Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-05
ORGANIZING COTTON GROWERS.
Mr.. {. D. Smith Tells of the Work In
Hand.

Mr.. =. y. Smltn CHS OF tne "o'N i'
Hand.
Mr.. E. D. Smith, president of the
South Carolina Cotton Growers asso-
citation, recently selected as one of the
delegates to the Vienna international
convention, returned a few days age
from an organizing trip through Geor-
gia and Alabama and on Tuesday gave
out the following for publications:
"Since the Birmingham convention
1 have been busily engaged in organiz-
ing the work Of the Southern Cotton
! association. I have just completed a
tour through Alabama and Georgia.
The work has been the most success
full Of any yet accomplished; commit
| tees have been appointed to solicit
subscriptions to organize ware house
and holding companies for the purpose
Of locally financing the cotton crop and
maintaining a profitable price to the
grower. At every place visited the
plan adopted by the Birmingham con-
vention for organizing companies, for
building ware houses. negotiating
loans and concentrating the cotton In
the hands OF a business committee has
met with uniform approval.
1T is manifest to every business man
that cotton is the basis or our credit
| and Is wholly our circulating medium.
It is absurd to expect the negro, and
the poor and dependent white producer
to be able to maintain the proper value
for this article. upon which every In
| terest in the south is dependent, when
] those who buy 1t from them, up to
now, have fixed the price, represented
the organized brain and capital Of the
world, and whose business it Is to get
the article as cheaply as possible. The
north, British America and Europe
consume about IS per cent Of our cot
ton crop. Hence IS per cent Of our
buyers represent foreign capital. Now
is 1t not an absurd proposition to leave
to the poor debt ridden, disorganized
producer Of cotton to go up against the
representative Of northern, Canadian
and European capitalists, with unlim-
tied resources, perfect organization
and expect them, the poor, disorganiz-
ed, to win and bring into the south, In
conflict with the worlds richest and
shrewdest, anything like the full value
of the cotton crop, upon which we all
are dependent? There Is not a bank,
mercantile establishment or any busi-
ness vocation or avocation in the south
that is not dependent directly on the
currency brought into circulation by
the sale Of the cotton CROP.
Now It Is manifestly the highest OF
folly-from a business standpoint Ito
leave to the poor and disorganized pro-
ducer to determine in a conflict with
the shrewdest foreign buyer the
amount of money that shall be put in
to circulation in the south, to deter
mine the deposits in our banks, the
amount of goods to be sold by our
merchants, the comforts and conven-
fences Of our homes, the education Of
the boys and girls Of the south, and
the development Of our resources, the
establishment Of our manufacturing
GIANTS, to manufacture the raw mate
rial in the south by the capital Of the
SOUTH so as to obtain not only the prof
1t on tht raw material, but the great
er profit on the finished article, to de-
velop our water power, so as to light
our cities, run our factories and con-
meet our roads. When all OF these
could be easily within our reach II the
capitalists in every country In the
south were to join forces with the pro-
ducers Of our cotton, and on wise, con-
servative business lines formulate
simple cooperative plan, by which
uniform price could be fixed upon cot
ton, which price would include the cost
Of production and profit to the grower,
and profit to the company financing
it plus the necessary carrying charges
AS it is now, and has been for years,
the merchant and banker and business
men of the south, who furnish the
goods and capital to the producer OF
cotton, have actually contributed to
the depression of the price Of cotton by
demanding from the producer settle
ment Of their accounts without regard
to the price that cotton may be bring
| ing at the time that these accounts
| the price are keenly alive to the fact
that these accounts are peing pressed,
and that the holder or owner OF the
cotton has no other means of meeting
these obligations save his cotton.
Hence, by depressing the price just at
the time that these accounts are due,
land by the holders of these accounts
pressing for their payment, the whole
amount has actually contributed to the
depression Of the very article upon
which the commercial expansion Of the
south Is dependent. 1t is to relieve
this very situation that the Southern
Cotton association was formed; and 1t
is fighting to bring all the interests
in the south to realize the necessity
for mutual cooperation.
1.-The demand for cotton products has
advanced in the last few years far be-
yond the advance in production. The
amount of cotton goods consumed to-
day is limited by the spindle capacity
of the world The spindles of the
world running full time are not able to
meet the demand for cotton goods.
The prices paid today for manufactur-
ed cotton goods are higher than they
have been since the war period. Mills
could easily pay much higher price
for the raw material than Is now paid
and still clear a greater profit per bale
than the producer is now obtaining.
| "As an evidence Of the demand for
cotton goods and the profit that is In
it's manufacture, in Lancashire dis
trict, in England alone, new mills. rep
resenting new companies aggregating
| 10, ,OO0, 900 spindles, have been organiz-
ed and constructed in seven years, or
since 1900 like increase Is indicat-
ed in other European mill districts.
In the northern and southern districts
| of America and Canada as one mill