Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1911-08-16
URGE FARMERS HOLD COTTON.
Address Issued by Committee OF Sum-
ter County Union.


In an address issued to the farm
ers of South Carolina committee of
the Sumter County Farmers Union
urges the holding of cotton until a
higher price is obtained. The ad-
dress Is prepared by committee
consisting Of e. w. Dabbs, president
of the State Farmers Union, J. NJ.
Brogdon and S. N. Welsh.
The Address.
To the Farmers and all the Busi-
ness Interests that are Affected by
the Price of Cotton:
The Sumter County Farmers Un-
ion at It's last meeting unanimously
directed us as committee to call
your attention to the serious condi-
tion that confronts us in the outlook
for low prices for this crop OF cotton.
Thirty or forty days ago cotton sold
in Sumter for Is II cents (spot. To-
day holder who would not then sell
was glad to get 121a cents. These
are actual sales. What has brought
about such slump in this short
time after cotton had held steady for
nine or ten months at Id to 5 cents ?
They say because there is prospect
OF over 100000 bales. Is 1t not
more because the world, Judging by
the past, thinks 1t can stampede the
farmers and the merchants and buy
below 10 cents before Christmas.
Then men who are predicting such
prices are working with might and
main to bring about 10-cent cotton
by telling their farmer friends that
the crop is the largest on record.
You ought to sell as fast as you can
for cotton Is bound to 90 lower"
apparently not knowing that this is
the very way to bring about lower
level Of prices.
Now, we have no quarrel with the
Northern and the foreign spinner
who wants low-priced cotton. Il is
only a part Of his business to get the
raw material at the lowest possible
price, and it is also part OF his busi-
ness to sell his finished product at
the highest possible price. But how
many Southern men, even owners of
mill stocks, can wish to see low
prices for cotton, or can in any way
give aid and encouragement to the
enemy by Joining in the hue and cry
that prices are bound to 60 lower"
1s past our comprehension. Every
business man and every cotton mill
= ~" South i~ inevitably hound IN
IN iHc general Drpanauty of his snn.
.ian
tnc &uu,3'rsgI hsiiIs.
- &oUthcrn mJia woIi1 seek cur
~" m~.N~t- -oy the manufactured
goods, and learn from the successes
OF foreign mills to cater to the de-
mands 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 interests OF the South
and fix and maintain the highest
possible price for cotton and cotton
goods.
That the mills will not do this is
abundantly proven by the history of
recent years when our own mills kept
ont OF the market while the farmer
"as falling over himself to sell his
cotton, and later paid more ror their
stocks than the foreigners, with
freight and other charges added We
may expect the same things to hap
pen 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
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 in
creasing use Of their goods, the
banks by larger deposits, the rail
roads by larger frcights on more i'm