The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1908-11-20
Is Cotton Too cheap,


me business farmer will conduct
MS operation like any other business
man. There is good reason why tho
ooutn should hold cotton for higher
prices. The whole crop is not needed
ny the mills in three months and some
one must hold it until it is needed
we think it will pay the South to hold
II and give it to the world as il is
needed at a fair value.
Inc first item that merchant or
manufacturer would consider would
De the cost of store and stock or man.
utacturlng plant; then the cost of Oh.
GRAFTON. plus the services of the man
ager, plus a profit, would determine
'he price at which the article of com
merce or manufacture should be sold
IS not the farmer entitled to lust as
'I"'h' mere has never been in the
history OF this country if we except the
civil war PERIOD a time when the price
OF every thing that is needed for the
making OF crop OF cotton was high
or than at the present time. The price
Oh 1--we stock, the price of grain hay.
labor, all are at top prices, and have
peeh Tor more than year: every com
modify under the sun is relatively
higher than cotton. and the planter OF
cotton who makes out Of his product
only little more than the cost OF
production is going backward. put
ting himself in debt to make clothes
for others.
During the cotton season of 1906
1907, cotton reached the highest price
we had seen since the year 1876. bar
ring the season of l9O3-l904, when the
market advanced to over IL cents per
pound for midding cotton, under con
| ditons that nearly every one interested
in cotton is familiar with, conditions
which forbid using that year as a
fair example in an argument for
higher prices, for in that year was
raised one of the smallest of the. crops
OF recent years, following the carry
| ing over from the season before very
small visible supply In the season of
1906-l907 we have a normal condition
of trade to reckon with. the second
largest crop on record, crop of 49,
$4,000 bales, with visible supply
from the previous season OF $4,000
bales. In that year there were taken
for foreign and domestic mills 1876,
| 900 bales. leaving a surplus at the end
of the year of 1926 900 bales, visible
supply. The highest price reached
was at the very end Of the season,
when the trade knew that there was
d surplus mentioned. indicating that
| there was. and is. an actual need for
that much cotton to be carried as q
surplus stock. Statistics show an in
crease of consumption that more than
keeps pace with the production Of
cotton, and we have passed the day
when eleven million bales is c0nSld,
cred normal crop; more likely is it
that we need a crop of thirteen mil
lions and anything under this means
short crop. Last year, in spite OF
the miserable trade conditions. the
mills took 11,8O0,O00 bales of cotton,
and it takes but 10 per cent increase
over these figures. apparently an alb
surdly low estimate, to bring the
amount needed to over 5000 900 bales,
Now, after the bad weather and the
setbacks that the cotton plant has SUI
| fered in the last few weeks, 1t is not
likely that We will have crop any
where approaching such figures, and
there will be a consequent shortage OF
supply. The present price of cotton IS
too low. There should be marketed
only enough to supply the actual de-
mands of consumers.
Farmers Union National Cottop
Committee.
G. r. Hightower Secretary.