The Daily Texarkanian., 1894-12-10
A COTTON TRUST.
scheming to Help the Farmers Of the
South.


Roddey, a New York cotton broker
to organize the cotton producers of
the South into gigantic trust.
Mr., Roddey is a native of this coun-
ty, but for the last few years has
been doing business in New York.
During the last ten days he has
been here preaching the practical
bility of his scheme to his old ac-
quaintances and former associates,
and has succeeded in working up a
wonderful degree of enthusi-
asm,
In an interview he said "The
price of cotton is now controlled all
most absolutely by the professional
spectators at Liverpool, New York
and New Orleans, The spectators
handle hundreds of millions of bales
of cotton annually. Their transac-
tions in imaginary cotton are so
vast as to make the transactions in
real cotton of secondary Importance.
They have succeeded in suspending
the laws of supply and demand,
The purchase and sale of hundreds
of millions of bales of imaginary
cotton tend to fix the price of the
eight or nine million bales of actual
cotton as a mere incident, and the
result is a tremendous disadvantage
to the men who actually produce
the cotton.
"By proper organization the pro-
ducers of cotton can, to an extent
put a stop to speculation, restore
the operation of the laws of sup
ply and demand, and themselves
realize most of the rich profits that
are sucked out of the raw material
on its way to the manufacturers,
And the problem of organization is
not so difficult as those who have
not considered the matter might
suppose. Throughout the South
there are already enough ware.
houses to store the entire crop
These warehouses were built with
profits made out of cotton and are
sustained by such profits. There
are six times as many local buyers
as are necessary to handle the crop
and all get fairly good incomes. AS
a result of thorough organization
we can scoop in all the private
warehouses for certificates OF stock
and also dispense with 6ve-sixth
of the local buyers. This will ena-
BILE us to use the warehouses on the
basis of fair rate of interest and
to save to the farmers the amount
now paid to the support of superilu-
Gus local buyers.
"With a large per cent OF the
cotton crop absolutely under one
management and control we can let
cotton on thei market only as need
ee and Unnecessary hold back one
fourth or one fifth of the crop alto.
gether. In case the mills should
try to freeze US out, there would be
constantly increasing demand for
cotton goods which would increase
the price. The price of Gotten
would follow. Cotton Is always
good security, and when stored In
warehouses we could borrow enough
for owners to enable them to keep
going until the mills would be will
ling to pay the price asked, Even
If we should receive no benefits
from any other source, we would
certainly experience q rise in price
on account of the elimination OF
The local buyers and the thousands
Of other middle men, and the rise In
prices would more thai pay all the
expenses,
81 have received more than 1000
letters from prominent cotton pro.
ducers In different sections Of the
Southern States, and with one ac-
cord they promise me their hearty
support
start the ball, they say "and
we are with you,
This county has population Of
80, 900, and produces annually 49,.
900 bales of cotton, The cotton
producers have slmply gone wild
over Roddey's scheme, They are
holding township meetings In every
township In the county, and have
elected delegates to a county con.
vention to be held In Yorltville next
Saturday The outlook Is that the
trust idea viii be adopted just as
proposed by Mr. Roddey and active
steps will be taken to further the
organization in the state and
throughout the South,
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