Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1907-10-04
------UslsO-- THE COTTON SITUATION.

the cotton condition to September 27
 as CIT, as against 72.7 August %,
 1907; and 71.6 September 25, 1906."
 ''The census bureau reports 1,43O,265
 bales ginned from the growth of 1907
 to September 25." The dispatch goes
 on to say: "The publication of the governments report On cotton was | followed by break of from 27 to 29 points or upwards of $1.25 per bale in the price of cotton on optie9s in ac- ltive months on the New York Cotton Exchange. The decline was due to the fact that the condition of the crop as shown was better than traders ex- pected! The condition, according to the government report was only 67.7 on September 27 this year, as against 71.6 last year. Yet this is made pre- text for further hammering down the iprice. There is no substantial or plausible reason why cotton should have decreased in value ten dollars or more bale in the last forty days. A gentleman of intelligence, who is a close and accurate observer has trav- eled all over Louisiana, Arkansas and Texas, and he tells me his infOrma- ton, gathered from the planters and merchants of those states is that Louisiana will fall 100000 bales short of last year, Arkansas will fall 200,- 900 bales short, and Texas will fall i ,000000 bales short, without any compensating increase, except pOssi- bly slight increase in Oklahoma.
 The condition and prospective yield of the crop does not therefore justify any reduction in price, but rather an increase. The natural increase of the consumptive demand for raw cotton is 500,000 bales per annum, and de- sirable grades were bought up more closely last season than for many years while the demand for cotton goods has been so active that the mills have been unable to meet it. I am told by some of our leading mer- chants that some lines of cotton goods are not to be had at any price. So there is no existing commercial or in- dustrial condition of supply and de- mand winch would warrant any reduc- tion in the price of raw cotton. The assault made upon our great staple is the result of conspiracy of the parasites who ''toil not, neither do they spin.'' They do not grow cotton nor do they manufacture it. While the cotton grower is toiling in the burn ing summer sun to raise cotton to provide the necesSaries of life for his family, and hoping that his toll may be rewarded by a fair price for his product in order that those depend-' the humble comforts and modest lux uries which are so dear to the hearts of wife and children, these parasites are enjoying the cool breezes of noun tains Or the seaside resorts, and lying in wait until the patient, toll worn farmer gathers his crop when these conspirators band together and ham, mer down the price of his cotton in order that they, and not the cotton grower, may reap the fruits of his toil
 In the last thirty years there been been approximately 250,000,000 bales of cotton raised in the South. This
 cotton was sold at an average of eighteen dollars and fifty cents per bale less than the price of cotton the previous thirty years, when there
 were no bucket shops and no iniquit- ous combinations of speculators and gamblers to force down the price of our great staple in order that few gamblers might grow opulent at the expense of all the rest of our people.
 In those thirty years the South was
 robbed of the almost inconceivable sum of nearly five billion dollars!
 But our day of deliverance is at
 hand. We can see the light beyond
 the clouds The bucket shops. those
 commercial vampires, have been driv- en out of every cotton state except three, and when the legislatures of those states meet the bucket shops
 will have for rent signs on their doors. The cotton grower is no long CT left to fight the battle alone against the organized forces of interruptions greed The Southern merchant and the banker have become the powerful allies of the cotton grower and from this time henceforth they stand should CT to shoulder with him, and they con- stitute a combination which will soon run bruin to cover in tall timber. Now. Mir. Cotton Grower, one word to you: Don't rush all your cotton on the market as soon as ginned. If the price is not right, store your cotton in