Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1915-09-14
miscellaneous Rsading.
THE ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS
Warehouse System from Business and
Commercial Side.

Il lkduTll, 1olIlhCiiS ~
| South Carolina. He is at present
warehouse commissioner for South
| Carolina, in which capacity he has
| general charge Of the warehouse sys-
tenn created by the state. OF South
Carolina under a law for the adoption
of which Senator McLaurin is largely
responsible. In answer to a letter re-
auesting that he should prepare a
special article upon this subject, ne
writes as follows:
August 80, 1915.
In to your letter for an
article on Essentials of a Cotton
Warehouse System" I think they may
be summed up as follows:
1st. A dry house, and dry cotton to
fill it.
2ad. Cheap storage, and low inter-
est rates.
3rd. A negotiable receipt, giving the
following guarantees:
(a) The title Of the cotton.
90 The delivery, on the presenta-
| ton Of the receipts, Of the Identical
bales Of cotton named therein.
Co The weights and grades,
| changes from ordinary climatic con-
ditions excepted, guaranteed in favor
Of the lender Of money or the purchas-
er Of the cotton.
I mention a dry house and dry cot
| ton because this is the foundation OF
a proper warehouse system. Cotton Is
practically imperishable, except from
damage from water, and under certain
conditions it does not require much
moisture to seriously damage a a |
Of cotton. OF course no competent
warehouseman permits a leaky roof.
The danger is not so much from this
as from cotton being stored when 1t Is
wet. You can insure against loss by
fire, but there is no insurance for
damage from wet cotton, and any
warehouse system not using every pre-
caution against storing wet cotton is
faulty.
Cheap storage is a necessity to in
duce farmers to store cotton instead OF
rushing it on the market and break
ing prices. It is sad but r that the
lower the price goes, the greater the
rush to sell, because Of the fact that
1t takes more cotton to pay debts at
| six cents than at twelve cents, and the
| creditor is always more urgent In
pressing his claims when cotton Is
low, because he fears a loss. 1t Is not
that we farmers did not understand,
but that heretofore we have been
powerless to prevent. To remedy this
we must be able to borrow money on
the warehouse receipts and pay our
creditors. The inability to do this in
the past accounts for the tremendous
difference in the price Of October and
May cotton.
The average annual fluctuation be-
tween May and October is about twen-
ty-fve dollars, or sixty per cent at
the present time Of the value Of a bale
Of cotton. Is it any wonder that there
is great complaint among the produc-
ers of cotton? Calculate this sum
for ten years, and you will see that
practically all Of the profit a on the
cotton crop has been by the middle
man who have purchased 1t at distress
prices in the fall and have sold 1t in
the spring at an enormous profit. In
looking over the table Of prices for
the past ten years, / find that only
during one year, 1908, has the price
in the fall exceeded the price in the
spring. In 1911, I was offered six and
q quarter cents for a lot Of cotton in
my home town. I refused to accept
it, and sold the same cotton the next
June for thirteen cents a pound-one
hundred per cent difference in value
for the same cotton. They talk about
Wall street gamblers: I don't know
any gambling whose risks have been
so great as that of the cotton planter
battling with adverse financial con-
ditions, weather. etc.
Every legitimate interest in cotton
should desire to see stable prices. This
never can be done If credit is freely
extended in the spring to produce a
sufficient crop and then rudely with
drawn at the marketing period. Here
Is where a proper warehouse system
performs it's function Of Transforming
cotton into a liquid asset, enabling
the producer to carry his product over
the twelve months, instead Of dump
ing it on the market in October OF
November.
The lien law is largely responsible
for this condition, and has been an
unmitigated curse to the south, max
ing Of us a one-crop credit country.
This law was useful after the war,
but was continued long after the ne
cessity for it's existence had ended.
1t is responsible for so many large
land owners living in the towns on
their rents and leaving the negro ten
ant and lien merchant to skin the land.
Cotton is our money crop, and the
tenant is forced to the call cotton plan
to pay his rent and lien account. If
he has money in the fall it is consum-
ed during the winter in buying feed
for his stock and provisions for his
family, and my experience is that we
have been travelling N a circle and
getting nowhere. The lienee cannot
allow the tenant to hold his cotton be-
cause he must meet his own obliga-
tions.
The warehouse receipt has only been
good at the local bank, because Of the
various liens by the landlord and
others casting a cloud on the title OF
the cotton, and any warehouse sys-
tenn that does not provide a receipt
which carries title to the cotton can
not meet the situation when outside
money is needed.
In South Carolina we have met this
difficulty by the state declaring that
the warehouse receipt carries absolute
title to the cotton, which is to be de-
livered only IN the presentation of
the receipt. The lender of money in
New York or Boston must know alb
solutely when he makes a cotton loan
that no landlords lien, or perhaps a