The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1915-12-01
COTTON IN THE WAREHOUSE.

the storage of cotton IN warehouses
and the borrowing of money there
on. and the State may be right, but
it cannot prove by the figures that
we are wrongI
A man who puts cotton In the
warehouse at ten cents, we will say,
CANDLES with big odds against him.
He pays the warehouse twenty-five
cents per month for storage and in
surance; he pays interest on the
money he owes, or he loses interest
on the money his cotton will bring,
at eight per cent, of four dollars
per bale per year. He loses an
average of ten pounds in weight,
making a total loss of eight dollars
per bale on every bale of cotton
which goes into warehouse for
twelve months, and it generally
stays about that long. The cotton
which has been put in there for the
purpose of holding for higher prices
must sell at eleven-sixty before the
farmer, or the person who stores his
cotton, is even with the game. II
there are any farmers in this coun-
try who think they can gamble on
the rrice of cotton, with such odds
against them, they are due a rude
awakening.
Because the storing of cotton in
warehouses, and borrowing money
on it. is gambling it is enticing, so
much so that we know men IN Alb
beville, who are rated as good busl-
ness men, who have cotton in the
warehouse for which they were Of
fered fourteen cents, or thereabouts,
two years ago. And that is the
story of every man who stores cot
ton: he holds it until he is forced
to sell; he holds to get even, which
he never does. We can tell the
editor of the State of farmer in
the upper part of the county who has
the fever of storing cotton and
gradually marketing it. We know
the history of his case, and we are
able to demonstrate to a mathematl-
cal certainty THAT in the last ten
years he has lost enough money by
the practice over and above any
profits he has made, to pay off the
mortgage on his farm, which has
crown to such an extent as to threa-
ten the homestead of the mort
eagor, who is now past sixty; and
only recently he borrowed money
on cotton, when it was selling at
twelve and half cents per pound,
to pay accumulated interest on his
debt. And his experience is the
experience of others.
Of course there are times when 1t
paws to hold. In every gambling
game there are a few winners to
make the game interesting. But
we claim that if man cannot play
the game without giving odds, ne
had better not gamble on the price
of cotton. If he owes no one, and
can store his own cotton and run the
risk of losing it by fire, or pay
insurance only, he may take the
chance; but if he must gamble, ne
had better sell the actual cotton and
buy futures. 1t will not take so
much to carry hundred bales, and
the loss will soon come and be over
with; or he may keep the futures
good as we'll as he can hold the
actual cotton and pay interest on
the money. He will be forced to
sell by May, or July, or sometime and
he can buy that month and take his
chances. He will certainly escape
the charges for storage, and he will
only lose in the long run anyway.
And then there are other consid-
erations. The people who hold cot
ton generally owe sevent;-"Ne. and
sometimes hundred per cent, of its
value. By holding they d>p:lVe
their creditor of the money he IS
entitled to; and he in turn is placed
in a bad light with the Baltimore, OF
New York, merchant who has credit
ed him, or if he owes his bank, nc
places the bank in the awkward situ-
alton of asking for extensions. The
result is that he has no money, the
merchant has none, the banker has
none, and at the times when man
should hold, if ever, the money OF
the country has all been borrowed
and spent, and there is no more to
borrow until somebody pays up.