Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1903-09-02
4 yyALHAl.l.A. soUrH cARoLINA. SEPT. . 1908

"S0Soi "hy ,"horo titOm ~ per CENT. TO
70 per cent, which, of course, is
very gratifying to me, for l didn't
want to see the cotton mills of the
North, or the South either, crippled
in any way. But they have not paid
a far price for cotton in the last 10
years, andSif the law of supply and
demand is to cut any figure now raw
cotton ought to be worth 15 cents a
pound.
sand if, as understand, the mills
state they cannot manufacture cotton
at the present prices and make any
money out of it, the simple remedy
for that is TO buy the cotton at the
ruling price and put up the price of
the manufactured goods, for think
we may safely expect that we will in
a very few months find a famine of
cotton manufactured goods in this
country"
"What is the visible supply of
raw cotton on the market, and about
how long would it last ?"
"My information, and l think it is
pretty accurate, is that the visible
supply of cotton to-day is about
$4,000 bales, which would give
about three weeks supply for the
cotton mills. This is my informa-
tion."
"And how long before the new
crop will begin to come into the
market ?"
"Well, they are picking cotton
now in the extreme South, but as a
rule cotton ought to be rushed in in
October or November, and then, of
course, the mills can buy what cotton
they want. And 1 think l ought to
make another statement, which be-
lieve to be correct, that we are now
having the greatest cotton famine in
this country since the Civil war.
want to repeat that cotton should be
selling to-day for Is cents a pound,
if the rule of supply and demand is
to out any figure"
"What is your information as to
the number of bales of cotton in the
last crop?"
"Well, understand the bears sent
circulars all over this country and
Europe representing that the crop
would be 100000 bales or Shere-
abouts, whereas, If l am correctly
informed, it was only about II, $780,
600 bales, and if the cotton factories
were better informed they would
have laid in a supply to keep their
factories in operation.
"In other words, Messrs. Brown
and Hayne had better information as
to the actual crop than the manu-
facturers of cottonp"
"Unquestionably."
"And they took advantage of
this ?"
"They simply took advantage of
it and acted upon it, and they re-
quired the bears to deliver the cotton
that they bought, and that is all there
is in it,"
"Secretary Wilson takes an alarm
ist view of the foreign competition
in the growing of cotton, referring
to the possible increase of the cotton
area in Egypt after the completion
of the Nile dam.
"The German, the English, the
French and Russian governments
have for years been trying to find a
locality suitable for the production
of cotton, and 80 far they do not
seem TO have made much progress.
Ten or twelve years ago-perhaps
longer than that-the Russian gov
ernment employed very intelligent
young cotton planter in my State and
sent him into central Asia with a
view to developing the cotton grow
ing in that country, but my informa-
tion is that it was failure, and am
inclined to think that John G. CAL
houn was right when he said that
cotton to be successfully grown in
any country must have FROST"
'In view of the increasing world
demand for cotton, do you think that
we in this country have any cause to
fear foreign competition ?"
"Not the slightest. On the con-
trary, think we will go on increas-
ing the crop. The demand is in