The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-01
wAnEHorsE CERTIFICATEs.

A writer in the New York Press, com
menting on the efforts which Mr. Searles
is making to Introduce the presses of the
American Cotton Company and to get the
cotton growers to favor the bonded ware
house scheme, says: Mr.. John Overnight
Searles may succeed in accomplishing by
means of his latest trade combination
what all the genius of the South has failed
to do since cotton was changed from
commodity to a necessity. He is urging
planters to have the staple baled accord
ing TO searles and locked in fre-proof
warehouses. backing up the suggestion
with the statement that a warehouse GER
tifcate would be as good as a government
bond to borrow money on. Mr.. Searles Is
right But the trouble he has to overcome
lies in the fact that the cotton crop usually
is mortgaged before it is planted. The
planter does his borrowing before ne puts
a seed in the ground
The writer of the foregoing is not as. well
acquainted with the conditions which
prevail in the South now as he
probably was some years ago. The
system of mortgaging the cotton
crop before it is raised is not so gen
eral now as 1t was. At least in this part
of the South the farmers are pretty gener-
ally out of debt. They are therefore in a
position to become interested in the ware
house scheme If they think it is for their
interest to do so. There are some of course
who still depend upon borrowing money to
make a crop, but the number Is not suffi-
cient to seriously interfere with the sue
cess of the warehouse scheme. Mr.
Searles appears to be almost as deeply in
terested in that scheme as he is in having
the cotton growers adopt the round bale
method of ballng cotton. Apparently he
thinks that the round bale method and the
warehouse scheme would fit into each
other very well. And there are reasons
for thinking they would. If the round bale
method and the warehouse scheme were
generally adopted they would together
come very near controlling the cotton
crop
1t is for the cotton, growers to say
whether they think it would be for their
interests to get into the grip of a combina-
ton such as these two enterprises would
make We have nothing to say against
the round bale but we think there is dan
ger to the cotton growing interest in the
refusal of the companies which own the
round bale presses to sell them. If the
companies would sell the presses instead
of retaining them and collecting q royalty
on each bale the introduction of the round
bale presses would be much easier.
1t is probable that Mr.. Seares has
friends who are ready to put up ware
houses as soon as they become assured
that the cotton growers want them. As
yet however, the cotton growers have not
given much attention to the matter. And
when they do think about ii they viii want
a pretty strong guarantee Of some sort
that II does not mean a tax on their pro-
duct that would amount to more than
they now lose by rushing their cotton to
market in the early part of the season.
1t looks as if they could do a good deal
towards holding back their cotton without
the help of bonded warehouses, il the
slowness with which the crop is coming to
market this season is any indication Of
their ability in that line.