The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1905-10-06
HARVIE GORDAN SPEAKS
ON PRICE COTTON
WHY ELEVEN CENTS WAS FIX
ED AS MINIMUM.
Spinners Can Make Money With
Present Price of Goods and Pay
Twelve Cents-Every Man
In South Expected to
do His Duty.

At meeting Of the Executive Com.
rnittee of the Southern Cotton Asso
citation, held at Asheville, N. c., Sep.
tenber 6-8, 1905, where representa-.
tives from each cotton producing state
and territory were present, report
on the condition of the cotton crop
made up to August 18TH, was care
fully compiled from returns OF more
than $1,000 correspondents showing a
condition of 73 per cent as compared
with condition of 8 per cent. for a
corresponding period of 1904. An es-
innate of the crop for this season
based on reports from the same cor
respondents indicated a yield OF
o,588,333 bales Of cotton. Taking this
information as guide in connee-
tion with the present enormous de-
mand for spot cotton by the spinners
of the world, the present high prices
of cotton goods, and the heavy cost
to the producers for cultivating and
harvesting this crop, the committee
agreed that eleven cents as a mimi
mum price, basis middling at all in
terror points, would be a reasonable
and conservative price to be asked by
the producers this season for their
staple. 1t has been generally report
ed, and not publicly denied, that Spin
ners can pay twelve cents per pound
for middling cotton at the present
time. and still make good profits in
the manufacture of the raw material
into the finished fabric. Peace has
been recently declared between Rus
sia and Japan. The whole civilized
world is in a most prosperous condi'
tion and the spindles in all the cotton
mills of Europe and America are Tun-
ming night and day to supply the tre-
mendous demands for cotton goods.
Consumption Unprecedented.
The enormous crop Of American
cotton reaching the unprecedented
figures of nearly 100000 bales has
been easily absorbed by the spinners
at an average price of nine cents per
pound. Of this crop there was only
small reserve stock of little more
than a million bales to be carried into
the season of 1866 on the first day
of September. If no more than ten
million bales of cotton are harvested
this season to be added to the small
reserve stock carried over from the
crop OF 1904, the mills of the world,
at the present rate of consumption,
will face a famine in raw cotton be-
fore another crop can be planted, cu1-
tivated and placed upon the market.
The mills have contracted for many
months ahead for the delivery OF
goods to be manufactured OUT of cot
ton yet to be bought from the pro-
ducers. The exporters have sold to
the spinners cotton to be delivered in
| the future months which is yet to be
bought from the producers. The
/ spinners and the exporters are heaV'
| ily short, with nothing but paper
contracts in their possession, while
the farmers of the South hold the spot
cotton in their hands and control alb,
solutely the key to the situation. Will
the farmers take advantage OF the
splendid position they occupy, and
like men, assert their rights to de-
mand a fair price for this crop at the
hands of the buyers? VIII not t1'
mercahnts and local bankers through
out the South line up solidly in un
broken ranks with the farmers agains
! the combinations that are so actively
at work to depress prices and defea
the will of the people?
Must Do Our Duty.
Every man in the South, no matter
what his avocation, is expected to d.