The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1870-10-07
KING COTTON

Is as dead financially as Louis Napoleon
is politically, and the planters them
selves have played Bismarck on him.
Under the belief that everybody else
was as eager after cotton as they arc,
they have pushed him SO ostentatiously
and preseveringly on the world, that he
has been voted bore, and almost every
thing looks him out of countcnance. He
stands abashcd even in the presnce of
Miss hog, who outvalues him nearly
two to one. The entire assemblage of
human crops conspire to laugh at him,
as the thing man can grow which is
positively worthless-that is to say, (which
does not pay the ordinary prime cost OF
production, throwing in your land capt.
tai for nothing,
There is nothiag earth so dead as
Cotton when the spinner and weaver, and
the fnanciers and all the middle men
get sick spell on them. 1t is like Gil
Bias mule-so poor creature that
man is almost ashamed to be seen with
it. Thus it happened that Cotton has
been worked by his old friends and pa
irons from seventy. or eighty cents to
thirteen and fraction-all in the course
of five years while with an unexampled
libcrality we have divided every cent of
our profits between the western stock,
meat and grain producers and the cas-
tern hay and fertilizer men (: so that
none of us have got anything to show
for the high prices and are RENTED
empty handed to the struggle with the
low ones.
we had produced our own supplies
and lived within ourselves, we should
this day have shown big figure to cred
it-cash in hand-and what is more,
Cotton would have commanded twenty
five or thirty cents to day, which is
about fair price as other things go.
Why, broom corn is worth six to eight
cents pound an Cotton thirteen
But the day will never come when
Southern cotton growers, as mass, will
reap the fair reward of their labor; be-
cause when cotton is high they can't af-
ford to raise food Corn they will tell
you will only bring ten dollars to the
acre, and cotton will bring fifty What
shame to raise corn-of course they
can't do it. They will grow cotton alone
and if cotton prices are high divide out
all their profits between the food-grow-
ers and the railways. By this process
they sacrifice all their earnings in seas
ons of fair prices--and they ruin the
price. And should cotton get back to
twenty five cents next spring they would
do it again. tits perfectly natural as
we'll as perfectlg fatal course. 1t dis
arms and destroys the South financially.
I'VE had produced abundance of food
since the war, cotton would never have
fallen below thirty cents. Or, if it had
fallen below a remunerative price for
time, what would it have malEefed -
We could have turned the key on cur
cotton bales and waited the worlds pleas
ure. But now we must yield to an un-
reasonable panic and sell to meet obi
cations incurred for supplies which we
should have raised at home. We have
no option. We are compelled to sell in
season of panic and below remunera-
tive prices In this way all self-pro-
lection is lost, and every principle of
sound economy sacrificed. Cotton We
have no doubt must react and recover to
some extent. but we are in no condition
to hold. Where are the elect who will
lay this experience to heart and swear
that come veal or woe--be cotton at five
cents or dollar pound, they will de-
clare an eternal independence of all
Western supplies, and produce all their
food on their plantations. Such only
can lve--the rest must go into bank
ruptcy.-Telegrapk d Messenger.
Hopes and cares, anxieties and tears