Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1918-08-06
THE PRICE OF COTTON
Good Warehouse Facilities and hea'
sonable Money Rates Are What are
Needed

sonable Money Rates Are What are
Needed.
When, due to economic conditiohs
based on short cotton crops. prices ad-
vanced to higher figures than had been
known since the Civil War days. there
WAS an insistcnt demand throughout
the south against governmental price,
fixing on cotton, but the prospect OF
crop in excess OF the Souths apiltS
to market under existing conditions
and a downward tendency OF prices,
number of different interests are de-
manding that the Government shaii iH
n price for cotton in order to stabilize
the price. or shall form corporation
to buy and carry cotton. We 10 not
believe that any Of the plans proposed
should IL adopted except that which
would help to warehouse cotton, since
individual interests could not now well
build warehouses in time without Gov
ernmcnt aid.
II cotton growers wilfully, with a.
knowledge of the worlds consuming
requirements, should this year produce
Il larger crop than is needed, they
should not come like beggars and ask
Congress to protect them. 1t would
he a misfortune for the South to place
itself in the position, as 1t did In l?l4'
of the bcggar asking aims The bank
crs who have been specializing IN cot
ton, either individually or by lending
too much money on II, have no right
to appeal to the nation to come to|
their rescue. 1t would be Il mislor-
tune for the South to lose money on
this years cotton crop. but thcr" is no
necessity for that to happen. With the
tremendous price received for the last
two crops, the South should be aDund-
antly able to finance this crop ana car
ry il until the world needs II without
dercnding upon the National Govern
mcnt to save its growers from their
own folly.
The Manufacturers Record has FOR
several years insisted that the Gov
ernmcnt put Il minimum price on
wheat sufficiently high TO stimulate
wheat production, because the world IL
verging on starvation for lack OF
wheat, but no such situation prevails
in the cotton trade. Here we have
more production than is needed, ana IL
will be Il blessing to the South, rather
than "A disadvantage, II II snail this
wear have to struggle hard tn carry its
cotton and market it only us the sit
uatiun juStiiics. This would mean that
the farmers of the South as Il whole
would very largely have TO carry their
own cotton with little help from the
bankers. This can be done If the
south is left alone to face the issue
and fight it out. If the Southern cot
ton growers should be helped out OF
the hole Of their own digging by the
Federal Government, their self-rcli-
ancc would he snapped and the help
given them 10y the Government would
eventually prove Il curse instead or Il
blessing.
Whether the cotton grower, the
uf:,cturcr seeks to have Il fixed price
nut on cotton, it would he u disaster
for this to be done. The cotton indus
try need not be regulated by the gov
crnment, for every branch of this in
dustry can shift for itself and eventu-.
ally be the better of for doing SO.
Even under the stress of the war we
want no bcggar pleas in behalf of cot
ton us we had in the "Buy-a- Bale
movement. Some things should be lett
To the regulation of the law oil
supply and demand. without regard TO
the wishes of the growers, the specuii-
tors or the manufacturers, and cotton
is rrc-cmincntly the most important
industry which can hc best regulated
by not being regulated ut all.
We do not believe that the best in
tcrcsts of the country would be served
hy fixing the price of cotton by
the Government, nor do we bciiere
that the best interests arc among those
who arc clamoring for a fixed cotton
price. In raising a big crop OF cotton
if tho final yield should be as now indi-
Gated, the Southern farmer has enor-
mously increased the supply OF food
stufrs and fecdStuffS which come from
cottonsecd and which aggregate 1884,
OOO, 900 or more. The crop has been
costly To produce and will hc costlE'o
pick. Indeed, it is probable that Il
good deal of il will never he picked
because uf the scarcity of labor.
one of the blessings which will come
to the South out of this war Will be u
higher price for farm labor. Farm
labor everywhere has in the past re-
ccivcd less than its fair share Of pay.
This has been cmphatically so in the
south. Low priced labor cannot possi-
bly,, in the long run, be efficient labor;
cheap labor means u cheap man. The
low price of labor in the South has
been q tremendous handicap In that
section.
Every man who fights against high
prices for cotton is fighting against a
living wage for the farm laborer,
white and black, in the South. Every
newspaper or business man in the
north or in the south who antagonizes
high price. judging by former prices
of cotton, is distinctivcly fighting TO
hold negro and white labor on the
farms down to a starvation basis.
II the New York Tribune and other
papers in the east. and the people OF
New England generally, who have
been ardent lovers OF the negro race
are really honest and sincere in their
protestations of their love for the
negro they would INCREASINGLY strive
to show to the world that the low prl-
ces OF cotton in the past meant contin-
ued starvation wages for the negroes,
while the so-called high prices or the
last twclve-months offer the only OPP
portunity since the Civil war for the
payment uf decent living wage to the
farm laborcrs of the South. Are the
.,, ait, .tonlo II mt thl.ir uhilnn-