The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1888-08-07
The Tagging Trust.


In respect Of the jute bagging trust which
has been formed for the purpose of squeez-
ing the cotton planters of the south, some
of our esteemed contemporaries remark that
it is the result of the tariff on jute bagging,
while others are of the opinion that it
is the result of series of circumstances
wholly independent of the tariff.
The tariff view, whatever else may be
said of it, is not calculated to help the farm
ers at this time. If the tariff is responsible
for the trust, it is little singuler that we
have not had such combination before, for
there has been no change during thepast sew
eral years in the relation of bagging to the
tariff. But, as we have said, there is DO
remedy here for the farmers, for the tariff
will not be revised this year.
The Albany News and Advertiser urges
the substitution of coarse cotton cloth for
bagging, and this is very sensible sugges-
ton, indeed, since the crop would furnish
the material to wrap it, and our own cotton
mills would be enabled to supply the cloth;
so that if the bagging trust teaches our
people how to produce their own bagging, it
will be lesson in economy running parallel
with the idea of protection which THE
CONSTITUTION advocates.
A correspondent of the New Orleans
Times-Democrat suggests that the south can
bale its own cotton at reasonable cost, and
thus retain at home the money that it now
sends away for jute bagging. He suggests
that the crop be baled with cotton duck.
During the war this substantial article was
used for shoes, buckets, and various other
necessary articles. Why could it not be
used for baling cotton? Here is what the
correspondent says:
We know that cotton duck makes good shoas,
that used it for artillery buckets during the war;
and that bale of cotton wrapped in it, close and
carefully, will open out in New York Fall River or
Liverpool fresh bright, waterless, sandless and
mudess as the day ii left the gin-without rot de-
terioration stain or change of weight from expo
sure 10 rains, handling, climate etc., and we know
that avoiding these gives satisfaction at home and
abroad, cheapens insurance, and does away with
many evils in estimates of damages, etc., and with
what q certain book describes as the iron between
buyer and seller" We know this excellent coarse
heavy tagging, made of cheap cotton, would go
through untorn, and could again and again be balod
and shipped back to us each time at reduced figure
of cost, covering two or three crops with same
goods, the splieed tics now used made TO do,
I
| like to hear from the trade ON this subject and
shall hold myself ready to prove that we can bale
cotton in this superior bagging at from SC to 4c
| per yard or less
Another correspondent Of the Times
Democrat makes the point that the produc-
ton of this bagging at home would require
the consumption of nearly half million of
bales of cotton, and he adds that the mil
lions of money we send away every year
| would be spent in the south among our own
factories, and that the consumption and re-
! duction Of the surplus cotton would
be in our favor. The cotton wrap
ping would cost more than the jute
baggng-that is, the price would
be higher, but since to make it would con-
sumo a large portion of the cotton crop,
! give employment to our own factory labor
and be paid into our own mills. it would
really cost the farmer less than the bagging
free of duty.
Let our farmers think of these things.
ONE of the serenest men in Georgia Is
Editor Patrick Walsh, of Augusta. lie is
also one of the truest democrats. The mark
of true democrat during the heated term
| Is the absence of MYSTERIES,