The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1914-10-28
TAKEN TO TASK.

. NV NNPNfO
ment," the Greenville Piedmont
takes issue with an editorial which
appeared in the last issue Of the
Press and Banner, anent the attitude
of cotton mills toward the farmer in
his present crisis.
The Piedmont very generously re-
Trained. from naming the paper to
which it referred, since it referred to
! the editorial as of the kind "Which
enable us to understand how Cole
Blease made. political capital out OF
attacks on newspapers
In the editorial referred to, we
. stated that the cotton mills Of South
Carolina have for years had an un-
Outstanding that they would NOT
, compete with each other in certain
allotted territory. This feature OF
our editorial the Piedmont didn't
attempt to deny, and in the light OF
certain information which we have,
we are not willing to recede from.
Our statement that mills are max
ing something like 100 per cent on
contracts sold ahead we will have to
modify.
s The Piedmont quotes some figures
to show the decline in cloth as be-
tween July and October. Admit his
figures correct for sake of argument.
The three grades of cloth mentioned
; showed a decline in pound value OF
manufactured cloth of I .35 cents, 6.S7
cents and 6 cents, respectively. 1t
may be mentioned in passing that
the editor of the Piedmont has
adroitly selected the 'goods'tha show
the greatest difference. Here are
some quotations from the Journal of
Commerce of October Goth covering
the same period as that referred to
by the Piedmont: 81 yard goods,
unbranded sheetings, 81 cents decline
on each pound of manufactured
product; 4 yard goods . cents decline
on each pound of manufactured
product; 5 yard goods, 5 cents de-
cline on each pound of manufactured
product, and 6 yard goods 4! cents
declineon each yard Of manufactured
goods. Striking an average of the
prices quoted by the Piedmont and
those here taken from the Journal of
Commerce, we have an averaged de-
cline per pound of manufactured
product Of $50 cents.
Cotton sold in July from 1915 to
IA cents per pound, and it is now
selling at E to 81 cents; a decline of
cents per pound. There is then a
8 profit of easily , cents per pound in
the cotton alone on cloth contracts
sold ahead in July, taking the aver
age; while there is a profit on the
cotton alone Of something like 3!
cents on certain other grades of cloth
pounds. To this of course is to, be
added the usual profit by the mills at
the higher price of cotton.
The Piedmont may have shown
that our statement as to mill profits
was notzmatbematically accurate to
the cent, but it has not shown from
the facts that we were in error except
in degrees.
We would not wilfully harm the
cotton mills, for we recognize that
not even the cotton producer is a
greater factor in the life of Southern
industry but we submit that instead
of buying from hand to mouth, in
stead of Withholding from the mar
ket by concerted action, the mills
should in this extremity make a
market of Southern mills by buying
literally.
While we are not convinced of any
serio us error as shown by the Pied
,mont's editorial we have had certain
side lights thrown on the mill indus
try by certain friends, who a::e stock
holders of the Abbeville Cotton Mill.
We stated that many mills had sold
their output from six months to
twelve months ahead. We are relia-
! bly, informed that this is not the case
with the Abbeville Cotton Mill, but
on the contrary, it has large quanti-
ties of cloth on hand, manufactured
from high priced cotton, that must
be sold ON the decline or held for
better times. This being the case the
Abbeville Cotton Mill must lose on
Z it's stock much of what it may make
ION new contracts. AS we saw only
one side of the proposition we must
in fairness acknowledge u error as
to the other side.