Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-11-06
TREMENDOUS GAIN
To SOUTH RESULTS
FROM COTTON RISE
Georgia Receives Big Poten-
tiaI Benefits With Appre-
citation in Value of Staple
Crop Grown in State

(N0TE-The following article on the
cotton situation was written by q man
who has made study of the cotton mar
ket for fifteen years and has, i'll years
uation and making predictions based On
the situation. His predictions have in the
main been borne out. In this article he
gives his views and the facts upon which
he bases them).
End-October figures estimating
the cotton crop of the United States
for 1923 at 10,248, 900 bales against
end-September figures of 11,015,000
bales, sent prices to new high rec
ords for three years and we'll on the
way to equal the record of 1920
when the staple went as high as S9c.
The big bulge in values that fol,
lowed the announcement of the last
government report carried Atlanta
spot cotton to 31.50 cents or $3.50
bale over the low for the season,
which was reached on August 2,
when the market touched the CSC
level. From that date on there has
been a general tendency upward,
but the real bull drive came as a
result of the last condition report
showing the crop only 47.8 per cent
Of normal as cOmp4red with 52.6 a
year ago.
At the present market price in
Atlanta the potential yield for the
entire cotton belt is worth $87,12S,-
600 more than it was on August 2
last, and the gain in dollars and
cents for Georgia is $5,185,000. At
tf e low point of the season the esti-
mated yield for the United States
would have brought $235,7O4, 900
while today the crop expected is
worth $322,832, 900. Georgia's crop
Of $4,000 bales today is worth $19,-
215,000, against $14,030,0Q0 three
months ago.
There has been no more absorb
ing subject this fall, and more par
ticularly these last few days, than
! the advance in the price of cotton,
which Saturday showed no tendency
to react from the first bulge of
Friday, when the report was issued.
There was the usual loss from
prof1t-taking, evident on all such
advances, but fresh orders kept
prices around the best
Part of Spinners
Spinners seemed to have had their
part in selling orders, lfobabiy
| hedges, many coming from the
south, when top prices were reached
in New York Saturday, and the slight
break from the high can not be at
| trihUted to an inherent weakness in
| the position of the market. Unques-
| tioEably the government figures
! caused a rush to pick up spots for
mill consumption and the consequent
| hedge selling in futures.
The Lungs VINO have had the mar.
ket in hand since last summer still!
are in the saddle and with a stock
on July 81 last of only 2,087, 919 bales
to augment another short crop.
which together will. about equal
world consumptio-. last year, 1t is
only reasonable to suppose that they
will hold the whip hand, at least
until all needs are cared for.
| Another element in their favor is
the fact that the potential yield add
ed to the carry-over will leave moth
| ing to greet next year S crop, and
the world for the first time in his
| tory seems destined to start a cot
| ton season with nothing Spinnable
| in the warehouses.
This condition that has been creep
! ing up on the trade since 1921, when
| the yield II short OF 5000 goo bales
and again in 1922, when the crop was
10000 bales, bids fair
| to bear out the prediction made in
these columns a year ago that It
! cotton famine was imminent unless
some means were found to combat
! the boil weevil and other enemies
| of the growing plant,
The carry-over has decreased with
alarming rapidity from about $780,
600 bales on July 81, 1921, to slightly
over 100000 bales today, and nor
NAL postwar consumption even will
preclude anything being lef5 over
when the present crop is marketed.
1t will bring about condition Of
the demand equaling the supply
next year, though through the as
! sistance of the carry-over and with
no carry-over in ensuing years, if
present growing conditions still OBJ
| tain, the demand is certain to ex-
coed the supply and bring on a con-
dition where a substitute for cotton
! must be found.
Some authorities on cotton, not two
| years ago, had the vision to foresee
such a contingency, and at the time
advanced the idea that even then
was time for some one to find that
substitute.