El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-09-24

prices, and the producers of today must
make the most of them.
Of course, low prices OF the prime
the millions who consume. The neces-
stiles of the great body of the people
cut no figure with the prod ucer. He
wants the highest possible prices for
his wheat or his cotton. He knows
that people must have bread and cloth
ing. and it is his business to make
th em pay the highest prices pOssib e
But to the consumers the price is
everything, and it Is to them an I'M
mixed blessing when prices OF neces-
saries are low.
In this age, when mechanism with
its wonderful p .wer to multiply the
powers of man, and chemistry, with
it's magic arts of land fertilization,
com blne to increase enormously the
powers of az AGRICULTURAL and other in
dustrial production, it may be set
down as an established fact that low
prices have come to stay, and ten cent
cotton and dollar wheat will be here
after merely accidental circumstances.
They cannot be depended on for a per-
manency.
Mr.. r. II. Edmonds, editor of the
Baltimore Record, an enlightened and
devoted exponent of southern progress
and Industries, in an interview pub
lished recently in the New York Times,
said:
This view was ably expressed recent
ly bV Mr.. D A. Tompkins, of Charlotte,
n. G. to the effect that low-priced cot
ton, instead of being disadvantage to
the south, is not an unmixed evil, since
1t prevents the large development of
cotton growing in other countries, and
enables the south to maintain its world
monopoly OF this industry, and causes
an increase of cotton consumption in
new fields as we'll as old.
in many senses cotton is still king in
the world 8 business affairs. and the i'm
poTtance to our country that the south
shall maintain and strengthen its DOM
mating position n this staple cannot be
overestimated. | do not recall any
other instance where the production of
= great stample of almost universal
consumption, the demand for which
must necessarily increase year by year,
in proportion to the increase of wealth
and the progress of civilization, is so
com pletely controlled by one section,
or even by one country, as is the case
with the south and its cotton.
with the cost of fertilizers constant
y decreasing, by resson of the phos-
oh ate discoveries in Florida and Ten
n ssee, with the spread of intensive
farming, and the consequent lower
actual cost OF producing cotton, and
with the improved methods of hand
ling this staple from the gin to the
mill, it is only reasonable to hope that
even il prices continue as low as for
several years past the net profits to the
farmer will be greater than in the
past with high prices. With this in
creased consumption of the south g
chief staple, and the multiplication of
Industries for the utilization of this
and other resources likely ito result
from movements which the war will
start. there will be added to the avail
able wealth of those needing il most,
viz. the iand-owing classes, enough to
ment of the losses caused by the civil
war"
1t is absolutely necessary that the
southern states of America should
continue to enjoy the monopoly of fur
nshiug the worlds cotton. and this is
only to be accomplished by being able
to grow it in abundance and to sell it
at prices which no other country can
undersell. Any measure that would
deprive us of this monopoly is to be
deprecated and avoided. The true
way for the southern people and for
the people of the entire country to
meet the situation is to use all me-
chauical and chemical means in their
reach to cheaper production, and to
extend the consumption as much as
possible.
Already there is some export uof
American cotton direct to Japan, and
a considerable quantity goes to Asia
by way of Liverpool. Here is great
argument for the construction of the
Nicaragua canal. General lex Presi-
dent) Grant. after his tour in the Ash
attic countries, expressed the belief
that, If the orientals could get it,
they would consume 5000 900 bales
of American cotton every year This
is mentioned by Mr.. Edmonds, who
recalled also the fact that Ex-Gover-