New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1906-11-24
ELEVEN CENTS IN SIGHT AGAIN.

and cents-the Farmers Indus
trial and Educational Uniol
has, even at this stage of tn
cotton-seIling season, laid tn
agricultural interest of the en-
tire south under heavy fnar cla
obligations. In SO doing it
officials have manifested such
penetrating and an iIl-embrac
ing knowledge of the condition
ruling this mosc complicated O
industries, as must win the sup
port and confidence of all thos,
whose annual welfare is nearly
or remotely effected by TIT
price of cotton.
The story is soon told, easily
comprehended and carries it:
own lesson.
Before the opening of the
selling season the Union fxec
the minimum price at which its
members should market their
staple at eleven cents a pound,
The decision was not reached
hastily or through haphazard
surmiSe. The members of the
committee we're farmers of actual
experience in every branch of
cotton cultivation. There was
nothing theoretical or academic
in their deliberations.
Making due allowance for
the factors entering into the
value of this years crop, they
concluded that II cents was an
equitable price for the staple of
the Thanksgiving him fair
return for his labor and afford
ing him the reasonable margin
of profit allowed to the follower:
Of every classified occupation.
1t took courage to definitely
advise the three-quarter million
membership of the Union.
The responsibility was great.
Well informed though they
were, the members of the COM
mlttee were no seers. The
teeming uncertainties inseparas
bic from cotton might have led
men less convinced of the loval-
ty of their following to name
lower minimum, leaving loop
hole through which they might
t themselves have retreated had
unforeseen events proved their
judgment in error.
They might have ''played
safety and lost the one, and
the one hundred, horse farmer
of the south several hundred
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS several mil
lion-dollars. But they en-
ployed logic and discernment-
conservatlvely, sanely, bravely-j
and all Dixie is today, in a
in debt to their sagac
Ity.
For their course has been un-
answerably vindicated.
Since the day the first bale of
the new crop came to market,
cotton has ranged, almost uni
:ormly, we'll over ten cents and
:oward the eleven-cent mark.
True, it has gone a fraction be-
ow ten cents, as the result OF
he onslaught of the bears and
he steady assertions of the. /
7oadleys that this was a record II
breaking crop and was wortlS
'ut 8 cents. But the price has
Exceeded eleven cents often
nough to more than offset
victories of the bears.
The season has held consistent
y nearer eleven than ten cents.
Suppose, in an exess of timid
y, they had counseled their
even hundred and fifty thous-
nd members and, through
hese, the other thousands OF
on-members, to let 60 their
otton the moment the market
ouched-well, even ten cents,
,r instance.
After having once gone be- {
wv, the day cotton reached ten
ents every pound outside of $
lie field would have been {
lrown on the market. Prices ,
ould have slumped and there |
ould have been absolutely no |
rejection to the farmer against t
falling market. Most likely t
n cents would have been the
gh water mark, which would '
EVER have been reached again t
lrlng the remainder of the r
ason. v
On the other hand, with II I
nts as the holding figure, there s
IS no mad scramble for the I
arket when the price reached n
n cents. Quotations rose il
.adlly, point by point, until it s
now within sight of eleven Il