Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-10-29
Fifteen Cents Cotton.


worth fifteen cents a pound is. in our
opinion, hardly worth arguing, for the
fact has time and again been estab-
lished by the actual realization of that
price.
The subject Of the greatest concern
to the people of the south is not so
much whether cotton is worth fifteen
cents a pound; but whether they can
enforce that price, and as we see 1t
that depends not so much upon any
other consideration as the nerve and
firmness of the southern people.
For so many years that it is difficult
to determine the exact date of the be-
ginning, cotton growers and cotton
dealers have been accustomed to look
upon the great so-called cotton ex-
changes of the world as being vested,
in some inexplainabIe way, with an
inherent right to fix the price of cotton
as they saw proper, or as the whim
seemed to strike them.
People who have given more or less
study to the causes influencing the
price of cotton, have but little patience
with talk about the laws of supply and
demand having anything to do with
the matter There Is no warrant FOR
such patience. One year the price Of
cotton is far below the lowest possible
legitimate cost of production, and
year or two later mills that have
bought supplies for spinning, lind 1t
advisable to close their doors and re-
sell their raw stocks to other spin
ners because they are able in this way
to make more profit than if they should
convert their cotton into yarn.
There is no reasonable doubt OF the
fact that the principal influence in nix
ing the price Of cotton heretofore mas
been the gambler of the cotton ex-
change, and it cannot be shown that
until within the past few years he has
ever considered the interest or pleas
ure of the producer as an ordinary in
cident to his operations.
While it is fact that cotton has fire.
quently sold for less than half the
price it was legitimately worth and
while we do not believe that Is cents
for cotton is in any wise exorbitant,
still we must not be so innocent as to
suppose that this price can be en-
forced without creating disturbances
that are calculated to shake the COM
mercial organization of the country not
a little.
Just here it is proper to take another
look at the situation. We have as
serted that the gamblers Of the ex-
changes have been running the sit
uation just as they would; but we
would not have the cotton producers to
understand that the gamblers of the
exchanges are the only obstacles in the
way of their full share Of legitimate
profits. The proposition is far too big
for anything like that. The whole CIV
ilized world is interested in the price
of cotton, and it is interested almost as
directly and as vitality as is the south
ern cotton producer.
The cotton crop of the south brought
close to s75O,OOO,O 900 last year. This is
an amount equal to about 4 per cent
of all the basic money of the earth.
1t came from all over the world, and
when we consider that the cotton belt
of the south includes less than twen-
tieth of the more thickly populated
portion of the earth, and that last
years crop brought $150,000,0O0 more
than the crop of the year before and
nearly twice as much as the crop of
three years previous, we can gather
some idea of the significance of the
figures.
Fifteen cents cotton means about
$3.50, 100000 for this years crop, and
that means that the money of the
world will pour into the lap Of the
south so rapidly as not only to make
this section immensely rich in a very
short time: but to make all the bal
ance of the world cOrrespondingly
poorer, and here is the keynote to the
situation.
If the south could grow immensely
rich without affecting the balance of the
world, the balance of the world proba-
bly, would not offer very serious objec-
ton: but since the south's prosperity
must necessarily levy tribute on the
balance of the world, it is easy to see
that the thing the southern people de-
sire, no matter how justly 1t is theirs,
necessarily meets with resistance.
But as we see it, right and justice
are on the side of the cotton producers
of the south. That they have toiled
and slaved to make the balance of the
world rich cannot be denied. 1t is a
fact. beyond dispute that they have not
heretofore received a fair share of the
proceeds of their own labor. They
have it in their power, if they will only
use the means, to compel a just divide,
No one need think that this just divide
can be procured without a struggle;
but the cotton producers have every
advantage and if they will continue
steady and firm in the prosecution OF
their rights. they will certainly win In
the end.