The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-11-02
LETTER TO COTTON FARMERS
SOME GOOD ADVICE AND HOMELY LOGIC
FROM A MAN WHO KNOWS
The Cotton Farmers Should CUme
Together and Stop Selling Cotton
at Present Prices.

Cotton is selling to-day for 1-2
cents per pound less than at this
time last year, or $3.50 per bale
and is the South prepared to lose
this large amount OF money? ask
the business men, are they willing
for the farmers to suffer loss that
present prices mean?
The farmers will not be n on
ly looserS for they can't pay the
time merchant for their supplies
and will not have the money TO
spend with the cash merchants.
"Oh, but the crop, the crop"
some say Now como and let us
reason together suppose it is q
big crop; does not pound OF cot
ton make just as many yards of
cloth or as many pounds Of thread
when the crop is a big one ms when
it is small one? Are there not
just as many units OF ware and
juts as much protection from
cold in a pound of cotton now as
there was a year ago?
Last years crop amounted to, in
pound numbers. 100000 bales,
and sold for about $S43,750, 600.
If this years crop should amount
TO 13,SO0,O00 bales, is that any rca-
son it should sell for 500, 100000.
or more than S14O.O0O.OOO less than
last years crop? These are vital
questions and the continued pros
perity of the South depends upon
their solution. Take from the
South $14O, 100000 and stagnation
of business will be seen on every
hand. But let that amount come in
and the additional 500, 900
more for the increase in our crop,
and business of every description
would move up by leaps and
bounds. Factories OF every dcScrip-
ton, North and South would en-
JOY a season of activity such as they
have never known.
If the big crop is in the way OF
good prices, let us reduce the guam,
tity of cotton for sale. There lis nc
sane man, who would rather Sell IL
bales of cotton for $675 than to sci
II bales for $500. That is what We
are now doing as compared will
prices received year ago. If &c
procure the better price it is ncces.
Sary to decrease the cotton put on
the market, let us store the two
bales and count them aS that many
already made on next years crop
and market only the ten and receive
the $175 more than the IL would
bring. Then reduce acreage in cot
ton next year and keep the crop
down to the quantity the trade can
use profitably.
If we sell the II bales when the
trade can use only 10 OF them, the
other two will be carried over un-
til next year and used as a club to
keep prices down again. For this
reason we had better keep them in
our own hands instead of letting
the enemy have them.
1t is highly necessary that some
thing be done and done at once. 1t
will be too late after the bulk of
cotton is sold. There must be un-
ity of purpose and action, or prices
will go Still lower than they are
at present We need not conclude
that the bear interest will let up,
neither need we underestimate their
daring and confidence nor their re-
sources. We had just as well make
up our minds that we have n foe
that is worthy of our steel and one
that will contest every inch of
ground. But we are mightier than
they, and we should also remember
that while they are fighting for
profits we are fighting for our
homes and the prosperity of our
country. But to win we must pre-
sent a solid front and not swerve
from our purpoes. Let us not for
get the New Orleans convention,
when cotton went down to cents
per pound, and we were told that
it would go lower. But the farm
ers and business men of the South
said 1t should not go lower, and it
did not. But on the contrary 1t
was cents per pound higher be-
fore the season was over and that
in the face Of the largest crop we
have ever made. What was accom-
plished by that convention can be
re-enacted by another.
Above all hold your cotton.
Don't rush it TO market, and thus
help depress the price.
A Farmer.