The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-01-01
Cotton and Other Commodities.
From the Wilmington Star.

The Atlanta Constitution defends 30-cent
cotton from slanderous and sectional at
tacks and makes what such a fair-mnded
Northern paper as the Hartford Courant
calls ga plausible argument, too" Thirty
cents is a high price for normal times, the
Constitution admits, but our valued Georgia
contemporary counters with the very sig
nifcant statement that 80 cents pound for
cotton is "by no means out of proportion
with So corn, $3.50 wheat and inflated prices
charged for practically every other commod-
ity on the market" The Connecticut paper
clearly observes that the point is logically
taken, and thereupon it comments:
"The time when friends of the South in
the national government were beseeching ev-
erybody to buy bale in order to keep the
bottom from dropping out of the cotton
market seems strangely distant. Anybody
who had taken that advice then would have
needed to wait only little over three years
to make a good margin on his money. Cot
ton has not waited, in fact, to realize the
effect of the revolution in world markets.
1t has long been up, keeping company with
wool and rising faster than silk
Southern farmers have not in times past
been overpaid for their chief product. They
have been very much at the mercy of the
market, and as they have conducted their
d
with them. This is their great opportunity
and they will make the most of it If they
take the advice of the Atlanta Constitution
which is to feed the market gradually, and
keep the price steady and high by govern
ing the supply.
"That is the Southern farmers side of it.
Here in the north where we must have cot
ton we shall have to pay-as we do for 9TH
err things. 1t is natural that, with every 9th
er product of the soil constantly rising cot
ton should be according. It may come hard
but in respect to cotton, at least. it will not
be for always"
Anyhow, the north and west which are
large sellers to the south, have no right to
complain about the high price of cotton so
long as the south continues it's custom Of
sending its cotton money to the north and
west for clothing, manufactured goods, flour.
meat, creamery products, feedstuffs, etc.
| The north and the west certainly want q
! lot of well to do customers, and that is what
30-cent cotton would make of US
Nevertheless, it would also make lis de-
pendent on the north and west for our Wet
uals and clothes, for which the south sends
its cotton money north and west in too large
volume. That is a fine economic proposition
for the north and west, but not for the
south A healthier economic proposition for
| the south would be to make it's bread and
meat, at least, the result of which would be
that we could keep in our pockets the cot
ton money that otherwise we would be com
PEELED to send away.
AS purely economic proposition, how
ever, the selling part of the country need
not care how high prices are in the buying
part of the country. The selling part of
the country always winds up the ledger with
the balance of trade in its favor. The South
! can better its az economic condition. (2)
/ its agricultural advantage and (3) it's finan-
cial status (sic) by making its own wheat
and -four its own beef and pork, its own
butter and cheese, etc
Then. and therefore, the South could sell
| its cotton and keep most of it's cotton money
at home instead of sending practically all
of it north and west-which would be a
cinch for them as sellers with ~uct good cot
! ton growing customer as the South