The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1915-09-03
LAST TWO WEEKS
DAMAGED COTTON
McLAURIN SAYS DETERIORATION
HAS BEEN HEAVY.
Price Should Have Gone Up on Gov
ernment Report, in Commits
SiOner'S Opinion.
The State.

the governments report, said John
L. McLaurin, State warehouse com
missioner, yesterday. Mr.. McLaurin
has just returned from New York,
where he went with several bankers
from the South to discuss financial
matters.
cite cotton crop has deteriorated
more during the last two weeks than
at any other PERIOD said Mr.. McLau-
rim. The government data on the crop
were gathered two weeks ago and Mr..
McLaurin believes that the percentage
is smaller now. He expressed the
opinion that the yield will be 100000
to 100000 bales.
Today Mr.. McLaurin goes to Lexing-
ton, where Gae will deliver an address
on the State cotton warehouse system.
New warehouses are being added con-
stantlg to the system.
Discussing the cotton outlook, Mr..
McLaurin pointed out that federal re-
serve officers had in recent state
ments stressed the necessity Of proper
storage. "These statements bear out
what I have been preaching all
along" he added.
Essentials of WarehOusing.
Mr. McIaurin mas prepared the fol-
lowing article upon request of the ed
itor of Commerce and Finance, New
York:
''In response 20 your request for al
article on Essentials of a Cotton
warehouse system think they
may be summed up as follows:
al. A, dry house, and dry cotton to
gil it.
SO. Cheap storage, and low interest
rates.
"s. A negotiable receipt, giving the
following guarantees:
"(a). The title CT the cotton.
"b). The delivery, on the presenta-
ton of the receipts, of the Identical
bales of cotton named therein.
"(c) The weights and grades,
oranges from ordinary climatic con-
ditions excepted, guaranteed in favor
of the lender of money or the pur-
chaser of the cotton.
''I mention dry house and dry cot
ton because this is the foundation Of
a proper warehouse system. Cotton IS
practically fmperishable, except from
damage by water, and under certain
conditions it does not require much
moisture to seriously damage a bale
\ OF cotton. Of course no competent
warehouseman permits a leaky roof
The danger is not so mud2 from this
as from cotton being stored when it
is wet. You can insure against loss
by fire, but there is no insurance for
damage from wet cotton, and any
Z warehouse system storing wet cotton
is faulty.
Cheap storage is necessity to in
duce farmers to store cotton instead
of rushing it on the market and break
ing prices. 1t is sad but true that the
greater the rush to sell, because Of
the fact tat it takes more cotton to
pay debts at cents than at II cents,
and the creditor is always more urg-
ent in pressing his claims when cotton
is low, because he fears a loss. 1t is
not that we farmers did not under
stand, 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
differences in the price of October and
May cotton. The average annual huc-
tuation between May and October is
about $25, Is 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 producers OF
cotton? Calculate ibis sum for ten
years, and you vii see that practically
all of the profit made on the cotton
crop has been made by the middlemen
who have purchased it at distress
prices in the fall and have sold it in
the spring at an enormous profit. In
looking over a table of prices for the
past ten years I find dat only during
one year, 1908, has the price in the
fall exceeded the price in the spring.
In 1911 was offered six and a quarter
= cents for lot of cotton in my home
town. I refused TO accept it, and sold
the same cotton the next June for Is