The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1898-04-16

Bagging and ties are an expense
which can and must be done away
with; an expense utterly without
compensation, though, up to date,
indispensable. The compress and
its concomitants Of storage. etc,
is Il burden which can be dispensed
with and ! trust soon will be.
These are loads upon raw cotton that
are carried by the producer and
which can be lifted. How? many
may ask.
In answering this | want to say
that | heartily concur with my
friend Mr.. A. j. Aldrich, in his
defense of the country buyer in
March number of the Cotton
Planters journal. The closer you
can place the producer to the spin
ner, or his immediate representa-
tive, eliminating all Intermediates
of labor and gouging, the more
there is in it for the grower. My
specific answer, however, is this:
The relief suggested can be found
and | believe will be, III the COM
pressed round bale. In saying this
| must be- understood as not adyo-
eating the cause of any particular
round bale patent or device. The
feasibility and practicability of
thus baIing our cotton has been
demonstrated. 1t does away with
iute bagging and iron ties; it does
away with the compress and its
warehousing, sampIing, tagging,
waste and general destruction,
which the spinner discounts in his
pricing of raw cotton.
As far as known the American
Cotton Company owns the only
device suited to this form of bal
ing. 1t may be Gigantic trust
and monopoly" but certainly not
more so than, nor half so much to
be dreaded as, the bagging and
tie trust monopoly which bled us
the past seasonto the extent of ten
millions of dollars for Il wrapping
which the spinning world con-
demns the impotent cotton grower |
for using, g,-and for which we are
discounted a percentage far in ex-
cess Of what is fair and just, with |
the very heavy bales now made.
1t is no more of monopoly than
the congresses are, which, though
not eemented by letters of agree
ment, perhaps, to fixed charge
the world over, yet do in fact
coerce the producer. and in various
ways bleed him. The "raw-head |
and bloody bones" Of the Ameri-
can Cotton Company is fiction;
the creation of compress owners
in our large cities, who also con-
troll the city press. They have
scared many people. Say what we
may about this rust,-let it be all
that is said of it; ] care nothing
for that or it, nor must be un'
derstood as its defender OF apollo
gist. 1t is their method Of hand
ling and baling cotton which ! ap-
prove. If they place it beyond
our reach by an excessive and
ruinous royalty, 80 much the
worse for them; other devices will
be offered in competition ere long
which will enable us to utilize the
round bale process,-compress
our own cotton at the gin-house,
store il under our own sheds and
sell it ourselves or through a fac
,or, by as honest and true q sam
pie as can be gouged out Of o
square bale by a cotton shed
''nigger." Again, the wrapping
viii be of ten ounce cotton, made
of our raw material, and, l hope,
near or at our cotton felds,-thus
helping to consume little Of our
manifest surplus at one-half tho
cost Of iute bagging and iron ties,
If cotton growers are true to
themselves, and will study this
question of cotton handling in its
nroper bearings, and labor to ac-
a reduction in the ex-
pense, as now endured, they can,
in nv humble judgment, save sI.50
per bale, as minimum figure, to
themselves. This means fifteen
million dollars annually, an
amount we'll worth saving, and by
no one needed half SO much as by
the producer,
Again, what other commodity
or product has known so little