Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1911-09-22
MORE ABOUT THE
PRICE Of COTTON
A Long Chain Of Hands Pulling Down
the Price and Not One Pull
ing II Up.
To the Editor of The Bryan Eagle:

an eIIOTl 10 RAISE anu IN Tue prize VI
%cotton, / for one believe 1t can be
done; not that ] have any definite
|plan in my mind by which it a be
done, but the natural condition of
things tells me plainly that it a be
done. Cotton within its own realm is
king of all farm products, and as the
years go by the faster will the de-
mand become for the increase of cot
ton production, consequently the more
powerful should be the influence OF
the cotton producer; not the cotton
factor nor the cotton gambler, but ]
say the producer.
Why do | say this? Because, if
there ever was a set of men in the
world that should be the absolute mas
tiers of the situation, it should be the
producers of cotton. | ask them to
take the map of the world and put
their fingers Upon the spots where
cotton can be raised and they will be
utterly astonished at the smallness OF
the tiny spot; and the good pait of it
Is this little speck on the earth's sur
face will never grow larger. for every
place on the globe has already been
thoroughly tested, and the fact has
been thoroughly demonstrated that
there will never be a place or a coun-
try that can enter into any sort of
competition with Southern cotton
of the United States. So there
is no fear of there ever being an over
production of cotton. The only ques-
ton should be, How are We going to
produce enough cotton when within a
very few years the demand is going to
be twenty million and |, like President
Barrett, really believe it will be twen-
ty-fve million bales?
Now there is nobody that will at
tempt to dispute these facts. Then,
does it not look like sheer nonsense
on the part of the cotton producers OF
the South to let themselves remain in
the hands and under the absolute con-
troll of men whose business it is to
keep the price of cotton down instead
of helping to keep it up? In order to
ever fix the price of cotton to where
there will be a legitimate profit to the
producer, the whole system of market
ing must be changed. Take, for in
stance, the Bryan market land think
it is as good as there is anywhere UNI
der the present SYSTEM, and want
to say for our buyers in Bryan that
they are, ! believe, above an average.
They are all my personal friends, but
we all know that the last one of them
it his personal business to buy
every day as low mot as high
as it possibly can be bought. Now
these men are not to be blamed, for
they are in the hands and under the
of men whose business It is
to buy cotton as low, and not as high,
it can be bought; and the men our
buyers are working for are also under
the absolute control of men whose
business it is to buy cotton as low, and
not as high, as is possible for it to be
bought. And so it goes.
There is a chain that runs from the
producer to the spinner, and hold OF
that chain are all these intermediate
men representing themselves, not the
producer nor the spinner, but they are
all pulling on that chain in the same
direction, and that is to pull the price
Of cotton down instead of up. The fact
Is every. man that has a hold on that
chain is a bear and the cotton grow
ers are absolutely in his hands and at
his mercy. / again repeat that the
whole thing must be changed.
Why not take that chain out of the
whole system and do away with every
one of these fellows who are holding
10 and pulling on it, and thereby save
millions of dollars annually that they
absolutely, but unnecessarily, take
rom the producers? Why not find out
what the spinner a give' for
4 pound of middling cotton and man
fracture it into cloth at a legitimate
profit, then fix the price on cotton that
IAN be paid by he spinner, and have a
system of holding the cotton to be sup
)iied at the demand of the spinners?
Oh! says it neve can be
lone, from the fact the farmers
sense enough to organize
themselves and to stay organized. OF
this kind of talk is in a meas
ire j~ustifiable, judging the past con-
Iuct of the farmers, but | for one be-
ieve that the time has come when the
pportunity is so great, and the de-
nand is so imperative for organiza-
ion. that a child should see it and
Understand it; and / still have suffi-
lent confidence in the farmers to be-
eve that they will not let this great
pp~ortunity slip. So the main thing I,
Dr. my good friends who constitute