Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-09-01

for their product, and explaining the
obstacles in the way Of their getting it,
will have to admit that he is most
powerful master of the subject, and
how anybody can claim that such a
man cannot master with equal power
any other subject to which he sees
proper to devote his attention, is a
proposition that we cannot understand
But let people argue as they WILL
as we see it, the people of South Car
olina will be fully justified in sending
Mr.. Smith to the United States senate
as a representative of the cotton pro-
ducers. as their champion against their
arch enemy, the New York Cotton EX-
change. We only repeat what we have
said in one way and another, scores OF
times before. when we say that there
is no greater obstacle to the progress
and prosperity of the south in exist
ence, than the New York Cotton EX-
change.
There are, of course, those who Will
argue this question both ways. we
would undertake to give both sides OF
it; but it would take up too much
space and in our judgment the other
side is not worth giving. 1t concerns
us lust now to show again how the
exchange operates against honest and
Just prices for cotton.
Before placing an order for yarns
the northern manufacturer invariably
consults the market for futures. Right
now November cotton is worth about
81 cents, and the manufacturer figures
that the mills can buy for October or
November delivery at that figure. Ac-
cordingly the offer is made on that
basis. The spinner must accept the
offer or shut down his mill. If he ac-
cepts the offer, he can buy futures;
but he cannot spin them. The real
cotton cannot be bought for less than
II cents. AS the result, in order to
save himself from bankruptcy, the
spinner has to bring to bear all posi-
BILE pressure for low prices. Suppose
tnere WAS uO INC" 1olh SONNNii 1S">
change. The northern manufacturer
would have to base his offers to the
southern spinner on real cotton, which
today cannot be bought in apprecia-
BILE quantity at less than IL or II
cents. and the southern spinner would
not have such a powerful incentive to
bear the market
AS we have said time and again, the
New York Cotton Exchange is little
else than the most powerful gambling
machine in the world with all its in
huence against the southern farmer.
1t is recognized by financiers through
out the world that the southern cotton
producers are the source of greater
wealth than any other class of people
on earth, and it is recognized also that
if these cotton producers are not held
down to the utmost limit, they will
soon accumulate unto themselves a
preponderance of the wealth of the
world. Hence the cotton gambling
exchange. 1t furnishes the means by
which the wealth and the trickery OF
the world can be used to the continued
subjugation of the southern cotton
producer.
And can Mr.. Smith help? We say he
has already helped. Through his pow
erful preaching, strong men like Sen
ators Tillman, Culberson and others
have been aroused against the New
York Cotton Exchange. During The
past few years it has received some of
the hardest blows it has ever sustain
ed, and right at this time 1t was never
more apprehensive as to it's fate.
Don't understand us to say that the
exchange is tottering. Men who stand
for such an institution as a gambling
hell. which thrives on injustice, theft
and even murder, do not run from a
little virtuous muttering. They can be
moved by nothing short Of tremen-
dous moral wave, accompanied by the
thunder and lightning of popular in
dignation.
And can Smith do it? If he can't
there is not a man in the south who
can. Those of our readers who heard
him two years ago when he was work.
ing almost single handed to arouse
the cotton producers to a sense of
their danger remember how he thrilled
them and rallied them under the BAN
ner Of organization. The whole world
knows how he made the cotton ex-
change take notice, and seriously con-
slider his organization in the making of
prices.
OF the two men before the people
for the United States senate, we do
not think that there is a reasonable
doubt of the fact that E. D. Smith will
be worth most to South Carolina. We
believe that if E. d. Smith goes to the
United States senate, he will kill the
New York Cotton Exchange or be kill
ed himself, for the only way the eX-
change will be able to choke him off,
will be to kill him.