The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1914-10-01

bale. The last four crops, including
seed, have brought the people of the
southern states a gross average of
nearly one thousand million dollars
per year. of which amount about one
half has come from domestic and Ca
madam mills, and the remainder rep
resents the value of exports to for
eign countries.
by the sale of this crop the south
has been enabled not only to discharge
its obligations promptly every fall, but
has added half a billion dollars each
year to the national trade balance.
Cotton production is stimulated by
high prices, and conversely it is cur
tailed when prices fall below the cost
of production. This has been particu-
larly true in those years when prices
were low throughout the season and
continued low during planting time in
the early spring. Never have the evils
of over-production been so universally
appreciated in the south as now, nor
ever before has there been such grim
determination to hold cotton and to
radically curtail acreage. Public SEN
timent in many southern states has
been so aroused that there is now a
general clamor for legislation by the
states to regulate the production Of
cotton, and some farmers have gone
so far as to demand that the planting
of any cotton whatever, in 1915, be
prohibited
"Of course, extreme action of this
kind is not anticipated, but it is un-
doubtedly true that should prices fall
considerably below the average cost
of production, which is probably about
ten cents per pound, and prevail for
the next six months, cotton will be
parted with only as necessity arises
and most serious curtailment in acre
age for the next crop will be the in
evitable sequence Many of those who
might be financially able to put their
lands in cotton would be attracted by
the high prices for grain and would
plant food crops, while others, less in
dependent, might be willing to con-
tinue in cotton, but would find them
selves unable to secure the necessary
advances.
mo we'll informed man on southern
conditions will deny that further di-
versification in southern farming is
desirable, and that more attention
should be paid to cattle raising and to
the production of foodstuffs. But it
would be most unfortunate, if by any
chance, the production Of cotton next
year should be so small as to make
the trade dependent upon the present
crop for the greatest portion of its
two years supply. Cotton goods can
compete with more expensive fabrics
only up to a certain price level, and if
year hence the prevailing prices
for raw cotton should be as abnor-
mally high as they are now abnor-
mally low, the manufacturers of cot
ton goods will have their present prob
lem aggravated, and would be fatally
handicapped in a movement for trade
expansion at the very time when it is
probable that conditions would be
ripe for efforts in that direction
Mr. Harding said that while the
opportunity for expansion as an af-
termath of the war was a potentially
it did not yet exist to any appreciable
degree Mr. Harding announced that
he expected to see the federal reserve
banks in operation during October.
In conclusion he said: "The tre-
mendous waste incident to war will, of
course, be felt all over the world, and
the losses will inevitably ensue, but
there is no reason, as far as this coun-
try is concerned, why these losses
should not be so uniformly distributed
that they will not fall with crushing
force upon any section or upon any in
dustry, and firmly believe that Amer
lean pluck and American energy are
going to reassert themselves and that
American farmers merchants bankers
and manufacturers will cooperate with
their government, and with each other
in solving present problems and that
they will put themselves in position
to grasp the opportunities that the
future is bound to offer"
HoW's This?
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