Imperial Valley press., 1921-03-28
RE D j { I|0N
IN COTTON
AC R { AGE
MARKED
Grower and Factor Alike
Working to Equaiize Sup
ply and DEMAND and Thus
Stabilize the Market.

The effort to reduce the cotton acre
age this year differs essentially, and
IN ways too that are profoundly signi-
ficant, from anything of the kind ever
undertaken before
Heretofore, such movements have
been largely confined to one class of
our citizens. Now the attitude Of
practically no member Of the business
community is negative. Everybody
pretty much is aggressively engaged
IN one way or another to bring the re-
duction about. When we reflect that
reducing one-half of the normal out
put of a vital world necessity, is a
startling proposition in itself, and one
wholly unknown to human history, we
can realize, in some degree, how very
extraordinary the universally of this
movement really is.
The array of figures presented in
justification of the undertaking is also
startling. Certainly the question of
supply and consumption were never
before dealt with in such a manner
Spectators in the past when working
for lower market have attempted
something Of the kind, but their eff
forts were always more or less veiled
insinuations. They never dared to
show the bold frankness that has been
insistently shown by the farmers and
their friends throughout the present
campaign.
The writer does not present to ques-
tion the accuracy of the figurer con-
corning supply and consumption. He
only aims to point out feature of a
remarkable phenomena taking place
in our economic life. AS a matter of
fact, the preponderance of evidence
favors the general accuracy of the fig
ures submitted; for it does seem that
the carryover will be, approximately, ),
from 9 to 10 million bales, and that
the return of consumption to normal
standards will be exceedingly slow.
Under the old regime the farmer
could not get credit unless he planted
the greater part of his area in cotton.
Now he cannot get credit unless he
not only reduces the area of cotton,
but he must reduce is more radically
than was ever before known in the
history of cotton production. In the
old days profits and the cost of produc-
tion were never mentioned in their re-
lations to the amount that should be
planted. Now the profit and the cost
are both given extreme prominence.
Bankers are reiterating the statement
with increasing emphasis that. while
they might be justified in financing
cotton in the farmers hands, it would
be senseless thing for them to fin
ance the growing of cotton at cost
double the price at which cotton can
be bought today.
Such are some of the salient fea-
lures of the campaign now being
waged to reduce the cotton acreage.
They are symtomatic of an epochal
revolution going on in the economic
life of the South. Students who have
kept in touch with the development in
responsible for the present movement
lie far deepere than the present
great and urgent as it is.
For, long before the late war public
sentiment in the South began to rebel
against the conditions under which
cotton had been grown for very many
years and cotton labor was demanding
larger and larger returns, and these
demands were steadily becoming more
and more militant.
1t was undoubtedly the militant spir-
it Of this revolution. reflected alike in
public sentiment and in the general at
titude of labor. that has given the
of today its magnitude and
that momentus significance which dis
it, in an extraordinary way
from any efforts to reduce the acreage
ever undertaken before Now the
feeling prevails, especially in the East
and in Europe that the farmer is
asleep and it takes all these demon
strations to wake him up. That is a
and serious mistake. Long
before the present campaign the cot
ton farmers was alive to the issues
now being presented so strenuously,