The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1911-11-16
Advice to Cotton Planters by the Enemy

Under the above caption the New Or
leans Item of November 10th, published
the following article, which appeard in
the New York Sun of recent date:
''It is perfectly safe prediction that
the convention of the Cotton States Gov
errors in New Orleans will produce about
as much useful fruit as did its predecessors
in the State of Oklahoma and at Mont
gomery (Ala.).
''It is all very we'll to talk about fnanc-
ing this crop, but when one considers that
100000 bales of cotton at 10 cents
pound are worth $3.50, 900 900, and more
over that the farmers themselves are the
only persons likely to furnish the money
for such a purpose, the futility of the
thing becomes ridiculously apparent It
will be remembered that the Oklahoma
convention declared for the storage plan,
an incident which the Montgomery con-
vention airily approved. Then came the
Hon. John Sharp Williams and other vol
unteer prophets distributing sanction and
encouragement with lordly hands. And on
top of this The Sun showed it would cost
$50 100000 to launch the scheme even in
its most primitive form. Shortly after
this the rush to sell began. Farmers who
had cotton ready for the market threw it
on the bergain counter and fairly begged
the buyers to take it at almost any price.
1.-The assembled sages at New Orleans
talked resentfully of money sent from the
South to New York banks and there with
held from the cotton farmers until their
ruin can be accomplished, and the Cover
nor of Texas, gravely assimilating this
transparent fairy tale, assured the report
ers that his plans provide for total elm
ination of the infamy. Former Senator
McLaurin of South Carolina, however,
disclosed the key to the entire situation
while advocating solution based on quite
another hypothesis. In fact, he advocated
regulation Of the cotton acreage and a
control OF the subsequent marketing, day
dreams, both, but he threw floods of light
upon the causes of the actual pinch:
The present crop was raised under
prospects that made the farmers somewhat
extravagant in their planting methods.
They had expected to be able to sell their
crops for Is cents, and consequently did
not raise much in the way of supplies.
Hence the situation is rather acute in our
State
'In other words they expected a re-
currence of the price that had already
sadly straitened the millers, even threat
ening their determination, and upon this
roseate prospect they proceeded to kill the
goose of the golden egg, and incidentally
told the smokehouse and the forage fields
to go hang while they got rich.
"But the pinch has come, contrary to all
prophecy, and Mr.. McLaurin has inno-
Gently explained its attendant phenomena,
especially that of the wholesale sacrifice
of cotton in the markets. When farmer
deliberately neglects to provide himself
with the necessities of life, meat, cereals,
etc., in order that he may devote himself
entirely to cotton. there can be but one re-
suit of a failure of his chief reliance.
''This wild rush to sell was the inevi-
table consequence of the bumper yield and
the sagging tendency Of prices. The
farmers had to feed themselves and their
dependents and to meet certain obligations
which became imperative as quotations
dropped.
Had they taken the precaution to pro-
duce their own supplies, banks, tradesmen
and creditors in general would have waited
in content. The edicts of conventions and
the counsels of prophets might have met
with patient and enlightened considera-
ton. 1t would have been practicable to
hold the bulk Of the crop pending intelli-
gent elaboration and organized action.
Moreover, the high cost Of living