The Forrest City times., 1905-01-06
The Ginner's Report.
COLT, ARK, Dec }

.,t the ginner's report 10 tie depart mFnt If agriculture, and the depart. mant's est mate therefrom, Of the size If the present cotton crop. It seems th4ta Mir Meurert of Little Rock re- | .es' ed ihe department to furnish te him copy of the report made n No vember by each ginner Tn the state. which r quest the department refused This act of the department was eminent ly proper and is in keeping with that high order of integrity which our gov ernment msinta ns towards all with whom it deals, whether our own poo- pc or foreicn nations. The writer was for q time the owner and operator of a public gn 2 q received at stated in iervals, in common with other gin ners request for statement of the number of bales ginned to given date. The requests were accompanied with the assurance that tic informa- ton when obtained would be consider. ed con6Ge' Ii 1. The department, when it ks for q statement of this kind from an individual. whelher he be merchant, AS to the volume of his business, CT a newspaper publisher us to the extent of his circulation, asks for informal ion as to the private affairs If that individual, and so treats it.
 GuralV Mr. Monrar ,a. an, tl,a,s reputable citizen, wou not ask the governm n 10 b. gully of punic faith But it seems to me that MT. Meurer took upon himself rather g'g ntic task one under which ere long he would have fallen down. Would it not have ben much easier way 10 trst the accuracy of the governments s'atemeut,aud Ilst a effective, had he asked for the ACGRF9k TIE Of some par I ael county or b t.h of ceun- es? ln that event he would have received t ( information he asked for, as ii could have been given without the viol aian of confidence, an1 ha would have had a '4b ! fore him, nt quite sa fermidab!e. When uf Meurtr cha lenges the correctness of shese re potts, whose integrity does he qnes- tioa?
 D c he mean to say that the ginners of the South have given the govern. mtnt false statements as to their busi- hess, or does he mean to charge the government with padding the re. trrns, as is dor q in certain local ts s q VII here in Arkansas wher an cleo len is on.
 In the excerpt from the Arkansas Dt mocfat, which you make in your edi. slnllal, that paper says. They (the gin uersl dea' wtha inatter that is of great ihtefeSt an no honest ginner should object 10 his report being made tublic. We venture that uo Arkansas glnner would object suppose not, but the department obtained their reports upon the pledge of their being treat d as confidential. But opinions on this matter seem to differ. In discussing l. the other day with one of cur coun. ty officials, he took the ground that Sinners, like most other peorle, are prone to making the volume of theif business appear as large as possible and In all cases where there were com nAtltDts that aunh ,I output of h's plant when he made hts report. Thus he placed the oppro. bium and the blame for the big crop, not upon the goverrmsnt or the fruit fnlness Of our soil, Gr the proRitious ness of the season or the industry ot our people, but upon the ginner wh( glnned it.
 You open your editorial with thi. sentence: And this brings us to h, consideration Of the impropriety an, inlnstice of ginners' reports in gener al. ' Why not have made your sen .tetce lit longer, and include tn, weekly clearing house stat 4nien nts ,ha banks msk@. or gone a llttle further and oljec'ei to the farmers maxim. and the government publishing state sments each spring of the area plaute, ln cotton. Why not object to tskins tle federal census at stated in eryais There wele people that did at or, period in our history Further on vol ga. there is re question that this gin nefs' report las cost the farmers Q th's d. ar southland, millions aud mil Ions of dollars.
 Let us see. That cotton raiser wh has esssyed to play the double roll O " mer and Wal street speeulator. beth al once, is the fellow that ha iest his share of the millions that vol talk about. The government fore warned the cotton grower as complete V as possible, when it informed hin last spring that the area had been in creased to the colossal figure of nearl thitty-three million acres. It sounde Tor him another and further ua.pin when 1t published the first cicna-,