The Springfield herald., 1912-03-29
RAISE THE PRICE OF COTTON
DIminIshed Output viii Soon Reduce
Supply and Insure Southern Farmer
Fair Remuneration.

\ Fair Remuneration.
A crop of nearly fifteen million
bales with price of nine cents a
pound has placed the question OF how
to raise the price of cotton In the front
rank of present-day problems. writes
L. r. Johnson of Cape Girardeau
county, Missouri. In the Breeders Ga
zette. Crowds of wise physicians
have crowded around the farmer pa.
tient and handed out pills and nos
trums without number. United States
senators. congressman, governors. leg
islators, editors and sundry others
have united to form most distin-
guished assemblange in the sick
room. Every remedy has It's eloquent
advocates. Some of the proffered po-
tions smell strong enough to suggest
that their concoctors are willing
speedily to kill or cure. One of these
latter was the proposal that the states
dictate the cotton acreage on each
farm and enforce their DEGREES with
an army of state constabulary. Such
/, words certainly have a queer sound in
our citadel of world democracy. Shall
we Americans follow the example OF
Brazil in making coffee government
monopoly or OF Greece in her efforts
to sustain the price Of currants? In
other words, shall We attempt to put
| bride and saddle on the mighty fun
damental law Of supply and demand.
and to exercise n despotic authority
over the farm. ostensiby for the plant
er's good, for the purpose Of shaking
| a m OF in tho pf kind
and declaring. This much shall you
pay and no less?
| Whittier will the south find herself
as the result of such schemes? In a
wilderness OF speculation, wild the
ories, lost fortunes and social con-
vulsions. with perchance bloodshed
and tyranny? Let us devoutly hope
that she will turn away from these
would-be physicians and entrust her.
self to the beneficent operations OF ex-
listing economic laws whose authority
is founded on the basal character Of
man and which will eventually har-
monize. equalize. restore and heal.
One Of these DEGREES is to the ef-
feet that when the profits In any in
dustry are excessive, men are melted
to Increase the output with the result
that prices are lowered, while on the
other hand, II the industry shows a
loss instead Of gain, diminished
output will soon reduce the supply
and raise prices to a reasonable level.
These are simple words, but pregnant
with a great truth. Uuless all my
premises be wrong. it is to this plain.
prosaic, unsensational theorem, as
fixed and immutable as the principles
of Euclid, that the south must look
for rescue from her present plight, in
stead Of the deadly patent prepara-
tions that are advocated for her.
For many years the planter has en-
tertained waste like an honored
guest. He has been guilty ofsthe In
credible perversity Of ignoring the un-
limited sources of wealth that on ev-
cry side held out inviting hands to his
intelligence. while giving ear only to
the siren cotton. For generations he
has been idly drifting around the en-
chanted rock, h5pelessly enthralled.
the victim OF an irresistible fascina-
ton. But the Power that rules the
universe has been aroused. Twice
has he nodded in disfavor Of the con-
tinued captivity Of the planter and
each time set In motion formidable
forces to weaken the enchantment Of
the white siren. The first of these
was the boil weevil to make the cul-
ture of cotton altogether impossible
over large areas. The second was the
present Improbable value, equally ef-
ficacious and more powerful in Its all
embracing extent. Combined with
these, and sharpening their influence,
are the worldwide high prices which
have rendered the toll Of waste yearly
more burdensome and intolerable.
That the planters ear is indeed be.
ing turned away from the siren voice
is increasingly evident. and we may
expect to see him enter upon the
eventful era of diversity of crops
wherein the south will rise to levels
of prosperity too high for present-day
vision to discern. The impostor waste
will be elected from the homestead
forever. No longer will the improvi-
dence of the south send northward
rd-earned dollars to purchase flour
and meal. bacon and lard, and even
the provender of its work stock. And
with this emancipation of the planter
|
n financial independence that will
give him a new and truer conception
of economic affairs. No longer a debt
or and with a free capital, he will
hold or sell his curtailed crop OF cot
ton according to his judgment of the
trend of the market. The result will
be a cotton crop marketed equally
throughout the year. thus employing
the only safe, sane and legitimate way
to insure maximum prices.
Thus regardful Of natural laws the
south will experience a grand eman-
cipation and a release from a bond
age that was as insidiously eating her
vitals as African slavery. She will
move forward. strong. buoyant, resist
less in her mighty career. II she but
has the sagacity to Withstand the
lures so engagingly dangled before
her eyes. If, however, she yields her
self to socialisuc nostrums. we may
see her struggling in quicksands. bogs
and sloughs, and after years of dis
| tress painfully emerge once moro