The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1894-11-21
The Cotton Situation.

The cotton situation-how can it be bet
tered? That ls question everybody in
the South is asking.
Hon. J. w. Sandeford, one of the rep
resentatives of Burke county, takes q
lively interest in the question of the price
of cotton and how the condition of the
Southern farmers can be improved. lie
is planter himself, and knows the busi-
ness from the bottom up. Speaking of
the condition OF affairs in the South and
the probability OF Improvement, he said
yesterday:
"Of course, it is simply ruin to keep on
growing cotton if it is to bring no more
than the present price. No man can
make money by spending cents to raise
cotton that will bring him 81 cents or
acreage with the the hope and belief that
this will increase the price. How is that
to be done? Well, of course, it will re-
quire consensus of action on the part of
the cotton growers of the South, or at
least on the part Of good proportion Of
them. Now, 1 have this iden about it:
We have to borrow money from the fac
tors to plant our crops. Say I borrow
1000. have to promise the delivery
OF 100 bales of cotton to secure the loan.
Why not take Sl00 of that $1,000 and go
in the open market and buy 100 bales for
delivery next fall? 1t does seem as il
there is no possibility for cotton to touch
a lower figure than it does now, and
have the option, therefore, of calling for
one hundred bales for delivery when the
price is considerably better than it is
now. 1t will not have cost me as
much as it would cost me to make it.
But take the other side of tho PROPOSE
ton, and suppose that cotton coes 60
lower; your planter who has bought this
future will lose less money than he would
if he had taken the money he borrowed
and put it into the ground, for 1t costs 6
cents pound to produce cotton-there is
no question about that.
"Now, if this action is taken by plant
ers generally, and there is no reason why
it should not be, there must be an agree
ment on the part of the planters, or rea-
sonable number of them, to reduce the
acreage. The cotton acreage ought to he
reduced one-half. Your individual
farmer might take the money be bor-
rows. and after putting up his margin on
the cotton future hs buys, use the bal
ance in making any other crop that
would, in his judgment, make him more
money. This would save him also
the heavy expense he is necessarily
to in buying the fertilizers for his cotton
"I1e whole thing Is based fi-tile Oh the idea,
or rather the simple proposition, that it
is cheaper to buy cotton at the present
figures than it is to make it believe
this plan could be worked outsuccessful-
lv, especially if the cotton men Of the
West took hand in it. The objection may
be made that the small farmer couldn't
<b h,,k ~
could club together and secure the mon
ey and buy tho cotton. Just as an individu-
al could. Then, too, some people may
raise objections to the speculative feature
of this proposition. Ofcourse that is not
necessary unless the planter is under
obligations to his factor for the future
delivery of cotton then if he does not
want to speculate he need NOT do 80.
The important feature with the rest of Us
would be his joining in the movement
to reduce the acreage. If he does that,
and if he is in a condition tn do 1t without
having to bind himself to the delivery of
cotton in the future, so much the better
for him Ishould like very much to- aee
the cotton men and the newspapers take
hold of this question and discuss it, and
believe that the cotton factors would be
just as willing to help out the planters in
putting through plan of this kind as
they would under the present system of
having them make all the cotton them
selves. What is necessary, above all
things, is for the leading cotton men Of
the State and of the South to act to
gether and in some way reduce the acre.
age"
Colonel Sandeford brought the question
up in the meeting Of the committee on
general agriculture yesterday afternoon,
and it met with very favorable recep-
ton, Il was the opinion of the Eembers
tina. thu idea was new one, and they be-
Iieved that it would be beneficial to the
planters throughout the South to consid-
or it. Colonel Sandeford would like to
have the matter discussed, believing that
some good will come out of the discus
sion.-AtiantG Constitution.