The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1920-12-12
The Troubles of King Cotton Told
BY Close Student of Agricultural
Production Conditions In The South

N'S NNSshei i. tfONell)
How the south is struggling with
this great staple which, through a
practical monopoly, has been curse
to its producers.
The recent destruction Of numerous
gins and warehouses In the cotton
growing states of the south calls to
public attention one Of the most seri-
Gus problems In the United States.
Arson will not solve this problem, but
1t Is to be hoped that some good will
come from the public attention result
Ing. This Is no new problem. An
inevitable crisis has been approaching
for several years. Any fair minded bus
mess man willing to examine the
figures can readily be convinced that
most OF the cotton produced in this
country since the Civil War has
been produced at a loss. For the first
time since l was born l saw cotton
sold at a big profit to the producer
during the years 1917. 1918 and 1919.
Those years are fresh in the memory
OF the cotton grower. He will not
go back to cotton production at loss.
Cotton growers today may be di-
vided into two classes: Those who
have money in the bank, who are
operating on a cash basis and, there
fore. able to market their cotton grad
ually, and those who have no capital,
except their labor and the labor OF
their children, who owe debts at tho
end OF the season which force them
to market their cotton instantly. re-
gardless Of price.
The real warfare is between these
two classes. though all OF the cotton
farmers do not realize this. Some of
them think they are fighting Wall
Street or the spinners. The cotton
farmers have been fighting wind mills
for more than quarter of century.
Their real enemy is lack of capital,
high interest rates, and the more ex-
tremely ignorant element whose crops
are virtually stolen from them every
year.
Anyone who tries to understand
the problems Of the cotton grower
OF today must know something Of
the history of the crop in this coun-
try. 1t began as slave labor crop.
When the negroes were freed ii be-
came necessary for them to manage
affairs that had previously been man
aged for them. They did not know
how to buy or sell wisely. In con-
sequence they dragged down the small
Ter white plantation owner to approx
imately their own scale OF living. In
the south today nearly all Of the ne
groes who live on farm lands are
tenant farmers. Competing with them
are millions OF white tenant farmers,
many Of whom are helpless as babies
in the hands of INSCRIPTIONS men,
and very few of whom are able to
analyze the factors which fix prices
for a crop sold all over the world.
Until the era Of high prices for cot
ton, closing with last year, these ten
ant farmers had lived from hand to
mouth for generations. Many of them
owned nothing more than a wagon
load of household goods. Some OF them
owned a pair Of mules and possibly
a few plows and a cuuvator. Very
few of them had any assurance that
the farm they titled one year would
be theirs to till the next. They had
become nomads.
Cotton is nine months crop. 1t
requires more capital than any other
crop grown On this continent. These
tenant farmers, without any fixed
place Of abode, borrowed money on
crop mortgages paying from 10 to 60
per cent interest. They bought their
goods at the general stores on credit
paving from so per cent to $50 per
cent above cash prices. These figures
can be verified from q bulletin issued
by the Agricultural and Mechanical
College of Texas. When the cotton
crop was picked, the tenant farmer
did not own it. 1t was covered by
mortgages almost to the full value
and often beyond the full value.
Scores Of efforts have been made
in the cotton producing states to or.
ganize the cotton farmers so that
they could market their crop grad
ually. Without n. single exception
these efforts have failed, and the
reason Is obvious. The banker and
the merchant wanted their money as
soon as the cotton was picked. They
wanted their part of it at the earli-
est moment possible.
There are scores Of tabulations
showing the market value of Gotten
each day Of the year. You cannot
find tabulation which fails to show
that the price of cotton was low
when the crop was being sold by the
farmer, and that it went up as soon