Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1909-06-04
PUBLIC COTTON PLATFORMS.


PUBLIC COTTON PLATFORMS.
Demand For a Reform In Cotton Sell
ing Practices.
While there is no doubt about the
fact that there have grown up In con-
nection with the marketing of cotton
many abuses that operate to the dis
advantage of the producer, and while
the Farmers Union Sun thinks that
by persistent, intelligent effort, some
of these abuses may be corrected In
time, 1t is persuaded that good place
to start is by the establishment of
public weighing platforms, before
which sellers and buyers will stand on
equal footing.
The most serious abuses In every
department of commercial life are
generally matters of insidious devel-
opmert. Unfair advantages are usu-
ally pressed little by little, and prevf-
Gus injustices submitted to by the
yielding party, operate as precedents
for more pronounced subsequent
wrongs, until at length rotten systems
become recognized as established In
stitutions, no longer to be questioned
by those who may have all along, and
who may still be, suffering the great
est injustice.
The Farmers Union Sun does not
question the honesty of cotton buyers
anywhere, nor would 1t suggest that
there are not farmers everywhere who
are not as we'll able to take care OF
themselves as are the cotton buyers;
but it does believe, in the interest OF
fairness, justice and good business
method, this matter Of cotton weigh
ing should be taken in hand and reg
ulated by law in such way as Will
ensure healthy readjustment of con-
ditions.
In the course of an experience of a
half dozen or more years, every cotton
producer has either run upon, or
heard of, one or more cotton buyers
who were slick at the scales, who
would use short weights, who would
be rather too liberal on docking
proposition, or who would make an
"accidental miscount,' or take other
unfair advantage. And while we are
saying this 1t is just as well to admit
that every cotton buyer of like expe-
rience has bought water packed cot
ton, and paid to spinners claims Tor
stones, sand, cotton seed and other
fraudulent weight producers that were
found packed in cotton that he had
bought from dishonest farmers. But
this is not the point. OF course the
world Is full of dishonesty, and since
the Almighty has not yet been able to
put a stop to it, we do not feel 1t in
cumbent upon us to try to suggest
remedies. We are concerned now on
ly in the matter Of trying to establish
what Il seems to us will be a more
equitable and Just business system.
In most of the South Carolina
towns, especially the smaller ones,
the local buyers have practical con-
troll of the market. By means of pri-
yate platforms, warehouses, etc., and
a perfect understanding among them
selves, they are able to buy the local
cotton at bottom prices, and at the
same time arrange so that outside
buyers cannot come in and interfere
with their preserves without paying
them a toll that might more properly
60 to the producer. 1t often happens,
for instance, that local buyers, operat-
ing on commission within limits fixed
by the people for whom they are
working, agree that the top limit
shall be we'll down under what they
are able to pay, so they can pocket
the difference. Say the limit Is 1Ot
cents. They agree to pay 10 or 103:
An outsider may come in with limit
of II cents; but the locals fix this, by
means Of platform charges, licenses
and other expedients, and require him
to stand by while they continue to buy
from wagons, with the understand
ing that they will afterward sell 1t to
him at IL cents. If the outsider only
had a place to weigh his cotton on the
same conditions as the locals he could
make the locals pay full values.
One of the most practicable reme-
dies for this situation Is by the estab-
lishment Of public platforms In all To-
cal markets that handle as much as
500 bales of cotton. Where there Is
a public platform and a weigher who
Is bound to treat all alike, the out
side buyer can come in on the same
terms as the local buyer. He does
not have to have a platform or a
warehouse, but can weigh up his lots
of cotton at the public platform and
ship 1t to wherever he wants 1t to go.
OF course, the producer would have to
pay the expense of weighing, but he
does that now, and sometimes pays
this expense several times over, In the
shape Of prices he should have gotten.
At a public platform he will come
nearer getting everything that Is COM
ing to him.
OF course, there are all kinds Of
arguments intended to show that the
PLATFORM lued lS ulildil, pu' thoS oiS
bosh. For one thing, the local buyer
claims that because he has gone to
the expense to establish himself, and
because he is on the ground all the
time, he Is entitled to advantages over
outsiders, but that Is not sound. Is
the farmer who raised the cotton not
entitled to all that 1t will bring? Is
the producer under any more obliga-
tion to the buyer for buying 1t than
the buyer is under to the producer
for producing? Is there any more
reason for the protection OF the buyer
than there Is for the protection of the
producer? The producer Is certainly
subject to the unrestricted operation
of the laws of supply and demand,
then why not the buyer also? But
really, this question Is not worth ar
guing. The idea that the buyer
should have any more consideration
than the producer is simply absurd.
To bring about the reform we are
suggesting, a general law will be nee
cssary. Local laws will not prove ef-
fective for obvious reasons. In the
first place, cotton buyers have about
as much influence with the average
legislator as do cotton producers. The
average legislator is more considerate
of one average cotton buyer than he
Is of ten average cotton producers.
He calculates that the average cotton
buyer not only knows what he wants.
but he Is a man of influence, more or
less able to enforce his demands. The
average cotton producer is not only
not considered as knowing what he
wants, but the average legislator cal
culates that he will not be able to
help hims If If he does not get what
he wants Under these conditions the
average legislator will promise the
average cotton producer anything
from forty acres and a mule to twen-
ty cents cotton, knowing that later on
it will be a comparatively easy mat
ter to explain why the promise was
not carried out, and that the explain
alton may be made without intimating
that the real reason was because 1t
did not suit the cotton buyer
The right way to go at this thing
is to bring it up in every local union
I'm the state. Let 1t go from the To-
Gals to the county union and let 1t go
from the county unions to the state
union, and then there will be some
thing doing. Let's have the thing
thoroughly discussed through and
through, inside and out, and let us
have q general law for the establish
ment of local platforms and the cleo
ton Of local weighers or know the