The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-05-18
The UpheaVaI In Cotton.

From the New Orleans Times-Democrat.
Seismic conditions have existed In the
cotton market for many weeks, but it is
only within the last few days that the
fun force of the earthquake has been felt
July contracts touched 1890 On the New
Orleans exchange during the early hours
of yesterdays session, and there Is no
reason to doubt that the price could have
been lifted to a still higher level II the
masterfu1 bulls had chosen to use their
longest levers. The luekless bears, hav-
ing sold what they neither possessed nor.
could hope to get had to surrender at
discretion
1t would be absurd to deny that man.
ipulation has had much to do with the
enormous rise; 1t would be still more
ridiculous to assert that the boom has
had Its origin in speculative antics alone
Operators can indeed work wonders, IL
furnished forth with abundant money
and unfiinching nerve. but history teaches
that unnatural corners fail ingloriously
The thing has been tried time and again.
Legitimate influences have always pre-
vailed In the end, leaving the supersubtle
sleight-of-hand men on the highway to
the poorhouse.
Why Is It, then, that this bull cam
paign has been such a roaring success?
non might be given. For example, thou
sands and thousands of bales had been
sold for delivery here in July and Au-
gust against purchases of corresponding
Quantities in New York and Liverpool.
Such transactions work well enough when
supplies are normal or nearly So the
world over. The exception proves the
rule, however, when demand presses hard
upon supply, so that the consuming coun-
fRtA hnF l.,
nants. At this moment, New Orleans
and Liverpool are together-not in the
relative, but in the absolute sense. Thus,
July-August stands at 5.3Sd QO.76c), while
the corresponding option commands 1913
here 1t must be borne in mind that cot
ton is sold by actual tare In Liverpool
but by gross weight with us. This differ
ence of per cent. amounts to 30 pounds
or 1925 per bale. Moreover, the ocean
freight and insurance, with various
other items of expense must be taken
into the calculation. It may therefore be
said that the commodity Is relatively
higher by something like five dollars
per bale on this side of the Atlantic.
The reason for this fearful disparity Is
not far to seek. The last three crops
have been inadequate to current require
ments. The consumption has grown, while
the production has stood still. Europe's
scale, so that American port-stocks have
been reduced to SsO,144 bales. 1t has thus
been necessary to call a halt on further
expectation and the dislocation of the
PARTIES Is the simplest and most effective
means to this end. Indeed, importations
are already talked about, but there Liver
pool will surely impose veto, by sud
denly rising to the prohibitive level New
York Is In the queer position of having
T,1.r
by fully SO per bale. Terrific explosions
are likely to come from both quarters in
the near future.
We must confess that the losses and
gains of particular spectators interest us
comparatively little; but we do get i'm
mense comfort from the reasonable GER
tainty that the south will have the whip
hand for another season at least Even
though the farmer work hard and nature
be in her kindest mood there is no proba-
billty that another period of glut i'm
Ponds. A crop of 100000 bales is wanted
and yield Of 100000 would not come
am1ss. No trade can live on the hand-to-
mouth basis forever. The trick has been
tried ever since 1899, with results which
are today plain to the blindest eyes.
Looking at the problem from the econ
omic standpoint, the prevailing scarcity
is no boon, even to the producer A
sufficient output at fairly remunerative
prices Is the golden mean which is In
finitely better than either extreme. There
Is In truth very real danger in fancy
values, since the whole world is slim
ulated to make good the deficit by ex-
tending cotton-culture in competing coun-
tries The peril seems remote just now
as such perils always do. Liverpool
laughed when Manchester proposed to ex-
pend millions on the Ship canal, but the
grin long ago turned into a grimace.
With American cotton at cents, foreign
competition is bugaboo-simply that,
and nothing more. The menace becomes
uncomfortably concrete when the value
of middling has to be expressed by two
figures. Too much of a good thing is as
bad as too little.