The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-12-17
Cotton Causerie.

have almost always been accurate, has a
letter IN the Sunday edition OF the At
!anta constitution that will interest all
cotton FARMERS and all dealers in cotton.
lie exposes the humbug talk about top
crop cotton and gives cotton farmers
good advice. The letter is as follows:
Inc recent rise in the cotton market,
consequent upon the government report
OF 96t4.0O0 bales, is indeed gratifying,
put 1t Is very much like the falling show
ers after the flowers are faded and dead
III the recent report of the government be
true, and there is no doubt in my Judg-
ment that it opportunities the truth,
there is an actual shortage in the pres
ent years yield, as compared With that
OF last year, of about three quarters of
a million bales.
''One great trouble about the people
who figure and estimate the cotton crop
from year to year is that they are the
creatures of the great cotton combine,
and color their reports so as to promote
the interests of their cruel and exacting
masters. Not so with the government;
she can afford to be just to her subjects
and it is the purest bosh to say that her
facilities for obtaining data upon which
TO base estimates is not equal to those
Of the great cotton kings, both of this
country and the Orient
Another trouble about the estimates
of men who are employed to make them
is their almost utter ignorance concern
ing the production of the feecy staple
from the time the seeds are put in the
ground until it is baled and ready for
market, many of them being unable to
tell when it first appears whether the
bloom IS white or red.
Il said that the recent rise came
too late. l mean by this that the bulk of
the crop had passed out of the hands
of the hard-handed men whose sweat
and toll had produced it. OF course. large
planters who were able to hold, and did
hold their cotton, have reaped some
benefits; but the spectators and ware
housemen, who by false estimates ard
the employment of unrighteous methods
to bear the market. have filched from the
small farmer handsome profit, which
ought to have gone to him to enable
him to better care for his family and
make another crop. One of tho false
predictions of the numerous agents of
the very few large cotton exporters pro-
mulgated the ridiculous report that
large top crop was assured.
"Allow me to say here and now for
the future guidance of the farmers Of
the cotton producing section OF our c0un-
Try, that there have, and | feel sure
never will be, two distinct cotton crops
grown and matured upon the same stalk
in a semi-tropical climate in one year.
There may have been a few top crop
prophets who honestly believed what they
rrophesied, but the great majority of
them were plant tools in the hands Of
exporters who had sold the crop for
less than its real value and their sole
object was to defer deliveries ana hold
the spinner out of the market until the
farmers were compelled to sell at sac
riicial prices.
'Mr. ]. P. Wilson, of Texas, so fully
expresses my views along this line that
l here copy part of recent letter writ
ten by that gentleman. He says.
THE same people who made mil
lions by misrepresentation two
years ago are resortirg TO the same
methods now. With a maximum crop
Of 10000 600 bales American and a
minimum demand of 1900, 600 bales
we confidently expect to see the cot
ton spinners go up against hard
proposition when the crop shall have
been brought in by the large cotton
concerns. 1t will be repetition of
two years ago, when II cents pound
was paid for gulf cotton in The Liv-
erpool market by Manchester spin
ners, when cotton had beer promised
them at cents a pound landed. That
10000, 900 bale crop fell down TO g.
900 10000, 900 bales of the 1850 crop
having been old cotton brought out
by high prices. The great mistake
made by the Liverpool exchange in
1S99-1900, overestimating the crop g.
100, 600 bales, proves the unreliahiiity
Of that institution. II the great
contest for commercial supremacy in
the expanding textile markets of The
Far East, entering Through the open
door of the Orient, the cotton spin
ncrs of the South W.T. win tine race,
Selecting the best graie of cotton N
the early part of the season they i'll
produce the best goods. European
spinners in adopting A hand toll mouth
policy must of necessity spin the low
gr7de cotton and produce hoddy
goods, thereby forfeitins an estap
HSnSu lTaue WITH lHe hlSoI popuA'"'
regions of the earth.
From information which has como to
me from various sources the outlook for
the future is, indeed gloomy. The scar
city Of corn, the derloralized state OF
labor and the average low price OF cot
ton this fall make It very difficult to
grow another crop. Not only, in my
Judgment, will The acreage be decreased
% per cent, but guano in che same ratio
and the disappointingly and unnecessarily
low price this fall is the keen edged
weapon which has inflicted mortal
wound on the famous prover'ial goose
trat laid the golden egg
"My advice o those farmers who have
not yet sold their cotton is TO hold it,,
for my honest conviction is that 1t Will
go to 10 cents l am not chargeabla with
pessinism; on the contrary. | an inclined
to look on the bright side Of things; but
after careful study Of present sur
roundngs | here and now predict for the
year 1908 the greatest cotton famine
the country has ever known, the con-
sumption being so much greater than tie
production.
Well Known Moravian Minister Dies