The sun., 1918-10-13
Bernard NJ. Baruch
of War Industries
Board Stirs Tumult
by Investigation
By GEORGE L. EDMUNDS.

III. l1dI uCll VI I1iC w al LII
dustries Board for an investigation of the
present high prices of cotton brought an
excited protest from the Congressional
representation of the Southern States. 1t
impelled pilgrimage to the national cap
ital of producers and consumers Of the
South's most important product. They
were filled with Indignation at the bare
suggestion that the unrestricted market
for cotton should be interfered with in the
least degree. They threatened the nation
with reduction of cotton production on
the part of the whole South to a point at
which only the necessary cotton seed for
ensuing crops would be forthcoming IL
the Government insisted upon melting out
to the cotton men the same sort of treat
ment which was accorded the producers of
wheat and of wool, when more than year
ago the Government decided upon price
sterilization for these staples-in the in
stance of wheat of price fxation.
The chairman of the War Industries
Board has since said that he had not in
contemplation, has not now in view, price
fixing for cotton. He explained to tho
Senators and Representatives Of the cot
ton States that all he intended from the
first was an investigation. Nevertheless
from all quarters of the South cotton pro-
ducers and their Representatives, cotton
factors and their representatives and rep
resentatives of State Boards of Agricul-
ture FASTENED pell mel into Washington
to sound the warning and voice the pro-
test.
United in Their Opposition.
They arrived in droves. They de-
manded audiences, they drew up reso-
buttons, they protested and they ap-
piled pressure upon every legislator with
Q square mile of Gotten land in his State
or district, urging him to stand by the
sacred staple to the end and to forbid
the fxation Of prices or any action on the
part Of the Government savoring Of such
price adjustment.
But Mr.. Baruch went right ahead with
the creation Of his special committee of
investigators of the cotton situation. The
committee is now organized and has begun
the examination of statistics and facts fur
nished by the War Industries Board, the
Department of Agriculture and the Census
Bureau, to say nothing Of the masses of
statistics and calculations of the State e1-
perts. All these figures are now under
going analysis, with view to preparing
the facts about cotton for Mr.. Baruch's
study and for the Presidents review.
1t was not that the cotton men were
fearful that in the fixing Of cotton prices
the South would not be guaranteed price
which would insure the producers a rea-
sonable return from the moneys invested
in farm lands, in cotton seed, in fertilizer
and in farm labor. They knew that in the
instances of wheat and wool, both Of
which staple needs have had their pricea
fixed under the law, there had been rea-
sonable leeway for profit left for the pro-
Queer. But what the South feared was
that the supremacy Of cotton in the world
market as the only staple product still en-
tirely free from adjustment by the Gov
eminent authorities as war time precau-
ton would be assailed and perhaps ended.
From 6.s Cents to More Than 81.
Since the outbreak of war in Europe
in August, 1914, the price of cotton has
steadily advanced In the year before the
war the price of the staple had been 12-2
cents a pound. This was little better
than a fair average return from cotton.
With the onset of war, however, the price
broke. German takings were eliminated
as a market factor; the takings Of the
whole of central Europe ceased to be
price advancing element. During the au-
tumn of 1914 the price of cotton eased off
to 6S cents pound, which was below the
cost of production.
But soon the price Of cotton began 10
advance With here and there falter-