French Broad hustler and Western Carolina Democrat. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1915-1916, 1916-05-18
HILLS AND FARMERS BOTH
MAKING MONEY IN SOUTH NOW.
This is Report Of New York Dry Goods
Merchant Who Has Been Looking
Around in This Section.

Barring some serious, unforeseen
turn of affairs, there is every reason to
believe that the call for all kinds of
merchandise that will come from below
Mason and Dixon's line this fall will
lie the largest in years, if not ever.
This opinion is expressed by a we'll
known local dry goods merchant, who
has recently returned from q trip
Through that part Of the country. His
accounts Of conditions in the cotton
belt are especially optimistic:
81 speak most particularly Of the
iCarOlinas, Alabama, and Georgia." he
said in a talk with a Times reporter
yesterday, because my personal OBJ
servatiOns were confined very largely
to those States. The most significant
thing l saw in my whole trip was some
thing that 1 mad V seen before
both the mills and the farmers making
money at the same time. l have seen
the mills make money in the past at the
expense of the farmers, and l have
seen the farmers make money at the
expense of the mills, but this year the
condition is as close to ideal as I be-
lieve it will ever get.
prosperity Abroad
There is no secret about the mills
making money. They are making it,
and they intend to go on making it as
long as possible. This is the first time
since the boom of 1907 tina the South
ern cotton mills have been able to
earn anything that resembled a really
good profit, and you may rest assured
that they are not going to overlook
anything. AS for the farmers, they
are tasting prosperity also. Cotton at
the present market means a comfoTta-
bic margin Of profit for them. and they
are so well fixed financially on the
average that they are able. when the
market shows a disposition to sag be-
low the 12-cent mark, to put the brakes
on the outlet until the price gets back
to where they think it should be. This
not only means money for them, but it
gives the mill men a pretty definite
basis on which to work out their cal
culations.
"Just how much the present good
condition of the farmers is to be in.
sured by the diversification of crops is
a question, but the present position of
the cotton market is apparently going
to act as a powerful incentive toward
pIO" ing OIuCE C1Opo u1u0T anu pulling
the land back under cotton The high
cost Of seed generally and the natural
affinity of the Southern farmer for cot
ton are other reasons why diversified
crops may not play much of a part in
the South this year.
Increase i'm Cotton Acreage.
"At the present time the question is
not whether there will be a larger
acreage devoted to cotton this year !
than last, but how great the increase
will be. There are indications of quite |
a liberal increase in cotton acreage in
Georgia and of some increase in South
Carolina and Alabama. This is fore
Swallowed by reports of larger sales of
fertilizer in those States. But the big
gest increase will doubtless be in the
cotton-raising States west of the Mis-
sissippi, particularly in Texas. There
is no way of gauging the increased
acreage in that part of the country
from the sale of fertilizer, however, be-
cause the land is so rich that very lit
tie, if any at all, is required?"
At this point the conversation revert
ed again to the. mills side of the
South's prosperity. The question of
.eelors came up and, incidentally, ques-
SAOh0 AuAA{5 AoOO1 1CS101dI1Oh anu |
other things of vital interest to the
mills.
Answering your question about the
ability of the Southern cotton manu- I
.facturers to get colors' the manu-
went on, 'there is only one. thing to
say. 1t is undoubtedly easier to get
..colors now than was the case several
months ago, but the drawback lies in
the fact that they cost just as much
now as they did then. So on this score
buyers of colored cottons can look
for little change in the position of
good prices for some time to come. ;
"The labor unrest that is manifest
ing itself throu@' put the country has
not yet been seriously demonstrated
in the cotton manufacturing States be-
|yond a noticeable tendency of various
Legislative bodies to give more atten-
ton to labor measures. For instance.