Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-08-11
Mistrllanrous &Mdina.
HOLD COTTON.
Farmers Union Officials Issue Ad-
dress TO Farmers

dress to Farmers.
To the farmers and all the business
interests that are affected by the price
Of cottun:--
The Sumter county Farmers Union
at its last meeting unanimously di-
rrctrd us as a committee to call your
attention To the serious condition that
CunfrOntS us i'm the outlook for low
prices for this crop of cotton. Thirty
or forty days ago cotton sold i'm Sum
ter for 1j4 cents (spoD. Today a
holder who would not then sell was
glad tn get l2a cents. These are actu-
al sales. What has brought about
such a slump i'm this short time after
months at II To Is cents? They say
because there is prospect of over
l400OOOO bales. Is ii not more because
the world, Judging by the past, thinks
merchants. and buy this crop for any
old price? We hear it said that cotton
will sell below 10 cents before Christ
mas. The men who are predicting
such prices are working with might
and main To bring about 10 cents cot
ton 10y telling their farmer friends that
the crop is the largest on record. You
ought To sell us fast as YOU can, for
cotton is bound To go lower" Appar-
emily not knowing that this is the very
lower
prices.
Now We have no quarrel with the
northern and foreign spinner who
wants low priced cotton. 1t is only a
part of his business TO get his raw
material at the lowest possible price,
and it is also part Of his business to
sell his finished product at the highest
possible price. But how any southern
men, even owners of mill stocks. can
wish Ia see low prices for cotton. or
can in any way give aid and encOur-
agcment tu the enemy by joining i'm
the hue and CRY that 'priceS are bound
Ia go lower" is past our COmprehen-
sion. Every business man and every
cotton mill i'm the south is inevitably
bound up in the general prosperity of
this section.
If southern mills would seek out new
markets for the manufactured goods,
and learn from the successes of
foreign mills To cater to the demands
of the worlds trade in the fabrics the
world wants, put up in the kind of
packages the world wants, they could
join hands with all the business inter-
ests of the south and fix and maintain
the highest possible price for cotton
and cotton goods.
That the mills will not do this is
abumdantly proven by the history Of
recent years when our own mills kept
out of the market while the farmer
was falling over himself to sell his cot
ton, and later paid more for their
stocks than the foreigners, with
freight and other charges added. We
may expect the same thing to happen
this fall. Hence we leave the southern
Spinners out of the count.
But We do call on every merchant
and every fertilizer manufacturer and
every banker and every railroad man
to join with the Farmers Union in
urging every farmer to hold back his
cotton until the world is willing to pay
a living price for it. Such a course
can hurt no one, and it will help every
One; the merchant, by giving him cash
customers for his goods, the fertilizer
plants by increased use Of their goods,
the banks by larger deposits, the rail
roads by larger freights on more i'm
ported goods that our people will have
the money To buy, and every profess
sion and calling 10y the increase in the
circulating medium brought about by
the larger flow of foreign gold in all
the arteries of commerce.
There can he no question that this
will hr the result of higher prices for
cotton. II il were not true, from
whence comes the present prosperity
of the south? 1t is l5c cotton that
has done il. As surely as the sun rises
in the east and sets i'm the west, just
So surely will there be StagnatiOn and
want, distress and bitterness, in thou
sands of homes in the south, and they
will not all he farmers homes. if we
let this crop Of cotton sell for ten
cents ur less.
With the worlds stocks of cotton al
most depleted with the automobile
tire industry alone taking hundreds of
thousands of bales of cotton annually,
Increased consumption on every side.
this crop can hc marketed at II or Il
cents per pound Just as easily as last
years crop was, if we but hold out for
il. This is not merely our opinion. frl-
low farmers, but il is the opinion of rs
ShrrWd business men as the ones
who tell you that cotton will go lower.
l1tSlutS lH''lt IllitIlN al sup wv M lil'
cup and the lip.'" and the drought is
not Vet broken over large areas where
cotton is burned up: in other sections
the young crop cannot make Il hall
yield under most favorable COlIdiii ions.
And all of il has Iu rum the gauntlet
Of excessive rains, if they ever start,
and of the many insect pests. and
climatic changes that make Il late
crop So uncertain.
In conclusion your committee would
urge. with all the inSStrncr of calm
and deliberate Judgment. that every
one who can do So hold his cotton off
the market either in his own strength.
ur with the assistance uf his creditors
and the banks. Pick il dry. Gin ii dry.
pat the bales away under shelter. dry.
And if You must borrow money on it,
de- not morrow more than 81! ur $50 on
Il bale and for mot less than six
months Thrly-day cotton loans and
loans close up Ia the market value are
worse than selling outright. We call
ON all the unions in the cotton belt To
Join us in this fight Shut down on
cotton now and for the next sixty days
and the fight is won. Paper contracts
do not run mills.
Yours for southern pruSprrity-Thc
Sumter County Farmers Union.
f. W. DahbS,
J. NJ. Brngdun,
=. y. Welsh,
Committee.
Sumter. =. c.. August s. 1911.