The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1907-05-24
WILL BE HIGH.
Cotton May Go to Twenty Cents
Per Pound.

iHc oPIhIcFS Ill america Arc hOr
And II Cotton Famine Stares Them
In the Face.
Cotton seems to be getting very
scarce and hard to get in the South.
The Florence Times says the cotton
men all tell the farmers to refrain
from selling their cotton, all admit
fifteen cents cotton and some expect
to see the staple bring as high as
twenty cents. There is no cotton in
the country and a famine faces the
American mills. The English mills
got the best of the American mills
this season to pay them for having
tricked them two or three times in
the past and they did their American
cousins up to a brown finish.
The European spinners sent a com
mlttec over here and that committee
went over the country in company
with the officers Of the Southern
Cotton association, made a tour of
inspection of the cotton belt. The
American spinners took the reports
OF the government and the estimate
of Mr.. Hester of New Orleans and
others and they looked wise and let
the European have the cotton.
Liverpool quotations stuck steadi-
~ above New York in spite Of the
hammering of the American bears
and the cotton went in a steady
stream to Europe. Now the cotton
is gone from the fields, gone from the
warehouses, gone from everywhere
and the spinners of this country are
crying for cotton and it is not to be
had.
The planters of Louisiana have
planted four times and they say they
have no crop yet. Frost and flood
have played havoc with them. The
Mississippi men have planted three
times and no crop yet, and the coun-
try under flood. Cotton seed is run
ming short. In Texas the farmers
are paying any price for planting
seed.
Cotton seed is selling in open mar
ket for 500 a ton and it is mighty
scarce. The farmers all over the
country have out of seed and the
crusherS have not the seed to sell
them back. They bought all they
could, sweeping the farmers floors
and are still thirty percent behind
last year. In Texas the boil weevil
coming earlier than ever is destroy
ing the young plants.
Cotton, if it is good staple, a be
sold today at the owners own price,
Even bad cotton will bring good
prices, the spinncrs want anything
and they confess it. They let the
cotton go in their efforts to beat tho
price down below that fixed by the
ASSOCIATION and they have lost.
me association is stronger today
than 1T has ever been and its future
was never SO bright. There is every
reason today why the farmer, every
farmer, should stand by the associa,
ton and win his independence in thi.
one year of grace. 1t will most like
ly be done. The farmer controls the
situation and if he does not throw
away his opportunity he just cannot
help winning.
A lot of cotton was sold by the
very wise ones, who know better thar
the united wisdom Of the whole as.
ISOLATION for nine and a fraction, flu,
turc delivery this fall, and every eff
fort is going to be made to force
these sellers to deliver that cotton.
1t is going to be a most interesting
situation. This, considered in con
nection with the recent fight or
bucket shops and gambling in cottor
is going to make a pretty state of af.
fairs when the buyers Of the con.
tracts begin to squeeze.