Newspaper Page Text
THE SOUTH SAVES US.
It Is the Foreign Trade We Create
That Makes Us Solvent.
(The New York American.)
During the six years of the present
century the imports into New York
have aggregated in value $3,875,000,-
000, while the exports have stood at
$3,201,000,000.
Yet the six years of the twentieth
century have witnessed a great pros
perity in New York, as throughout the
rest of the United States. Had pros
perity been dependent upon a “favor
able trade balance,” this city would be
financially embarrassed, for it has im
ported in six years $674,000,000 worth
of goods more than it has sold to the
world.
In its grand totals of commerce
America can claim a “favorable bal
ance.” It is created by exports from
the Gulf ports. The cities that ship
cotton are the centers that sell to for
eign nations more than they buy
abroad. That export trade is not
stimulated by the tariff.
Protection to an industry that would
otherwise be throttled by the influx of
the cheap labor wares of Europe is
good political economy. The Old
World, however, raises practically no
cotton. A failure of the American crop
would produce industrial ruin in all the
manufacturing countries across the
Atlantic.
The Gulf ports last year, while the
manufacturing centres of the north
were experiencing an “unfavorable
balance of trade” with the world, im
ported, all told, only $59,079,000 worth
of goods and exported $409,962,961
worth.
THE CRY OF DISCONTENT.
(Dr. Felix Adler.)
The great cry of discontent is not
raised against unequal fortunes. I see
nothing socialistic in it. It is not the
game that thepeopehouldfo kOIN
game that the people object to but
unfairness in the game. It is the load
ed dice —the unequal opportunities for
fortune, the criminal wrongdoer in
business, the monopoly which forces
down the price of raw material and
puts up the price of its products; the
secret rebates which help the big cor
poration to crush the little one, the
overcapitalization and fraudulent capi
talization which have caused higher
rates on transportation.
*
GOVERNOR OF OKLAHOMA.
(The Ardmore Union Review.)
In July of 1905 the Union Trade Ex
change was organized at Ardmore,
auxiliary to the Farmers’ Union, for
the purpose of assisting the farmers
to hold their cotton for profitable
prices. “Well,” says some one, “what
had Mr. Cruce to do with the Union
Trade Exchange or the farmers’ cot
ton?” I will answer by giving the
facts in the case, then you can judge
for yourself. The Union Trade Ex
change had no money to finance the
distressed cotton. Mr. Cruce, who is
president of the Ardmore National
Bank, came to our rescue, and said
boys you can get all the money you
want to hold your cotton with, and
we did get all we wanted and at a
very low rate of interest. So when 3
farmer came to town and cotton was
down he just stored it with the
Union, got a check on the bank for
$45 on the bale and went home. This
cotton was sold by the Union for from
$7.50 to $lO a bale more than the
farmers could have gotten when it was
stored, thus saving the producers of
this section many thousands of dollars
at a cost of about 40 cents on the
bale. These are facts that every
Union farmer in the vicinity of Ard
more will attest to. Now this was no
electioneering scheme of Mr. Cruce’s,
for this happened long before he had
any idea of running for the office of
governor. Now don’t say that the
Farmers’ Union is going into politics,
for it is not, and we sincerely hope
never will, but the straws show which
way the wind blows and we believe
the farmers know who their friends
are and are loyal enough to support
them. At the time the farmers were
using Mr. Cruce’s money to hold their
cotton not one speculator could get a
single dollar from his bank with which
to deal in the cotton market. Such is
the record of the man whom the farm
ers delight to honor and will help to
make the greatest governor of the
greatest state in the greatest nation
on earth.
*
BRYAN ON UNIONS.
(The Joliet News.)
The labor union, rightly conducted
along the lines that will be of great
est benefit to its members, has no
more ardent champion than William
J. Bryan.
On his arrival in Chicago he dropp
ed in at the closing conference held
in connection with the industrial ex
hibit in that city. Mr. Bryan had not
expected to speak but his presence
was the signal for a unanimous de
mand for him to say something.
