Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-07-19
FINANCE AND TRADE.
VIC oP THE DAILY APPEAL
MuupuTs July IL, 1870,

ward so fast that 1t was lmposSlOie bSiAesP
90 NTH IL. The market was more pan
ict~v than during the days when the forces
- fav Gonld. Fisk & Co. occupied it al
most 10 the exclusion of all others. The
same condition is reported of London,
I5verpool and New Orleans, and add
~.io,aliv that cotton was duu, nominal
and panicky. Memphis transactions IN
I'D ware light, IN cotton nothing was
done. There is a quiet determination ON
tine mart of holders to remain in &dtH gao.
The examples thai remain as a conse-
uueuce Of rash preeipitaney during the
war etween the States, admonish mer-
chants that there is nothing to be gained
by hasty conclusions, and that s period
of panic Is not the best time TO sell their
commodities. Until the war is fairly
commenced, and It is well understood
what countries are likely to be engaged
in il. we think it the part of wisdom for
the mercantile classes of the United
States TO leave speculation TO those whose
trade it is, and who understanding or not
understanding the situation, are willing
10 take the chances. There is nothing to
be gained but mIeh to be lost by sharing
in the speculative mania en~gendered by
the European complications. Except
gold, grain aud imported goods, nearly
ali other descriptions of values are de-
olining in price. AS ours is a cotton
market. rs cotton is the basis of our COM
merce, and we are only as consumers IN
terested in the rise and fall of European
goods, gold or grain, since we are MOI
specially or particularly, but only re-
motely concerned in the effects 50 far
produced by the war, except as to cotton,
it behooves US TO confne ourselves to
that alone and The transaction of a legi-i-
mate local trade, which is always indie
pendent of wars, since it Is governed
alone by the necessities of the people.
We advise patience. So soon as it Is
known what nationalities are TO be neu-
trail, what peoples are to do he manufac-
turing and the carrying trade, while
others fight over a punctilio, SO soon
will the markets begin to recover their
tone and prices reach figures that viii
fully compensate for present delay. AS
TO cotton, war cannot alter its status, I'M
less for the better. The reported sales in
New York to deliver this month at lSJ<c,
in August Use, November l7Te, and
December T71sc, only proves that the
gamblers are still at work, and are
anxious to make the war panic serve
their purpose. 1t has nothing to do with
supply or demand. It is Independent of
either. 1t may be profitable 10 those en-
gagged in it, but it is a wicked and mex
cusable, uDjustifable and unbusiness-
like attempt to dictate to the hardwork-
ing planter what he shall receive as COM
pensation for his crop. 1t is a something
for which We can find no fitting exple-
and should be combined against by
the merchants and the planters of the
South. Below we furnish information as
to the crop, and as 10 the present condi-
ton OF the market, which viii afford
abundant reasons for the positions We
have taken and shall occupy in reference
10 the cotton trade. We know the South
is recovering her supremacy in that de-
partment Of human industry, and that Il
only remains with our planters and mer-
chants to control it, independent of the
gamblers of New York. Cotton will al
ways command its price, and that will be
regulated by the demand of the civilized
world, not more than half the people Of
which are yet adequately supplied with
cotton cloths. The wal now unfortunate
" commenced to retard civilization will
only intervene for q short time between
nose who now hold cotton and a prOGta-
ble customer. The growing crop can
only reach a good market.
COTTON-THE STOCK AND THE CROP.
As the season progresses we come
nearer the possibility Of q comprehensive
estimate Of what the crop will be. As in
a picture matured by age, all the lights
and shadows are developed, come out
fuller, sharper and more definitely, so, as
week follows week, and the plant ome
up, the whole possible growth Of the
South is more and more apparent. We
hear from one section that though the
plant is large enough its maturing has
been retarded; from another that the reg
ular cotton caterpillar has made its ap-
pearance and is fully as destructive as
ever, and that the flies are unusually pro-
life, depositing eggs at a fearful rate.
The Atlantic seaboard is suffering terri
bly, in this way, while the boIl-worm
along Red River, in Texas and Louisiana,
as we'll as in Georgia, Alabama and South
Carolina, is making sad haYOc. In some
parts of Arkansas and Mississippi the lice
and rust have made their appearance,
and these, with the grass, seriously
threaten the crop, despite the almost her
cuIsan efforts Of the planters. To this
disco ursging news we add the misfortune
of an adequate want of labor and want Of
an organized system among planters,
whereby what labor they have may be
prohtably directed and controlled. We
hear that many planters on both sides of
Lhs Mississippi are now In Virginia and
North Carolina, looking up labor through
energetic agents, in preparation for the
picking season. This is all very well, il
the planters will only, at the same time,
by some management among themselves,
protect each other in the continued pos
session of such labor as they may in this
way secure The habit of o~ut-bidding
each other, and of offering Inducements
60 take the hIred labor each of the other,
has a most demOralizing effect upon the
negro, and postpOnes the day when he
can be said 10 be as reliable as he was in
slave times. Another evil that must be
redressed by planters is the want Of N
cert in regard to the system Of employing
and paying their hands. These various
and conflicting arrangements produce ir-
Irregularities and uncertainties. Some
planters pay by the day. others by the
week. Some pay ali the wages at the end
OF the time agreed on, others pay only a
half, and retain the other half until the
whole. crop is realized. Like other Ia
borsrs, the negroes are apt to think that
their neighbors are better paid han they
are, and grow dissatisfied. Then the sys-
tenn OF selling or allowing them to antici-
pate their wages by buying things on the
plantations, produces discomfort and
pickering. They thus get behind and
grow listless and indolent. These, SAYS
the New Orleans Times, and other evils
ofthe present system might be remedied
by concert among the planters concert
which, while insuring the negroes good
wages, would secure more permsnency
and regularity than at present exist on
the plantations. This would be mutually
beneficial t all parties. We need more
labor and we need a fuller utilization of
the labor we have in order TO reach the
ascendancy in cotton which the South
enjoyed in ante-bellum times. This we
are destined to do sooner or later. The
London Shipping Gdzette admits it. That
paper saws that 1t is useless for England