The Marietta journal. (Marietta, Ga.) 1918-1944, 1919-03-21
COMMISSIONER BROWN
WARNS FARMERS NOT
TO Be DE[UDED BY RISE
Cotton Price Advance Only
A Temptation
No Farmer Should Be Shaken From
Resolution To Reduce Acreage By
Temporary Rise in Market Dur
ing The Planting Season.

Atlanta, Ca, March 20. Commits
sioner of Agriculture ]. j. Brown,
in statement just given out, warns
the farmers of Georgia, as well as the
entire South, against elation and over
confidence as result Of the recent
sensational advances in the cotton
market. The fluctuations, which in one
day ranged up and down from 100
to 200 points, is a matter which Mr..
Brown says is worthy of mighty seri-
Gus consideration by the people of
the cotton belt"
Commissioner Browns opinion is
that the New York and Liverpool
manipulators are playing with the
market for the purpose of enticing
the farmer away from the holding
movement; and that prices have been
advanced just at the time of the plant
ing season in the hope and belief
that the acreage reduction movement
would be broken down.
''The holding movement means
more than the mere question of price
for the cotton now held in the South"
declared Commissioner Brown. 1t is
the future to which we must look and
if the farmers of Georgia and the
South are wise, they are not going
to be diverted from their purpose
by any momentary manipulation of
the market, even though it may re-
alize them a better price.
"The truth of the matter as l see
it, is the spectators and the spinners
have come to a realization that the
cotton planters of the south are in
earnest in their holding and acreage
reduction movements. 1t will be
paying investment to the New York
and Liverpool crowds to take off the
screws for the next sixty days, bait the
southern farmer with better price
than now ,on hand and cause the acre
age reduction movement, which has
gripped the entire cotton belt as
nothing ever did before, to break
down.
cit is my firm opinion that this
is their deep and well-planned game,
that they know that the cotton acre
age reduction movement is real
thing; that the falling off Of more
than 80 per cent of the fertilizer con-
sumption speaks loudly for it's reality,
and that if the cotton crop is one
third less in acreage next year, the
law of supply and demand will deal
a severe blow to Mr.. Manipulation.
"In the interests of your own fu-
ture good, we cannot afford to be
deluded now by any such game as
this. The fact of the matter is we
have got the fight whipped if we only
hold on for forty or sixty days more.
That will mean and end of cotton
bossism in Liverpool and New York,
for the present at least.
"All we want is a fair price and
fair profit over the cost of produc-
ton for the cotton we raise. We want
it on the basis of what the law of
supply and demand makes it worth;
and we are not going to be satisfied
with sop hold out for a few days
simply with the Interior purpose OF
trying to make a set of suckers and
fools out ofthe southern people" If
the cotton planter wants 80 cents for
his cotton now, he can get it. But he
will have to take the consequences of
cheap cotton next year. If he holds
on now, l feel confident he will not
only get 35 cents or more for what
he has, but that his holding and acre
age reduction will mean that the next
crop will bring as much or more, &C
cording to the cost of production and
the demand of the natural market for
what we raise"