Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1910-05-04
Experimenting on Farmers.
{ Florence Times.)

There Is pending in the national
House Of Representatives now a bill
that Is likely to seriously affect the
interests Of the South. and which
Senator Smith says will force the
price of cotton down to three cents
If he can see straight. Nothing Is
being done by tha people Of the
House to resist the passage of the
measure, and 1t looks as If it will
go through. This is bill to regulate
exchanges, which provides that on an
exchange no sale shall be made eX-
cept with affidavit that the party
buying wishes to possess the goods
bought for his own use. The stock
people saw the danger in 1t at the
very outset and in jiffy it was pro-
vided that the measure should not
effect stock or grain sales, and the
| action of the bill was restricted to
cotton exchanges alone. 1t Is said
with great JUNCTION that it is the de-
sire of Congress to try the PROPOSE
ton on cotton first. That means that
If anybody Is to suffer from the en-
acted legislation nobody would be
hurt but the farmer of the South and
the interests allied with his.
The South does not resist the pas
sage Of the bill because of the howl
that has been raised against specula-
tion and the gambling in cotton that
| has been to the detriment Of the
South for SO long. The effect Of the
Dill would be to shut out the specu-
lator, the man who hopes to realize
profit on his holdings Of cotton
| which he takes up from the farmer,
| who must sell at a time when the
spinner is not obliged to buy, and in
the end raises the price for the far
mer who may be able to hold his cot
ton, and In reality, puts the cotton
entirely at the mercy of the spinner.
All reason tells us that when there
are two bidders for an article the
price is certainly going to rise as a
| result of their bidding.
Some time ago the people of the
South began a war on the cotton
speculator by passing all sorts of
| anti-option legislation, and the lead
erS of the crusade were free to con-
| fess that in this matter they had
| made mistake as has been frequent
ly done In our cropping for the light
on the cotton problem. The specu-
lator Is more often the friend Of the
farmer than he is his enemy. He
comes In between the spinner and
the farmer and outbids him when he
thinks that cotton ought to go up in
price. That helps the grower, for he
is not Obliged then to take the low
price offered by the spinner. 1t has
been seen by the men who are in the
lead in this cotton fight that a deal
between the farmer and the spinner
Is impractical; that 1t must be war
to the end and in that war an ally
Is desirable, even If he does some
times fight on the other side. TO stop
him from his mischievous work Sen
ator Smith proposes to amend the
bill as it will probably come to the
Senate making 1t a misdemeanor to
tender anything lower than strict low
middling on cotton contracts, for
through the tender Of very low cotton,
unspinnable cotton, the exchanges are
enabled to resist all of the force Of
the cotton men to bring up the price
because they cannot now be squeezed
for delivery, they will deliver the bad
cotton, because their contracts make
any grade tenderable on contract if
they will pay the difference to the
purchaser, so that hundred thou
sand bales Of dog-ear, rotten cotton
will offset series of contracts for
fifteen million bale crop
1t is recognized that a lick must
be struck somewhere else, and not at
the specuator in this case, or the
South will pay the bill with interest.
Kern EuInrCpI for Snr,tn