Sharp County record., 1901-10-18

from at any point. Inc planters had
to take the bagging and ties at the
monoplies' price, and they had to send
their big plantation bales to the com
press trust. In this way they con-
tributed each year from nine millions
to eleven millions of dollars to these
two concerns, and suffered a corre-
spending loss themselves.
Now comes to their rescue the new
invention-the Tound-bale press, which
instead of being a trust is competi-
tor, and of which Mr.. S. E. Watson,
merchant and planter of Watson, Tex
as. thus writes:
1.-The round-bale press instead of
being a trust is just the opposite. 1t
is a competitor of the bagging trust
and the compress trust. They are all
fighting it. The bagging trust has
raised the price Of bagging and ties
twenty cents per bale this year. The
farmers all favor the round bale, first.
because it will save them fifty cents
per bale of compress charges, and
save them a dollar a bale for bagging
and ties from the bagging trust
Such, indeed, seems to be the case.
The round-bale press is fighting these
trusts, and is therefore the target of
their abuse and villifcation. The lat
ter scent the loss of these annual mil
lions which will now go the cotton
planter and swell the treasury of agri-
culture. Col. Roosevelt and campaign
orators of his class made much of the
'round-bale trust during the period
of their greatest activity, and en-
deavored to besmirch the character Of
Hon. James K. Jones, of Arkansas, by
showing that he was at the head of
one of the most heartless and grinding
monopoles in the world. The facts
repudiate these ridiculous coposi-
tions. The round,bale company Is yet
in its infancy. At this moment the
two monopolies we have mentioned
control the field. No cotton planter
or factor, or shipping merchant, is un-
der the smallest obligation to use the
new invention. On the contrary. 1t
will take some years to establish the
competition involved in that enter
prise. But the round-bale with all that
it implies is a distinct boon to the
cotton-growers of the south.
That this article is correct as far as
It goes there Is no man in this crowd
who doubts. You know that fifty cents
a bale for compressing is paid on
every bale of cotton, which in a crop
of ten millions of bales means five
millions Of dollars every year. You
know that bagging and ties cost at
| least seventy-five cents per bale,
| which amounts to seven and half
millions more The round-lap bale re-
uuires no COMPRISING, because the
bale leaves the press denser than
compress bale. It requires no bag
ging and ties and only has a light
wrapping of burlap for the purpose Oh
keeping it clean. But there is anotn-
er item which the Washington POST
did not consider. It is estimated that
there is loss of at least five pounds
on every bale of cotton which is abso-
lutely unavoidable under the old sys'
tem The great quantities that are
pulled out in sampling, the damage
in TRANSPORTATION, the picking In the
markets, and the numberless ways IA
miliar to you all, involve loss which
falls on the farmer. Five pounds TO
the bale on ten millions Of bales
means fifty millions Of pounds OF cot
ton, equal to a hundred thousand hve-
hundred pound bales, which, at forty
dollars per bale is equal to Tour mil
lions of dollars 1t is a ,otal loss to
the farmers, and that part OF 1t which
Is collected together, rebaled and sold,
constitutes what Is Familiarity called
the "city CROP
Thus you see that the compress
men. the bagging and tie men, and
those who pillage the bale from the
time 1t leaves the gin until it reaches
the factory, get sixteen million five
hundred thousand dollars year out
of the cotton because it is packed in
the old way which they could not and
would not get if the new method was
adopted.
It would seem that this ought to
satisfy their rapacity, but it does not.
7 have in my hand letter published
in one of the Little Rock papers
few DAYS ago, written by compress
company to a cotton firm in Little
Rock. in which they say:
con and after September 1. 1901, the
following charges will be made on all
cotton handled by this company:
"For tagging, weighing and furnish
ing detailed weights, zoe per bale.
For sampling and couponing anc
putting up samples 1Oc per bale.
"For marking 1Oc per bale.
"For lining down, to remark, OF
weigh, SC per bale"
From which it appears that at leas
some Of the compress people
are not satisfied with the
fifty cents per bale the!
are getting now, and propos'
other charges aggregating rorty-fy,'
cents per bale How much this VII
add to the above estimate can be easil,
seen The men who get these proht
out of the cotton crop will not likel,
give them up. They will resort to mis-
representation of every character, L
arouse prejudice against the ne1
method which is likely to interfer
with their present arrangement. 1t re
mains to be seen whether thes
shrewd sharp, unscrupulous shark
- ,,pnfttIipn nF Tl