The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1911-11-30
THE PLAN FOR HOLDING COT
TON.

A committee appointed at the re-
cent governors convention held In /
New Orleans to consider the cotton
situation has since been In New York /
comforting with a number OF bank |
ers. They have reported that they !
have made arrangement with syn
dictate of bankers 10 furnish fifty
millions of dollars TO be used In
making advances on cotton to farm !
ers to enable them TO hold for a bet
ter price.
The plan outlined, through a state
ment given to the press, Is that the
bankers are to furnish this money
without charging interest, not more
than twenty-five dollars TO be ad-
vanced to any one farmer on bale
OF cotton, and a charge of one dollar
storage to be made on each bale, the
advances to be made by a committee
to be appointed by the governor
or commissioner OF agriculture OF
each State, which committee Is to
take charge of the cotton under an
agreement with the farmer that they
will sell it whenever he directs, but
that whenever cotton reaches twelve
cents the committee may sell the cot
ton, whether the farmer wishes 1t
sold or not, II 1t sees at, and that
they shall be forced to sell 1t when
1t reaches thirteen cents a pound.
This plan may be put into some
practical shape and may result in
some good. We trust that it will.
However, we must frankly state that
We cannot see how such plan can
be worked out in a practical way to
be of general relief.
Every one admits that the one
great need is that there should be
more money in circulation at the
time the crops are to be handled than
at any other time. In short, every
body admits that we should have a
flexible currency; one that will be-
come automatically flexible when
there is need for more money and
therefore a strain on the currency,
the extra amount Of money to be re-
tired when the strain Is over. We
submit that in order to procure this
desired f1exibility of the currency,
and at the same time to provide a
permanent means for enabling farm
ers to hold their cotton, there has
never been anything yet suggested
equal to the sub-treasury plan Of the
Farmers Alliance
Under that plan, each individual
farmer would elect whether or not
to put his cotton into warehouse
to be provided, and receive for it a
cotton certificate" to a certain per-
centage of the value of the cotton,
which certificate would be as sound
as a gold or silver certificate This
would enable the farmer to hold his
cotton by receiving enough money to
meet his necessities, but, above and
beyond that, it would mean that
much new money would be put into
circulation, thereby creating the uni
versally desired elasticity of the cur
rency. Under this plan, each indi-
vidual farmer would elect when he
would order his cotton sold, and upon
It's sale he would surrender the cot
ton certificate or it's equivalent and
thus automatically increase and de-
crease the currency according to the
local needs.
Another advantage that would
inure from this sub-treasury plan
would be that it would result in the
farmers marketing their cotton not
during one or two months, but during
several months, some Of it running
during six months. and possibly some
OF it during the whole year.