The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-10
Cotton Beyond
Manipulation

The following from the New York
Journal of Commerce will make inter-
eSting reading in this SectlOn:
This cotton market is too big just
now to be controlled by the manipula-
ton of any man or set Of men," re-
marked one of the leading members
of the Cotton Exchange Saturday. The
speaker vas a man whose name mas
frequently been used during n last
few months as controlling the market.
fright in this ROOM" he continued
he was standing on the floor of the
Exchange-'is being settled a great
question:; the question Of the true
value of cotton, and In the end 1t Will
be settled correctly. There are many
people a argue that cotton is en-
tering upon a new - of higher
prices. They argue that it IS but
logical that cotton should bring more
than it has in the past. They point
to the wonderful increase in the pro-
Guction of gold and the great.lncreaSeS
that have been seen in the prices OF
everything else that is produced from
the soil. It is undoubtedly true that
the price of cotton has not increased
as rapidly as have the prices OF other
staples, and it is also true that it
would be possible for cotton to greatly
advance in price without any disturb
ance of industrial conditions. This is
largely due to the manner in which
the cotton business is and
to the operations of the three great
cotton exchanges of which the New
York Exchange is, in every way, the
most i'm portant.
The trading in cotton recently has
been unusually heavy. There ave been
1900, 900 bales traded in a single day
on this floor, to say nothing of what
was TRADED in on the Liverpool and
New Orleans exchanges in the same
day. 1t is easy tO<See that with this
sort of business doing the whole crop
would be bought and sold in a few
days. The argument is used by some
people that such heavy trading is
nothing but speculation of the most
undesirable sort, but I take it that this
is a misconception of the real situa-
ton 1t would not be possible to so
easily arrive at the real value of the
cotton the South is now growing by
simply trading in the number of bales
that will be grOWn-and of course no
one will know for many months how
many bales will be grown this year.
Fright now every one interested in
the price of cotton in any way IS COM
ing into the market to express his
ideas of what that price hOuld~ be.
The fact that many men are of many
minds on his matter is why the mar
ket has ~recently been SO active. If the
world was agreed that cotton was
worth q certain price then there would
be very little business dOing on the
Exchange. 1t is AL a mistaken idea
to suppose that on one side you have
the spinners ~contending hat cotton
should be low, and that on the other
side you have the farmer protesting
that cotton should be high. [ vas
talking with one of the most DrOmi-
nent mil! men in the South today, and
he took the stand that cotton would
be worth IT cents a pound before The
end of this season. He said that at
present prices-that is. around II
cents a pound-the world would want
1880, 600 bales this year, and he is
one who does not believe that the
growing crop will be more than p
900, 900 bales less than that figure. At
the same time he was not lamenting
for fear that the advance. which he
expects, was going to hurt hin as a
spinner. He is a business man Who
understands the law of supply and
demand
''On the other hand, there are many
farmers in the South who believe that
the price of cotton is already too high.
Never nave / known a season where
there was as much selling at this sea-
son against the cotton hat will not
be picked until fall as there is today.
L suppose that there have already been
500, 600 bales sold in this way. If the
farmer is satisfied with the price and
is wiling to continue to sell at this
price, the market cannot al of
course, until the market world shows
a, willingness to buy more tina he can
sell. Present prices are above the
cost of production, and one-thing the
exchanges are doing for the farmers
right now is to enable them to sell
their cotton now and insure them
selves against a possible future decline
If they are willing to do so.
I'm the final settlement Of this
great question of the value Of cotton"
he continued, there are bound to
be sharp fluctuations, but, as l said
at the beginning, the talk Of 'manipu-
latiOn' is, in a great degree, a mis-