The Van Buren press., 1899-07-22
r. Round Bale.

The Warren Democrat News lives in
daily dread of the round bale of cotton.
1t denounces one of the companies pro-
ducing the round bale as "a grinding,
greedy trust, once it gets its clutches
upon the ginning of the country, and
shrieks of monopoly in the most ap-
proved fashion Of the wild-eyed Populist.
Let us see if there is any reason why
the Warren paper should thus excite it
self.
The round bale press is not owned by
any single company. Three separate
companies now handle this press, under
different patents and the competition
between them is as sharp as it is possible
for competition to be between strong
rivals. each of whom is bidding for
business, with plenty of capital. Be
sides, there is the fierce rivalry of the
old fashioned square bale congresses
backed by millions of money and with
every old fashioned farm gin and press
contributing to their business. This is
the situation of the cotton baling bust
ness, and it is precisely the reverse of
trust or monopoly. There is, in fact,
no more bitter rivalry in any business in
which men are engaged.
The American and the Planters
companies the latter handling the Lowry
press) lease their presses and do not sell
them. They furnish and set up these
costly machines, weighing some So, 600
pounds, without expense to the ginner
and share the profits with him. He is
out nothing, and if he makes no money
they make none. If the outfit burns,
the press is their loss and not his If it
does not prove satisfactory, or the
people, cannot be divided for any cause,
refuse to patronize it, he can order it
out, without loss to himself and replace
it with the old fashioned press, 80 com
mon all over the South. The American
company will not set up its press any
where off the railroad The Lowry press
will be set up anywhere lessee may
desire. These are not characteristics
of monopoly.
If the ginner does not care to lease a
press and divide his profits, and prefers
to invest his money and own the property
outright, he may turn to the Fuller
company of Memphis. and buy round
bale press, which its makers claim,
being the last patent, is superior TO
either of the others. The situation.
therefore, is just this: The ginner and
the farmer may determine absolutely
for themselves whether they will put up
their cotton in round or square bale
form: and if they prefer the round bale,
they have choice of three different pres
ses, and may either lease or buy them.
What resemblance does this bear to
grinding monopoly Indeed, what
other business offers such variety of
choice as this?
The American company, being first
in the field with round bale press.
was obliged to guarantee market for
cotton put up in that novel form, in
order to secure business for their press
The regulations of the cotton exchanges
the world over, at that time, required
cotton put up in the old familiar square
hall Of rtui,, al
nor buyer, was willing to depart from
this custom without a guarantee that
his cotton would sell for as much in the
new form as in the old The American
company, which, originally. had no
idea of handling cotton otherwise than
to press it into bales, found itself obliged
either to take its press off the market,
or to give its guarantee that cotton thus
baled would sell for as much as cotton
put up in the old form. After several
years of fierce competition the round
bale has been so successfully introduced
that the American company authorizes
ginners using its press to guarantee that
cotton put up by them will sell for an
advance above Memphis prices 1t
claims to be able to do this because cot
ton thus baled does not have to be com
pressed, and is hauled on less freight
and insurance than in the old form.
This is directly opposite to the nature of
a trust, the invariable purpose of whose
existence is to reduce the price of the
products it buys.
With such strong competition in two
methods of baling cotton, whose per
maneney is assured by the millions in
vested in farm gins and presses and the
square bale congresses and with equal
ly strong competition among the owners
of the round bale presses, nothing
seems further from the otton-growers
than the danger of trust and monopoly
like that conjured up by the Imagination
of the esteemed contemporary at War
ren.
Southern Negroes.