Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-10-31
.1A1x rAIx 10 COTTON RAIsERs.

The low price of cotton should teach
our Southern friends a lesson. They
might as well learn now as ten or twenty
years hence that cotton is gradually
settling back to the old prices that ruled
before the war. The value of gold de-
creases year after year, but greenback
values remain almost unchanged This
last fact is realized by every head of a
family in the regular prices Of all the
necessities and comforts of life. The
man who could live on one thousand
dollars per annum two years ago, finds
that he cannot live as well on less money
now. 1t may be many years before gold
falls to the value of dollar in National
crrreacy, but even when it does the
dollar in either will not bring as much
in the great staples of life as before the
war, owing to the heavy taxes entailed
on the people for several generations to
come. We feel the deprecated value Of
the currency here in the South more
sensibly than elsewhere, because the
people devote all their energies TO the
production of cotton, and the more
they raise the lower the price.
And whatever the price, they are com
PEELED to sell, as soon as picking COM
mences, to pay for the meat, and corn.
and molasses, sugar, coffee and whisky,
already advanced by their merchants.
The planters find themselves atthe mercy
Of their merchants, and the merchants
have no earthly control of the cotton
market, any more than they have over
the opium trade in China, for the price
of cotton depends, first, upon the amount
raised all over the world, then upon the
peaceful or warlike state Of affairs in
Europe, and again upon the combina-
tons formed by spectators and spinners
in New England and Europe-besides
various other incidental influences which
cannot be foreseen by any one. But as
we depend upon Boston for maekerel,
Ohio for pork, Illinois for sour corn,
Missouri for -four, and upon each and all
the Western States for more or less Of
what goes down our throats three times a
day, the cotton has to be sold and the
money goes speedily out OF
the country. The people of other
sections not only set the price on what
we buy from them to consume but on the
staple which we raise. and are com
PEELED TO sell to them within given time.
Cotton raising never was as profitable in
the South as many supposed. The clear
money made was on the spontaneous in
crease of negro property rather than the
legitimate profits on cotton. Since the
war. as most people have discovered, the
nee.oes have been free, and often they
dictate terms to their former masters.
Ii can be clearly demonstrated that rails
ing all cotton in the South, under the
present loose and unreliable system Of
labor. is Improbable and most unsatis
factory. People feel this fact very
keenly. and complain loudly that good
middling cotton will scarcely bring IF
teen cents, although it brought twenty.
one or two cents at this time last year.
That the depression in the mar
kets Of the world is owing partly
to the war in Europe we grant,
but the excess Of the crop over last
years, by at least 100000 bales, is an
other reason equally as strong. When
so much cotton ruins the land, brings
down the price Of cotton, and increases
the price Of everyihingwe eat and drink.
Why will people persist in trying to raise
as mnch cotton and as little corn as
When they owned all the negroes2 The
reason may be fonnd in a strong attach
ment 10 old habits, and a false pride
which clings 10 the title Of planter rather
than accept the more modest but pro
rressire distinction Of farmer. We can
not undertake inihe limits Of this article
90 describe. the difference between the
planters and farmers we had before the