The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1922-12-16

! French cabinet TO-DAY approved
Premier Poincare's attitude at the
London conference and also agreed
with him regarding the decla-
Irations he will make Friday IN
parliament.
A man has lived in Philadelphia
81 years but we cant tell you why
! ing as much as they know about
world supply and world require
ment. :.
The American co-operatives in
eight states this year control about
one-ninth of the American crop. It
is likely that they will control
about onee.nird next fall. for the
! marvellous success they are achiev-
ing is recruiting their membership
every day.
And when they do control, say,
one-third of the American pro-
duction, you will see no further eff
fort by British spinners to break
t the price temporarily by curtail-
ling consumption for a month os
50. Z,
The price will become more and
more stabilized: more and more it
will be fairly steady expression
of the reaction of demand on sup
/ ply. 6
This is all the farmers have any
right to ask, that they shall be as
sured fair price, a price fair to
I, themselves. to the spinners and
| the peoples of the world who de-
pend on farmer and spinner for a
, necessity of life.
They have never got it in the
past. not even when cotton was
! selling for 40 cents.
A Puzzled Reader
A reader who was interested in
the preceding articles in this Sc
ries asks how the cooperative
principle can be fair to all the
farmers. You say" he says. sThe
co-operatives sell gradually with
the market. Won't that give some
farmers more for their cotton than
others Will gete Won't there be
some sort of fayoritism in IT,
The reader doesn't understand
the fundamental principle. It
centers in the word pooling"
All the cotton handled by each
OF the state associations is gather
ed into pools. There are very
many different grades of cotton.
varying according to color. classi-
hcation and staple length. Some
spinners use one sort, others the
other sorts, The difference in
price when middling is quoted at
i25 cents runs nearly 20 cents.
That is. poor grade Of cotton
barely spinnable will be worth
only Z or cents, middling will
be worth 25 cents and a higher
grade will bring 81 cents or %.
These pools are made up Of the
different grades Of cotton handled
by the association. From Uncle
Ruben Smiths farm in Pike coun-
ty there may come to the associa-
ton twelve bales of cotton of three
different grades. Uncle Ruben's
cotton at. that moment loses all
contact with itself and with him.
He gets receipts for four bales of
each of the three grades specified,
L,1 n
the association and waits till the
end of the cotton year for final
statement. Each set of bales is
put with other cotton of the same
grade held by the association. Let
us say four are good middling,
four are middling and four are low
middling.
Averages are Struck
! When the association finishes
selling its years cotton. the price
obtained for every bale of cotton
in every single grade is averaged
Don't read this to mean that an
average is struck of the prices for
all grades; the average is struck
for each grade). And settlement
is made for every bale in each
grade on the basis of the average
iprice obtained for that grade dur
ing the season.
Some good middling may have
sold for % cents. some for 26
some for 81. and SO on. What
Uncle Reuben's four bales brought
will never be known. 1t might
have been 25 or it might have
been %. 1t makes no difference
to him. He gets the average price
This. of course, is the very es'
sence of fairness. There can be
no favoritism; there is no luck II
it He gets for his grade of cot.
ton just what all the other pro.
ducers of that grade get.
The beauty about it is that the
average price is bound to be higher
than the independent producer
will average.
! And it is 100 to shot tha
it is higher than. Uncle Reube1