The Semi-weekly leader. (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1905-1941, 1908-09-19
.HIGHTOWER ON
SPECULATION
SAYS FEW INDIVIDUALS DOMINATE THE
EXCHANGES.
Appeals to Travelling Men and Bankers
to Talk Actual Conditions and Boom
Prices..COttOn Crop Will be Short.
Jackson. Miss. Sent. IL 1908.

odChoOIl, MI0o., DSpt. LIZ 1SOO.
In an address on Cotton Values
and the Folly of the Southern Peo-
pie" G. R. Hightower, president OF
the Mississippi branch and secre-
tary of the Farmers Union Nation
al Cotton Committee, today gave
out the following:
'"The agitation in the South for
several years has caused many peo-
pie to inquire into the cause of the
conditions here. Cotton being the
basis of nearly all prosperity in the
South, we naturally look with a
Jealous eye on the fuctuating in
price, adding to or taking from its
value many millions of dollars,
often in single day. Why should
it be worth ten million dollars more
or less today than it was yesterday
Every business man in the South
when asked the cause will tell you
that speculation did it. When
asked how speculation can add to
or take millions of wealth from the
people in so short a time, only one
in thousand will be able to talk
intelligently about the hows and
why's. This lack of information
and careful study on the part of so
many of our people is largely re-
sponsible for much of our trouble.
Manipulation fixes the price of
cotton under the present system of
marketing. A few individuals who
manipulate and dominate the ex-
changes can subtract millions from
the value of our chief commodity
at will. Public sentiment in the
South, however, is a very important
factor. in market values. Public
sentiment is the heavy artillery
with which the exchanges lombard
the market. They dare not run
counter to this sentiment very
long. The first thing therefore,
undertaken by the manipulators in
a bear raid on the market is a
molding of pessimistic views as to
trade conditions, and the constant
agitation of the bumper crop idea.
When the South is thoroughly satu-
rated with these ideas they raid
the exchange markets, break the
price and public sentiment in the
South allows the spot market here
to follow, not so much because we
have to, or because true conditions
Justify it, but because a pessimism
possesses the people and they be-
come panicky and sell, and the SELL
ing sustains the fictitious price
caused by the bear raid on the ex-
change market.
FALSE SENTIMENT FORMED.
Thus manufactured sentiment
costs the South millions of dollars
every year. This sentiment fixes
the price of cotton. Thus senti-
ment prevents the carrying into
effect of the only sane method of
Al1c1l hCClIlS COGCOll, dIlu CIldG 10 W
feed the markets of the world as
the world needs the cotton. What
of the Southern man in any calling,
who talks down the price of cotton
and contributes his share to lower
values? He unwittingly plays the
role of traitor to his country and
his neighbor and his home.
What builds boom towns? Talk
ing them up. What causes runs
on solvent banks? Talking them
down. Talk by Southern men has
the same effect on cotton values and
costs the South millions every day.
The drummers of this section
are a powerful factor in molding
sentiment. May I not appeal to
them to change their tactics? Bet
ter prices will give you better
business; maybe not this month, but
eventually it will come back with
interest.