Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1902-03-13

onen letter purportng to have been
.u++on by Geo. Rule, Jr., Lonoke
.orchant, who gyes an account OF his
,oubles in disposing of four bales Of
cotton to the American Cotton com
.sny. From the fact that there were
s,1v four bales of cotton in this ship
.ont and the amount Of trouble that
w Rule went to save S. smacks Of
,ut.un lob Mr. Rule shows consider
shlo trouble to show that the round
hale or American Cotton company is
trust or combine and that in the
future it will be great menace TO
Tho cotton farmers Of the South. He
.lso asks that Senator James X.
1ones be retired from our congress
because of his connection with this
company.
Reading this article and much like
other stuff investigated and prepared
by those politicians opposed to Ser
ator Jones. for the purpose OF influeitc-
ing votes for Coy. Clarke, caused me
to desire to give the voters OF Arkan-
sas a few of my observations and eX-
neriences in regard to the American
Cotton company, as those who are ac-
nuainted viii me know [ am farmer
have been all my life, and I know
that I have the interest of the farm
ers at heart.
cultivate four or five thousand
acres of cotton and corn every year,
Of
farming. To do this | have studied
farming and watched for and investi-
gated all laborsaving machinery,
hence have been watching the work
ings of the round bale press since its
Introduction into this country, and
think l am familiar with the manage
ment of the American Cotton com
pany I have no hesitancy in saying
that it is not trust.
have ON my plantation three
steam presses which put up from /,
500 to 1000 bales of cotton every
year, and l would not give one Of
these for round bale press, because
I do not like the mechanism Of the
press and do not believe it has suf
fcient mechanical virtue to replace
the square bale press, hence it cali
never monopolize the baling of cotton
even if that were the original idea of
the promoters.
The press is too bulky and too
heavy to be carried away from the
railroads which will prevent its intro
duction to any great extent. The cost
is too much for any of the ginners to
place it in their stands. But even if i.
were given away l know many gin
ners who would not have one. prefer
ring to wait until a better press is in
vented. am one of those. l have
been ginning cotton since 1857 and
ought to know what a press can do.
Another reason why this press under
present management could not mo
nopolize the balng of cotton is that in
a few years the patent expires, whsE
any company can make them and sell
them
Right here | want to say that in this
circular of Mr.. Rules l have seen the
first objection to our patent laws.
have always considered this one of
the wisest provisions of our wise con-
stitution. AS it's result the ingenuity
and mechanical mind of the American.
manhood has had full sway with
guarantee that it's skill and labor will
be protected.
AS it's result American machinery
covers the world. AS it's result the
United States have attained CONNER
cial supremacy over all nations. AS
its result the American Cotton COM
pany has perfect right to exist and
charge Mr.. Rule or anyone else 20
cents per hundred rental, and no one
will certainly blame them for it. Last,
but no least. the American Cotton
company is not only not a trust or
the square bale press. 1t has increas-
ed the price of cotton in every locality
where it is operated The agents of
the American Cotton company (and
Mr. Clements, of Lonoke, will so
vouch )are daily instructed to pay n
or u cent more than the market
price per pound for the square bale
on the same day to any farmer who
will have his cotton baled on the
round press. They are enabled to do
this because they save some freight
and weighing and compress charges
This one-half cent goes into the pock-
ct Of the farmer instead of the we'll
nlled Golfers of the railroad and COM
press monopolies and 2h per cent to
commission merchants. The Ameri-
can Cotton company is not trust and
never will be one. On the other hand
1t Is practical benefit to the farmers