The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-07-10
THE COTTON GROWER AND TRUSTS.

Odsy u 1TORTGSS1VG + EGImGI correspondent
at the Georgia Cotton Growers Convention.
Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen =
This is neither trust nor an anti
trust convention. We have come
here to perfect, if possible, an or
ganization by whose aid we may be
able to obtain a just return for our
labor in the price of our cotton. I
am rejoiced to see the business men
and the bankers interested in this
matter 1t makes US feel that we
are all akin, and that we are mu-
tually dependent one on the other,
and I am satisfied that nothing but
good can come from organization of
this kind.
The economical problems of today
are very different from any we have
yet been called upon to meet. The
modern trust has appeared in
the foreground, presenting an al
most impregnable front. The news
papers and the politicians are full of
suggestions for anti trust legislation,
all of which has apparently no effect,
and the trusts grow more powerful
every day. Different views exist re
garding these trusts, some people be-
lieving them to be "a good thing,
while others think them an unmiti-
| gated evil. I do not hold with either
of these views, but believe trusts to
be both an advantage and a disad-
vantage. An advantage because
they are able to proftably conduct
business and give steady employment
to labor which would, if subject to
competition, be unstable and un-
| profitable. A disadvantage, because
their monopoly of any given product
gives them an undue advantage over
those individuals and those enter
prises which cannot, or do not, COM
bine and this, friends, is the fix we
farmers are in today, and this is one
of the main reasons why we must
organize.
A short crop of cotton, together
with an Increased demand, has raised
the price. The trust, acting under
a protective tariff, and seeing the
farmer about to make q little some
thing, raised the price Of nearly
every thing he had to buy, and by
this means transferred the money
fpO7,Y- biC 7NOc7-a+ To +1o57eC
Every time we go to town we find
the price on something has ad-
vanced, until we begin to wonder
what good the increased price Of cot
ton will be to us. If this is the case
now, what will we think when we
make another big crop of cotton,
rush it on he>market in the proInis-
cuous fashion we have been accus-
toned to, and the price drops back
to 5 or cents per pound, or perhaps
less, while everything else still re-
mains where it is. It will be no use
to cry out for anti trust legislation :;
the only thing to do is to meet com
bination with combination and de-
mand what is yours.
Trusts have come to stay. They
are the Outgrowth of our present
civilization, the inevitable result of
competition. We have got to look
at things as they are, and then adopt
the most practical means of protect
ing ourselves. Of course, the farmer
can stay at home and raise nearly
everything he needs, his wife can
spin and weave as she used to do ; he
can cut himself off from the world,
as it were, and live, but in this case
he does the world very little good,
or himself, either. Now, while am
a firm believer in the raising of home
supplies, at the same time like to
have little money to spend for some
of these countless conveniences and
luxuries which modern ingenuity
has prepared to facilitate the work
and increase the happiness of man
kind. Here at the South, cotton is
our main money crop. With proper
organization and management in
marketing and manufacturing this
crop at home, together with judicious
methods of production, I am con-
vinced that the farmers of the South
today, and those within reach of my
voice, will live to see an era of pros
perity the like of which they never
dreamed.
Now, gentlemen, higher prices are
going to rule in most things you