The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-07-12

there was a leak i'm the Agricultural
Wall street have been enabled to make
big money Each time Secretary Will
son, with his grandfatherly ways,
would come forward and assure the
public that such a thing was "abso-
lutely impossible" The farmers were
not satisfied, they complained to their
Congressman who We're told that 1t
was merely the imagination of suspi-
cious farmers, and so the country fell
into a state of two opinions, one that
there was a leak but it could not be
stopped and the other that there was
no leak, the bulk of the business men
believing in the trustworthiness OF the
Agricultural Departments reports and
acting upon them as fair and substan-
tally accurate. But still the indl-
vidual farmers and some newspapers
muttered and kept saying that the
farmers were being robbed by mani
pulated figures. AS long as the farm
ers were unorganiZed their complaints
and suspicious were brushed away by
the afiidavit-like statements of Secre-
tary Wilson. But last fall, when the
cotton farmers saw that they were
working for nothing and that they
would be permanently Impoverished
unless they could get redress, they or
ganized the Cotton Growers Associa-
ton with two immediate objects i'm
view: /. To get all cotton farmers to
hold their crop for higher prices; 2.
To reduce the acreage. They avoided
the past mistake of excluding men of
other callings, but invited the coop
GRAFTON OF Southern bankers and mer-
chants and all others in the cotton
section interested in the staple. The
portion of the expense for organizing,
the merchants Clipped in, and the
farmers put up small sums to fight
the enemies Of fair priced cotton
wherever they appeared. The farmers
everywhere agreed to reduce the acre
age. While, of course, some farmers
did not decrease their acreage, many
farmers decreased fifty per cent. when
the pledge was only to decrease TWEEN
ty-five per cent The Association eff
fected a perfect organization so It
could tell how much the crop had
been reduced. Everything in the
fight then depended upon how much
the acreage was reduced. While the
Southern Cotton Association was tabu-
lating it's reports, the Government Re-
port appeared 1t stimulated the
country, for it stated that the acreage
had been reduced only eleven per
cent, whereas the general opinion was
that the acreage would show n reduc-
ton of nearly twenty-five per cent.
Upon the publication of that report
,, cotton went down to the neighborhood
of six cents and it looked like the bot
| tom had dropped out for the crop OF
1905 as well as of 1904. The South
ern people, familiar with the opera
ton refused to accept the report but
Mr.. Wilson and Mr.. Hyde and Mr..
Holmes guaranteed it as accurate, and
the manufacturing and speculative
World acted upon it. Some days there
altar the Southern Cotton Growers
Association, having tabulated and
verified their reports. announced that
the reduction in acreage was about Is
per cent. The Southern people, best
posted on the cotton planting, accept
ed it as nearly accurate, but New
co. t.tN
ers and exporters said the figures
were taken by men who wanted to put
up the price Of cotton. and they re-
fused to give the estimate serious con-
sderation. Cotton was selling at star
walton prices. Farmers needed money
to cultivate their crops and their
money was locked up In stored cotton.
"To sell or not to sell that was the
question with them as they sullenly
saw that a cooked government report
was robbing them of the reward of
their labor.
When the night was darkest for the
South there appeared upon the scene
Mr.. Richard Cheatham, secretary of
the Southern Cotton Growers Asso-
citation. He had prepared the estimate
showing a reduction of the acreage to
be eighteen per cent. He had worked
with careful and conscientious men
in every county where cotton is grown,
and he was confident that the estimate
put forth by the association was as
nearly accurate as could be secured
He wrote to Secretary Wilson chal-
longing the correctness of the Govern
ment report. He was regarded as an
other Southern upstart who had the
temerity to put his opinion against
the statement OF the Government re-
ports Secretary Wilson hardly
deigned to notice Mr.. Cheatham, but
the Southerner, confident that his
figures were correct, would not be
ignored He offered to present all the
reports gathered from the agents in
all the cotton counties so they could
be compared with the reports of the
Government from the same counties.
Secretary Wilson acted as if he