Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-04-13
Friday, April l3, 1905
WORLDS COTTON PROBLEM.
Theodore II. Price Probes Deeply Into
the Subject,

lowing salient facts:
i. That the south first produced
crop of about 100000 900 bales (actually
1901 .0O0) in the season of 1S94-5, and
that i'm 1866, twelve years later, the
yield from largely increased acreage
is only about per cent greater |. e.,
l0.69O,OOO bales.
II. That the average yield Of the
eleven years just ended. is 1O,24O,OOO
bales, or hardly more than two per
cent increase on the yield of twelve
years ago, and that the crop just mar
keted, is but little over this average.
III. That in the past seven years
but one crop of over 100000 bales
has been produced, and that If this
crop (resulting from apparently unique
conditions) be excepted, the average
yield OF cotton during the last SIX
years is only 1O,340,000 bales or only
about 100000 bales less than the crop
Just marketed.
". That, although the first crop OF
10000. 900 bales was considered so su-
perabundant that in 1S94-5 1t depressed
the price Of cotton to SIC in New York,
practically the same yield ten years
later in C1903-4) caused an advance to
1Sc the extreme appreciation In value
being $50, attributable entirely to an
increased demand as the supply was
the same.
V. That, although the average price
of cotton from September 1st. 1898. to
September 1st, 1899, was below &c, and
although Ii never sold as high as &C.
this price was sufficiently remunera-
tive to the planter to induce an In
crease in the production from 7,OOO,O0p
In 1884 to 100000 In 1898, equal TO
about so per cent in five years; while
on the other hand, an average price OF
nearly 10c during the past seven years,
and an extreme advance to 1Sc. work
ed an increase in the production OF
only 35 per cent, and that for one year
only. while the average crop or the
last seven years, at an average price
of 9.92 per pound, Is only 1O,SOO,OO0
bales as against an average crop OF
S,65S, 900 bales, at an average price OF
6.S4c per pound for the five years pre-
cGding.
Broadly stated, during the past seven
years the cotton production Of the
United States has remained almost sta
tionary, only the extraordinary COM
bination of lSc cotton and absolutely
perfect weather being effective In in
creasing 1t substantially In l904-5.
AS, during the same seven years, eX-
pansion at q rate previously unbelieV-
able has been almost universal In every
other direction throughout the world,
and especially In America, the student
OF economics naturally asks: "Why
such an anomaly"
The answer In my opinion, Is the
Industrial South Some two years
ago l pointed out the marked tenden-
CIV disclosed by the census bureau fig
1,1
rather than the rural population OF
the south, and 1t Is probable that since
that time this tendency has been ac-
centuated.
NV attention was directed again to
the subject during recent trip through
the south. Not only was l greatly I'M
pressed with the growth OF the small
towns, but also with the marvellous In
crease in all sorts of activity other
than cotton planting, which develop
ment must, because of the labor IT
diverts, be directly at the expense or
cotton productions, while, on the other
hand, Increasing cotton consumption,
In the course of this journey, which
carried me through the stateH of Vtr-
ginia, North and South Carolina, Geor-
gja, Florida, Tennessee and Arkansas,
my observation and my intercourse
with those met forced me to the con-
clusion that in the south cotton IS no
longer King" In the sense that It's
cultivation Is compulsory alternative
TO starvation. 1t will surprise many
as II did me. to learn that during the
past year the, combined value OF the
lumber, mineral, and garden truck,
marketed from the southern states, eX-
ceeded that of the cotton crop,
In Florida, 1t Is no uncommon thing
for truck farms to pay an annual pront
of from $500 to $1,000 per acre, and IN
that state, Mr.. Flagler has employed
upon the Key West extension or MS
East Coast railway some $4,000 men,
chiefly negroes, thereby Withdrawn
from agricultural activity,
Throughout Georgia and the caro-
linas the Southern railway Is pract-
cally double tracking its line from
Washington TO Atlanta and many other
lines of railway in the southern states
are employing many thousands OF
hands in reconstruction and extension.
Along the Yadkin river in North Car
olina, and i'm Tennessee, Georgia, ana
South Carolina, plants for the electrical
transmission of water power are in
process of construction that inVolye
the expenditure of some $25,0OO,OOO
chiefly for labor, within the next two
years.
Mr.. r, H, Edmonds. of the Manufac-
turers' Record of Baltimore, says that
scarcely heard of ten years ago, Is now
the site of over forty furniture fac
tories, whose annual product, aggre-
eating several million dollars year,
finds q market all over the world,
IL. I'm addition to these enterprises
coming under my personal observation
as augmenting the demand FOR laDor
I'm the south, there be Considered the
increase of nearly 200 per cent in the
~ hn III.
and the marvellous Industrial eXpah-
sion In almost every other direction
from ice manufacture to petroleum
wells and aluminium production, Some
idea may be had of the Importance of
these labor factors in affecting the cot
ton production of the south.
To fully understand ii, however II IS
necessary to remember that practt-
cally none of the enormous immigra-
ton pouring into this country in the
last decade has been directed to the
south There, as in ante -bellum times,
the labor OF the negro remains the
chief reliance of the cotton planter
The latest figures that l have been
able to obtain of the southern popula-
tion and It's distribution Indicate a
maximum increase of about bOO,OOO In
the negro population of the cotton
states during the six years ending
with 1905.
Apply the usual rule of one in tive
to this increase. 1t is plain that not
more than 100000 able-bodied negro
men have been added to the aVaiiaDle
labor of the cotton states during the
- period under review.
In the same time, the wages paid to
this unskilled labor in the mines, lum-
ber camps, on the railroads and at the
factories, have practically doubled, ana
averages zoe to 3Oc per hour, or Sl;oo
to $500 per day, earned under condl-
tions which admit of the enjoyment OF
city life, while the cotton "hah1 Is
still supposed to be content with $l2
month, isolation in log cabin. ana
little pork, corn meal and molasses. or
the alternative of tenants share III
a crop of doubtful value, payable at
the end of the season, after deduction
has been made, at exorbitant prices ana
usurious interest for the supplies lur-
nished on credit.
Small wonder, then, that the cotton
production of the south has become
practically stationary.
n, ba bnrna mind that the