New-York tribune., 1921-02-13

in a novel way by buying Tor October
and November delivery to the number
Of bales they usually produce, using
as margin the amount that would
ordinarily be advanced 60 their tenant
farmers for The planting Of the crop.
The argument'is that it is useless to
wear out the land and take weather
risks when cotton can be bought for
future delivery for less than it would
cost to grow.
In this controversy, which never
ceases, the cotton exchange man ls
seldom heard from. He is accused OF
taking from the planter uncounted mil
lions season after season. But Theo-
dore Price, who ought TO know the
business of cotton speculation as well
as most, told the last World Cotton
Conference at New Orleans:
"rhe business of speculation is at
best an exceedingly hazardous one.
There are but few, if any, who retire
from it with fortune. unless they
happen to die opportunely."
are always to be deplored, being both
futile and foolish when they are used
ir an attempt to thwart economic laws.
Night riders setting fire TO few gin
houses and threatening to burn other
outfits unless their orders were obeyed
were no new experience in Southern
farm life. As far back as 1882 gangs
of Virginia planters treated the colony
to an exhibition of cutting down TO-
bacco plants in the hope that by their
action prices would go up. Nor does
leaving cotton unpicked in the fields
meet with the approval Of Southern
leaders, who, when dealing with this
and country damage" said: 1T is not
fair to the balance of the population
to destroy or to allow to deteriorate
any commodity in order TO hold up the
price on the balance. In other words,
the people of the world have rights
which must be respected, and so think
we should propose some form of legis-
lation for the purpose c. compelling
every man who handles cotton in any
way to protect it from damage" Which
reads altogether like a strange lam
guage coming from the South, where
orators are never silent and workers
always, or nearly always so.
1t is difficult to find on what ground
the proposed tariff on raw cotton
stands, other than the hysteria Of a
sadly disappointed group following a
thoughtless course. II would take too
much space. to make the fallacy of this
particular demand clear TO the layman.
~ 10 Si05PL4AB ~ q cS1@Ns o(S WHO
country bought about g. quarter of a
million bales of Egyptian cotton last
year. 1t is almost essential for certain
classes of goods. If we make it cost
more things made from it in American
mills are thus shut out of foreign
markets. while goods Of foreign make
on which no raw cotton duty has been
paid will the more readily overcome
the tariff barrier and compete with the
products of our mills manufactured
from the Egyptian fiber.
Advice TO hold eottonseed is another
panacea brought forward because Ere
cent declines in price are wholly specu-
lative." 1t is true that losses through
falling prices constitute a national
problem, as the Secretary of Agricul-
ture says. Yet if the cooperative
marketing scheme is properly managed,
and if the cotton grower will address
himself to the saving of the S60,000,000
to S75,000,000 a year he loses by an
utter disregard of the principles Of
business economy by allowing his cot
ton to lie out unprotected from the
weather, cotton may cease to be the
cry baby of American agricultural
products, remove itself from the legis-
lative doormat, stop being the football
of self-seeking politicians and grow
strong enough to stand four-square on
its own feet as other American
products do