The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-08-06
PLEADS FOR UNITY
!! TO KEEP COTTON UP
RICHARD II. EDMONDs DECLARES
! EUROPEAN MANUFACTURERS
! HOLD PRICES DOWN.
New York Herald.

| Banking Facilities in
| the South.
New York Herald i
In plea for a general movement
In this country to maintain the prices |
of cotton. Richard H. Edmonds, editor
of The Manufacturers Record, of Bal
| timore. In an interview yesterday. said: |
| Outside the cotton trade itself few
people realize the tremendous influence
which cotton exerts on the business in
terests of the world. nor do they COM
| prehend the ferceness of the battle be-
| tween the spectators and the Eu-
ropean manufacturers. on the one side,
and the producers on the other. There
is no other important crop In the world
| in fact, no other great staple of COM
merce, over the price of which such a |
far-reaching and bitter warfare wages |
TT is, In many respects, the greatest
| industry in the world, the capital in
vested In cotton manufacturing alone
being about $4,000. 100000. Added, |
however. to the capital invested d.
rectly in cotton mills depending on
the South's staple for existence are the |
many millions invested in cognate in
dustries, such as the making of textile |
machinery. the cottonseed oil industry, |
which In itself yields a product of |
s125,000.000 year. transportation and !
banking facilities, etc.
The demand from this vast interest |
Is for big crops at low prices. More |
than fifty years ago a report to the |
British Board of Trade took the ground |
that by keeping prices down American |
planters would be compelled to increase |
their production in order to make up |
for the smaller price per bale. This |
policy has been pursued ever since with |
ruthless severity. and the combined in |
aNtA 1t
speculative interests Of the cotton |
world has always been against the |
grower
Some See the Mistake.
There are, of course. many broad |
minded cotton manufacturers who re- |
cognize the mistake of this policy and |
who are deeply interested in seeing |
the farmer get a good uniform profit, |
realizing that from purely selfish |
standpoint alone profitable prices to /,
the grower are more beneficial to the |
spinner than the wide fluctuations to |
which the trade is now subject But
as whole, the worlds cotton consum- |
ers and spectators are generally unit |
ed in forcing down the price.
Great stress Is laid upon the shut |
ting down of mills and the loss of |
employment to some thousands of op- |
eratives thereby, due to the scarcity |
and consequent high price of cotton. |
but. on the other hand, we hear very |
little about the million growers lItte] |
out of dire poverty to prosperity by the |
higher prices prevailing during the last |
two years
| Last years cotton crop sold for |
$3.50. 100000, or about double the total |
gold output of all the mines of the |
world. against $4,000. 900 as the price |
of the record crop of 1898. or a differ |
ence of $335.000.000 to the South--an |
amount almost equal to the entire cap |
ital invested in all the cotton mills of |
the United States. The crop of 1898. of |
1l.2G0.00O bales. netted the farmers |
of the South an actual loss of over
over 800, 100000. and the next crop. as
several preceding ones. had almost as
bad story to tell.
Property Values Affected.
What the low price cotton period of
1891 to 1902 meant to the South is seen
in the assessed value of property. Be-
tween 1880 and 1890 cotton averaged |
over 10 cents a pound. During that
period, though Industrial development |
was just getting under way, the as
sessed value of property increased ST.
$780, 900, or an average of $3.50, 900,
600 year. During the next ten years.
from 1891 to 1901, In which cotton sold |
at from five to seven or eight cents n |
pound, the increase in assessed values
Notwithstanding great Industrial and |
railroad Advancement, was less than |
one-half as great, or only $3.50, 900, 900.
Two years ago cotton commenced |
to reach a higher level, and assessed |
values of property Immediately re-
sponded with an increase for two years
of S46O,O0C.006, or an average of $3.50.
100000 year, three times the average |
of the ten years from 1890 to 1900. Is
there any wonder that the South |
awakened as never before to it's own |
power. with It's cotton planters in bet
ter financial shape than ever before, |
is determined to make a far reaching |
fight for fair prices of cotton?
Financially able as most of it's
planters are now, for the first time to |
hold their cotton, instead of rushing |
it to market as soon as picked, THEY
need only the establishment of suit
able carrying warehouses and adequate !
banking facilities throughout the South |
in order to make 1t unnecessary to rush |
their cotton to market. In this way
they could steady the market, and in |
stead of selling the whole crop in two
or three months, they could sell as the
market demanded and carry the balance
on warehouse receipts This would |
make impossible of success the efforts
always made by spectators to break |
down prices during the summer and |
hold them down until cotton is out Of
lHe VI tHe BToWpFS, In OTuer Inut
the later advance in price may inure to
the foreign buyers and spectators.
During the last twelve months
Europe has paid to this country 1870,
900 900 for cotton. or. to put il in an
other way, Europe mas paid to us ds
much as If she had sent to the United |
States every dollar of gold which the |
world produced last year. 1t is not TO |
be wondered at, then. that Europe |
strives as for half a century past, to |
force cotton down. in order to lessen |
the annual drain for our great staple, |
but IT is of national vital interest that |
the European Spectator should not |
succeed.
mo business In America should so |
strongly appeal to the support of tine |
great financial interests of this country |
as cotton, for no other industry gives |
US the power over the worlds gold !
which we hold in our domination of tho
worlds cotton trade" |