The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1904-07-05
A SCHEME TO BEAT DOWN THE PRICE OF
COTTON.

and brokers on last years rop-the crop practi-
cally doubling in price after the bulk of it left
the farmers hands-ought to be enough to awaken
the entire South to the need of a closer investi-
CATION of cotton conditions this year, and the need
also of a more orderly system of marketing. 1t Is
undoubtedly true that the same influences which
profted so largely by last years fluctuations will
endeavor to repeat the experience this year, and
of late the fine Italian hand of the bear speculator
has doubtless been behind many an innocent
looking deliverance as to cotton conditions. Mr..
Richard II. Edmonds, of the Baltimore Manu-
facturers' Record, is one of those who have de-
tected this sinister movement, and we cannot
more faithfully express our own suspicious than
by quoting the following extract from a recent
article by Mr.. Edmonds:
"For many years the vast financial interests
in Europe and the North interested in cotton
manufacturing, as well as most of the cotton
spectators in New York, have combined to beat
down the price of cotton, having no interest in
the welfare of the South and no concern as to
whether Southern producers became impoverished
by low prices or not. These bear spectators,
whether they simply be the bear operators ON the
cotton exchanges of New York and Europe or the
bear manufacturers who could make more money
out of ~low-price than out of high-price cotton,
have used every power at their command to create
the impression throughout the world that the
high prices of the twelve months have been un-
justified, claiming that they were due to gambling
operations of Mr.: Sully and his associates. Even
Secretary Wilson of the Agricultural Department
went out of his way last summer to denounce as
gamblers the operators who were fighting for
higher-price cotton for the South, leading spin
ners not to buy until prices could be hammered
Ior, When hu tho combined Influence of these
great operators, who are the worst gamblers that
have cursed the cotton trade, Mr.. Sully was whip
ped out, they won a victory against the South
which has already resulted in a movement for
still lower prices. The departments at Washing
ton seem to be working somewhat in sympathy
with the bear gamblers in trying to convince the
public that Europe is going to become independ-
emit of the South for it's cotton, and the papers of
all sections are flooded with false reports about
that situation. The fact that mills in New Eng
land and in Europe have had to close by reason of
an actual shortage of cotton in the worlds supply
is held up as an illustration of the disastrous
effects of the bulP movement in throwing opera
tives out of employment. Great care is taken to
avoid telling the actual facts, namely, that mills
are closed because cotton cannot be had, the sup
ply being practically exhausted, and equal care
is used to avoid nointing out the fact that while
some thousands of operatives have been thrown
out of work for a few months by reason of the
closing of mills, on the other hand, high-price cot
ton brought millions of cotton-growers out OF
poverty into comparative prosperity. The ire
mendous fight made by Sully, W. 2. Brown, Frank
Hayne and others last summer and fall against
the combined influences of the United States De
partment of Agriculture and cotton bear gamb-
lers in mill managers and spectators against
high prices forced the price to a point where the
farmers got the benefit of the advance early in