The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1920-12-17
FARMERS OF SOUTH
MUST FREE SELVES
COTTON PRICES HELD DOWN
BY ARTIFICIAL SUPPLY.
"control Your Visible Supply" Cor
respondent Says IS Foremost
thought.

respondent SayS IS FoFeAes'
Thought.
, To the Editor Of The State:
When I suggested not raising a
hale Of cotton. for a year, wouldn't
ones first natural thoughts be "inn-
practical and "a mill could run at
any time, but cotton is only planted
once each year," Wasn't the flying
nschine, the telephone, the tele-
graph, the electric light and practl-
cally every worthwhile thing in prae-
tice today impractical? Wouldn't
such q letter as this from the presi-
dent and treasurer of several large
cotton mills and other large manu-
faeturihg enterprises and student
of economics, have more weight with
YOU than the first offhand thought OF
the ordinary citizen?
.sDear Afr. Roadey:
ssI read with much interest your
article and am writing to express my
approval OF same. l notice in yes
terday,s paper that this could not be
done, but / know that it can be to q
large extent and that the right thing
for the cotton planter to do is to con-
sider the question df curtailment i'm
madiately. OF course, we all know
aa 4 matter of fact that it will be
Impossible to get all farmers into
this, but enough Of the larger and
more important ones could be
brought IN 10 make it effective. The
people, who have no other interests
.in cotton than the mere matter OF
trading, do not take the same view
81 those whose interests are directly
affected by the supply and demand.
With kind regards .
Exactly.
May / give yon some Of my expe-
riences? In 1897 after living IN
New York for several years and see, zee
inn the Southern cotton farmer sys-
;tematieally robbed Of his birthrigt
through unfair. means. by outsiders
being able to sell q commodity that
didn't exist, creating an artificial
supply, and this artificial supply hav-1
iig ts,e same effect as an actual sup
IN, pfiiSes being determined by tins this
ssfifciai supply j, decided to speak.
sout. i suggested the formation OF a
Southern Cotton Planters unisn,,a
practically the same g the Southern.
Cotton association fYouy records Will
prscbably skoW fhisf except 81 Il laid
more stress .osi ,ai h alsEyssng g-a representa-
tive ii the leading markets OF the
world, ssiiaas mast partienlarls on the
q onffol of the Visible Supply. =
Surplus if you please, To make
ST IS plainly asI know how, suppose
eggs 81 your city were SO cents per
DOZEN, and You consumed 1000 doz-
Ell Per day. and 1,loo dozen were
brought IN, wouldn't eggs decline, but
n your corporation said, eve will
take charge Of this extra 100 dozen,
ne win control this supply until 900
dozen or an average Of 1000 dozen
came in,' wouldn't eggs remain at SO
cents per dozen2
This oyenpfus, this surplus, is
what must Be- controlled and is what
fixes ycur prices. Cotton is not per-,
ishable. i notice that some thought
IS being given to having this repre-
sentation in the leading markets Of
dhe world by forming some export
corporations, but my opinion is that
50 W Ear as the farmer is concerned as
to his financial Improvement there
viii be very little unless the two
thoughts are united and until your
first and foremost thought is "control
your visible supply, - ''your extra SUR.
plus. wiz some one name any cot
ton mill in the South that ever 'went
broke unless they piled up surplus
and continued to pile up one, until
Il became unwieldy and they natural
II swent brokee' Will not the
Southern cotton GARNER Ego broke"
if he piles up more and more of a
surplus? Haven't some already gone
broke by not thinking about the sur
plus, but rather, 81 will plant any
how, and trpst in the Lord" Some
one has said sthe Lord takes care Of
the drunks and fools" Certainly
not always. y spoke in Atlanta, CO.
lunbia and several other places and
had committees appointed, ETC., but
what happened? It Immediately de-
veJnned info nolitics. and I quit.