The news & observer., 1905-11-22
STOP SELLING COTTON FOR
NINETY DAYS.

1t is naught it is naught sayeth
the buyer" has been true of men of
all ages who wished to press down the
price of the thing they wished to buy.
On the other hand it has ever been
equally true that the man with some
thing to sell has done everything he
could to push up the price. If either
could absolutely control. it would not
be to the interest of the general pub
lie. The automatic working of the law
of supply and demand is the hope of
fairness and justice all around.
The spinners want to get cotton as
cheap as possible; the farmers wish
to get as much for the cotton as they
let us hope that the price will be such
as the law of supply and demand
justifies.
For years. without organization or
voice, the farmer has sold his cotton
at the price offered. Sometimes he has
received all that it was worth. but
much of the time the price in the fall
of the year has been less than natural
conditions would command because no
effective fight was made for higher
prices Last year the Cotton Associa-
ton urged a reduction of acreage and
inaugurated a campaign to sell the
crop slowly throughout the year in
stead of dumping the bulk of it on the
yI~I-.a
tion of acreage was wise. The farm
ers ought to plant no land in cotton
that does not make an average of
half bale to the acre. Selling grad
ually helps to keep up the price.
When the Cotton Association met at
Asheville, they found cotton selling a
little over ten cents. Their reports in
dicated a crop of 1854 900 bales With
while the mills need 100000 bales
the farmers were justified in deciding
not to sell for less than eleven cents.
When they made the resolution not to
spinners representing large mills de-
termined to buy no cotton for ninety
days. That meant war. For a time
the bears We're able to get the price
below ten cents; then the bulls got it
up to nearly eleven cents. And SO the
fight has waged. Convinced that the
supply in short and the demand large,
Mr.. Harvey Jordan, president. has ad-
vised the farmers to hold 100000
bales of their crop for ninety days
unless in the meantime they can get
fifteen cents for it. If the balance of
the crop should bring fifteen cents, the
average of this years crop would be
IL IL cents. If the crop does not ex-
ceed ten million bales, it ought to
bring that price. But the action of
the president of the association seems
to have been misunderstood, as the
following statement from leading
cotton farmer and buyer to this pa
per in private letter, shows
II find some people have construed
this pledge to mean that the associa-
tion is trying to fix price of 15 cents
By careful reading they will note that
the pledge is to hold the cotton for
ninety days, provided it does not bring
as much as Is cents, and that it is not
a pledge to hold longer than ninety
days for any price SO you will OBJ
serve that the main object is to stop
the movement of cotton rather than
to fix price of 5 cents.
There is great bear raid. or
great combination of bear forces, try
ing to depress the price of cotton and
the association thinks that it is al
ready depressed to below its valu'
There is no doubt but that the people
who own cotton now can hold it for
ninety days, and there is no doubt that
ii they do hold it they will get con-
siderably more for it than to sell it at
the present depression. The most en-
thusiastic bears are not expecting to
see this crop of cotton sell for less
than 10 cents at the interior, even Mr..
Price in his communication today
thinks that if the association would
be satisfied with 10 cents he would
be willing for them to have it. There
is comparatively nothing to lose and
good deal to be gained if we stop
the movement of ninety days."