Show EUROPEAN FLEECY STAPLE MUST PAY RAN SOM INTO THE COFFERS OP WAR nation ring with arle of stricken industry by peter radford lecturer national union king cotton has suffered more fron the european war than any other ag rl cultural product on the american continent the shells of the belligerents have over bla throne frightening his subjects and shatter ing his markets and panic stricken the nation cries out god save the king people from every walk of life have contributed their mite toward rescue n ork 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 a bale bankers have been formulating hold ing plans congress and legislative bodies have deliberated over rellah measures statesmen and writers have grown eloquent expounding the inalienable rights of his majesty I 1 and presenting schemes for preserving the financial integrity of the stricken staple but the sword ot eu rope has proved mightier than the pen of america in fixing value upon this 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 war loss of and a balo of cotton brave enough to enter a european port must pay a ransom ot half its value or go to prison until the war is over hope of the future lie in co opera tion the farmers union through tha columns of the press wants to thank the american people for the friend sympathy and assistance given the cotton farmers in the hour of dis tress and to direct attention to cooperative methods necessary to permanently manent ly assist the marketing of all farm products the present emergency presents as grave a situation as ever confronted the american farmer and from the viewpoint of the producer would seem to justify extraordinary relief 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 for unless something Is done to check the invasion ot the war forces upon the cotton fields the pathway of the european pestilence on this continent will be strewn with mortgaged home and famine and poverty will stalk over the southland filling the highways ot industry with refugees and the bankruptcy court with prisoners AH calamities teach us lessons and the present crisis serves to illuminate the frailties of our marketing methods and the weakness of our credit system and out of the financial anguish and travail ot the cotton fanner will come volume of discussion and a mass of suggestions and finally solution of this the biggest problem in the economic life of america if indeed we have not already laid the foundation for at least temporary relief more pharaohs Phara needed in agriculture farm products baie no credit al perhaps can never have on ft per nent and satisfactory basis unless build warehouses cold storage alai elevators etc for without credit facilities the south Is f belled to dump its crop on the n at harvest time the farmers ani in the cotton producing hi for the past ten years vacated the construction of facilities we have built n period 2000 warehouses with i approximately b and looking backward the r would seem encouraging h forward we are able to than one third of the crop and bouses without a credit system lc 90 per cent of their usefulness I 1 problem Is a gigantic one too gr for the farmer to solve unalda must have the assistance of the bi er the merchant and the gover in production we have reached high water mark of perfection in i world B history but our market methods are most primitive in t dawn of history we find plowing with a forked stick but wf a system of warehouses under goer mental supervision that made U egyptians the marvel of for who has not admired the allon joseph and applauded the wisdom pharaoh for storing the surplus un I 1 demanded by the consumer but this age we have too many joeed who dream and abot enough J who build |