New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1916-12-30

IllO contact WIZ lho 'O'A
sation of European demand,
lack of ocean tonnage, and al
acute financial panic. Conse
quently the South entered thf
next season with the determine
ton to hold it's crop down, "a1
least until the world could alb
sorb the surplus that had re
NAMED from 1914" and this
journal goes on to state 1.-THE 1913
crop was therefore less by one
fourth than the crop that pre-
ceded it, and the price of the staple
went back to normal height .
Of course the present price means
a large acreage for 1917, and also
a consumption somewhat diminish
ed. tho this consideration does not
apply to the cloth used for the
European armies, where price is
no object. A lower price for next
year is a likelihood, tho next
years crop is long way from
market, and "for some time to
come the consumer is pretty GER
tain to have a pay a premiu to
the cotton-Dlanter."
The Waco Times-Herald is
aware that "more and more the
world is putting to use the South s
chief staple, and the demand seems
to be constantly running ahead Of
supply" yet it holds that the
safety of the producer is in keep
ing the crop secondary, for "if
the farmer has h isgrain-crop in
Kansas and his smokehouse in
Missouri disaster will be his por-
ton" Similarly. quoting South
ern maxim that "high-priced cot
ton means good times in Dixie"
the Dallas News insists that high
price cotton means good times
"only when the necessaries of life
are low-priced, or better, when
the farmer raises his own food and
feed" and this journal goes on
to say that there is more money
in ten-cent cotton when the farm
er has raised his own bread and
meat, his food and feed, than there
is in fifteen-cent cotton when he
has to pay out about nine cents
of the cotton money for the
things he could and should have
produced himself. The Galveston
Tribune thinks that it would
scarcely be opportune to say that
the South has come into it's own,
because the price of cotton has
reached the highest lveel it has
obtained since the war between
the States. Inevitably as the sun
follows the night the effect comes
in the wake Of the cause, this
journal goes on to say, and UNI
less the South can manage to main
tain the price of cotton at about
fifteen cents, the squirt just now
being enjoyed by the staple is
sure to result in largely in
creased acreage next year and a !!
decline in price that
will bring back the commodity i
into the unremunerative list.
Again, the Galveston News SAYS
that the notion that the present
prices can be maintained next
year, even if the war should con-
tinue, is "mischievous,'' since the
effect of it must be to increase the
production. under favorable
to a point far beyond !
what the world will buy. and this
journal adds:
"The world will have no sur
plus store of cotton year from
now, that much is assured, wheth-
er the war shall still be in prog
ress then or not. But it would be
! blunder, and a most costly one.
to act on the assumption that the
world will take at a profitable
price all that America can grow
It can grow more. in a favorable
season, than the world will have
need Of in a year, and if that
should happen. there would be low
prices. The future of the wheat
market seems, if anything, rather
more assuring than that of the
,otton-market. This ought to be
PARTICULARLY significant just now to
he farmers in that part Of Texas
where wheat and cotton can be
,rown with almost equal facility. =
In Arkansas we hear from the
Tort Smith Times Record that
many farmers have paid debts
hree and four PEARS OLD and have