The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1895-03-22
LANES WARNING.
HE ISSUES AN ADDRESS TO THE
COTTON GROWERS.
The Rise In Prices a Scheme 20 Hood
wink the Farmer.

The Hon. Hector ID. Lane, presi-
dent Of the American Cotton Growers
Protective Association, has issued the
following address;
''ro tho Cotton Growers OF the
South IL wish 10 call the attention
OF the cotton growers 10 the strategic
movement being made by cotton mas
nipulators 20 delude them into the
suicidal act Of planting again large
acreage in cotton. That uReasiness
has been felt in Liverpool for some
time IN reference TO decreased acre
age goes without saying, aud had these
conditions not have existed, cotton
values would have been lower than
they have been; and now, as the end
OF the season is at hand, and the staple
Is substantially out Of the hands of the
farmer, these gentlemen, who have
represented the bear element for 80
many months, while cotton was NOV
ing IN large volumes, now resort to
this ruse of running values up, simply
as device to induce the farmer to
plant more cotton than possibly he
intended.
81 warn the farmers Of the south
that this rise in the last few days is
fictitious, is the product of conspir-
acy of men to systematically rob the
producer of his Legitimate gains. 1t is
delusion and a snare to catch the UNI
suspecting farmer, to inveigle him into
the tolls of another three million sur
plus so that they can bear down values
lower than last season with an in
creased surplusage on hand. Let the
people bewarel 1t is a bait to catch
those who will bite. There is no le-
gitimate reason shown for this rise in
cotton values. The production has
exceeded the most sanguine expecta-
tions. Therefore, where is the legiti-
mate cause for this rise, if cotton has
been selling at legitimate figures? It
is simply the same old spider and
fly game, a recurrence of the farmer
and the 'bunco steerer, and am con-
strained to exclaim, How long, Oh,
Lord, how long. Is it to be ever thus,
that our people are to be waylaid and
~obbed Of their meagre substance?
II deny the proposition and defy
the man who made it, that any man
can produce cotton legitimately for 8
cents with any reasonable profit; and
I state advisedly and emphatically that
today the southern cotton grower-I
mean literally the man who digs the
ground, the unfortunate who pulls
the bell cord over the mortgaged mule
is not realizing twelve cents a day
for his labor the year round. And
what is to be the fate of this man if
cotton goes down one and a half cents
this fall, which is not at all improba-
BILE, when we recognize the conditions
that confront us and take into consid-
Grafton the fact that we had a most
phenomenal season for picking our
crop this last season, and its classified
tion was higher than ever known,
hardly any grading lower than low
middling.
"Still it averaged under five cents,
and though we may make smaller
crop the ensuing season of 1886 if
We have rainy or unpropitious gath
ering season cotton in all probability,
will grade lower and mayhap we will
have a recurrence of the season of
1881, when we had a superabundance
of the poorer qualities. We could
then exnact the same relative differ
ence in the grades, which must, of
course, result in considerably reduced
returns from tie whole crop.
81 invoke the most earnest attention
of cotton growers to this nefarious
scheme, and address you this letter as
caveat, that you may not be deluded
by this wolf in sleeps clothing or,
in other words, this bear in bull clcth-
ING"