In speaking of unions he said:
“The unions have made some mis
takes, but they have accomplished
more good.” He paid a tribute es
pecially to the organizations of wom
en in this connection.
“When we consider that through
trade unions wages have been in
creased, hours shortened, and com
fort afforded the workingmen in
greater measure,” he said, “I think
we have a right to say the benefits
resulting from these unions cannot
be overestimated. Perhaps no other
force in the country ever has been
so effective for improvement in the
citizenship and general moral quali
ties of our people.
“But if we omit this phase of the
union energies entirely and consider
the labor organizations have worked
successfully, I believe we will find
enough to support my assertion. I
mean the activities of the unions in
respect to politics and the restriction
of child labor.
“The Australian ballot system, for
one thing, is largely due in this coun
try to the agitation of the trade un
ions. I almost feel safe in saying
that had it not been for the interest
taken in this reform by these organ
izations we might still be employing
the old system of voting.
“If the labor union had never done
anything else but raise the age limit
of employment for children in the
mines and factories of this nation,
I believe that accomplishment alone
would justify its existence.
DEMAND PURE FOOD LABELS.
(The Fort Worth Telegram.)
There are thousands of people in
Texas today who are suffering from
the evil effects of impure feeds per
haps without realizing what is the
matter with them. They have been
taking stuff regularly into their stom
achs that would corrode the inside of
a brass soda water tank and all the
while under the impression that they
were getting pretty fair eating. Hun
dreds have been hurried into untimely
graves, and the nefarious work would
have gone on but for this timely inter
ference.
The objection that pure food costs
more is absolutely untenable. When
It is necessary to slowly poison peo
ple in order to cheapen the cost of
living, it would be cheaper to at once
call in the undertaker.
THE WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
WHOM THE BIG CROP HELP.
(The Caster County Beacon.)
Secretary of Agriculture, Wilson,
makes some statements that need
analysis. He says:
“While value of all cereals dropped
about $40,000,000 below the total of
1905, and about $12,000,000 below the
total of 1904, the number of bushels
for 1906, which was 4,688,000,000, was
120,000,000 bushels above the yield of
1905; 570,000,00 above the yield of
1904, and 835,000,000 bushels above
the yield of 1903.”
These figures show a much larger
cereal crop than usual, and there was
more for foreign shipment and con
sumption. There was more for the
speculative market and the excess
helped to swell the balance of trade
in our favor. The balance of trade
in our favor helped the banks to pay
off their balances and there was mon
ey to our credit on the other side of
the water to be used by the wealthy
people who travel; but, as far as
doing any good to the farmer is con
cerned the big crop left him $40,000,-
000 poorer than the smaller crop of
1905. If the farmers of this country
could have held their wheat crop for
only a ten cent rise in price they
would have had $74,000,000 more to
their credit, and they could have caus
ed a raise in the price very easily by
keeping out of the market only a small
part of the grain. Political economists
have taught this for years, and grain
gamblers only practice the reverse of
this when they sell wind wheat.
Chalmers, in Christian and Econom
ic Politics of a Nation, vol. ii, page
240, says: “Let the crop of grain be
deficent by one-third in its usual
amount, or rather let the supply of
grain in the market be curtailed to the
same extent and this will create a
much greater addition than one-third
to the price of it. It is not an unlike
ly prediction that its cost would be
more than doubled by the shortcoming
of one-third or one-fourth in the sup
ply.”
In other words, the farmers by
raising 120,000,000 more bushels of
grain in 1906 than in 1905 beat them
selves out of $40,000,000, while ac
cording to best writers on political
economy, they could by holding a small
portion of their grain off the market,
have raised the price to even double
what they received.
The American Society of Equity is
teaching the farmers some of the po
litical economy that they fail to learn
in their agricultural colleges. The
professors of these colleges are so
busy trying to teach how to raise big
crops that they have no time to teach
how to dispose of them profitably.
