The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1894-11-07
TO OUR FARMERS.

lU UUh ! ANN EnN,
AN URGENT APPEAL TO THEM TO
PROTECT THEMSELVES.
Mr. Eeddy, OF New York, Thinks chat
the Farmers, to Avert Ruin, Must Or
eaatze and Flight for Themselves Agsinst
Spectators.
COLUMBIA, S. c.. Nov. 1.-The fol
lowing article from the pen of Mr..
Roddy, a New York broker, was pub
lished in the State several days ago:
To the Editor Of The State:
Many OF your readers may perhaps
disagree with me, but l wish to write
q few words to the thinking people
of the South and West. l verify be-
lieve that If something is not done to
bring about a change. spectators,
capitalists, trusts and cliques will 80
far depress the products OF the farm
ers and the laboring men that anarchy
will be inevitable. When cliqus of
capitalists, witch their power and in
fuence. can combine and so dePress
the prices OF the products OF the South
and west as to cost the growers Of
these products millions of dollars each
year, and practically starve the labor.
ing class, and cripple the interests Of
these sections, 1t Is high time to stop
and think. Many who have COM
Portable living are satisfied to quietly
sit and say something is Worng, but
We do not know what 1t Is, and many
do not care, but you had better think
and act too, or your country Gao
never have any hope Of prosperity and
peace. The capitalists or cliques prac-
ticalIy control the Liverpool, New
York and New Orleans exchanges, as
well as the Chicago board Of trade,
and grind the money out of any who
may oppose them, sad yet they talk
of hard times and say poor business
is the canse OF the depression il
prices of the products, whereas the
very fact that they have depressed
these pricss is the cause of poor busl'
ness, for as long as the farmer or pro-
ducer receives barely living for his
labor and products how can. business
be anything but poor. Some claim
the laborer Is ignorant, has no educs-
ton and receives as much as he should
when in fact these same people 80 far
depress his products as to place him in
actual want and to deprive him Of the
advantage Of buying newspapers,
books and literature, and Of sending
his children to school for an education.
How can he keep up with the times?
I see no hope for you as long as a clique
has the right legally to sell more cot
ton, corn or wheat than you may
raise without owning or expecting to
own what they sell. It forces you to
sell your products at whatever prices
they may fix. These people depend al.
most entirely upon you for their food
and clothing and yet do not seem to
care how msny suffer by their depress
ing prioes Of products.
Legitimate supply and demand con-
troll prices, but false supply kills, to
an extent, the demand. For instance,
MI. Ellison, who is considered authori-
ty on cotton, estimated the demand for
American cotton at $780, ,OOO-she crop
proved to be 7,5OO, ,OO0-but did not the
Clique continue to hammer the price,
and OF course check the demand; Sup
pose the price had been higher, would
not the demand have been greater;
VIII Liverpool OF New England mills
buy cotton freely when they expect
prices to be carried lower, or what pre-.
vents Liverpool and NeE England
buyers from joining in and helping to
depress prices in order that they may
get your spot cotton cheaper? The
majority of you sell your crob as soon
as gathered at whatever price the eX-
changes may fix and they know it.
In other words you are absolutely
governed by the exchanges, even II the
price 90 to two cents.
You are blessed by Providence IN
being in the only section that can raise
corn, cotton aad wheat, and should
have something to say regarding the
price and yet you are poWerless. Sup.
pose spinners had to send buyers to
you with instructions not based on ex
change prices, you might have some
thing to ssy as regards prices as they
have when you come to make your
purchases, but they compel you to Jake
to so-called established price or they
buy from one who IS forced to sell on
account of his poverty. You see by
the papers that exchange price are de-
clining, going lower and 10 wer, and
knowing that you are in debt, possibly
for supplies and SO forth, you rush
your cotton to market, pelhaps, after
pelng notified of YOUR debt by the mer-
chants, at whatever price buyers may
dictate or allow you. Spot buyers an
tlclpate your sales on their purchases
and sell on exchanges snus depressing
prices and helping the bears. Eae ex
changes are great benefit to the spin
ners, they never give themselves one
minutes uneasiness about getting their
supply-they know that as long as the
exchanges fix price, no matter how
low. you will have to take 1t under the
present conditions. There are probably
over a million bales sold and bought
by speculators for every thousand
bales of spot cotton delivered on con-
tract and yet some claim the exchanges
are necessary IN order to get rid of
spot cotton; does it look natural that
more than ten hundred thousand bales
of cotton should be traded in to decide
the price of a thousand bales actual
cotton? When any one with one
thousand dollars can sell the crop of
one hundred planters. probably repre-
senting the interest and affecting a
Thousand souls, to say the least, 1t Is
placing q smal valuation on your
labor.
These speculatiors and capitalists
would not sell cotton so freely If they
had to risk buying the actual cotton,
but the exchanges establish price and
they know they need not fear of your
not selling at exchange prices. One
advantage the bears have is that If any
one have a contract for a certain
month, the bear or person Nho has
sold has the privilege of Offering to
deliver to the purchaser the cotton
about..fv days previous to the month
traded in, or of not delivering until
the end OF the month traded in, as he
chooses. In other words If you want
the cotton be has sold you he has over