San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1882-10-12

oiuiiJ pichs Uccp cuOuBu 30 tuut tne
trimmings look nearly as white rs the
bale. These pickings are the inspectors
spoils.
The bale is now resampled, which
means another steal of cotton, then
reweighed, the weight of the covering
and bands decucted, and the net weight
of the cotton marked on it, and the
consumer buys at this weight.
Now, all these middle men, knowing
the shrinkages and stealing in which
they share, pay enough less for cotton
to cover and leave them a profit and
get rich, and unquestionably the plant.
er has to pay for the untold millions
pocketed by the cotton band ring, and
all the factors and middle men, between
the cotton planter and consumer, by
selling at sufficiently reduced price
to cover all. Political carpet baggers
may have robbed Southern States and
saddled them with unjust debts, the in
terest on which it is hard to pay; but
that is but circumstance compared to
the loss these cotton teaches are infict-
ing. Shake them off and with the saw
ing the cotton planter alone can, in a
short time, pay not only the interest
but the principal of these State debts,
and then, if applied to thepGrpose, pay
the entire amount of Confederate bonds
issued before the bonds issued by the
treasury department at Washington
mature.
The Hon. Edward Atkinson, of Bos-
ton, Mass, who has carefully studied
the subject, as is we'll known in the cot
ton States, confidently declared that
there is loss of 10 per cent in waste
of cotton, between the planter and the
consumer, in the manner of handling
the cotton crop. Rating the entire cot
ton crop at only 5000, 900 bales, there
is a loss at 10 per cent of $30,000,000.
The loss is not only the profits and
stealings of these rings, but the unne-
cessary cost of stock in bands, loss in
labor in COMPRISING, and loss in soiled
cotton, all of which, together with all
profits and stealings, might be saved by
planters if they put the cotton up
direct from the gin into small, compact,
economical wire bound bales of suitable
size, to be handled and stored without
soiling, and to load a Car to it's capacity
and shipped direct to the consumer, or
to reliable commission merchant at
some distributing point North, who
would sell it direct to the consumer in
the condition in which it arrived.
There are hundred cotton mills, or
manufacturing companies, in the North
ern States, each of whom consume
annually from 1000 to $4,000 bales of
500 pounds weight each, and either of
which are as safe as any Southern bank |;
and if the planter were to send their
cotton to either of them, trusting to
their judgment as to grade, they would
be astonished at the amount the cotton
would net over the amount received as
now marketed.
The conductors of these cotton mills
are the most reliable cotton experts in
the country, as they prove their judg
ment by use every time. Other experts
only guess without the proof of test to
perfect them. II planters doubt the
unerring judgment of these mill experts
then send them samples by mail to
grade. Much more hay is baled and
marketed at the North than cotton at
the South, and yet the hay is neither
soiled nor exposed to the weather, al
though it's value is SO much less that
there is not the same inducement to
care for it as with cotton. Hay is
packed at a cost of 81 per ton in small
snug bales that will load grain car to
it's capacity in weight, and always sent
direct from the press to the market
where it is to be consumed, no matter
if across the continent, and consigned
either direct to the consumer or relia-
BILE commission merchant who will dis
pose of it direct to the consumer at a
commission of 81 or less per ton.
Now, these are reasons why the farmers
at the North grow rich and richer and
the planters at the South poor and
poorer.
Many cotton middle men make $780,
900 to 100000 net annual profit on
simply handling few thousand bales
of cotton. Middle men in hay North
handle as many car loads of hay as bales
of cotton to make dimes for the dollars.
This is why there are fifty middle men
in cotton to one in hay, Notwithstanding
the hay crop is greater in bulk. This
army of cotton worms playing into each
others hands and fattening on fhe crop
have reduced the planter in most of the
cotton States as to compel them to
borrow capital or supplies of the middle
men in order to put in the crop. This
mortgages the crop to them in advance.
and by charging from 35 to $50 per
cent profit on the supplies furnished
they are enabled to make certainty
of gobbling up the Whole crop and leave
the planter still in debtenough to create
loan on the next crop, 80 that he is
always in the power of the cotton ring,
who exact the entire result of his labor,
while the Northern farmer receives ad-