Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-10-16
SOUTHERN COTTON GROWERS
IN SESSION AT CENTRAL CIT
Il I.

organized except the farmers He said
that while talking with friend on the
train coming from North Carolina the
friend remarked: THAT man hasn't got
sense enough to run a farm" Mr.. Bach
eller said even the bunco men have
changed the old saying, "A fool is born
every hour" to "a farmer is born every
hour" He said this is due to the fact
that the brainiest, noblest people on Gods
earth are not standing by each other and
getting their rights. He said the farmers
necessary, because the buyers are COM
bining' with the banks in various towns
and have an arrangement by which only
certain buyers are in the markets on GER
tain days.
The resolution was so worded that It
was intended to cover the points.
While the committed was out. Mr. Os-
valid Wilson, statistical agent of Texas,
addressed the meeting by request.
Government Reports.
Mr.. Wilson began by saying that $780,
100000 is paid every year to the farmers
for their cotton: that the spinners pay
$500, 600, OO0 thus showing that one hundred
million dollars is lost in freight, for COM
mission to the handlers and in stealage.
Then five hundred million dollars is add
gu 10 the fNdlQe OF Cost OF the COTTON Dy the
manufacture of it, and still another five
hundred millions added by the time it
comes to the consumers. He showed
what percentage of the worlds people
wear clothes, and said that If all of the
people of the world were clothed as the
people of Georgia are clothed today, it
would require seventy million bales per
annum TO supply the demand. He said
there was no reason to be alarmed be-
cause of the governments e-ccts to find
new fields for producing cotton. He SEEM
ed to think it was by no means certain
that the south would continue to supply
the demand a great while longer, because
the boil weevil had completely baffled the
efforts made by the government to stop
its ravages and was rapidly spreading all
over the cotton belt. He said that this
country now produces all but about two
and a quarter million bales of the cotton
used in the world, and that of all the
countries where the experiment of rails
ing cotton was made by the British gov
eminent during the civil war, Peru is the
only one which has continued the indus
try.
He said the country needs cotton, and
what must be done is to regulate prices
according TO supply and demand. He
said he did not attempt to say what
the farmer should consider a fair price
for his cotton, but he did say that he
thought the farmer should be in position
to say whether or not he would sell at
the prices offered him. He showed how
the government arrives at it's figures in
estimating the crop each year, and stated
that there were six sources from which
the figures were obtained recently and
they all came from the farms or through
the farms, and there was not a variance
of l per cent in any two of the estimates.
He said the government had been doing
all in its power to find out where Mr.. Hes
ter gets the figures for what are termed
the commercial reports" and the only
explanation that had been reached was
the suggestion that he gets them from
the ports, which is considered an unrelia-
bic source, in view of the fact that many
bales of cotton are shipped into one port
and then taken out and sent by rail to
another point, thus getting counted twice.
He said also that the commercial reports
do not show what cotton is grown, but
what cotton is in the country, and some
OF that cotton. has been accommodating
through years. He declared, however,
that there was less cotton in the coun-
try on the first of September just ended
than at any similar time in thirty years.
! The short grain crops I'm succession has
forced the growers to rush the stock of
cotton on the market, and nearly all of
the old supply has been in this way dis
posed of.
Schoolroom Will Afford Relief.
In discussing the evils that grow out OF
palace car estimates and the Wall street