The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-10-22
"RAIsING THE PRICE OF COTTON
4 Few Facts For the Farmers UniO
 to Consider.

AeAASh4NG UT SOAAON 4 Few Facts For the Farmers Union Albany (Ga.) Herald.
 We see that President Barrett has called a meeting of the Farmers Union Orleans on November Ii for the specinc purpose of discussing methods of raising the price of cotton"
 The Here1d doesn't belong to the Ranization well. and. presuming upon well established friendly relation with the farmers we beg to submit few the consideration of those who attend the New Orleans meeting. It may be that the facts which we shall present gestions we shall offer may not all be new. but the best apd most original of preachers frequently ind 1t neces- sary to preach new sermons from old course Is brief and may be condensed and yet comprehensively stated in two words. Diversified Agriculture.
 First let us rSmark. without any in- tention to criticise that so long as the farmers of the South continue to plant cotton and buy corn and meat and other foodstuffs for both man and year on their own farms. the market price of cotton Is going to be low and the price of provisions relatively high. THl8 iG A8 lHGNlIhp1G db lIlH HANQ ihNn of nature and as certain as anything that can be worked out under the com nonsense rule of cause and effect, and the Farmers Union may meet and pass resolutions to fix, the price of cotton whenever the spirit moves them to do Eo-every spring and every fall, or every month in the year from now until more than che heather Chinese do who beat symbals and rend the air with lamentations to queneh consuming fire or drive away evil spirits, so long as conditions remain as they have been in the South for nearly half century past and we have so many cotton plant CTS and relatively few farmers.
 viii show that the bigger the cotton | crop and the lower the market price of the staple the higher the prices of that the nonrpFoduoing farmer has ta
 Mlddlng cotton Is now selling under | 9 cents per pound.
 How about provisions?
 Let the following extracts from a | timely editorial in The Early County News, a paper published in the heart | of one of the best farming sections in the South. answer this last question: Corn meal Is selling on the Blakely market at $12Q the bushel.
 Sweet potatoes at Sl.O0 the bushel. Meat l2 1-2 to I5c per pound.
 Green pork at Sc per pound.
 Chickens 25c to 3Oc each.
 Eggs 2bc to 35c per dozen.
 Ground peas $l;5O to s2.0O per bushel.
 Other farm products, except cotton. are as high in proportion, yet. with of these pecessities of life can be had from our home farmers.
 However. there Is plenty of cotton | and the plaint of hard times is heard on all sides because cotton Is low. and | these so- called farmers are dependent l upon their cotton crop. the hardest and most expensive crop that can be grown | ing their debts and buying supplies for l them selves and animals next year ito | grow more cotton.
 | tail prices. We presume. but scale them 1 twenty-flve per cent and even then the l farmer who produces these commodltie
 the cotton planter who has to buy his | provisions at such prices could not | hope to make anything growing cotton if he realized fifteen cents per pound
 Living is now higher all over the | country th%n 1t have evr been before l and 1t is higher down here in the cot
 than in any other part of the country | And why? Simply because we are hav- | ing to buy the greater part of our | foodstuffs such as we ought to be pro
 paying freight and the profit demand | ed by every dealer handling them be-
 tween the producer and the consumer | Are not all these things true? If they be measurably true, what can 1 the Farmers Union hope tos do by | meeting and passing resolutions or | Issuing ultimatums to "ralse the price
 of cotton while these facts and con l ditions-these inevitable results of | cause and effect-continue?
 We have some farmers here in South | west Georgia who are gradually grow
 ing rich. adding something to their 1 material wealth each year. but with
 out exception, they are farmers in-
 aii pia}it cotton. they do not make cot. ton their only or principal crop, and by producing their provisions at home
 the cotton which they do produce costs
 them less than half. bale for bale than what the all-cotton planters croI
 By planting so much cotton and giv' ing SO little attention to food crops tho l Southern farmers are being cut botl | ways, as by a two-edged sword--de' preciating the price of cotton by over
 all foodstufrs. by falling to produce 1 their share of what he world requires and by becoming buyers insead Of pro-
 ducers of the necessaries of life fol | both man and beast or the farm. The farmer who produces his own fooc ] crops can make cotton at n st Of si1 l cents per pound while the n plant, 1 CT who has to buy his corn, meat and
 other provisions will come out loser al
 the end of the year even though he l gets twslve cents pound for his crop
 After they have made a twelve e-mil
 lion bale cotton crop the farmers oi | the South are In no position to fix the l prices of the staple. Meeting and pass | ing resolutions will certainly not do 1t
 nor will night riding and posting warn l Ing notices on gin houses do 1t. More
 over, the scarcity of provisions and th' l high prices which they demand
 throughout the cotton producing state' | onnantpa against inc cotton DTO0uCel | and make 1t all the harder for hin l to hold hts crop and start his forces t' | work for another year.
 While the FarmetS Union may no
 be able to do anything now to rais'
 the prica of this years cotton crop
 something may be accomplished tol the future by the inauguration Of l movem ent-a real. sober, commonsens' movement-looking to a change o methods and converting more of th' cotton plantations of the South into