Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1920-10-07
Leaders Will Gather to De-
wise Means for. Helping
Situation Caused by Slump
in Prices

A mass meeting of Atlanta bank
ers and business men to- consider
the alarming situation caused by the
| sudden and heavy decline In the
price of cotton has been called for
Friday afternoon October 8, at $3.50
o'clock, in the assembly hall of the
chamber of commerce.
| The call for the meeting was is
sued by B. F.. Mcleod. a prominent
| Charleston business man. and chair
man of the finance committee of the
American Cotton association. SINH
lar meetings have been held in Rich
mond, Va, and Columbia, S. c. After
the Atlanta meetings, others will be
held in the principal cities of the
cotton growing Estates.
| Governor R.NI. Manning, of South
Carolina. Chairman Mcleod, of the
finance committee of the cotton as
| ISOLATION, and one or two others.
will deliver addresses. Invitations
will be-sent to all Atlanta bankers,
to Wholesale merchants and jobbers,
to manufacturers, and to all others
| interested in the mercantile and
| financial situation in Atlanta's trade
I territory as caused by the decline
in cotton.
Sixty days ago the price of cot /,
ton was forty cents a pound. Today
it has dropped below twenty-five
cents This means that Georgia's ex-
pected cash return from the 1920
cotton crop has been cut down in
round figures $150,000,000. 1t means
that Georgia's circulating currency.
| for the payment of current obliga-
| lions maturing in the fall, has
shrunk that amount in less than
| two months.
According to officials of the Ameri
can Cotton association, and confirm
ed by reports which business men
and bankers are receiving. the heavy
| drop in cotton has precipitated
most acute and alarming state of
mind among the farmers. Their cot
ton this year cost more to produce
than ever before. They claim the
present price is below the cost of
production. All sorts of suggested
methods Of meeting the situation
have beenA put on foot by the drop
In many sections Of Georgia and
other states, there is a propaganda
| among the farmers to pick their
cotton and store it in their houses
1
| ly arr go no further, while the mer-
chant, and bankers wait on collec-
| tionS.4 Amy such movement If car
ried out to a widespread extent in
! the cotton belt would produce count
! less failures.
! The American Cotton association
! is urgently advising all of it's MEM
bers, and all cotton growers whether
members or not, to pursue a differ
ent course 1t is advising them toi
|
in warehouses, borrow vehat money
they need to pay their supply bills,
and hold their cotton for favorable
market. The money thus borrowed
late from the farmers to the mer-
chants, from the merchants to the
bankers, from the bankers to the
Federal Reserve bank, which is the
ultimate source of crdeitS. From
there it would move back into cir
culation, and there would be no great
imitation of currency to handle the
cotton crop.
1t is for the purpose of enlisting
the CO operation of business men and
bankers in this movement that the
finance committee of the American
Cotton association has decided to.
hold a series of conferences in the
principal southern cities.
RESERVE BANKS WILL
REDISCOUNT COTTON PAPER
WASHINGTON. Oct. 5.-senator
Smith, of South Carolina. issued =
statement Monday night saying he
had conferred with Secretary Hous-
ton and Governor Harding, of the
federal reserve board, and been as
sured that the federal reserve sys-
tenn would lend all legitimate aid
in redisccunting the paper based on
cotton sent in by member banks"
The senator's statement said his
conferences had been pIaknpted by
conflicting reports as to- what had
transpfred at a recent meeting be-
tween representatives of the Ameri-
can Cotton association and treasury
officials. Governor Harding, 1t
added, had reiterated to the senator
what he said to the cotton men while
Secretary Houston denied that he
was opposed to the formation of ex-
port corporation by the cotton as
ISOLATION.
1T was stated" the statement
continued, chat there was an inor-
dinate demand for credits from prac-
tically every line of business in
America; that our export business
was being almost entirely financed
by American credits on account of
the unsatisfactory conditions of for ,
sulting in an unprecedented drain
upon the financial resources of the
country, the federal >reserve system.
Senator Smith suggested lower
discount rate for farmers owing to
the time required for production of
a marketable crop and said Cover
nor Harding had promised to take
the matter under advisement.
Let the southern banks and mer-
chants continue to cooperate with
the farmers as they have been do
ing" the senator's statement con-,
tinued, land the problem will, be
solved. The world needs every bale
of cotton that is produced and more.
The south should not be stampeded,
but steadfastly demand her price and
get it,
SYSTEM is
PROPOSED AS REMEDY
GREENVILLE, s., C., Oct. s.
For cold blooded, pitiless audacity
Secretary of Agriculture Houston
makes the ghost of CAPTAIN Kidd en-
vious," declares John l.. McLaurI.
former United States senator and au-
thor of the state warehouse sys-
tenn in South Carolina, in a state
ment to the press in Which~he blames
the federal reserve board for the