Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1913-07-30
HOW EGYPT MARKETS. COTTON.
Ancient Land Has Important Lessons
for American Farmers.


cotton producers, both by way of
reaching to save waste and by way
of exhibiting the excessive charges of
middlemen, is the conclusion reached
by j. S. Williams and Clarence Gus
ley, the subcommittee Of the Ameri-
can commission to Investigate and
study agricultural credit and co-ope-
ration, whose report on their study
Egyptian cotton has just been pub
lshed as a Senate document. Egypt,
however, they found, can offer TO the
United States no instruction what
ever in skill, science or other ele-
ment of economy or efficiency in cot
ton production, nor does that coun-
try constitute any menace of over
production.
Summarizing their investigation
briefly, they say: =
Egypt, with her 100000 to g.
100000 bales of cheaply produced,
but dearly sold cotton, admonishes
American cotton growers 70 improve
their methods Of cultivation and
marketing in order to reduce their
cost of production.
Cooperation in Egypt.
The proprietors of large Egyptian
estates, representing 71a to 10 per
cent of the crop, are in a position to
cooperate and render powerful aid
in maintaining fair prices for their
commodities and these prices will
tend to steady the prices of Ameri-
can cotton if our producers do not
commit the folly of producing more
than the world will take at profita-
BILE values, and if the cotton States
will establish a system of State regu-
lated warehouses, which will enable
and secure cheap money upon ware
house receipts whereby they may sell
the crop gradually over a period OF
several months instead OF forcing it
upon the market, as they do now
within two or three months.
THE proprietors and the British
Egyptian department of agriculture
promise hearty cooperation in es-
tablishing a system of accurate re-
ports of cotton consumption"
A Vital Relation Exists.
Concluding, the subcommittee
states there is vital relation be-
tween Egyptian and American cotton
production, which should be culti-
waited in amity and mutually by
every possible official and co-opera-
tive endeavor They state that the
result of their investigation was
three-fold, and in each respect the
situation is well worth careful con-
| sideration.
First, Egypt's cost of production
in the ratio to the value of her com
modify is much lower than Ame- l.
cas-.
Secondly, Egypts output varies
but little from year to year and is
capable Of but slight expansion, and
is, therefore, a more or less fixed
factor of great economical potential
| ity.
Thirdly, an influential and predom-
| mating group of large planters are
in cordial sympathy with America 8
| purpose to establish a more intelli-
gent system Of marketing.
I'VE have reason to hope that
| Egypt will join in any effort the cot
| ton States may initiate to establish
| an Interstate and international bu-
reau OF cotton intelligence for the
promotion OF more efficient produc-
ton and more economical marketing.
Bureau of Cotton Information.
'In this connection we earnestly
recommend that the principal cotton
| States Of the Union create the Office
of cotton commissioner and that such
| themselves as a bureau of cotton in
formation, with special reference to
consumption and the extended use OF
| cotton goods, and that other cotton
growing countries be invited to
have representation in such bureau
to the end that intelligent informa-
tion may be furnished the producers
for thei" guidance in adjusting sup
ply to demand, and that the demand
for our great staple product may be
stimulated. We are confident that
such a bureau would operate as a
practical insurance against either