The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-16
From the Washington Post.

From the Washington Post.
 1 HE exciting events that have \U taken place in the cotton mar
 kets of the world in the last few days have served again to call attention to the commanding position that the south occupies in the production and marketing of this staple It is little strange, too, that while some American exporters, par ticularly those doing business with the Orient, have been declaring that unless this government takes some steps to mollify China regarding Chinese exclu- sion the American cotton trade with that empire will be ruined, the price of cot ton has been advancing so steadily that even the greatest of bulls have been sur prised at the results that have been achieved.
 Undoubtedly the professional speculators in cotton--the men who manipulate the staple on the exchanges of New York, New Orleans and Liverpool-feel like talk ing to themselves the credit for the rise that has occurred in the price. The credit does not belong to them in the slightest degree; it belongs to the cotton planter of the south. to the man who for years has been growing cotton tand talk ing for it whatever price the spinners or speculators wished to pay. Never until the present time has the farmer of the south been a factor in fixing the price Of cotton, and the lesson he has learned of his absolute present power has undoubt- edly been a revelation to him, as 1t has been a revelation to all who have to do with the cotton trade.
 It must be borne in mind that the cot ton that is now being traded in on the exchanges and sold for more than 10 cents a pound in last years crop. A year ago now the farmers were sending to market an average of about 200 bales of cotton a day. Now they are putting upon the market an average of more than 1000 bales day, which means that the south ern planter, dissatisfied with the prices at which cotton was selling when his crop was ready for market last fall, held his crop for nearly a year, until now, when the price suits him, he is selling. Five years ago the spectacle of south ern planter being able to hold his cot ton crop for nearly a year, waiting for a suitable price at which to sell, would have been regarded as most remarkable. Now they are nearly all doing it, and when their organization has become more perfect they will be able to become an even greater factor in fixing the price at which cotton shall be sold in the ex- changes of the world.
 The story of the revolt of the southern cotton planter against the cotton manipu- lators is a simple one. It has happened for a great many years that during the cotton marketing time-that is, just after the picking and ginning had been hn- ished-the price of cotton in the markets of the world sumped violently, and that the slump invariably continued until the planter had sold his cotton into the hands of the speculators. and spinners. Then. when the new crop of cotton had heen marketed and the planter had no more to sell. the price invariably rose with surprising rapidity, with the result that the speculator, who never produced A bale of cotton in his life, reaped the profit of the rise, and the planter received for his crop barely enough to cover the cost of production.
 This delightful plan worked very we'll for many years. Last December, when last years crop was coming onto the market. the price of cotton got down to about cents per pound. It must be re- called that the crop for last year was record-breaker, reaching total of some 140OO. GOO bales. By December some AoOo.- GOO bales of the new crop had come onto the market and the bears on cotton, be- ing desirous of smashing the quotations i, so they could get this great crop at as low a price as it was sold by the planter, were industriously hammering away and predicting that cotton would go as low as cents per pound.
 This sort of talk was calculated to make the southern planter, who never had shown the capacity or inclination tn