Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1920-10-18
WHAT ARE THE FACTS AND
REMEDY?
ATLANTA Georgian.)
THE COTTON situation is acute.

a
is fraught with the possibility of
distress for many people. Therefore.
it is all the more important that we
of the South keep our heads and not
get into a panic
A stampede can only make bad
matters worse. Cool heads and clear
thinking have turned worse situations
than our cotton predicament into
eventual success.
1t is easy to shout cotton gambl-
ers' and to berate this or that gov
ernmental agency. It may even be
JUST to do that But let us be GER
tain that we do not employ our time
in a crisis in abuse and recrimina-
ton. when there is real constructive
work to be done to SAVE the situa-
ton.
1t is popular to find a scapegoat for
every misfortune, but it is sound
sense to i've more attention to set
ting the misfortune Alright than to
denouncing the goat
The Georpian has the deepest SYM
pathy for the Southern cotton grow
err. It has more than sympathy. Its
own self-interest is bound up in the
success of the grower If the grower
prospers, The Georgian will prosper.
If the grower is in distress, The
Georgian will be in distress, too.
But the Georgian believes the
time calls less for expressions of
sympathy than for TRYING TO
HELP.
Here is the situation.
Cotton which cost the farmer about
40 cents a pound to produce is sell
ing in the market for about 20 cents.
Various reasons are assigned for it.
The cotton gamblers have driven the
price down, the mills have ceased pur-
chasing, Europe is still unable to
buy, the government has withdrawn
credit. Some say one thing, some
say another.
Here is the truth of it:
These four conditions existed, and
on top of them all the farmers of
Texas dumped hundreds of thous-
ands of bales of new cotton.
For a time there was no demand
for cotton. The mills could not spin
it, having just reduced their running
time from two shifts day to less
than SO hours week. Europe could
not buy. The banks of the nation
were short of money, and the specula-
tors had been selling cotton for fu-
ture delivery. The market had no
stability, and when the Texas farm
ers started unloading cotton for
which there was TEMPORARILY no
demand, they knocked the bottom out
of the price.
Now, this condition can not and
will not continue, unless the farmers
of the South become stampeded. 1t
they will HOLD every bale of cotton
they can, the price will have to go
up-maybe not back to the 40 cents
it brought in july but, back to a level
that will pay the farmer for his la
Dor
The world must continue to have
cotton products. Temporarily, the
markets are loaded up. experts in the
trade tell US. That condition can not
continue, however. 1t rights itself.
The mills must continue to spin. A
spinning mill that does not spin is
losing money. The mills will spin,
lust as long as they can sell their
goods. They will start running full
time even before the demand for
their products arises again.
A period of sobriety in expendi-
ture, a recess from extravaganza by
the people, which inevitably follows
contraction of credit, will quickly
restore the peoples money to the
banks. Europe must begin to buy
even with the rate of exchange heav--
ilv against it for the British and
French and German mills must run or
else become rust. Further, the spec
uIators who are short of cotton must
buy an equal amount of cotton in or
der to "cover" their sales.
The price of cotton is bound to go
back up, if the farmer will hold every
bale he can.
To hold cotton, however, the farm
err must get credit. The Georgian