The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-19

years made strenuous Efforts to develop
the culture of cotton in India, and that
it has not been able to make 1t exceed
its present proportions, and that Brazl
has made no greater progress with her
cotton, and that Germany has accom-
plshed no more in her foreign posses
sions, justifies the belief that the Ohlteu
States can maintain practical mohop-
oily of the lint cotton which goes TO the
mills of the world, and that no foreign
country will seriously compete with the
south Atlantic and gulf states IN grow
ing cotton.
OF course. if lint cotton were forced to
an extraVagantly high figure and remain
ed there, some danger might exist put
at the price of u to 10 cents a pound,
there is no reason to fear serious foreign
competition.
Realizing the immense Importance to
our country, as a whole, and to our sec
tion especially of making lint cotton
bring its just value, every good citizen
should be ready to help produce this re-
suit, and nobody should hinder 1t.
Causes Depressing Market Value.
Let me mention two causes which have
prevented lint cotton from sehing for its
Just value:
l. The use of unfair means by outsiders
to depreciate the price.
2. The failure of farmers to use bust
ness-like methods to maintain the price.
Cotton buyers are largely influenced in
the prices which they voluntarily offer
for cotton by government reports of the
quantity of cotton raised and by the
publications which go all over the world
from the New York cotton exchange
If the government reports are manipu-
lated so that they show a larger pro-
duction than the real crop, the price IS
depressed and the farmer is the loser.
Cotton Exchange.
If the New York exchange permits in
ferior cotton to be delivered in the place
of midland cotton without requiring the
man making the tender to pay the full
difference in value between the two,
false standard for the valuation of mid
land cotton is thereby created Indeed,
the presence of a cotton exchange, from
which a manufacturer cannot demand
the delivery of the genuine article which
he has bought, Is unfair and injurious.
If a cotton exchange is permitted at all,
the man who buys cotton in it ought to
have the right to demand a genuine ar
tcle of the exact kind which he pur-
chases, and the man who sells ought not
to be permitted by any trickery to rem
der useless to the buyer the article which
he has contracted to purchase.
If the entire exchange system in which
cotton futures are sold could be broken
up 1t would have an immense inf1unece
toward enabling the farmer to obtain the
true value OF his cotton.
We have passed an act of the legisla-
ture driving the exchanges out of Geor-
gia and I wish to tell you the act will
be enforced with vigor and complete
ness.
Where we cannot drive them out, we
should at least demand that when they
sell a bale of midland cotton they must
deliver a bale of midland cotton, and
not be allowed to depreciate the market
price of this important commodity BY
protesting to sell midland cotton, while
in reality they deliver an article of COM
paratively little value.
/ cite these two instances of unfair
means used to deprecate the price of lint
cotton because they have recently been
brought to public attention. How many
more there are | do not know. Whether
the public would have known of these
two but for the work of your associations
is most doubtful. But having learned Of
them, a solid fight should be made from
the south to prevent the harm which
they have caused. Every man through
out the land should be made to know
that the prices published by the New
York exchange do not represent the mar
ket price of midland cotton, but only rep
resent the market price of inferior cotton
gathered together to protest the seller,
and until that cotton exchange requires
Its sellers to deliver genuine midland cot
ton fit for use by manufacturers, the in
Justice of its conduct should be told and
told until it is a byword throughout the
nation and throughout the world.
Necessity for Organization.
. An organized agency must exist in the
cotton growing states, supported by the
people of those states to watchfully Ter
ret out and expose any effort. anywhere
by sinister methods to depreciate the
market price of our staple.
Change Mode of Sale.
Until the last few years the farmers
of the south have followed the practice
of selling practically all of their cotton
as soon as it was gathered. The mill men
of the world need this cotton, not in
lump, but distributed through twelve
months If the farmers insist upon sell
ing the $12 500, 900 bales of cotton in sixty
days, when it takes twelve months for
the mills to use it, they simply glut the
market with their product. They force
IL into the hands of spectators, and the
Spectator would be, indeed, foolish If
he did not buy it at the lowest price pos
sible.
1t cannot be expected that the owners
of the mills of the world will be ready to
carry $6O0000,000 of raw material as we'll
as manufactured products which they
must sell to their customers on time. The
farmer should handle his crop so that
the mill owner can buy it practically as
he needs it, Any other course will Sim
ply oyerstock the market, and cause the
farmers own cotton to depreciate the
value of his own labors.
If the full value of cotton crop is to
be obtained by the man who produces
1t, he should pursue policy about as
follows:
l. He must by severe sef-denial for one
or two years get out of debt.
2. He must raise his own food supplies.
g. He must have on his own farm his
own cotton shed, prepared for the safe
protection of his cotton, just as he has
his corn crib in which he takes care or
his corn, or his barn in which he takes
care of his hay.
a. He must sell his cotton through the
year, month by month, and not dump it
all on the market as soon as 1t is ginned.
s. The men who raise cotton must be
furnished with knowledge of its true
value and steadily move the price up to
a stable rate of u cents a pound.
sporatic high price for any one years
crop is not to be desireo Such course
would injure the farmer It would hin
der the work of the manufacturers, les
SEEMING the consumption of the manufac-
tnred product, encourage the farmer to
excessive production the next year, and
leave him where in all probability his
loss from low prices the year following
the excessive high prices would exceed
his temporary gain.
Producer Should Fix Price.
The farmer should be informed as to the
true value of his cotton. lie should reach
a decision as to the price it is worth, and
ne should not sell until he receives that
price. We must get away from the prac-
flt. xriI hos Ia s..at