The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-09-10
Ten-Ccnt Cotton and Bryan.

Spot cotton, or cotton for immediate
delivery, sold in this market on Saturday
at iOl. cents a pound as against 8 7-l6 cents
a pound on that day last year, The high
prices for it that have prevailed during
the present year, with the renewed advance
thereof and the great activity in the cotton
market in the last three weeks. are not only
n gratifying feature OF our business pros
perity but serve to illuminate the cardinal
principle OF Organism. namely, that the
values Of commodities in his country,
especially those produced upon farms.
have been continuously and unduly de-
pressed by the adoption ~ the gold
standard.
Since last December we have frequently
called attention 10 the extraordinary con-
ditions in our cotton market. For a long
time the yearly crops Of American cotton
have been large. 1t seemed as though
nothing could avert Southern planters
from the habit Of planting cotton to the
exclusion II all other staples; while during
many seasons the weather throughout
the cotton belt was exceedingly favor
able. As there was no such proportionate
increase in the demand for the article
the price Of cotton necessarily decreased.
At the beginning Of the cotton season last
year, that is, on Sept. /. 1899. a vast store
Of cotton had accumulated in the ware
houses Of the world, forming what Is known
in the trade as the visible supply. For
the season then beginning a further
greatly increased acreage Of land de-
voted TO cotton had been planted. The
weather had been apparently propitious
through the summer and another bumper
crop Of cotton seemed inevitable. Mr.. HENRY
NELL and the other agents 81 English
importing houses here predicted a crop
Of over II 100000 bales; consequently the
English consumers steadfastly declined 10
buy cotton in the spring and summer of last
year, save in small quantities. feeling that
before the end Of the year they would secure
all they wanted at the lowest prices ever
known. As compared with the business Of
the previous year. the purchases of Ameri-
can cotton for foreign markets fell of over
100000 OO. But az the season went on the
receipts Of cotton from the plantations
fell off and the surety Of a large crop
diminished. The Southern planters be-
came convinced tina the crop was much
less than il was believed 10 he by the Eng
lish buyers. and they " held" their cotton 10
n great extent. The result was n deadlock
in the price Of the staple. but with a con-
tinual decrease in the amount Of the Eng
lish visible supply Of il, This went on until
February. when the Liverpool brokers
and the Manchester spinners began TO
suspect that they. and not the Southern
planters, were in the wrong, The stls-
piclon turned to certainty as the weeks
went on. A great rise in cotton resulted,
beginning rs usual slowly, and then pro-
cecding more rapidly and eliminating in
n period of great speculation and excite
ment. The notable attempt and failure Of
Mcssrs. PRICE and MCCORMICK in this city
to run a corner in the staple il still fresh in
the public mind.
At that time, after detailing the
conditions then prevailing in the cotton
market. we said; " II, in addition, the plant
ing for the next years crop, now not very
far away, should he attended with un-
favorable climatic conditions and it should
otherwise become probable that another
short crop ~ cotton would be raised, sem
sational prices for the staple will occur"
We are now bound to chronicle the fact
that, in some degree. at least. this has
occurred, and that the end Of il does not
yet seem TO be in sight. The cotton crop Of
Isos-loOo turns out to be only s.4Ss, $50 bales
against II .Ss3 bales for ls0s-s9. While a
very large cotton acreage was planted this
spring the weather attending the growing
crop has been'lf not exactly disastrous, at