The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-29

and at once the price of cotton declined tc cents and under. I have seen in your pages a report accredited to Senator Hoks Smith. that cents was being offered for cotton in Georgia In this state. read ing again from your columns. l find re- ports of 6is cents and lower being paid in Alabama.
 There are two questions very pertinent to this present situation which have given me much food for thought.
 First. has the war in Europe Justified a decline of s30 to sS5 per bale in the price of a commodity of such worldwide use and importance as cotton?
 Secondly, the bulk Of the cotton crop heinz spun Into cloth of various kinds by foreign and domestic mills, has tho war in Europe resulted in such a decline in the selling prices of the manufactured product as to make necessary a reduc- ton in the prices paid by those mills of from ssO to sso per bale2
 Now, Mir Editor I am pretty we'll ac- quainted with the cotton business in its various ramifications. One branch of 1t, especially, has been given much atten- ton by me during all the years of my life. This is, that in spite of the tremen- dous profits which have been made out of the spinning of cotton by these mills, very little. if any. sympathy has ever been shown by the owners and operators O: these mills for the horny-handed sons or the soil through whose efforts the material has been produced which has so abundantly added to the wealth of the spinner.
 At this moment when. through no pos sible fault of his own the southern plant CT is facing serious embarrassment, if not actual ruin, what are these Ameri- can mills doing to help the producer? would like every farmer who brings his bale of cotton to market and is offered 5, or even cents per pound for it, to Inquire from the party making such of fers, the information for whom is the cot ton bought Who does this buyer repre- sent?
 At the beginning of this war there was some advance in the price of food stnffc all over the country. Here in Birmfr gham l read columns in your paper criticzing the local men who had advanced the prices of such com,nodi- ties es flour and sugar in accordance with like advances in the prices at tn primary markets. such as Chicago. What can be said of the mill men, who, taking prompt advantage of the dis tress of the producer of the cotton. cuts the offering price In half? If any class of the commercial world should stick to the cotton pro. ducer it should be the cotton manufac- turer, because. given the ruin of the cotton farmer, the absolute wiping out In value of the many millions invested in cotton manufacturing must inevita- bly, follow.
 At this stage of the situation, there- fore, what should be the policy of tho cotton manufacturer? Presumlng that the American mills purchase 6.0oo.0 Of tho American crop, these interests should enter the market at once and buy their requirements for the presen, year, just as If no war had occurred and they should pay the farmer 1a cents per pound for every bale of It.
 l have read that many of our Ameri- can mills have contracts made long since for their products. based on the prices prevailing before the European war commenced. If this be so. what should be thought of those people who. having their profits secure on a basis of 12 and IS cents for their product, should now. seizing such occasion as now exists. take advantage of the hard working farmer to reduce the price of the commodity upon which the pros perity of the entire nation rests as upon no other single productc Especially severe should be the condemnation of tEe southern manufactures. Tn many cases these people are personally ao- quainted with the farmer and buy the
 
 and right that after all of these years, during which the farmer has produced the wealth which the manufacturer Is at present possessed of. the farmer should be slaughtered by the very in- forests which should be his best friends?
 And would like while I am at It to write few words about the south ern banks. What are they doing in this emergency? l read in your col umns that loans with cotton as secur- fly are being refused. In other cases that excessive interest is being charged. What are these men thinking of? Have they no foresight or judgment? Can they forget that directly to the south ern farmer can be traced the dividends which for many years have fattenel the pockets of their stockholders? Can nothing be done to force those bankers to do their part towards the relief of the present situation? Everybody ad mits that cotton Is the best security which could possibly be offered. Why then do these bankers seem to be so chary of helping the farmer? Is there A rigger in the woodpile?
 To sum up the whole situation and offer my solution. The cotton mills. must come into the market and buy st 10 cents per pound. The cotton is cheap at this price and the manufacturer will ctrtdilly lose nothing 1TO1n the ROOus manufactured out of the cotton bought at this price If the mill men of the east and south desire to buy their sup plies for the present season they will not have any difficulty in arranging the financial part of it. I have knowl- edge enough of the matter to absolute ly prophecy that the banker no mat ter what part of this country he oper- ates in, will not act as they seem to be In the the be loan. And there will be no excessive interest asked of those manufacturers either Be sure of that point 1T the manufacturers will adopt this conimcn sense and patriotic course, cas- fly 5.000,000 bales could be absorbed. have watched with much interest the development of the plan of the St Louis bankers to raise s16o,Ooo,Ooo to lend directly to the farmer at 6 cents per pound. The plan itself Is quite good. but I regret to note the price fixed. It seems to me that without any risk of loss whatever In the operation the price could just have well been placed at 8 cents. StiG this plan en- ables the farmer to retain ownership of his product and to take advantage of the increase in price which must in- evitably come to pass within the next six months. We will suppose that this plan will account for 5000. .0O0 bales more.
 Now, we come to the "buy bale" movement. It is, of course, utterly i'm possible to predict with any degree of accuracy what amount of cotton will be retired from the market in this way think, however. that an outside es- innate would account for about half a million bales
 With 10.50O,o00 bales accounted for, we have left out of a preaiims hle cron