Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-09-16
pARss ON SEED PRICE

bAPoS SN SsIS
Ex.Presidsnt of Farmers Union Replies
to Present President.
I have read the criticism Of the
committee on cottonseed prices by my
good friend Col claffy. president OF
the Farmers Union and think 1t Is
due to Mr.. Jennings and myself 70
make a short reply. 1t is also due
to the producers Of seed to give the
figures upon which eur agreement was
made. But first I wish to say that
the commissioner Of agriculture in
yited the farmers to be present and
If they were too busy or too indif-
ferent to attend they should not find
fault with the seven Of us who did
attend, but rather should be thankful
that we were interested enough to
attend. Our doing so advanced seed
50 per ton. Further, we jp as much
represented the farmers al the New
Orleans convention will represent
them, for that convention is composed
of delegates not elected by the farmers
but named by the governor, commits
sioner Of agriculture. president OF
American Cotton AssociatiGn, presi-
dent of Farmers unionS and superin-
tendent of education. And each one
pays his own way and is responsible
to himself alone. But, If they viii
take the information Col. Claffy has
and figure outa higher price for seed
and have the mills agree to 1t. we will
all be thankful.
II wish to say If that convention
can secure an agreement with the
cotton mills to work Gotten for
fair differential spread they call 1t
in cettonseed pariance. between the
price of the products and the raw ma
teriag it will have earned the ever
lasting gratitude OF the producers OF
cotton and Of the ultimate consum-
ers of cotton goods as well. am
sure our confnittee have eottonseed
and cottonseed products much nearer
than cotton and sclothf fare. I regret
that Col. Claffy and another gentle
man who was loaded with information
were not put on the committee in
place of Mr.. jennings and myself; or,
at least that they did not give to us
the information they had. asked the
gentleman for an array Of figures he
had to take with me into the commit
tee meeting. He said. mo. want
this to use from the floor when you
make your report" Does any one sup
pose that Mr.. Jennings ana were so
simple as to receive q price Of $50
per ton when we could have demon
strated that $f02.4O per ton is the
value of seed based on Col. Clafys
figures when he writes about 81 oil?
We did not have these figures. And
if that is anything like correct, the
Alabama farmers were "buncoed" al
most as badly as we were. In fact
we were told that Alahama's prices
of SIS were based on July 20 mar
ket and that the day before only so
was being paid lin Alabama and sig
less for wagon seed. The committee
based our fair price" on oil at nine
teen cents-s56.42; meal at s6s-sS3.sS;
hulls at $S-S2.14; linters at three
cents-s2.25; total $s6.6s. less per
cent. for excessive moisture, $s1.S6. On
this we calculated mill profit at per
cent. against fat So last year, s4.5s;'
working cost $3.50, freight 81, same
as last year. Price, for seed $6s.77,
but agreed price $40 taking twenty
three cents from the mills $4.59, leav-
ing the mills s4.36.
If the market was manipulated to
bring about that result and 1t may
have been done, I wish Col. Claffy
would tell us what we can do about
1t. Seed were showing 1S per cent.
moisture and were rotting on the
hands of farmers. dealers. railroads
and mills. Against that condition we
have a harder problem than cotton
to deal with only wish we could
come as near securing the value of
our cotton as we are OF cottonseed.
But no farmer Is bound by us to sell
his seed; IL he can take care Of his
SEED and hold them back until he
can force the prices named by Col.
Claffy he will, under the agreement
made last Thursday. get s102.5o Tor
seed.
Thanking you for space to get this
information before the farmers.
Yours respectfully.
r w Dahha