The news & observer., 1905-09-07
Growers of Cotton Convene
Continued from Page One.)

The feeling is strong among the del
eSates here tonight that the minimum
price for the coming cotton crop Will
be fixed al eleven cents, with a pOSSi-
bilty of twelve. People await the end
of tOnights session with breathless in
terest. Cablegrams asking for infOr-
nation have been received here com
ing from Liverpool.
AsheVille, n. c., Sept. 6.-The re-
port of the committee on the minimum
price of cotton will not be made until
the morning session tomorrow, a
portion of the committee it is said,
favorS 10 cents and another portion
II cents 1t was said this afternoon
that part of the committee favored
10 IL for October, II 1-2 for Novem-
Der and II IL for December.
The night session was taken up with
a discussion of uniform bagging and
ties.
Mr.. Clarence H. Poe, editor of The
Progressive Farmer. who is attending
the Cotton Convention was talking
yesterday of the significance of the
meeting:
THE convention is of the highest
importance" he says, mot only to the
South. but to the entire country. Few
people understand how wide is the
realm of King Cotton, and that his
sway is felt far beyond the borders of
Dixie. Say that we export $35O,OOO,-
900 worth of cotton as we did year
before last Ct have not the figures for
last year) against $500, 900 value
for the other agricultural exports: this
means that you may take all other an
imal and Vegetable products exported
wheat, corn, barley, oats, rye, flour
meal. oatmeal. fruits, vegetables Ii
quOrS. tobacco, wine, cattle, hogs,
horses. sheep. beef pork, mutton, but
ter, cheese. canned goods, lard, oils,
wool, timber. lumber, naval stores.
etc.-the entire contribution, except
cotton, furnished the outside world by
every American farm, ranch and for
est from Maine to California, from
Michigan to Texas, from Alaska to
Hawaii, including the South's own not
unimportant share-take all this, and
with the proceeds of one years cot
ton and cotton-seed exports and safe
mortgage given on the next years, the
Southern cOtton-grower> could buy the
whole coloSSOf aggregation, and still
have a surplus of over 800, 100000
left as pin money and as a margin Of
safety for the mortgagee.
with such a crop. to handle and
such an organization to deal with this
subject, this meeting cannot fail to at
tract attention throughout the United
it is of the most vital interest. No one
who knows how we went through the
long era of six-cent cotton will fail
to understand how far reaching will
be the success of the~~Association in
putting the staple on steady basis
of ten cents or more.
"Nor would this be unreasonable.
The worlds demands have grown i'm
mensely, and if a 100000 bale crop
in 1859 was marketed at II cents,
why should not a 100000 crop now
bring as much? Cotton was sloWest to
respond to the general trend of up
ward prices beginning about 1897.
Wheat and corn in the West advanced
quickly, and 10c cotton coming later
was only getting all farm products on
a fairer level of profits.
There are, it seems to me, only
three difficulties in the way of the
Association s future success. The first
of these would be unreasonableness, In
it's demands. [ am glad to see that
President Jordan has set his face
against this He will urge that the
interests of all classes be considered,
and that the Association do not fix