The Semi-weekly leader., 1907-09-25
A Howl From Texas.
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the Waco (Texas) Daily Times
Herald of Sept. Is prints the fol-
lowing:
Our farmer friends are getting
a taste of the diet provided for
them by the Thirteenth Legislat-
ure, said a prominent cotton man
yesterday. The bill of fare, he con-
tinned, was prepared by the Off
cials of the farmers organizations,
who, with paid attorneys, swarm
ed about the big State House dnr-
ing the sitting of the solons at
Austin, and filled the members
with horror of political jim-iams
that threatened those who refused
to do the bidding of the aforesaid
officials.
Cotton went down a couple of
dollars ON the bale today. 1t has
fallen $6 bale IN the last ten
days, and there is no telling
where it will go before it is
checked. The market is COM
pletely in control of the fellows
who want cheap cotton, and if to-
day had not been half-holiday
they would have hammered it
down more than they did.
Its working above all others
who don't want the price of cot
ton to 60 up, but is interested in
hammering it down. When our
cotton exchanges we're in opera
tion the public took a hand in cot
ton manipulation, and in this
country almost every man was
buying. The South is always
bullish. Every man wants to see
cotton soar aloft and to help it
along. Many of them dealt in the
staple. They went into the ex-
changes and bought cotton by the
hundreds and thousands, all over
Texas and other cotton States. In
the North it is the reverse. There
they want cotton to 60 down.
The public there is interested in
low prices of raw material, be-
cause they have to buy. Here we
want high prices because we have
it for sale. There they 60 into
the exchanges and sell, in order
to beat prices down. When we
had exchanges we bought, and for
several years past, owing to in
creased demand for cotton, we
have been able to buy more than
they were willing to sell, and
thereby kept prices up. But
Harvey Jordan, president of the
Southern Cotton Association,
Joined by the officials of the Texas
division and of the Texas Far
mers' Union, and aided by a
shrewd Dallas lawyer, pursuaded
the Legislature to drive the cot
ton exchanges out of the State, so
the public now has no means of
bucklng against the Northern
bears, and they are hammering
cotton down to their hearts con-
tent.
The man who raises the cotton
had little, if anything, to do with
driving out the exchanges, yet it
was done ostensibly for his bene-
fit. Now he is suffering the con-
sequences. Formerly he could
step to telephone at his resi-
dence, or that of his neighbor,
and by calling up any one of the
exchanges in operation in the
city any hour in the day, find out
the price of cotton all over the
world. If it suited him he could
bring his cotton to market. If
the price was too low he stayed at
home and went about his work.
That convenience was taken away
from him by his phiIanthropic
brother, who draws salary for
looking after the farmers inter-
ests; and today the cotton farmer
is raising his cotton in ignorance
of the condition of the crop else
where and marketing it in the
dark, without any reliable
knowledge whatever of the ruling
prices.
The men who handle cotton
market information now are those
who are interested in low prices,
and it would do violence to ordi-
nary intelligence to suppose that
they would allow anything to get
to the producer that would aid
him in boosting the price of his
product.
| am out Of the business now,
and expect to stay out. / did
what could to prevent the pas
sage of the law to which | have
referred, because | knew the con-
sequences would be disastr Gus.
The law was instigated by those
who wanted to get rid of the great
Southern buying public which
forced cotton up every year and
maintained living prices for the
producer. 1t was aided by a pa
ternalistic sentiment that saw in il
means of throwing the protect
ing care of the law around the
few individuals who allowed their
enthusiasm to get the better OF
their judgment occasionally and
went broke on the market. Such
men are the exception to the rule,
and it is folly to take from the
many a privilege because few
abuse it.
But the wrong was done, and
the violation of right principles is
bearing abundant fruit. The
gambler in futures is saved, but
the great body Of cotton pro-
ducers are being robbed Of mil
Il H 4 II j