Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-02-21

of cotton is above thirty-two cents
pound; and suppose the price paid the
grower tarries around eighteen cents pound
What would that mean to the farmer? What
would it mean to the South?
These figures are not imaginary. They are
used by so matter-of-fact and conservative a
writer as Mr.. W. w. Morrison in the current
: Manufacturers Record, wherein he describes
the present price of cotton as "a world men
ace" It will cost in the neighborhOod of
thirty-two and three-quarter cents pound to
produce the next crop, Mr.. Morrison calcu-
1ates, following average yield of two hun
dred pounds of lint to the acre, NNhic4 is above
the average of the last ten years. October
contracts he points out, have sold a. low as
seventeen and seVenty-four hundredths cents.
and at the time of his writing (about week
ago. were around eighteen and half cents.
Wherefore he comments: This, in round fig
ures, is about fourteen cents per pound be-
low what, it is reasonable to expect, the cost
of production to be in 1919, and means about
one billion dollars loss on a cotton crop OF
fourteen million bales
AS far as the grower is concerned, the pre-
ventive of those threatened ills and the rem
edy for existing ones, is obvious. He must
curtail his acreage and output of cotton so
vigorously that price representing fair
margin beyond the cost of production will be
assured. To do this, however, he must plant
a food acreage sufficient to make up, in net
results, for the reduction in cotton. Con-
traction in the one instance calls for expansion
in the other, and for the most vigorous and
abundant expansion. Merely to produce less
cotton is the negative end of the proposition.
The positive good lies in producing a rich
bounty of food necessaries for which, authori-
ties say, there is certain to be a profitable
market and with which the farmer will be
independent Moreover, it is foregone that
so soon as the farmer demonstrate his pur-
pose to raise a minimum, rigid minimum, of
cotton and maximum of food products there
will be reaction of cotton prices in his favor;
he will be relieved for the present and safe
guarded for the futu-e.
This the grower can do, ought to do and,
from all present omens WILL do to save him
self and the South from disaster. But how re-
grettable it is that circumstances which might
have been otherwise now force L grim
necessity upon him! The present price of cot
ton strikes Mr.. Morrison as being "a world
menace" because, as he puts it, cutting the
cotton crop one-half will retard "the great
program of world reconstruction" And he
pertinently asks: "Is not an abundant supply
of clothing as we'll as food necessary to allay
the unrest which today is menacing the
world?" There is, as far as we can see no
sound economic reason whatsoever why the
price of cotton should have fallen to level
below the cost Of it's production. Everyone
knows that the world needs an abundant SUP
ply OF this great staple, and vast army of
consumers we'll may demand what play of in
ttTest it is that thus imperils the public well
s@fe in efforts 20 beat down the price OF
cotton. Touching this point, the article in
the Manufacturers Record observes:
1.-THE coming of peace found ocean
freight and the price of cotton goods both
highly inflated A readjustment towards
normal prices was, therefore, to have
been expected. This process has been,
however, much slower than most people
had hoped for, and as a consequence it
has interfered with the movement of cot
ton abroad and with the movement of
cotton goods to the civilian trade. This
delay has been great disappointment to
the cotton trade generally. Now the price
of the commodities consumed in it's pro-
duction makes it obvious that there has
been no imitation in the price of cotton.
Yet speculative interests have taken ad-
vantage of these temporary conditions
and the incident disappointment to make
raw cotton carry the burden of the defa-
tion that was inevitable in freight rates
and in cotton goods. This seems to have
been the real cause of the drastic recess
sion in prices which have become real
menace to the world
In these circumstances what is the best
service the cotton grower can render, not only
to himself and his own region, but also to the
worldwide field of economic and human con-
Germs to whose welfare, along with his own,
those speculative interests are pitiessly in
different? Will not his best and broadcast
service be to prove once for all chat he will
not be made the dupe and bondman of those
interests? If thereby he breaks their grip
and their hope, he will have done a vast deal
for the security of legitimate business and in
dustry and vast deal for the public's good,