New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-02-20
Spn,ners' Prosperity Tied
To That Of Cotton Growers
Consumers of Raw Material Realize Difficulties
of Farmers and Favor Relief Measures;
Against Confscatory Price, Says Whittam
By William Whittan1
Former Special Agent Of the Depart
merit OF Commerce

by WAkttaLA wv shsadAA
Former Special Agent Of the Depart
merit Of. Commerce
| In this CONSPICUOUS Of the American
cotton situation one whose Interests are
| bound up with the prosperity of the in
dustry from fiber TO fabric may be per-
mitted, before coming to consider the
/ spinner's position. to advise the cotton
farmer to thin out his main weed crop
the professional politician. /. is
witless to carry that unnecessary
weight in the Industrial handicap. For,
the gods themselves fight in vain"
I Back in 1916, when the last "crisis"
! in cotton brought the "buy bale"
movement, the State Warehouse Com
missioner OF South Carolina said
/ Creating useless judicial districts for
! the replenishment OF the pie counter,
! postoffice pap. and the distribution of
| free garden seeds will not answer" 1t
is high time FOR tho farmer to turn
away from his chronic habit of crying
for national assistance. His own best
| friends realize this, as this indictment,
not yet fortnight old, by Southern
editor goes to show:
| "The trouble with our farmers is
that they want the manufacturers and
bankers and the merchants to stand
shoulder to shoulder in their defense
while they themselves sit down be-
hind and whine.
"The average farmer wants every
body TO help MIN except himself and he
| is encouraged by the farm papers to
believe that. every mans hand is
against him."
Plea for Acreage Cut
Thcrefore, as this habit invites the
artist Of the spoken word, orators and
propagandists flourish in the South
land, They develop megalomania the
latest craze being an unheard of re-
duction in the cotton acreage. While
there is no desire to criticize our cot
ton producers, the latest comment of
| Harvie Jordan, secretary Of the Amer
lean Cotton Association, should be
read in this connection. He says in
a Letter to the members, dated Janu-
airy % this year:
' "1n every great disaster or depres-
sion of any kind which comes suddenly
upon All unsuspecting and unprepared
People, there is always multitudinous
number Of remedies proposed. In the
present cataclysm of the cotton situa-
ton there are numbers of we'll mean
! ing people proposing all kinds Of plans
for getting the cotton growers out of
the pit hole of low prices into which
the value of their staple has been
rrecipitated. A great number of agri-
cultural doctors are diagnosing case
about which they have no practical
knowledge and are prescribing theo4
| retical remedies with which the pa
tients are asked to experiment. Among
the number we find, of course, many
| lawyers who hardly know n cotton
stalk from an ckra plant; but it is a
good time to get into the columns of
the press and let the dear old hay
seeds know that they have not been
forgotten"
And Harvie Jordan has himself been
the. main oratorscal specialist in the
curing Of the farmers ailments since
he was elected president Of the de-
funct Cotton Growers Association in
New Orleans some fifteen years ago.
And his hardy patient, though tenn
porariy indisposed, is still healthy,
and not half SO near deaths door as
we are asked to believe. So much for
Inconsistency in leadership.
Difficulties In Way
While the large land owner who Gull
tivates his own holdings can, and is
said to be determined TO, restrict pro-
duction, it is extremely doubtful that
those who rent their land can compel
their tenants to take like action. For
the landlord to "pledgs" his tenants u.s.
In the Language of g Southern farm
journal, "a joke"
The present movement has the back
ing of bankers, newspapers and state
officials in the South. But one remem-
bers that when, few years ago, some
| thousands of Southern bankers agreed
to refuse advances to farmers who did
not cut cotton acreage for foodstuffs,
nothing came of it, The pocket nerve
being very sensitive, and cotton is
cash. To break down q habit with
roots generations deep is a formidable
task. The result Of past attempts at
| Southwide organized curtailment has
been that so many, anticipating 70.
duction by others, have slyly increased
their own acreage, and in this wav
nuilified the whole scheme.
American farmers, being in the main
free agents. will do what each thinks
will best suit his book, while in Egypt,
the worlds third largest cotton grow
ing area, different plan has been fol-
lowed. The government Of that coun-
try, after consultation with the larger
land owners, has issued decree limit
ing the cotton acreage of each farm
next year to one-third of it's total area,
Coming now to the cotton spinner
attitude toward the man who grows the
raw material to feed his spindes, let
1T be said that he realizes the difficul-
ties of the situation. He knows that
his factories can produce nothing but
cotton yarn and cloth, while, assa last
resort, the cotton planter can turn his
land to other uses.
The spinner's position was put by ar
English student Of the situation dur.
ing the last panicky period 19l5)
when he wrote:
What Lancashire wants to know is
how much is required to remunerate
those of the. planters who, owing tc
adverse conditions of soil, climate
transport and labor OR other costs, OF
low average yield per acre, find that
their average cost of production pei
pound of cotton is higher than that OF
their neighbors, for these less fortu-
nate planters must receive price
which satisfies them, or they will in
course of time cease growing cotton.
Adverse Effect on Users
There is no greater authority on the
cotton industry of the world than 81,
Charles NIAGARA, who, in 1913, said
Anything that adversely affects tn,
growers of the raw material of world
wide industry, such as cotton, mus,
undoubtedly reeoil on the users of that
raw material"
Another member of the cotton USING
BRANCH, an English spinner, writing t.
an American friend last November
when cotton was fetching a bette,
price than 1t is to-day, said: Person