The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1905-12-06
HELPING COTTON GROWERS.

wv IN LIMO
Whatever of good the Southern Cot
ton Association has done for the South
Carolina farmers, it has done without
the active aid of Senators Tillman and
Latimer. Senator Tillman in a luke
warm way commended the Association
in n speech, in Greenville, but COM
planned because he was not permitted
to talk politics. 1t is said that some of
Senator Tillman's friends regarded the
Association as his political enemy and
that he and they wished to discourage
it. This may not be true but it is GER
ain that the great influence that the
Senator possesses with the farmers,
more than any other man possesses,
has not been brought to bear upon
them in their fight with the Wall street
bears. If the speeches that the Sena-
tor made during the spring and summer
in the interest of the South Carolina
grogshop system had been directed to
the building up of the Cotton Associa-
ton they would have accomplished
more than those of E.. d. Smith, Jor-
dan, McLaurin, Weston, Hyatt and
the others have accomplisned-for the
Senator's word upon many farmers
works a magician's spell. But the
Senator chose silence for his part
though he found time to lecture on
other subjects in other States.
In striking contrast is the conduct of
Governor d. c. Hayward, who has de-
voted himself to the expansion of the
cotton warehouse system. Of course
the Governor has gone into the ware
house business to earn money but what
he is doing is what the Southern Cotton
Association urges ought to be DONE
Nothing can help the cotton more
than the perfecting Of the warehouse
eystem and it is fortunate that men of
Governor Heyward's character and in
telligence are going into the business.
AS for Senator Latimer, we do not
believe that he has the time to fool
with the Cotton Association.
The esteemed Columbia State has
cotton on the brain and wishes the cot
ton growers and the cotton spinners to
"get together" and agree on a selling
and buying price mutually satisfactory
and profitable to both. In other words,
the price is to be fixed before the cot
ton is planted.
This scheme might be practicable in
limited areas. We have heard of mills
in this section which last spring bought
the 1905 crops of some planters in this
vicinity at a price agreed upon, for de-
livery after harvest. Possibly, a scheme
might be put into effect by which the
Southern mills could buy a considerable
part of what they We doubt
if it would last. On the whole, though
The State did not inquire of the Fair
fax Enterprise, the Clinton Gazette and
us, we venture the opinion that the
plan will not work if it be undertaken
on a scale intended to affect the gem
eral market.
However, we wish the planters would
fix a price 10, IL, 1917, Is or so cents,
demand it and get it. While the mills
are going to buy just as cheaply as
they can buy, they will not suffer from
high prices if the prices stay high. 1t
is the drunken, staggering, reeling and
stumbling price of cotton, the somer-
saulting, crazy, jumping, hopping and
skipping price of cotton, the price that
swells from seven to fourteen cents,
dips to eleven and lifts itself by its own
bootstraps to II again, that murders the
sleep of the manufacturer and now and
then causes his fly wheel to burst.
The State will say that it's plan is to
bring about an agreement that would
eliminate fluctuations but with the mills
scattered over the whole earth and
those of the South consuming but one
sixth of the Southern crop we think it
is chasing a ack-o-lantern- though it's
intentions are good.
Tide people best entitled and best
equipped to fix the price of cotton are
the people who make it. The Cotton
Association started out to do this but one
can no more guess now where Harvie
Jordan will bob up in March 1906 than he
can predict the course Of Theodore
Price. Jordan may be right in his es-
t~imate-but, right or wrong, he is sim
ply leading the cotton planters a dance
of speculation though we do not for a
moment imagine that he is personally
specializing.
From different motives and in differ
ent directions Jordan and Price are
urging the people to guess. Jordan's
motive may be better, is better, but
the effect is the same and one is as
likely to appear right next June as is
the other.