The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-09-22
so THE PRICE TUMBLES
Now Going Down Eighth Of a Cent
Each Day.
THE MILL SITUATION BECOMING SERIOUS
The Farmers Have The Cotton Situation in Their
Hands and Can Dictate Prices if
They will Hold Their
Product.

Cotton continued its downward
course yesterday. The local market
tumbled off another eighth for all
grades, and stopped at ga, 9H and
10 cents.
The New York speculative market
was pretty steady, the opening and
closing quotations for the earlier
months showing little change and the
more remote months dropping off
only 5 points.
The receipts in Raleigh yesterday
were 80 bales. The receipts since the
opening of the cotton season (Septem-
Der this year have been 3,059 bales,
against 1852 up to this time last year.
In other words, Notwithstanding the
fact that the present cotton crop is
short. nearly twice as many bales
have been sold here this year as last.
And this is the principal reason for
the recent steady decline in price of
the staple. The other cause is the
closing down of cotton mills.
Over the second cause the farmer has
no control, but for the first he is entirely
RESPONSIBLE.
Without the first cause, the second
would amount to little hence the planter
is absolutely master of the situation.
Is cotton on the market today bringing
as much as he thinks it ought? If it is,
nobody has right to complain; if it is
not the farmer has only himself to fault.
Now as never before the statistical sit
uation. of the staple is in favor OF the
producer.
Let's take a look at the figures; they
will show the direction in which the cur
rent of prices must run:
The worlds consumption of American
cotton is from eleven to eleven and a
half million bales annually.
The crop last year was not quite nine
and half -lhffliori bales. but there were
over two million bales surplus left over
from the 1S97-'9S crop to supply the def
cheney.
Last years crop and the surplus from
the year before has been used up.
The crop this year is estimated at from
nine and q quarter to nine and hall
million bales. The lower estimate is be-
lieved to be the more nearly correct. And
on this crop the mills of the world must
depend for their cotton supply.
hECEIB1S hEDOCE HhlCEo.
This IS the situation and it takes no
expert at figures to work out the solution
to the problem. The world needs eleven
million bales of American cotton. There
is only nine million bales with which to
supply this need. In fact the Commits
sioners of Agriculture in the Southern
States solved the problem for the farmer,
when in convention in Raleigh a month
ago they passed the following resolution:
Resolved, That we urge upon the cot
ton growers the Importance of distribu-
ting the sale of cotton over the entire
year as nearly as may be in order that
the market may not be depressed by
dumping the entire crop on the market at
or soon after picking season, as has been
done in some previous years"
This advice has not been followed; lured
by 101s cents, the farmers have rushed
their cotton on the market as rapidly as
they could get it out of the field and into
the gin. The result has been unprece-
denied receipts for this time of the year,
and as a natural sequence prices have
tumbled RAPIDLY.
A week ago the New York Journal,
recording the violent rise in cotton, said
1.-THE total stock here is only 2S,276
bales against 166. 391 bales a year ago.
OF this total, only 1880 bales are now
certifcated and ready for delivery. More
over. the stock IN the United States IS
only 123, Ala bales, against 1920 a year
ago and the worlds visible supply only
6S2, 999 bales, against 2,171 AIS. OF this
Liverpool holds in warehouse only 200 goo
bales against 84S, 900 year ago and 75e-
600 bales at this time in 1898. Shorts in
New York, New Orleans and Liverpool
have been practically cornered and not
for years have they been so roughly
handled as they have been within the
last ten days, during which time the al :
vance has been fully $3.50 a bale. In the
past month the conditions in the various
States have run down from to 20 per
cent. and unless the South gets a late
fall there is believed to be no chance of
anything like a full crop"
Yesterday the same paper recorded the
steady decline of the staple and said it
was due to the Unexpectedly heavy re-
ceipts from Southern ports and interior
towns" To this the New York Com
mercial adds
cit was cotton, too much cotton, that is,
relatively large receipts at the ports, that
and throughout the South. That is all
there was to it yesterday"
THE MILL SITUATION.
Touching the mill situation and the
price of cotton goods, something has al
ready been written in these columns.
Since that publication the situation has
changed little, except that more mills
have shut down. the price of the manufac-
tured product has advanced and the price
of the raw material has declined
This of course. was the natural result,
based on the law of supply and demand.
Had the farmer been wise the result would
have been quite different. When the
mills closed down and stopped using his
cotton, had the farmer closed down too,
by no longer Offering it on the market.
the price of manufactured goods would
cnFa