The Russellville Democrat., 1878-11-07


 anomaly. Strange King-this same King Cottonl And what are we to do about it? What is the cause of the unrcmunerative price of the staple? Is it not high time the plan ters of the South were beginning to seek the solution of these questionsf Some will say over-production too much cotton, is the cause. Some say it is the cotton gamblers that do it. The two causes combined may furnish the solution. The sale of futures" must have great effect on tine market. It is an evil that should be stopped. All such sales are bogus, and it is q cheat and a fraud to fix the standard of prices for actual sales made for delivery, by quotations for such fictitious sales. The idea that hundreds of thousands VI otiCo HcNCi LII SAinoChCc SuH oS bought and sold and never bale change hands. and that the prices fixed by the gambling cotton sharp CTS must control the prices of the cotton we make by such hard labor is demoralizii.g and outrageous. The men who deal in futures" should be driven from the cotton exchanges and busted out of the boards of trade. But the fact would still remain that we are making too much cotton. We are pointed by those who know nothing of the south, to our large cotton crop, and to the rapidly in creasing ratio of cotton production, as all evidence of the growing wealth of the South. This is delusive CT TOT. While our crop is increasing, our expenses are increasing also, and our aggregate income from ou. cotton is growing less. It is not the large showing we can make in num- Der of bales that indicates our pros perity, but Ii is the ne. aggregate in come that we realize which must tell whether we are growing rich or not Any one who knows anything about raising cotton will never con tend that a man will grow rich inaking cotton at seven and three quarter cents per pound at present prices of labor in the South. What then must be done?
 Let the cotton grower of the South for once use brains and thiking pow CT as well as mncle and mule power, and see If they cannot do something by systematic effort and concert of acton to make cotton growing more profitable. Other classes of produ- cers systematize and look ahead. Our stock -raisers, our wheat growers our dairy-men our brewers, our hide and leather men and every body else almost have their co operative action and look ahead. But the cotton grower of the South slashes ah ad and goes it blind.
 Before the time which is rapidly approaching and will be here before we know it, for putting in another cotton crop rolls around, would it not be we'll for the planting commu- nifty Tn the cotton growing state to consider these things? We are con vinced that a sober thought upon the subject will satisfy anybody that we must cut down our cotton acre age. Let it be cut down so as to re reduce the crop of 1879 to 100000 acres. Let the labor and the land wuich this reduction will release from the cotton civilizations be em- ployed in the production of grain, the grasses, stock, meat, and other articles of home consumption. Hundreds of thousands of acres of land can be released from cotton cul ture. The season for sowing wheat is just at hand. Let everybody re- duce their cotton acreage and put a good portion of the released acres in wheat. If we will make our own bread and meat, and potatoes and molasses and sugar, we will have what cotton we may make as sur plus crop; and will begin to prosper
 We will then begin to feel able to set up cotton manufacturing machin- cry, and when we accomplish thls the question of our success and pros perity is solved. The possibilities of the south are grardly magnificent, but whether they ever be realized or not depends chiefly upon our own management.