Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-10-15
COTTON MOVEMENT.

HE ENQOlhEh bdS uCCu inNoiSu
with a copy of "Cotton Movements
and Fluctuations" that valued annual
that has for years been issued by
Latham, Alexander & Co., bankers
and commission merchants, of New
York.
The current edition, like its prede-
cessors, is a model of typographical
excellence, and is filled with a mine OF
statistical and other information re-
lating TO the cotton production and
trade for the past fifty years, and es-
pecially from September l, 1897, to
September l, 1898.
The statistical information contained
in the annual is most carefully and
correctly compiled, and is now gener-
ally accepted as standard authority in
all matters dealt with. In addition to
statistics, the book also contains a
number of special articles, and the
current issue contains quite thought
full letter signed by the author of the
book. This letter deals with the ups
and downs of the cotton crop Of
1897 SO, and in it occurs the following {:
We have repeatedly written on the
subject of overproduction of cotton; but
the planters of the south do not seem to
have been impressed by the truth or force
Of our arguments.
To emphasize this idea it is only neces-
sary to compare the market value of last
years crop with that OF the year before.
The crop Of 1S96-97 was S,757 1854 bales.
The average export price of that crop
was 7.45, equaling 1927 .547 ,S54; while the
crop Of iS97-9S was IL l99,994 bales, which
was mark keted on an average export basis
of 5.96, which equals S33S, 1924
In other words, the cotton planters OF
the south raised last year 2, ,442, ,03O bales
more than they did the year before, and
yet, by reason of this overproduction,
that crop realized only Sl0,SSl, ,6Q more
than the crop of the previous year.
Or, to put this unfavorable result IN an
other shape, we might say that the plan
ters of the south last year sold to the trade
of the world 2,442 ,030 bales of cotton at .SS
cent per pound, or S4.45 per bale of 5O7
pounds.
Are the planters of the south better
compensated by the consciousness OF
making an abnormally big crop, regard
less of what the world wants, and what
they will get for it, than they would be
by making a reasonably large crop,
fairly proportionate with the demands
of the world, which would always COM
mand remunerative prices?
AS we have remarked, this Cotton
Movement and Fluctuations book is h
fine thing. We value it highly. That
Messrs. Latham, Alexander & Co. are
thoroughly in earnest in their argu-
ment, we have no reason to doubt ;
but if they were not such ardent gold
standard people, they could not miss
seeing in their proposition what ap-
pears to US as huge joke.
THE ENQUIRER has more than once
called attention to the fact that the
south receives but little more money
in the aggregate for a large crop than
it does for a small one. But we have
never attributed this condition OF
affairs to overproduction. That argu-
ment is weak and shortsighted. The
world is constantly making progress
in civilization, population and wealth.
The only commodity of which there
is no perceptible increase is money.
The volume of this is kept at stand
still. With a constantly increasing
production in all things else, the
money stock is necessarily overtaxed,
with the result that the same amount
has to do more work and there is
shorter division. Only certain fixed
amount is allowed for the moving of
the cotton crop, and, therefore, for a
large crop the price per pound is less.
1t is not a question of overproduction
of cotton bur of contraction of the
volume of money.
However, the advice of Messrs.
Latham, Alexander & Co., is good.
The farmers of the south, if they
could, should reduce their crops as
long as present conditions continue.
To raise big crop under the present
circumstances only means bitter