The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1893-10-12
THE COTTON CROP.
Some Changes Proposed for its More Profit.
able Sale

able Sale.
To The Statesman.
CEDAR PARK, Tex, Oct. Z.
1t must be plain to everyone who
has been interested in the price Of
cotton that degree of uncertainty
has attached to it, and that, too, to an
extent that has well nigh left the
Southern planter in the slough of
financial despond and with him every
trade and profession co-dpandent
upon his prosperity. This uncertainty
carries with it the indisputable fact
at he 1.-THE planter has parted with
large per centage of his crop the last
three years atprices consi 1erably below
the average cost of production. This
condition every man who possesses
any financial ability at all, whether he
be merchant, artisan, or member Of
any of the learned profess
sions, must know is inimicable
to the best interests of the country and
is therefore not what the reputable
class of our southern citizenship want.
1t is perhaps not so easy to conceive
that remedy. The cry of over-produc.
ton Was raised three years ago and
not unlike the question of slavery in
the whirlwind of passion that swept
the country in the COS 1t served the
purpose as did the cry of abolition to
hurl friend against friend in mortal
conflict. Is it not time then that we
as sensible men should cease the cry
OF production as the cause of low
priced cotton2 That will do for the
foreign speculator and his coadjutor
on this side of the Atlantic who imag-
Inc their own success In life depends
on a merciless system of robbery
of both the producer and the consumer
of American raw cotton. If the plant
ers OF the South could understand this
and could get the cooperation of
the merchants with whom they do
their trading the battle for an honest
and legitimate reward for their labor
would not last longer than it would
take an old Confederate veteran at a
reunion of the blue and the gray to
grasp in fraternal sympathy the hand
that was once raised to strike him
down in deadly combat.
But how to bring about this mutual
co operation of the planter and the
merchant?
First-I would suggest that mer-
chants be more discrete in the matte
of extending credit to irresponsible
tanners.
Second-That collections be deferred
till Dec. /, or some date later than this
if possible. The reason for this is that
the flow of the crop to the great mar
ket centers would not be affected by a
needless ea,ly collection, but would be
prices, which would be an index of the
wants of the spinners and not, as at
present, of the spectators.
Third--That merchants cease to be
buyers as at present and become ship
pers. Not for their own account, but
for that of their planter friends.
Fourth-That all shipments be
made to the nearest port or nearest
large interior market of recognized
standing as such.
Fifth That no consignments
be made to others than brokers or fac
tors of we'll authenticated honesty and
responsibility.
The suggestions offered are brief
They were not intended by me to be
otherwise. Much of the plan might
be supported by legislative enactment,
but would not advise this unless it
should prove absolutely necessary.
That the plan is in part in the nature
of revolution do not deny, but it
must be a revolution that can save the
South and not the cotton planter alone
from pending and inevitable bank
ruptcy. DAN M. McRAE.