Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-04-10

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making the price are keenly alive to
the fact that these accounts are being
pressed, and that the holder or owner
of the cotton has no other means of
meeting these obligations save his
cotton. Hence. by depression the
price just at the time that these ac-
counts are due, and by the holders
of these accounts pressing for their
payment, the whole amount has ac-
tually 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 Cot
ton Association was formed and it
is fighting to bring all the interests
in the South to realize the necessity
for mutual cooperation.
"The demand for cotton products
has advanced in the last few years
far beyond the advance in produc-
ton. 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
to-day for manufactured cotton goods
are higher than they have been since
the war period. Mills could easily
pay a 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
its manufacture, in Lancashire dis
trict, in England, alone, new mills,
representing new companies aggre-
eating 100000 spindles, have been
organized and constructed in seven
years, or since 1900. A like increase
is indicated in other European mill
districts. In the Northern and
Southern districts of America and
in Canada, as one mill president x
pressed it when asked why the mills
of the world, in view of the unprece-
denied profit being made by them,
did not pay more for the raw mate
rial, replied: awe don't have to-"
1t is up to'the South to combine her
business interests to make them have
to. The Southern Cotton Associa-
ton does not propose-nor does it
desire-to become a predatory power,
but simply to preserve the intrinsic
and competitive value of cotton, her
practical monopoly of the worlds
necessity.
"The purchasing world organizes
its exchanges, sends out it's buyers
into every market, concentrates all
its energy and capital in systematic
ing and concentrating its power for
the purpose of controlling the market
for its best interest. The South, or
the producer of cotton, and those de-
pendent upon him, build no ware
houses, employ no sellers, organize
no exchanges, do not systematic or
concentrate their capital, but leave
to the individual to dispose of his
property as best he may, and the net
result is the South's poverty.
"Our plan for organizing is to build
warehouses, elect a board of directors
and a business manager, and as cot
ton is practically money, allow the
individual to h~ypothecate his cotton
to these companies and receive a loan
sufficient to meet his pressing obliga-
tions these companies to concentrate
their holdings and sell to the pur-
chaser at a price representing, as said
already, a legitimate profit to the
producer and a legitimate profit to
the %financier, plus the necessary cost
of warehousing, ihsuring and storing.
The modern facilities for transporta-
tion and communication makes the
organization of the cotton interest of
the South easily practical and won
derfully remunerative.