The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-10-19

. Inc euorL or t-reSlQcnL " aQdeA OF the
! Georgia State Agricultural Society to do
something toward checking the rushing of
cotton to market is an effort in the right
direction. Mr.. Waddeu has called an ex-
/ ira meeting Of his society to assemble in
/ Macon on next Wednesday. to devise, If
possible some means Of enabling pro-
ducers to hold their cotton. in order that
the strain upon the market may be re-
lieved and the price advanced.
one of the leading causes Of the low
price of the staple is that producers and
I interior buyers are rushing cotton to the
ports. to be sold for whatever it will bring.
No cotton is being held. Everybody who
has a bale is frying TO get rid Of it and
turn it into money. The market and the
producers are demoraIized by the reports
Of an immense crop and the great rush to
the ports And until this feeling is i'm
proved there is little reason to look for an
advance in cotton prices.
There are reasons for thinking the size
of the crop has been overestimated. But
it seems that the frst-owners of cotton
are doing what they can to strengthen
produced this year than ever before They
talk big crops, and push their cotton into
the market at the earliest possible date
as though they feared still greater calam-
tiles would befall the market, and at the
same time they probably see less actual
cotton in their own neighborhoods than
they saw last year.
IL,
prices for cotton is the extremely low ebb
Of speculation in the staple in New York,
New Orleans and Liverpool. What little
Of speculation there has been this season
has been done in the south. and on the
wrong side Of the market Some south
ern operators have been selling fu-
ture deliveries. which make it to their
pecuniary interest to bear the market.
Their efforts in that direction, however,
have hardly been needed; the producers
are doing the bearing for them.
As to the influence Of speculation in the
great cotton centers upon the price of
cotton, tho New orleans Picayune does
not hesitate to assert that in every in
stance where cotton crops OF recent years
have been sold 1T a relatively satisfactory
average it has been entirely due to active
speculation during the months of October
November. December and January Dur
ing these months the sDinners we're com
PEELED to pay high prices owing to the
competition of the spectators, and the
latter, in several instances, actually car
ried the surplus and bore the losses made
by shinkage in value later than January.
The system of cotton speculation is
honeycombed with evils. The practice Of
speculation has ruined numberless men,
and from a moral standpoint there is
very little, if anything, to be said in it's
favor Stll, from the cotton raiser's point
of view, speculation must be a very good
thing, because the Spectator stands be-
tween the cotton producer and the spin
ner, and makes the latter pay a good price
for his purchases. The spinner or con-
sumer, is naturally bear, and the specu-
lator is always in competition with him,
hence the Spectator is logically a bull
At the present time speculation is at
the lowest ebb in the history of the mar
ket; and so is the price of cotton. The
control of the cotton market is in the
hands Of the cotton consumer at home and
abroad. There is no speculation to come
between him and the producer. The pro-
ducers and shippers are playing into the
hands of the consumer with immense
crop estimates and heavy shipments, and
prices are going down.
1t is not difficult to trace the cause of
the decline in speculation. The repeated
efforts in congress to pass anti-optlons
bills, and the agitation preliminary 20 the
revival Of the fight in the next session
of congress have killed off speculation,
and, to a great degree, the withdrawal of
this speculative support is responsible for
the heavy declines in cotton, and in wheat
also.
If the Georgia State Agricultural So
ciety, at its meeting in Macon. really
wishes to get at the root of the trouble,
it viii take steps to refute, upon author
ity the big crop estimates that have
gained. currency largely through the
planters themselves. and to restrict the
movement of cotton to market.
Time spent by the meeting in discuss
ing the effect of silver upon the cotton
market or the depressing effect of specu-
lation, will be time wasted. For the sill
yer question has nothing TO do with the
case, and speculation in so far as the
present crop is concerned is a myth
~. Nxr;AA