Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1905-11-22
SOUTHERN COT
TON ASSOCIATION
A Local Branch In This County
Is Now Organized And In
Working Order.

On last Thursday, November 18th,
a most important meeting was held in
Palestine, that was the beginning, we
believe, of better day for the farm
ers of Anderson county. Mr.. E. d.
Smith, the general manager and or
gsnizer of the Southern Cotton Asso-
citation, addressed a representative
meeting of farmers, lawyers, mer-
chants and business men of Palestine.
Mr.. Smith stated that the time when
we of the South shall raise the cot
ton, and the cotton buyers of the
North and East, of Great Britain and
Germany, shall fix the price that they
shall pay for it, has gone by. Clothes
have to be worn by the civilized
world, and the cheapest material that
can be grown is cotton. Neither fax,
wool, nor silk can come into success
full competition with it, and that every
available country on the face of the
globe has been tested, and no other
but our own Southland has the soil
and climate necessary to produce it in
quantity, we have an absolute mono
poly, and as soon as we prepare to
take care of our cotton between
seasons, by having ample warehouse
facilities, and are on such terms that
we can stand together, we can fix the
price at which we will sell our cotton.
AS it IS now, cotton which is the
largest and most valuable crop grown
in the world, is forced upon the market
in ninety to hundred and twenty
days, whether the price be favorable
or not, and we have to take such
prices for it as the big hesrteduess and
philanthropy of the Northern and
Eastern manufacturers will give us.
By combination ana organization,
we can arrange to warehouse our cot
ton, and sell it through the twelve
months, set our own price upon it,
and if our price is not obtainable, hold
our cotton like other people hold their
goods. -
1t has been Said that em9dl4 1e
dangerous for the South to combine
and raise the price of cotton, as we
would get it so high that the mill men
could not buy it, and we would thus
kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
Never mind said he, about that old
goose; she is all right. What we are
after is the fellow who has been steal
ing the eggs; but we have setting of
the eggs now, and we like the taste of
it, and we are going into the goose
business ourselves.
He stated that when the Southern
Cotton Association was formed last
February, cotton was &c per pound
with an assured crop of fourteen mil
lion bales in sight. When he told the
South at that time that the price of
cotton could be raised to 10c per
pound in the face of such a crop, he
was laughed to scorn, but what APP
peared to be impossible came to pass.
Before the first of September, cotton
did sell for 10c per pound.
The object of the Southern Cotton
Association is to learn the probable
amount of cotton from the condition
of the crop, and the possible yield.
The amount of stock on hand, the
amount required by the world for con-
sumption, and when we have all of
these figures before us to advise the
farmers what price their cotton should
bring, and assist them to hold it for
that price.
The figures relating to our crop
have always been computed by North
ern and English statisticians, whose
interests are opposed to ours, and
more frequently than otherwise, the
figures have been too high and we
have learned when too late that our
cotton should have brought a higher
price than il did.
With an organization like this, in