COTTON 225 



ficult of access. And isn't the road of the cotton 

 farmer steep and rough and difficult? And so 

 long, too. Six months and more are necessary to 

 cover the distance; a thousand difficulties are met 

 on the way ; late frosts in the spring, and early ones in 

 the fall before the crop matures ; often unduly wet 

 weather or unduly dry weather materially lessen the 

 crop ; insufficient and inefficient labor bother and 

 interfere; expenses for labor, seed, fertilizers, imple- 

 ments, and tools, often come at the sacrifice of the 

 legitimate comforts and needs of the family : surely 

 the road is beset with difficulty and danger all the 

 way we must follow in reaching the top. 



For Jack and Jill the top possessed water; for 

 the cotton farmer the top the end of his journey 

 is the market. He is entitled, at least, to water 

 while on the top, enough to take him down the hill 

 again, a sufficient quantity for those dependent 

 upon him at home, and in quantities sufficient to 

 supply not only real needs, but all purposes of com- 

 fort and even those of luxury; besides this, he is 

 entitled to enough to last him on his trip up the 

 hill again, and to supply his family until he returns 

 with a fresh supply. 



Are you going to reject this philosophy ? 



Is it not the kind practiced and preached by every 

 other industry the railroad, the cotton factory, 

 the coal, iron, and steel industries, by every manu- 

 facturing and industrial concern? 



Are not its precepts illustrated in the tenets of 

 every professional creed the merchant's, the doc- 

 tor's, the banker's, or the publisher's ? 



All accept this doctrine save the farmer and 

 what is more, they practice it. 



Take the railroad. Its preachments are all to 

 the effect that its capital is entitled to a reasonable 



