The times and democrat. [volume] (Orangeburg, S.C.) 1881-current, 1911-10-21
CROP is NOT LARGE
PRICE SAYS THE COTTON YIELD
Is EXAGGERATED.

10 EAaNILks64AEOs
SAYS He Thinks that the Cotton Pro-
ducers are Guilty Of Financial
Suicide.
In letter to Gov. Colquit. of Tex
as. endorsing his call for a 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
ent low prices, Mr.. Theodore II.
Price, the great cotton dealer OF
New York, offers somevaluable sug-
gestions and gives his views on the
cotton situations. The following ex-
tract from Mr.. Prices letter will
he 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 a compara-
tive study of the crop that few men
have enjoyed. do not think that
the crop is much in excess ofthat Of
last year and am more and more
Impressed with the arduous and UNI
remitting toll that Is required to
produce cotton.
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
3. meeting of the Governors Of the
cotton States, with view of con-
sidering the situation.
Under normal conditions, I be-
lieve that the cost Of producing cot
ton is 9 cents pound. And when
%e. take into consideration the in
vestment and the hazard involved in
the planting and cultivation Of cot
ton, to say nothing of the picking, it
IS ridiculous that the South should
sell it's cotton without profit, and
at loss if the grade be below mid
ding, as a great deal Of this years
crop promises to be.
t':rhe question is not a local or
sectional one. 1t Is true that the
price of ctton affects the entire bus
iness structure, and the 100000
of people resident in the cotton
States, but the Importance of the
issue becomes natural in its scope,
IN we remember hearty all our ex-
ports ST cotton constitute nearly cur
whals balance Of trade, and that it
is with cottaH that we pay our debts
to Europe. If the priae of the article
is deprecated our debf-Eaylng pow
er is impaired.
although in Europe and Amer
ica the spinning industry IS highly
organized, and in America, at least
our spinners are the beneiciaries Of
an exceedingly high tariff, 1 think I
am correct in stating that the spin
ners of the world would rather see
cotton selling at a stable than at an
abnor1aally low price. 1t is only be-
cause each spinner fears his compet-
itor may be able to buy cotton cheap
er, and so produce goods cheaper,
that he procrastinates in securing
his supplies at a time when the cot
ton producers of the South, through
Sheir own faulty, are daily depre-
ciatins in value the results Of their
painful toll.
Zone pound OF cotton produces
ON the average five yards Of cloth.
An advance Of cents pound in cot
ton therefore means an advance Of
less than one cent yard in the
cost Of cloth. The world requires all
the cotton goods that can be made
from an American crop Of 100000
bales. In ten years it will require
the equivalent of 2O,000,O00 bales
of American cotton, and cent a
yard, more or less, is a difference
that is not appreciated by the thous-
and million consumers Of cotton
goods.
son the ether hand, cents a
pound on a >rop of 100000 bales
means $3.50, 100000 annually to the
South and to the United States. 1t
means the difference between 1mpov-
erishment and prosperity for the
people in this section and 1t means
a difference of $3.50, 100000 anual-
ly in the basis of our credit abroad.
@While the meeting Of the Cover
nors of the Southern States that
you have called Is a step in the right
direction, I fear it will be without
effect unless at that meeting some
definite and concrete proposition is
agreed upon that will afford relief
from the present situation. The num-
erous agricultural organizations or
the South have, in the past, from time
to lime met and passed resolutions
calling upon the farmers to hold
their cotton, but in every instance
the farmers have ignored these reso-
lutions and proceeded to sell their
cotton, so that their last state was
worse than the first.