Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-02-11
Curtail Cotton Acrea
To Protect the South

The hundreds of Georgia farmers and bust
ness men who foregathered at Macon on
Thursday to take counsel on the cotton situa-
: ton, wisely placed in the forefront of their
program of action curtailment of this years
cotton production. Other seasonable meas
ures were decided upon; notably, a deter
mined holding of cotton on hand until
the market offers a reasonable price; an
appeal for the removal of present restrictions
on cotton expectation; and an insistence upon
certain sorely needed reforms in the methods
of the New York Cotton Exchange. Each of
these steps will serve useful purpose, but
fundamental to them all is the plan of re-
ducing the 1919 cotton output.
This is the growers surest remedy against
the ills confronting him and his surest means
of obtaining both now and for the future that
degree of fair play and prosperity to which
he is entitled. So soon as the world is con-
vinced that the SOuth's next crop of cotton
will be curtailed at least twenty-five per cent,
the market will inevitably respond The
future well as the present must be relieved
of the anxiety which now weighs so gravely
on the cottOn-growing States. Here, again, re-
duction of acreage and yield offer the largest
assurance. 1t is a matter of long record that
the SOuth's most profitable cotton crops have
been the smaller ones. In the 1911-12 season,
Tor instance, a siXteen-milion-b bale crop
brought the grow ers only $50, 900, Os0 where
as in the 1917-1S season, a crop of less than
twelve million bales brought approximately
$1,667 900, 900. The lesson of these figures
has been taught repeatedly that no farmer
with his own and the South's interests at
heart will ignore them at this crucial juno
ture.
This lesson can be applied now with
especial facility ana advantage In Georgia
and neighboring States the agriculture of
recent years mas followed the policy of diver
slhcation so widely and so successfully that q
large acreage of f11G crops can be substituted
for cotton without hazard. Grain, potatoes
and similar staples together with forage
crops and food animals have netted the
planters of this reEon profits much more sub
stantial, all things considered than were
ever realized upon cotton. Particularly will
this be true in a time when the worlds re-
serves of food, having been depleted by a
four years war, must be replenished. All
omens point to continuance of substantial
rewards for the producer of such commodi-
ties. With food crops to fall back upon, the
Southern farmer will be in position to hold
his cotton unit the market price represents
at least the cost Of production plus a rea-
sonable profit; and thus he and the impor-
tant interests bound up in his prosperity will
be Independent. But prerequisite to all this,
be it remembered is such reduction of the
cotton acreage VIII afford land and labor
sufficient for the raising of these food
products.
Hence, the practical wisdom of placing in
the very forefront OF plans for present relief
and future protection the curtailment of the
cotton acreage soon to be determined. Let
in Georgia and throughout the South come
intellectually to the support of this policy
and stand in resi- utely together until their
Just cause is won