The review., 1919-03-27
COTTON PROPOSAL
IS GRIPPING SOUTH
Movement is Spreading Like
Wid-Fne All Over The
Cotton Belt.

Reports received at state head.
quarters, Raleigh, Of the North Caro-,
lima Cotton Association during the
past few days indicate that the move
ment inaugurated at the recent coun-
ty conventions held in practically ev-
cry county in the state last week to
| hold the unsold balance of the pres
ent crop and to reduce the acreage
for the coming crop by one-third as
compared with 1918 is spreading like
Wfld-hre in all parts of North Caro-
lima. The bankers, merchants and
farmers who attended these conven-
tlOns last week let no grass grow.
under their feet upon their return to
their homes. The New Orleans, Hous-
ton, Galveston, Dallas, Memphis,
Montgomery, Atlanta, Little Rock,
Charleston, Savannah and Birming-
ham newspapers have been publish
ing daily reports of county and State
meetings held in these States to ratify
and put into practical effect the work
outlined by the general convention re-
Gently held in New Orleans. In fact,
it: would seem as if every Southern
State and every county in the cotton
belt were vieing with one another to
see which will make the best record
in the matter of reducing the cotton
acreage in 1919 and holding the cot
ton now on hand for remunerative
prices. a1,@.,
Alarmed over this movement, which
threatens to break the strangle-hold
which the spinning interests of the
spectators in the New York market,
have had on the cotton market for
some weeks past. the Northern press
is attempting to throw ridicule on the.
movement and to he1ittle it. A typical
instance Of this bear propaganda to
Offset the cotton acreage reduction
movement is furnished by an article
published in a recent issue of the
Journal of Commerce. Some suppos-
ed correspondent from the South is
quoted in that Journal, which has al
ways been very friendly to the New
England spinning interests, as saying:
81 take little stock in resolutions
to decrease acreage, as such ATTEMPTS
at reduction are economic heresy. Too>I
we'll do many of us remember the
DAYS of four and five cent cotton in
the nineties. Conventions were held
in Memphis and elsewhere to reduce
acreage. Solemn oaths were signed.
but always the result was the same,
an increase of acreage, because each !
went home with the same determine
tion to increase his own acreage as
he believed his neighbor was going |
to decrease.
Such articles as these, full Of mis- /
statements of facts, are calculated to !
have just the opposite effect in the /
South from that intended by the au- |
thors. Much water. in an economic |
way, has passed under the mill since !
the early nineties. The cotton grow
ers of the South have learned by sad /
that a small crop with !
good prices pays better than a large
crop with low prices. IL they had any !
doubt on this score Secretary Hes
ters annual reports. showing the total
value of the various crops produced
plainly. The Journal Of Commerce |
statement to the contrary, no signed !
pledges were required by the cotton
previously held in the
South. and it was this very lack Of
signed pledges that fOredOomed the
acreage production movements Of pre-
viOus years to practical failure. There
never was a year in which a conven-
ton of this sort was held That the
acreage was not materially decreased.
the cut in acreage did not
always come up to what the conven-
ton had planned. Lack of proper or
CARNATIONS by States and counties,
the failure to get signed pledges to |
carry out the objects of the conven
ton and the fact that no subsequent
was held later in the sea-
son to receive reports as to the prog
ress made by the different cotton
growing States in effecting a reduc-
ton in acreage were some Of the rea-
sons that the former conventions
proved a failure in so far as accom-
plishment went. All these loopholes
have been closed by the recent con-
vention, and. in addition, a resolution
was adopted by the convention to
brand any man in the cotton belt who
refuses to cooperate as $50 lacking
in public spirit as to forfeit the conf
1ence Of the community in which he
lives"
The economic heresy" of reducing
the cotton acreage, to which the
Journal of Commerce refers, is fine
phrase, but cotton men say
it will not deceive anybody in the
South who stops to think. The New
England and Southern mills, when
they find a stock of goods accumulat-
ing and NO buyers coming into the
dry goods market at once take steps