The Savannah morning news., 1903-08-26
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
rs LOGICAL CAUSE OF PRESENT
HIGH PRICE OF COTTON.
NO CORNER IN MARKET.
SOUTHERN COTTON MEN DO NOT
AGREE WITH SECRETARY WILSON.

1Ir. J. p. williams of Savannah Says
That Scarcity of the staple and
General Prosperity in This Part
of the Country Are Direct Causes
of the High Prices That Have Pre-
vailed for the Past Three or Four
Months-FOreign Countries Cannot
Successfully Compete With Amer
lea in Production.
Secretary of Agriculture Wilson's
statement that spectators had cor
nered the cotton market and put the
price up so high that manufacturers
cannot use raw cotton does not meet
with the concurrence of all the cotton
factors in the South, or with those
whose long experience has taught
them, according to the statement of
one, that such a thing as a corner in
the cotton market is not only an inn
possibility. but an absurdity.
Secretary Wilson places the blame,
as he evidently thinks the present high
price of cotton is an evil on the specu-
lators, and warns cotton growers
that the too high price of the staple
will encourage other countries to exert
their efforts in raising the staple, and
that, with their pauper labor, they
will take the lead in production, and
will be able to raise the staple so
CHEAP that the American planters
will find it Improbable to plant more.
Mr.. Wilson makes the assertion that
the shortage of raw cotton to the
manufacturer is not due to the short
age in crop but to the corner that
spectators have made in raw mate
rial.
Mr.. williams Thinks Otherwise.
Mr.. ]. P. Williams, whose long eXpe-
rience in cotton and naval stores traf-
ic has vested him with complete
knowledge of the conditions affecting
prices. and causes and effects in all
branches of future fluctuations, dies
not agree with Secretary Wilson in
any of his statements.
s'The high prices that have prevailed
in the cotton market for the past three
or four months" said Mr.. Williams yes
terday, ARE the logical result of supply
and demand, scarcity of the article and
general prosperity in this section. Con-
sumption has oVertaken production; in
fact, it has exceeded the production,
and as a result of the scarcity of cot
ton, the prices have gone up.
"As to the contention that the high
prices are due to speculation,
that view. 1t is possible that
speculation might have had some
thing to do with the advanced prices,
but the consumers would have been
placed at the mercy of few specula-
tors who were successful in the mar
ket. The truth of the matter is that
the market has not been cornered. The
best proof of this fact is that cotton
exported from the United States to Eu-
rope has been re-exported to this coun-
try to fill demands of consumers here.
1t is true that the advanced prices of
raw material has had the effect of re-
ducing consumption, because the man
ufacturers have not been able to place
their manufactured products on a prof
liable basis at the advanced prices.
Raw Material Scarce.
THE more clearly proven fact that
the higher prices have been due to the
scarcity of the raw material is that
the consumption of the European fac
tors has not been reduced during the
prevalent high prices. To take the 20
sition that speculation in raw material
will tend to increase competition Ly
larger production in India and Africa
is not well founded.
Europe has been exerting every eff
fort for the past fifty years to increase
the product of cotton in India and
Egypt, and while there has been a
steady increase in these countries
there has also been a steady increase in
this country, and l see nothing in the
situation to justify the conclusion that
the great industry of cotton production
will be wrested from the South to other
quarters.
1T is well known fact that during
the entire period of the prevalent high
prices that the New York market has
been bearish and that futures have
been quoted lower than spots, while at
New Orleans the opposite has been the
case. If speculation has had much 10
do with the regulation of the cotton
markets do not see how we can recon
Gle the trend of the two markets. 1
do say that cotton has not taken any
abnormal fluctuations.
Impossible to Corner.
In this day. while there are so many
watchful warning factions on change
1t is an utter impossiblity to effect a
corner in market so vast and so vital
TO the monied industries of the world.
Mr. Brown and his colleagues, whose
operations the secretary undoubtedly
refers to as the spectators who have
cornered the market, said that they
bought largely of cotton at and 10
cents because they thought that the
price was too low for the visible sup
ply.
Foreign countries may bend every
effort to successfully compete with us,
but they never will Even with their
pauper labor they cannot produce the
staple as cheap as we can with our
improved methods, superior lands and
cline peculiarly adapted to the pro-
ducfiOn of the ST ME .,