The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1911-10-25
CROP is not LARGE
PRICE SAYS THE COTTON YIELD
is EXAGGERATED.
Says He Thinks that the Cotton Pro-
ducers are Guilty Of Financial
Suicide.

In letter to Gov. ColquiE, Of Tex
as, endorsing his call for meeting
of the Governor of the cotton States
to devise some plan by which the
cotton planters can be saved the
millions Of dollars they are losong
by selling their cotton at the pres
ert low prices, Mr.. Theodore H.
Price, the great cotton dealer Of
New York, offers somevaluable sug-
gestions and gives his views on the
cotton situations. The following eN-
tract from Mr.. Prices letter will
be read with inteest:
My work, in connection with the
cotton picking. machine, has, for
the past two months, taken me into
numberless cotton fields throughout
the State of Texas, and / have had
an opportunity to make compara-
tive study Of the crop that few men
have enjoyed. do not think that
the crop is much in excess ofthat CT
last year and I am more and more
impressed with the arduous and un-
remittinE; toll that is required to
produce cotton.
1 have felt for some time that
the producers of cotton were guilty
OF financial suicide in their present
competition, as to who would sell
their cotton cheapest, and I there
fore express my sympathy with and
hearty approval Of your plan to call
?. meeting of the Governors of the
cotton States, with a view of con.
sidering the situation.
Under normal conditions, I be.
lieve that the cost of producing cot
ton is 9 cents a pound. And wher
we take into consideration the in
vestment and the hazard involved il
the planting and cultivation Of cot
ton, to say nothing Of the picking, il
is ridiculous that the South should
sell it's cotton without profit, ant
at a loss if the grade be below mid
ding, as a great deal of this year:
crop promises to be.
'sThe question is not local Of
sectional one. 1t is true that tLt
price Of cttcn affects the entire bus
mess. structure, and the 1S,000,00(
Of people resident in the cotto1
States, but the Importance of thu
issue becomes natural in its scope
when we rem ember nearly all our eX
ports of cotton constitute nearly ou
whole balance of trade, and that i
is with cotton that we pay our debt
to Europe. If the price Of the articl
is deprecated our debt-paying pow
er is impaired.
Although in Europe and Amer
ica the spinning industry is highl:
organized, and in America, at leas
our spinners are the benefciaries o
an exceedingly high tariff, I think
am correct in stating that the spin
ners of the world would rather Sc
cotton selling at a stable than at a,
abnormally low price. It is only be
cause each spinner fears his compel
tor may be able to buy cotton cheap
er, and so produce goods cheaper
that he procrastinates in securin
ais supplies at time when the cot
ton producers Of the South, throug,
their own fatuity, are daily depre
oiating in value the results of thei
painful toll.
Zone pound Of cotton produce
On the average five yards OF cloth
IN advance of cents a pound in cot
on therefore means an advance o
.ess than one cent yard in tn
cost of cloth. The world requires al
.he cotton goods that can be mad
from an American crop of 100000
bales. In ten years it will requir
the equivalent of 20,000,000 bale
Of American cotton, and a cent
yard, more or less, is a, differenc
that is not appreciated by the thous
and million consumers of cottol
goods.
"On the other hand, cents
pound on a crop Of 100000 bale
means s350,000, 900 annually to tn
South and to the United States. /
means the difference between impov
=rishment and prosperity for tn
people in this section and i: mean
/ difference of s35O,000,000 anual
| ty in the basis of our credit abroad
while the meeting of the Cover
aors of the Southern States tina
| you have called is a step in the righ
direction, I fear it will be wthou
effect unless at that meeting some
| lefnte and concrete proposition i
agreed upon that will afford relic
rom the present situation. The mum
erous agricultural organizations o
he South have, in the past, from time
lime met and passed resolution:
calling upon the farmers to holt