Fitzgerald leader enterprise and press. (Fitzgerald, Ben Hill County, Ga.) 1921-1964, 1921-05-09
TO MAKE COTTON PRoFITABLE-Tht

TO MAKE COTTON PROFITABLE-Th
Leader prints today brief outlines giving the main
points in the two cooperative cotton marketing
plans which being advocated this season for
the purpose Of giving the cotton grower at least
chance at profit his crop The Leader
urges all its readers who are interested in the
price of cotton to read these plans with great
care and decide for himself whether either plan
would work successfully and which of the two
plans would be best for this section and this time
1t seems necessary that farmers work togeth-
this year than they have ever worked in.
the past Conditions, financial, commercial
Industrial and agricultural are demanding
more cooperation and more intelligent co-opera-
ton between individuals Of the same group inter
ests Competition, if there is to be competition
has got to be between large and we'll organized
groups if individuals III those groups are to pros
per.
The situation in the cotton industry is espe-
cially acute in that respect Cotton is down.
probably to very the level it will remain
The day of thirty and forty cent cotton is gone
If the cotton farmer is to make money from his
crop he must not only produce it cheaply but he
must sell it cheaply, he must be able to get as
much as the spinner can afford to pay, and not as
much as the middleman thinks it is safe for him to
pay. Some new cotton selling machinery is nee
essary.
The "Sapiro Plan" or compulsory contract
plan of cooperative cotton marketing will create
new channel for cotton selling Using largely
the same Warehouses and the same real cotton ex-
perts who now do the work for the middeman it
will use them for the farmer instead Of for the
midd@nan The United States Bureau of Markets
plan optional contract plan, uses the chan
cl for cotton selling that is now in use but it
straightens out few of the kinks and eliminates
some of the lost motion, saving good many dol
lars to the farmer that now go to more or less
necessary agencies.
Boiled down to its analysis, there only
two ways in which Gotten may be kept at price
sufficient to permit its being produced in the
South Ihe.first way, the sensible way and the
safe way is to get efficient marketing system
on ssomeMeo7eperative plan. The other way.
short sighted and dangerous way, is to make
permanent drastic reduction in cotton acreage
Conditions peculiar to this year, resulting
from uncertain industrial and commercial condl-
tons, warranted the drastic reduction in cotton
acreage that has been made. The reduction is
estimated at one-third The Georgia crop in 1920
was little less than a million and half bales
This year it will be about million bales This
year that reduction was warranted and safe
because the mills of the world actually not in
position to use than that much cotton.
the people of the world need more cotton cloth
than ever before but they are not in position to
buy. The 1921 reduction is necessary.
But in the future it will not be safe for til,
South to reduce cotton acreage heavily. Cotton
can be grown in Egypt, India and South America.
1t can not be grown as we'll in those regions NOW
as it can be grown in the South but with few
years of careful seed selection and cultivation the
present handicap could be overcome and the South
would lose its practical world monopoly on short
staple cotton. However, the spinners of Europe
will not spend the gigantic sum necessary to get
the cotton industry started profitably large
scale in these other regions if they can continue
to get all the cotton they need from the South.
They will develop these potential competitors to
he South only in self defense if the South threat
ems to adopt 'hold-rp" policy
The situation, figuratively is this-the South
is well trained and efficient workman for thc
cotton users of the world AS long as it stays on
the job and gives satisfaction, it will get all that
its good business sense will warrant However,
II 1t goes on strike the cotton users of the world
"lll find at least three great regions of the worlu
ready to "SCAB" on it. These regions are prac
tically unframed but they could be in a few years
developed to break the strike and to break the
Souths short staple monopoly as we'll No concern
wants to hamper itself and incur the loss entailed
by hiring and training strike breakers to take the
place OF efficient men But thew will do it rather
than yield to a strike
The cotton farmers Of the South this year are
not a strike for higher prices They are re
duclng production to accommodate themselves to
overproducton OF last year The South must
not even think of trying to force up prices by
permanent under-production. 1t will not work
The only practical means of getting more certain
profit out of cotton is for the farmers to organize