The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-01-31
GOES PAST SIXTEEN
Cotton Flew With. the
SkyIark Yesterday.
The Limit of the Price is Now Ex-
pected to be the Ability of the
Mills to "Pay the
Freight"

Without the slightest hesitation the
srot cotton market in Raleigh advanced
half a cent a pound yesterday.
On Thursday the top price was IL SIS
cents, while yesterday Is cents came and
was quickly followed by Is Is cents 6
pound, the majority of the purchases be
inG at 16 cents a pound.
Twenty-six bales, brought on previous
days at 10 1-2 cents a pound, were deliv-
eled yesterday, while the purchases Of
the day, for delivery this week, amountet:
t. $50 bales. year ago % bales wen e
sold here at prices ranging from @ to 8 IS
cents a pound.
A steady demand for spot cotton aided
by the positive and advancing position
OF the bulls, assisted in boosting the
price of cotton. The market has q strong
undertone and the indications at the close
yesterday was for another advance.
How high is cotton going to be? That
is a question which time alone can an
swer as the present conditions have not
been at any time within d quarter of a
century parallelled. There is a top, but
scale of prices between Is and 20 cents it
is very difficult to determine at the
present reckoning. If manufactured goods
should advance as rapidly as has cotton.
recently the 90 cent mark would be easy
of attainment.
There is no question among the large
majority of cotton men of this crop be-
ing a short one and the limit to the
price must eventually be the limit OF
the mills to use up the cotton. If goods
should be slow of sale and the mills be
forced to shut down, prices would re-
main where they are or seek a lower
level.
All this talk of England and Europe
generally starting UP and raising crop
of cotton in Africa is regarded in IN
formed cotton circles as poppy cock.
They have been making unsuccessful ex-
periments along this line for twenty
years and it will be ten years at least
before they could, even with successful
experiments, raise enough cotton to affect
the prices in the markets OF the world
The only cotton that comes in competi-
tion with American cotton is the East
! India cotton. With an enormous popula-
! ton India has never been able to do very
much. even in the face of the encourage
'ment given by England and other coun-
tries. There they are all the time en-
gagged in either fighting the. cholera or
wrestling with famine, and it has been
said that if East Indian labor were TO
have a good square meal it would prob
ably eat itself to death in twenty-four
hours.
The only successful experiment in rails
ms cotton that has ever been made, ha.
ty-ive years ago sent to this country a
lot of people to study the cultivation of
cotton. With the fostering care OF the
government, which has spent enormous;
sums in promoting the industry, Russia
is still large buyer of our cotton, and
i: likely to continue to be in the mar
ket for It.
The States Prison has not yet sold
all of its cotton. It was stated yester-
dav that there was now on hand about
$50 bales, and that probably the whole
number would reach 400 bales that Were
yet to be sold.
That good round figures are coming 10
cotton planters this season IS shown il
the case of Captain w. l. Everett of
Rockingham, who has lately sold 527 bales
OF cotton at Is cents pound, a figure
that brought him about $4,000 for the
lot His whole crop it is said will brine
him SIS, 600.
Farmers are holding some cotton in re
serve, but this is all in small lots. Mr..
Needham Jones, an energetic farmer OF
Wake, is holding forty bales Five years
ago his crop sold for 4 IL cents pound,
aud with the expected advance he may
realize at least four times that figure
this year.
There is talk of advances in the market
and there is talk of reactions and breaks.
The market is high, unusually high, but
the reasons set forth by the bulls and
the trend of events seem to say I'VE are
not at the top yet"