The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1918-10-03
What SHOULD Be
PRICE, IF H|xED2
WAREHOUSE COMMISSIONERS
PRESENTS STATISTICS.

Showing Cost Of Producing Cotton
Now to be 80 to 35 Cents a
Pound i'm Texas and S. c.
Columbia, Sept. 18.-Mr. T. B.
Thackson, deputy state warehouse
commissioner, has issued the follow
ing statement on the price fixing of
cotton:
Just now two questions are upper
most in the minds OF the cotton farm
ers of South Carolina, namely: (D
Hearings relative to the recent dis
parity between spot cotton and
prices of contracts on the future ex-
changes the utilization of cotton of
IT,. lower grades. and other phases
OF the cotton marketing situation.
These hearings being held under the
auspices OF the bureau of markets of
United States Department of Agri-
culture, and (2). The announcement
of the plan by the War industries
board to appoint a committee to con-
slider the present cotton situation,
the problem of distribution, the mar
keting of low grade cottons, and the
desirability and feasibility of effec-
ing stabilization Of prices. These
two inquiries have practically the
same purpose in view, towit: Inyes-
tigating the activities of spectators
on the cotton exchanges to depress
the price of cotton, and then ascer-
tanning what would be a fair prit.,
for cotton. Both Investigations will
lead to the same conclusion-the
price-fixing of cotton
Now what are the main factors
which should control in fixing the
price of cotton? VINO should be
consulted and who should have the
determining voice in the price-fix-
ing? Every one admits that the ba-
Sis Of any puce-fixing or cotton
should be the cost of it's production,
plus reasonable profit to the pro-
ducers; then the cotton producers
and the cotton manufacturers
should determine and agree upon a
fair and equitable price for the raw
cotton.
What does it cost to produce cot
ton? In the great cotton state of
Texas a special committee of three
was appointed by the commissioner
OF agriculture and after making
most careful Investigations in all
parts Of the state. reported that the
cotton crop of 1917 cost the farmers
OF Texas over "a cents a pound
Again another committee of thirteen
members. composed of some of .e
most prominent men of the state and
including the president of the Texas
Bankers association made a signed
report which was unanimously
adopted by the State Farmers Insti-
tute at Waco. on August 81 and %,
1918, and stated the cost of pro-
ducing the 1913 crop" at IS cents a
pound. on a bisis yied of 100
pounds of lint cotton per acre and
$40 per ton for cottonseed. In the
printed copy of the report the chair
man Of the committee adds in a foot
note: Since the committee met, the
government has estimated the yield
to be las pounds, which would
make the cost 40 cents instead Of
3S cents" The foregoing figures.
quoted from these two reports. rep
resent the cost of producing cotton
In Texas in the years 1917 and1918
to be "a to 35 cents a pound.
DR.. E. J. Wannamaker of Orange
burg county. in South Carolina, has
prepared statement showing the
cost Of cotton grown by tenants
to be 800 cents q pound. This state
ment was submitted to a statewide
farmers meeting in Columbia. on
June "a, 1918. If the cost of pro-
ducing cotton in the very rich co.n-
ty of Orangeburg in June of this
year was 800 cents a pound, cotton
production certainly will cost much
above these figures in most of the
other counties in South Carolina
and in view of the great deteriora-
tion of cotton since June "a, the
cost of the production of the 1918
crop will most assuredly reach above
35 cents a pound
These estimates. two from Texas
and one from South Carolina, suf-
flee to show that the cost of the pro-
duction of the 1918 cotton crop is
somewhere about 35 cents a pound.
Immediately following the cost of
production is the other closely re-
lated question, what should be add
ed to the cost of production to give
the producers a reasonable profit In
all justice and conscience should not
the farmers be paid 40 cents 4 pound
for the 1918 crop7
There Is one final question to be
settled: How can cotton nrod,,ors