The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1892-01-07
THE NEED OF IT IN THE
SOUTH.
A Thoughtful Article on the Sub
ject Of Fixing the Price Of Cot
ton By the Planters.
GW ilmington Star.
GW ilmington Star.

S@ purposes govern
ed by the price
abroad, the cotton planter never knows
what his crop is going to bring
him, and can, therefore, never count
upon it with any degree of certainty.
The planter who cannot hold his crop
as long as he wishes is always at the
mercy of the foreign price makers,
who keep thoroughly posted On the
output of the cotton fields of the world
and govern themselves accordingly.
This is simply the reverse Of the
way the thing ought to be. The man
who grows cotton should be the man
who makes the price of it, and next
to him the American cotton-b buyer
who buys cotton for foreign shipment
should be the man to do it. If the
Southern cotton growers we're indePen-
dent circumstances and could withhold
their crops and market them when
and in such quantities as they saw fit
they would become the price makers
themselves and get price that would
pay them we'll for their labor. But
they are not in a condition to do this,
because they must have money and
cotton is their dependence for money.
Whatever the price of the cotton may
be they are compelled to market
enough of it to meet their pressing
obligations and present needs, though
the price be below the actual cost of
production.
If money was abundant in the
South, as it is in the Middle and New
England States (Which have found
such bonanza in the protective tariff
it would not be difficult to devise
plans by which the cotton market could
be controlled and cotton command
a remunerative price, for then syndi-
Gates could be easily formed with
millions of capital to lend money to
planters who wanted to borrow, with
cotton security. This would be carry
ing out without any governmental
agency one of the ideas embraced in
the sub treasury scheme, without being
open to any of the objections that the
latter is. 1t was said year or so ago
that the Alabama Alliance had effected
arrangements with some English syn
dicate which agreed to lend the
planters Of that State as much money
as they wanted to borrow at six per
cent. interest, taking cotton as security,
but we have heard nothing further of
that.
If we had a system of State banks
these syndicates might be organized
by our own people, for with the increased
volume of currency these banks would
supply these syndicates could easily
command the necessary money, and
while they would secure the banks
they themselves would be secured by
the cotton on which the money was
advanced. The per capita circulation
in the United States is stated by the
Treasury Department to be s24.2S,
about one-half the per capita circula-
ton in France. In this country $50
per capita would not be too much. A
system of State banks, in addition to
the national banks, might safely supply
S45,ooo,ooo of currency for North
Carolina, and thus bring the circulation
up to a figure which would meet the
demands of our people, supply the
farmers with the money they needed,
and also capital to establish numerous
industries.
A banking system of this kind in
addition to the National banks would
be better for the people of the South
and the West than if the circulating
medium now supplied by the Govern
ment and through the National banks
were doubled, because the addition to
the volume thus supplied would be
better distributed, and remain better
distributed, as it could not be con-
trolled by the money kings of the
Eastern centers to which the volume
of currency has drifted for years and
will continue to drift while the present
protective t.. f system and the inter-
nal revenue system continue in opera
ton. 1t would simply supply money
for home circulation, good for all
practical purposes at home, and such
as would remain at home.
The South is suffering from a
scarcity of money because she pays
about s225, 900, 900 year, or nearly
as much as this years cotton crop is
worth, in tribute to the protected
manufacturers of the North and in
pensions to Federal soldiers nine -tenths
OF which pension money goes to
the soldiers of the North. Add to
this the amount that goes out in in
ternal revenue and it will not be diff
cult to account for the scarcity Of
money in the South, why our farmers
are embarrassed and our industrial
enterprises are hampered and retarded.
This puts our cotton growers at the
mercy of the buyers abroad, and costs
the South millions of dollars year,