The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-09-24
THE WAY 1T WORKS

nUR able contemporary the fWli;
~ mingtcn Messenger, loyal and
true to the farmers interests, con-
fesses to perplexity and calls on The
PRoaREss1vE FARMER for light: Our
esteemed Bro. Kingsbury has been
reading certain prominent Southern
journals on the bagging trouble and
in the great charity OF his good heart,
he assumes that they are Southern
loyal papers," while they omit no
opportunity to give "aid and com
fort to the enemy" the Bagging Trust.
From an Alliance standpoint, a1South-
ern paper cannot be loyal to the South
while aiding this conspiracy to Cypress
and rob the Southern farmers, There
are a few prominent journals in the
South that have been double-faced
and deceptive to the farmers in all
this contest. With loud protestations
of devotion and affection, they inn
print onahis cheek a kiss, while they
stab him in the ribs. 81. 4
The Messenger quotes from the COM
ments of the Memphis Appeal on the
action of the meeting of the American
cotton exchanges on the 18th inst.
fixing a definite tare for jute and cot
ton bagging, in which the Appeal says,
among other very silly things: "Why
the planters should makea clean gift
of twenty-four pounds, ofjute covered
cotton, and sixteen pounds of, cotton
covered cotton to the manufacturers,
we cannot see."
And how any paper having any
claim to ordinary intelligence, should
have thus exposed its utter ignorance
of a subject it would presume odds
cuss, we cannot see. We are charit-
able enough to ascribe it to ignorance,
for we could not believe that the
Appeal would wilfully and knowingly
make an assertion so utterly untrue
and groundless.
The exchanges proposed to buy
cotton at net weight-the only fair,
just and honest way to buy it, and
the honest farmers agreed to it. They
agreed further that a proper and fair
deduction for the jute bagging and
ties on the bale would be t~wenty-four
pounds, and for cotton bagging and
ties on the bale, would be sixteen
pounds. This places the cotton, or
light bagging, on a fair and equitable
footing with the jute, or heavy bag
ging. Hitherto this was not the case.
The farmer was being numerically
swindled in the matter of tare in the
Liverpool market. But until recently
not one in a thousand knew it. In
deed they thought that they were
selling the bagging and ties at the
same price at which they sold the
cotton, when in truth not only was
their actual weight deducted, g but
more. Years ago, when ourrfarmers
used, almost universally, heavy weight
bagging, the Liverpool Exchange
fixed the tare at six per cent. of gross
weight of bale. This was fair when.
the. bales averaged in weight four.
hundred pounds. But how did it
work? At that time, ginners charged
two dollars for bagging and ties per
bale, but competition among the gin
ners reduced the price until it got as
low as one dollar, and of course with
this decline in price, was a decline in
the weight of bagging used because
it was cheaper. Then there was a
constant demand with exporters and
shippers that the bales should be in
creased in weight until now our bales
average nearly five hundred pounds.
So that now a farmer sells a bale
weighing five hundred pounds wrapped
in light bagging-weighing, say,
eighteen pounds, when it reaches Liv-
erpool is subject to a deduction of six
per cent, or thirty pounds, and the
Liverpool dealer gets the extra twelve
pounds free of charge. The farmer
wants to stop this flching. He wants
justice. He wants pay for the cotton
he sells. So that whether we use a
yard of cotton bagging or not, the &C.
ton of the New Orleans meeting in
establishing the rule that all cotton
should be sold at net weight, is right
and fair, and just and equitable, and
the farmer is the gamer by it. But
it was a great victory for the farmer,
in that it was a recognition Of cotton
bagging, and placed it squarely on its
merits in the markets OF the world,
and this recognition it's uni
versal and permanent adoption as a
covering for cotton. And this is the
great object sought to be reached by
the Alliance and the farmers of the
South.
STATE ALLIANCE RESoLU-