Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-11-21
TEMPORARY COLLAPSES
IN COTTON PRICES DO
NOT WORRY 'CO-OPS'
Continued from Page u

market price Oh as mucn as 9oV
a bale within a few months,
there is but one means by which
the farmer can hope to obtain a
FAIR value for his cotton, save
by luck.
That one means is gradual
selling. BY gradual selling, some
thing near an average price
may be obtained, and an aver
age price is bound to be some
thing near a fair expression of
the relation of supply to de-
mand.
But there is no individual
farmer in the world who can
EXPECT to obtain an average
price. He may HOPE to, but he
has not enough cotton to sell on
the fluctuations over twelve
months.
However, if he joins with a
sufficient number of other farm
ers, and this number produces a
sufficient part Of the crop, he
can be assured of an average
price.
just What Has Happened
This is what has happened in
the case of the eight state CO.
operative marketing associa-
lions. They will sell this year
something more than one million
bales Of cotton. That is about
one-ninth of the American crop.
Therefore, it is possible for
the farmers so associated to OBJ
tain an average price for their
cotton based on the daily quota
tions for the cotton year. They
have a sufficient amount Of cot
ton to enable them to sell from
day to day and so may get the
years highest price and the
years lowest price and all the
prices between the two.
Theoretically, the farmers so
associated are certain Of an av-
erage price.
AS matter of fact, they will
get a great deal more. 1t has
been shown in the previous ar
ticles in this series that the
Georgia cooperative sold no coz
ton in July, August and Septem-
Der when the unorganized farm
ers were creating the annual
market gluts because of the
necessity to sell Immediately.
Cotton then was kicking around
20 cents.
If the Georgia association md
desired to sell at that time
which it did mott could not
have sold because it was busy
collecting it's cotton into uni
form pools.
Fortunately, it was not till
cotton got above Is cents that
the association was in position
to sell. 1t sold cotton at rs
cents and on up to above q
cents when 1niddling here was
26.S0) and is doubtless con
tinuing to sell as it's experts see
fit.
Can Avoid Market Gluts
These experts land you may
be sure they know their bust
ness, for Chessley B. Howard,
one of the leading American fig
ures in the cotton trade is sales
manager for the eight associa-
tom do not profess to know
when cotton will reach it's top.
figure. They know nobody can
know. But they DO know when
to avoid the low prices during
the annual gluts, and know they
can sell to obtain average prices
thereafter.
So daily fluctuations, and tie
drop of 40 points in seven days.
mean nothing to the Georgia
members of the association.
Some Independent farmers there
may be who got 27 cents, if so,
they were lucky. There are tens
of thousands who got only 20
cents; they were not only I'm,
lucky, but foolish for they
might have avoided their plight
by joining with their fellow
farmers.
AS I have said before, the co
operatives are not holding asso,
Citations. Nobody knows how
much to hold for. Some Georgia
farmers We're holding for SO
cents in 1920, and they mao ac
vice to do so from high quar-
ters.
But they had to sell for II
cents when they might have got
40.
The co-operatives not only are
not holding associations, but
they do not even profess to be
able to sell all their cotton at
the highest prices Of the season.
They merely. know that they
are going to avoid the periods of
glut when prices are at the bot
tom, and that they are going to
sell some at the highest price
Of the year and the rest at vari-
Gus prices between the highest
price and the lowest at the time
they are selling
So they will obtain for each
and every member a price sew
eral cents above the average
price for the season.
For Example
The Standard Oil company
they are commonly regarded as
one) is a synonym to the whole
world for business efficiency. It
;las earned billions of dollars.
1t has sold gasoline in Atlanta
this year at 80 cents a gallon. 1t
sole sold / gasoline Saturday for 81
1 don't know how much it
made on gasoline at 80 cents, or
how much, if any, it will lose
on gasoline at Fl cents. But it
IS a moral certainty that the
Standard Oil company selling
gasoline in Atlanta will earn
anywhere from 20 to 80 per cent
on it's capitalization this year.
Its profits come from the fact
that on it's years average price
it earns a good profit.
That's what the cotton coop
eratives purpose to do for their
members. And it is what they