Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-05-14

land the reply was that the city OF
New Orleans had to float several mil
lion dollars of bonds and that as II
was really a city, not state affair
Ithey could not afford to have a con-
stitutional question raised about the
bonds and it was quicker and easier to
go before the people and get the con-
stitution amended.
What Fixes the Price of Cotton?
A study of the price, production and
sale of cotton must begin with the
question of finance.
Cotton is in a class to itself-it Is 6
crop of worldwide consumption
whose production is limited to certain
comparatively small areas. The south
ern states produce about seventy pei
. cent of the cotton of the world. In
addition to this it Is the only section
where agricultural science, soil and
climate can be absolutely relied upon
to furnish a standard supply.
The cotton we sell abroad, fixes the
price of that which enters into domes-
tic consumption, so that the price OF
the crop is fixed in the foreign mar
ket, and will continue to be until we
manufacture all the raw material at
home, exporting only the finished pro-
duct The cotton that Is sold abroad
Is payable in gold, and the financiers
of America absolutely rely upon 1t,
to turn the balance Of trade In our
favor. Annually the crop starts
steady stream from the foreign gold
reserves to the vaults Of New York
and Boston banks. These banks have
supplied the south money, that Is
credit paper, like gold certificates, ma
tional bank notes and other promises
to pay. When it comes to the repay
ment Of these advances under the sub
tie necromancy of high finance, pay is
demanded by New York for export
cotton in gold. In ordinary CONNER
cial transactions gold is not used, but
credit paper, checks and drafts do
ninety per cent of the business of the
world, performing the functions Of
gold and multiplying its quantity an
hundred fold. This applies to every
thing except cotton. Just watch the
financial news during the months OF
September, October and November
and see the gold exports from Paris
and London to New York. This vast
hoard Of gold is the annual contribu-
ton Of the cotton planters of the
south to Wall street-a potent energy
which has made this country the mis-
tress Of the financial world. 1t is re-
Election on our intelligence that out
Of it all we have been able to retain
so small a share.
Prof Edward S. Meade Of the Uni
versity of Pennsylvania, in a wonder
full little book called the STORY OF
Gold" says "the amount and distri-
button of this gold and its annual pro-
duction is of great Importance to the
prosperity of every one. If gold Is
plentiful and the supply of money
abundant and increasing, prices which
are the amount of gold for which coal,
iron, wheat, cotton and a thousand
other articles can be exchanged in the
markets, are high and increasing.
Business men under these circum-
stances, make large profits by selling
at higher prices than those at which
they buy, and workmen because or
these profits earn high wages at con-
slant employment. In other words,
when the supply Of gold is abundant,
men will give more gold for what they
want prices will rise, etc"
Now. let us see how the doctrine
enunciated by this eminent authority
affects cotton prices, more directly
and powerfully than 1t does other ar
ticles in ordinary commerce. II this
can be shown, is it not valid reason
why South Carolina, whose industrial
welfare is so largely dependent upon
cotton, should exercise to the fullest
extent her powers in protection of her
citizens?
Under old time conditions cotton
was picked and stored in the seed.
A modern plantation gin house Is
small affair, compared to the large
three story structure Of the old days,
set up on high posts, so that its only
power, mules, could walk around the
weary circle to the monotonous music
OF one forty saw gin, turning out about
four bales of cotton a day. From nee
essity, ginning was slow and put off as
much as possible until cooler weather
it was fearful work on the mules
during the hot September days. The
press was a high affair." with heavy
arms situated perhaps one hundred
yards from the lint room. Cotton
was carried by hand, tied in sheets up
long flight of steps thirty feet and
put in at the top of the press. 1t was
weary, heart-breaking work, possible
only for cheap slave driven labor.
Now cotton is picked. hauled from the
field to a small cheap house, of.en
nothing hut sheet iron nailed on
! frame 1t is drawn by suction from
the wagon to q battery of gins, thence
blown through the lint fiues to a dou-
BILE box steam trampling press. and in
few minutes the seed are pouring
through the conveyer, either into the
wagon or into the seed room, and the
mules are trotting down every little
grade with the bale of cotton to get to
market before the news is flashed un-
der the ocean, receipts are heavy IN
Liverpool, exports of gold continue
spots ten points off. y
Cotton can, if necessary, be sold by
wire in Liverpool the very day 1t is
picked. In former days the demand
for money was slow, with the gradual
marketing of the crop the sale or
manufactured goods could in some de-
gree maintain the equilibrium of price.
Now a crop totaling with the seed a
billion of dollars is hurled on the mar
ket in three months. The money used
in making and putting on the market
this enormous crop comes from do
mestic sources, it is not gold, but more
promises to pay in gold, if demanded