The Lexington advertiser., 1908-02-28


President q. R. Hightowerr. OF the
Mississippi Division Of the Farmer 8
Union, stopped a fewminutes in Jack
son today on his return from the At,
lantic States, where be has been ia
conference relative 10 the cotton situ-
alton with leaders of that organization
| from other States. When asked about
the conditions, he said:
within the last thirty days, have
visited six of the NEST important cot
ton states / have conferred with otfi-
GERS of the Farmers Union from all OF
the cotton states except South Carolina
and Florida.
Il have talked with leading men
engaged in the cotton trade and with
cotton mill men by the score. All
who have been frank enough to ex.
press themselves at all land many OF
them have) agree with me that the
American crop, the remainder of
which is now on hand, is about
2, GEO, 900, bales short OF the crop
just preceding it. and that the crop OF
foreign countries which grow cotton
is 2, 600, 600 bales short of last years
crop. making the worlds yield OF cot.
ton from the crop OF lSUI 4,0OO,VOO
bales short of the 1905 crop.
THE Southern mills have cotton
enough TO run them until about the
middle of March; the New England
mills have only enough cotton to run
them until thefiTst of April the Euro
pean mills have bought more freely.
but they must still have o great deal
of American cotton to kept heir mills
in operation the remainder OF this
year. /"
But what about the talk that the
trade conditions of the world will in a
measure contract this shortage III the
raw material?'' he was asked.
This is only a scarecrow set up by
interested parties to make the weak
kneed break ranks and sacrifice their
holdings 1t is true that trade has
been little dull and the jobbers mot
the mills) have reduced prices little
on the light weight cotton goods, but
that is only temporary. 1t is fact
that New York for some time has been
crowded with Western and Southern
merchants buying fresh stocks. China
and Korea, for the first time in two
years. have within the last two weeks
become active buyers in the American
markets, These countries are very
large consumers of cotton and having
bought nothing for two years theit
stocks are necessarily very low. We
may expect them to he free buyers in
the American markets the remainder
of the year -
What truth is there in the report
that the Farmers Union in Texas and
Arkansas are selling large quantities
of cotton?'
That is an old chestnut, and nobody
is paying any attention to it. A sale
of ten bales of distressed cotton in Ar
kansas is reported by the bear gang in
Georgia as sale of 0,000 bales OF
Union cotton, and a sale of fifteen
bales of distressed cotton in Teaxs is
reported by the same crowd in Missis-
sippi as sale of 5000 bales of Union
cotton. The fact is very little cotton
is selling any where. The buyers tell
them that the situation for them is
absolutely desperate
Tho South holds q position that it
has never occupied in history. We
have the cotton and the world must
have considerable portion of it with
in the next SIXTY days. The farmers
will not sell any quantity of their
holds at present prices. and II is not
believed that the merchants and fact
ors can control enough of it 10 keep
the mills running.
If the business interests of the
South would tomorrow change front
and quit preaching pessimism and
preach optimism ON this question, the
moral support thus given would ad-
vance the price of cotton $40 per bale
within ten days. and would thus make
possible for the boys in the trenches to
buy many pairs of shoes and barrels of
-four which otherwise they could not |
buy