The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 7, 1917, Page 5

3 ownership of the land by the men who farm it builds a free, prosperous and cultured citizenry. Woe to the nation that adopts governmental policies and permits economic conditions that en- courage tenantry instead of free owner= ship of the land. SPREAD OF TENANTRY AT LAST STOPPED Tenantry in Louisiana in 1900 was nearly twice as prevalent as in the United States as a whole, and only-in three other states, and those cotton states also, was it more prevalent. In 1910, however, be it said for Louisiana, the tide toward tenantry had turned. In that year the government gave the percentage of farm renters as _ b5, against 58 at the previous census. In the meantime Louisiana had awakened to the need of governmental action to make cotton farming a safer business. Lack of adequate storage capacity for cotton was one of the chief reasons for the enslavement of the cotton farmer. The United States depart- ment of agriculture estimated a few years ago that cotton growers of the South lost probably as much as $75,- 000,000 a year on account of damage to cotton before it reached terminals and passed out of control of the farm- er. Fire and the weather did their work. But this loss, while stupendous, was only a small part of the loss cotton farmers sustained on .account of in- adequate storage facilities. The limit- ed storage capacity that existed was tn private hands and rates were high. Cotton has“to be compressed in bales after ginning and before shipment, and the compressors were owned by private Interests that charged wunreasonable rates, Because he could not store the product that was clothing half the world, the farmer had to market it at once, and the cotton supply of the mills of the world for a year was dumped on the market and sold in a few months. Buyers took advantage of this. The farmer had to sell: first, be- cause he had no place to store; sec- ond, he had to have the money. All his bills became due when his crop was harvested, and unless he could borrow money on the crop, he had to sell. And he could not borrow unless he could store at reasonable rates, protecting his product by insurance ‘during storage and eotherwise making it a safe security for the money lender. The security being poor without safe and adequate cotton storage facilities, money rates were high. PEOPLE OF STATE VOTE FOR WAREHOUSE Farseeing people of Louisiana have known for 50 years that the cotton in- dustry was suffering from this condi- tion and numerous attempts, with private capital, to provide adequate storing and handling facilities were at- tempted during that time. But it was not until the state government stepped in, with the resources of all the people of the state to draw upon, that the problem was tackled in a way that has solved it. The agitation for state action culmi- nated in 1910, when a measure adopted The $3,000,000 state-owned cotton wanhodse at New Orleans, photographed from the top of the state-owned Pouring grain into the hold of a ship at the state-owned grain elevator at New Orleans. The most modern and best equipment available enables the loading of 100,000 bushels an hour into one vessel, each with a different kind of grain. by the legislature of ILouisiana was put up to the people for a vote. The people empowered the port commis- sioners of New Orleans, appointed by the governor, to construct a publicly owned cotton warehouse, and voted state bonds to the amount of $3,000,000 for the project. Ernest M. Loeb, then president of the port commissioners, says of this action: “The promoters and the voters of the state required a broad vision and much courage to take the radi- cal steps which meant a govern- mentally owned and operated plant, involving enormous costs both in construction and operation. No other agricultural or other commodity in the United States had, previous to this time, been stored in a publicly owned and operated plant.” Mr. Loeb gives the reasons for erecting the warehouses and estimates its savings to cotton growers in this statement: “Storage warehouse plants have been forced upon the cotton industry be- cause of the enormous waste incurred in the past, both in the growing and and has broken the grip of the cotton speculator. . : N - handling of the commodity and in its financing. The physical waste of the average crop amounted to $50,000,000, and the financial waste and loss to the farmer in making immediate disposal of his cotton amounted to eveh more. The cotton warehouse equalizes the business and distributes it evenly over the entire year, analogous to the ac- cumulation of water in reservoirs dur- ing the wet season for Irrigation in all seasons. BOTH SAVINGS I HAVE - MENTIONED HAVE THE EFFECT OF DOUBLING THE COTTON PRO- DUCER’'S NET EARNINGS.” / NOT NOW AT MERCY OF COUNTRY BUYER The New Orleans state-owned cotton warehouse is the biggest institution of the kind in the world. It covers 50 acres and is built of concrete and steel, absolutely fire proof. It has a normal capacity of 450,000 bales and an emerg- ency capacity of 600,000 bales. It con- tains all the latest machinery for load- ing and unloading cotton, compressing it and handling it from one part of the warehouse to another. It is hard to do justice to this state- owned institution in the matter of its ¢ or the loading of four vessels at once, savings to the cotton industry. It handles cotton at $1 less per bale, on the average, than the charges hitherto imposed by privately owned ware- houses. It has reduced the insurance rate on stored cotton to almost noth- ing. But primarily it has made the cotton producer independent of most of the abuses that cheated him out of a large part of his profits. A cotton farmer today does not have to sell his product at absurd- ly low prices when the country buyer comes around. He does not have to sell it for lack of a place to store it, or for lack of money. He can ship his cotton to the state- owned warehouse, which issues him a warehouse receipt. ‘This re- ceipt has back of it the govern- ment of Louisiana. 1t guarantees that a certain amount of cotton of certain grade has been deposited and it is security as good/as gold in any bank in this country or abroad, on which the owner of the stored cotton can borrow money up to the value of his holdings. Because his cotton is safely stor- ed, at cost rates and with cheap in- (Continued on page 16). grain elevator, which adjoins it. It covers 50 acres