The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-04-19

cotton it is a notorious fact that the
price in this country is set by the price
in Liverpool, and every order cabled
over here bears this addition sc. F.,
and 6 per cent"
Upon that basis cotton is bought-C.
for cost, I. for insurance, +. for freight
and 6 per cent. for tare. You may
wrap your cotton eve so beautifully,
vet the 6 per cent. is deducted from its
weight, and you have to sell the bale
with a loss of 80 pounds on a bale OF
500 pounds. So, Mr.. Chairman, | say
that in marketing that commodity u
farmers have to labor under a burden
which no other producer on the face OF
the earth labOrs under. To be accurate
about it, and show the House how
serious this matter is to u people, L
beg leave to submit these figures:
On an 5000, 900 bale crop, weighing
500 pounds to the bale, you have 4.OOO,-
600, 900 pounds of cotton. Six per cent.
of that is 24O, 600, 900 pounds. Bale 1T
and YOU have got $50, 900 bales of cot
ton. worth ordinarily 500, 600, 600. This
we lose as tare. 1t is a dead loss, brings
us no return. is dumped into the hands
Of the men who buy and taken from
the men who produce, and tOthat must
be added the losses of a system OF
sampling, which by itself sometimes
makes a large buyer of cotton wealthy
at the end of a season.
Now, Mr.. Chairman, during the year
1888 you remember that the Mills bill
was being discussed, and it was pro-
posed to put a lower duty on Jute bag
ging. There were certain mills in this
country producing jute bagglng. There
was combination formed at st. Louis.
The manufa .turerS said: I'VE Will
make a combine and we will shut down
six of u mills. We will discharge
the labOrers in those factories. We
will thus limit the output, and we Will
run up the price every week upon our
commodity, and divide the plumber
among ourselves"
Now, mind you, cotton bagging was
selling. say at s cents per yard 1t
went up week by week until it reached
- cents per yard. The tariff upon the
cotton bagging kept us from sending
out into the markets of the world and
bringing in a supply. The tariff sys-
tenn was erected in order that mills
might run. The combination shut
them down in order that the purchaser
might be outraged. The tariff system
was built up. they say, to give labOrers
work. Yet the mills were shut down
that the labOrers might not have work.
One million dollars was taken from
the cotton growers of the South by an
arbitrary stroke of the pen raising the
price Of jute bagging by an arbitrary
combination between these manufac-
turerS, who had the advantage of the
tariff wall which has been built up to
keep out foreign competition.
Gentlemen may say you could not
have bought that jute bagging else
where" Mr.. Chairman, Calcutta would
have sent it to US at the old price. Scot
land would have sent it to us at the old
price. England would have sent it to
us at the old price; but there was the
hand of the government, with its back
to the importer, and through it's tariff
system saying, You shall not come
here and relieve the people from this
combine"
In this instance we have an article
which is protected an article which is
fostered. Here IS your industry that
has been built up at the expense of the
people in order that labor might have
employment. Here are your labOrers
turned out into the streets. your mills
shut down. Here is your consumer
with the burden put upon him by the
favorites of the government. Now,
let us consider another incident as a
contrast. There was a corner made
about the same time on cotton in New
York. John II. Inman was at the head
of it. They had unlimited money.
They made a corner upon q very large
quantity of cotton. They began to
force up the price so as to realize the
profit Of the corner" and what was
the result?
Why, the cable bore the message to
Liverpool to send back cotton to New
York, to bring it in through the OppOr
tunity which free trade in cotton gave
them to bring it in. Thirteen thousand
bales had actually arrived inNew York
harb0r, and other vessels were upon
the ocean coming with cotton, when
the men who had organized that trust
saw how completely it could be de
stroyed, and they backed down from
their position, and thus free trade
broke the combine. In the one case
free trade gave relief from gamblers
and spectators, and in the other the
farmers Of the South were utterly with
out remedy in the hands Of a specula-
tive combine, because the tariff wall
kept out those who could have relieved
them.
Now, Mr.. Chairman, my friend from
Nebraska Mr.. Bryant in his brilliant
speech formulated the Democratic
platform in such attractive cOlors that
he was loudly applauded upon the
Democratic side. What was that plat
form9 After all the force of his logic,
after all the splendor of his rhetoric.
after all the driving in the direction of
free trade, the gentleman shirked the
issue when he got to actual enunciation
of the results of his own logic. His
speech favors free trade, while his plat
form does not.
He announced his ideal Democratic
platform; not a platform you would
have, but a platform you should have;
a platform you could have if a man
wac C~ittinn C1iof1u NV hiC e Vo Of ninht