The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1912-07-09
The Cost of Producing Cotton.
(The Tradesman)

A somewhat pessimistic article in
the Macon (Ga,) Daily Telegraph
draws attention to the evidence
showing that cotton has in the i'm
mediate past cost II cents per
pound to produce.
1t states that the selling season oi
this 3tapl1 is restricted TO ioll
months and with the whole croD
thrown on the market-practical y
at once-the price becomes deprc-
ciated and therefore unremuneratiye
It's proposed remedy is that by
means of concerted action that cot
| ton should be held and sold over
| twelve month period-at an advanc-
ed price.
At various times efforts have been
made by farmers unions, individuals
and proposed corporations, to make
operative some plan of this kind. Re,
|
Gently the matter has been again re-
vived and the effort is being made
to develop a warehousing scheme
that, as others of its kind, lacks the
one necessary qualification-honesty
of purpose. Still, it is possible that
something in line with the previous
ly much-discussed Waco plan" can
be put into operation.
The Macon Telegraph credits Mr..
George Dole Wadley, president of the
Southern States Cotton Corporation,
with the statement that the farm
ers are raising cotton at a cost to
them of II cents a pound and last
year were compelled to sell it at an
average of less than s cents a pound.
If Mr. Wadley is correctly quoted,
he evidently is not well informed
or else purposely selected respect
ively the maximum and minimum fig
ures for the year for reasons best
known to himself. But is there any
reason why it would cost II cents to
raise cotton in any of the cotton
growing states under existing con-
ditions?
Immediately after the close of the
civil war the general poverty of the
cotton producing population produced
system by which fortunes were
made by merchants. Everything was
bought on credit-to be paid for
when the cotton was sold. AS
rule the merchant, for his own pro-
lection, was compelled to take th
crop He absolutely controlled the
situation. If the crop was a failure
or prices We're unusually low, the
planter began another year-in debt.
He usually did this in any event.
The successive panics in the mon
ey world have largely altered this,
by cutting down the lengthy credits.
That reacted all along the line, and
now the custom only survives in that
good natured, ill-used, irresponsible
cure of the southern soii--the renter.
He improves nothing, takes away all
he can from the soil, restores no
thing and always leaves the land
in worse shape than when he TOOK
it. He lives from hand to mouth and
draws everything he requires on cred
it of the land owner, or an order
Without the slightest imputation
on the integrity of either the planter
who issues the order on the mer-
chant who supplies the goods, the
system is not conducive to economy.
If plantations were divided into
such tracts as could be worked under
the superintendent of the owner,
all long time crop credits abolish
ed and other obvious and useless
drains on rural prosperity stopped,
such as maintaining fences as land
marks. neighborhood rather than in
dividual systems of drainage, etc, the
producing cost of cotton would be