COMPETITORS OF COTTON 



overappraised, but economic values must be reckoned 

 dispassionately. 



Throughout the South one hears savage denuncia- 

 tion of the Government for its failure to solve the cotton 

 problem. Yet it is far beside the point to blame either 

 Southern politicians or Washington bureaucrats for re- 

 fusing to lay the ax to the tangled roots of the problem 

 of low farm income, or for grabbing the price of cotton 

 as a lever to lift farm incomes without cutting those 

 roots. The effort has failed. It was predestined to fail- 

 ure. That failure should be a lesson to us all, for its 

 causes were political, and in a democracy the correc- 

 tion of political mistakes, like the cure of political evils, 

 rests with all the people. 



37 



