The Lancaster news. [volume] (Lancaster, S.C.) 1905-current, 1916-03-03
Danger in Holding Cotton

/ Ille ldIIlleGS QlQ we'll TO withhold
their cotton from the market at
the first of the season, and so
prevent the slump in the price
that would have followed from
glut; but it does not follow
that they would be wise in with
holding permanently; any more
than Noah would have been in
refusing to come out of the ark
when the flood was over: but
the time is coming along rapid
ly when there will be another
crop OF cotton planted, and the
price of that on hand will at
once be affected by the reports
from all over the South of the
size of the spring planting.
While we would not assume
the responsibility of advising
even single farmer as to |
whether he should or should not
sell his cotton, still we feel that
we may properly call to his at
tention certain elements of the
situation that might help him to
a proper decision, on his own
Judgment. Not only would the
fact that large planting was
reported in the rapidly-approach-
ing spring force the price of the
existing supply down, but the
very fact that the leftover part
OF one crop was still on hand
would, by so much, reduce the
price of the total supply next
fall.
Many farmers seem to be mis-
led by the statement that cot
ton would bring 20 cents in Ber-
lin. Doubtless a bale, or even a
: few thousand bales, would; but
that offers no promise of the
, farmers ever getting it; for
the moment cotton, in consid-
, cradle quantities, gets to Berlin,
the price will drop to something
very near what it is now in the
rest of the world-iust as at one
time during a famine in ancient
Rome the price of wheat went
to stupendous figure; but it
did the Egyptian farmers no
good, for as soon as the wheat
,, fleet arrived the price sank to
, the normal level. 1t is useless
to expect Germany to purchase
, any more of our cotton than can
, be smuggled through blockade {;
and the small amount that she
, may buy in that way at a high
price will do good to small num-
ber of sellers of cotton. AS soon
as the war is over the price will
be no more in Germany than
S anywhere else in Europe, for
E then the supply of the world
.. will be open to them.
When will the war be over ?
, Nobody knows but the best au..
, thorities in Europe do not seem
to hope even for it's close much
under year, and many of the
highest authorities think that it
will be more than two years vet.
Let us remember that the Ma
poleonic wars lasted, almost
without intermission, twenty
years, and our own War of Sc
cession for four years.
Storing cotton is something
like impounding the waters of
a river for irrigation. At AS
suan, on the upper Nile, there
is Stupendous dam that catch.
es the floods that come down
the river from the Abyssinian
mountains. But the managers
of the dam do not seek to keep
this water stored from year to
year; thev realize that next year
there will be another flood, and
hence they impOurd the waters
only for the purpose Of distrib-
uting them equally throughout
the year, SO that there shall not
be an oVerSupply at one season
and a drought at another 1t IS
necessarily much the same with
the storing of cotton. People
are not going to refrain from
planting cotton next year and
the year after; rather they are
likely to plant too much, because
of the fair price that they got
this year.
OF the prospects of rise in
May, of which much is said, we
know nothing. The facts of the
past and the peculiar circum-
stances of the present must be
Judged by every man for him