ELEVEN OR SIX-CENT COTTON?
(The Atlanta Constitution.)
’ The farmers of the south have had
bitter experience with 5 and 6 cent
cotton. They have had a good taste
of the prosperity which comes with
11-cent cotton.
Which do they prefer—the 11 or
the 6-cent variety? The decision is
wholly with themselves.
“If we plant all our crop in cotton
this year,” says President Charles S.
Barrett of the Farmers’ Union, in a
communication published elsewhere,
“and GO IN DEBT FOR SUPPLIES,
WE MAY EXPECT TO SELL THE
CROP AT FROM THREE TO FOUR
CENTS BELOW THE COST OF
PRODUCTION.”
President Barrett is a practical far
mer. He knows whereof he speaks.
The organization of which he is the
head has been instrumental in main
taining a fair price for cotton for three
years.
He shows that without solid co
operation between the farmers of the
south, all efforts of the union will be
of no avail. Co-operation among the
manipulators has, during the south’s
famine years, beat down the price to
a starvation basis. Co-operation, there
fore, is the only weapon with which
the market gamblers can be fought.
Its past efficacy is proven.
President Barrett urges upon the
farmers to plant conservatively. Cot
ton should be regarded as A SURPLUS
CROP. Food for the barn, food for
the table should be raised, so that the
farmers, will not be put to the expense
of buying the things they can raise
at home. Overplanting on large crecut
under the impression that in some
magical manner, the laws of supply
and demand will fail and the staple
bring a good price, ANYHOW, is to be
avoided. Overplanting, by whatever
method, with the delusion that your
neighbor will underplant, is fatal to
the cause of high priced cotton.
Do the farmers wish a continuance
of the mortgageless era?
Do they wish better houses for their
wives and children, more schools and
churches, better clothes, more pleas
ures for their own kith and kin and
their neighbors?
Do they want good times throughout
the south, development throughout
the south, to proceed without inter
ruption?
The decision, for or against the wel
fare of the entire section, is in their
hands Co-operation, conservatism, loy
alty, diversification, are the instru
ments.
Will the farmers use them?
*
BIG MONEY IN PORK.
(The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.)
The government reports show that
the number of hogs in the hands of
the farmers on January 1, 1907, was
54,794,439. This is about 2,000,000
more than the number held on the
farms one year ago. That causes
some comment from students of sta
tistics as to the future of the industry.
The Drovers’ Journal comes to the
front and explains that the danger
from supposed over-production of hogs
is all nonsense. It shows that six
of the leading markets received last
year 603,000 hogs more than the pre
vious year. It shows further that the
average weight of market hogs has
been increasing every year for the
past five years, at the rate of six to
fifteen pounds each.
There is a greater demand for hog
products today than ever in the his
tory of our country. The population
is increasing every day, and the per
capita consumption of meat and meat
products does not decrease. The prices
for hogs continue to get better with
each market season. In spite of the
high prices—-ranging about $2 per head
greater than the year before —the far
mers held 2,000,000 more hogs last
winter. They did not have to sell to
raise money. They were independent
and had no mortgages to pay. The
hogs were kept on the farms as an
investment that consumers cannot get
away from when the time for market
ing comes again. To the man who is
figuring on how to make the old farm
pay, the hog question is commedned.
Look the matter over in a proper
way, and you will find this another
one of the many opportunities open
• for the young men of today.
*
WHO ATE THE CANARY SEED?
(Saturday Evening Post.)
Bird S. McGuire, delegate in con
gress from Oklahoma, had a commu
nication from one of his rural constit
uents the other day that made him
sit up and take notice.
“Dear Mr. McGuire,” It read, “I
wish you would send me some more of
them seeds like you sent before. I
enjoyed them very much and I would
like another lot, but don’t send no ca
nary seed. If you did my wife might
eat them and think she was a canary,
and try to sing, and God knows I have
troubles enough now.”
7