Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1911-12-30
REVIEW OF InE COTTON MARKET
 FOR YEAR 1911
tBy Theodore II. Price.

tBy Theodore II. Price.
 The history of cotton is valuable chiefly as it may be 8 guide for the future. The year 1911 has marked the end of a cotton famine, and an era of comparatively high prices. and the year 1912 seems likely to find the world supplied with suffi- cient cotton to meet it's re1uire- ments for the balance of the so- called cotton year, which ends August 3, 1912.
 It is probable, in fact, that this years crop is large enough to sup piv the demand up to October 31. 1912 or two months after the time at which next years crop shall be vailable. This is all that can be exnected from the widely advertised surplus of this years cotton produc- t.un, and when the fact is stated in tllis way there would seem to be but little justification for any ez> recitation of lower prices.
 In other important industry thal
 IrnoW of is a surplus the equlva- lent of two months consumption after two years of famine regarded as 2 sufficient justification for rqnie prices and sales below the cost of production.
 rEe Southern producers of cotton seem to have cone to the conclusion largely as a result of the convention o+ t;c governors of the cotton states held in New Orleans in October, and the thanks of the entire Southern ccwmunity, both business men and mrmers are due to the Fort Worth Record" and it's editor, MT. Clar- Orsloy. for their enterprise in call jug and organizing this convention at the opportune moment. It's pre- sentation of the facts Of supply and consumption no doubt prevented nanicky decline in the market, and resulted in a deliberate and fore- handed treatment of the situation that has enabled the southern cot ton producers to obtsin at least cost for that portion of this years cot ton crop which has already been sold.
 + has at the same time induced anticpatory buying on the part of consumers, which in some cases covers their prospective require ments for three and four years ahead. The weight of whatever 1 surplus is attributable to this years 1 American cotton production has been 1 tbus distrlbuted over long period of time. snd the prospect now seems to he pAt reasonable reduction in acreagg next year, and an average nr, ,drtion, cotton will again rule so,ae@here between Il and 12 cents a pound.
 fhe supply Of iron copper and coal .H America is practically inexhaust- able, but the producers of these are enable to reap a fair profit upon the enterprise and capital employed in their produc- ton through legitimate control of the supply.
 The year 1912 promises to mark a new era in the cotton trade, distins- uished chiefly by the application of the same sane principles to cotton production. It ussd to be assumed ut cotton; that it had to produce cotton to live and that it had to se,l [ when produced at whatever price vas obtainable, whether this price howed a profit or loss, and that hen 1t was compelled to go on and reduce another crop to be sold at a ossible loss, and so ad infinitum, bu. mes have changed. ( The great economic marvel of the resent century Is the expansion in 1e worlds demand for cotton goods. he demand is now so great that lrplus of million bales is far small 2 in it's relation to the total require ents than was the case fifteen years Z go. Moreover. the South is richer nd better educated in the principles 2 economic iaw- It has learned how ? do other things than grow cotton, 2 nd fits agricultural versatility en- z oles it from year to year so te q lange the objective of it's enterprise q at when cotton ceases to be profit q
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