and applauded the wisdom of i pharaoh for storing the surplus until demanded by the consumer but in this age we have too many josepha To sepha who drem and not enough Pha raolia bs who build ca |