The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-12-18
COTTON AND TOBACCO.

What in the world is the cause of high
prices of cotton? Lucky cotton, still kipg,
with no trust to say thus far shalt tho.
go and no further" Is this the idea p
Southern Tobacco Journal.
The cause of high prices for cotton is
that the worlds demand for the staple
has increased and the cotton crop is short
of the demand. Therefore prices go UP.
The law of supply and demand always
works automatically when no artificial
barrier interferes. No trust or combin&-
tion has ever yet been able to control
price. There was a widespread belief
some months ago that Brown, Sully &
Co., had cornercd the cotton crop and
had put up the price beyond legitimate
figure. 1t is true that upon the shank
OF the season, in the summer, when there
were only few thousand bales of cotton
the crop and make big moEey in So doing.
But they were proceeding along the lines
OF supply and demand. They knew that
there was almost famine in cotton, that
the mills had 10 stock on hand, and that
the worlds supply was short. With that
information, they were able to corner"
the comparatively small quantity of cot
ton on hand and to fix their own price.
They came in for great deal of abuse
and praise from different sources Meth
err OF which they deserved.
When the new crop came in, Secretary
of Agriculture Wilson, acting upon the idea
that the higher price was due solely to
the corner instead of to the true rea-
son, the inexorable law of supply and
demand, predicted that there would he
a slump in the price of cotton, and the
cotton farmers would suffer. His predic-
tion would have come true if the high
price. of august had not been based upon
The cotton famine prevailing. The failure
OF his prophecy shows that in the cotton
world, the law of supply and demand pre-
walls. Some times it enforces penury
upon the farmers, as in 1894. Sometimes
il means good times for them-as now.
In its unimpeded operation Is safety.
How is it with tobacco? This year to-
bacco crop is much shorter than the
crop of last year, and yet the prices
opened at about one-third or less of the
prices paid last year-that is to say With
a smaller crop, the farmer received this
year about 33 1-3 cents, or less, for the
same quality and quantity Of tobacco for
which he was paid one dollar last year.
Now that the time has arrived when the
farmers must begin to plan for tobacco
beds for next gear, the prices have gone
up some, as a "bait'' to farmers to plant,
but nothing to be compared with the
prices paid last year when the crop was
much lerger than this year.
Why the difference between cotton and
tobacco? There are thousands OF buyerS
OF cotton, and it is raised IN every South
ern State There is only one buyer Tor
certain grades of tobacco and that buyer
takes nearly all of it at its own price.
List year there were two large buyers
the Imperial and the American COM
panies-and the resulting competition
caused the working of the law of supply
and demand. Before the season ended,
these two combines made a still bigge'
combination and the prices took fall.
They still maintain a fiction of c0mpetl-
ton, but that does not amount to any
thing.
The suggestion in the Southern Tobacco
Journal affords, in comparing cotton
prices with tobacco prices, the best OBJ.
ject lesson of the operations of the to-
bacco trust and how it has robbed the
farmers of North Carolina of millions
of dollars IN this years crop.