The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1905-01-13

N i
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Under the above heading The Ameri-
can cotton Manufacturer of Charlotte
of the 5th instant contains an editorial
on the present condition of the cotton /
market, how to cause a rise in the price |
Of the commodity and the question Of
reduction of acreage. It does not think
the big crop estimate made in Deem |
Der wholly responsible for the great
slump in price. Speculation and market
manipulation had much to do with It.
It sees prospects for better prices and
has words of encouragement for the cot
here in full:
Users of cotton have watched the
decline in prices with a conservatism
almost stoical.
Are the growers of cotton becoming
hysterical? They are having served
put to them all sorts of estimates radi-
ating in every direction from the centre
OF governmental prediction. Many Of
these weigh nc weight. On the other
hand they are being o~ffered-like butter
in a lordly dish-all sorts of schemes
to lift the price back TO ten cents a
pound. Some of these would be epical
but for their foolishness.
The most utterly insane and buffle-
headed advice yet given is that the
growers shall burn a million bales.
Nothing to equal this has yet been pro-
pounded by rational beings. If cotton
| were a perishable commodity, which
| must be passed into consumption dur
ing the season in which it is grown
there might be some slight excuse for
the idiotic suggestion. Being a staple
| which can be kept without deterioration
an indeterminate length of time, the
| project to Hold Cotton" which is be-
ing vigorously pushed by the more in
| telligent II well balanced planters is
the only rational plan yet conceived.
A good part of the crop has already
been sold at a price ranging around ten
cents and at a time when a record
breaking yield was confidently expect
ed by the majority of the trade.
Most of the estimates over-topped
eleven million bales, when cotton was
being taken by actual users most freely
and that the expectation of a million or
SO more should b. naturally RESPONSE
BILE for a drop of over SIS a bale is not
logical.
The depreciation is due most largely
to systematic and concerted bear ham,
mering, assisted by the marking time"
attitude of the spinners. When the lat
ter conclude that somewhere near. rock
bottom has been reached, and begin to
cover their future needs, a reaction may
be looked for. Even if the crop should
ultimately be $4,000, 900 bales, the fact
that prices have about reached the cost
of production, coupled with the prob
able full operation of the mills of the
world during this year., also considered
in connection with the increased finan-
cial strength Of the growers, brought
about by two seasons of very high "
erage prices, enabling them to sell at
leisure Unsteady Of as heretofore, under
stress of pressing financial obligations;
and in view Of the acknowledged world
wide depletion in normal stocks of
both cotton and goods-known as the
invisible s~upply-gives no countenance
for a difference of about ten cents a
pound in the selling price of spots in
New York, within a few months.
In any consideration Of conditions
today and in the immediate future, it
must be recalled that during the last
ten years there has been a marked uni
formity in the increase and reduction
in acreage following the average price
for the preceding season, as these fig
urges will show:
AVERAGE PRICE AMID ACREAGE
"T A NITEfn