Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-12-18
Independent Growers Again
Defeat Law of Supply and
Demand by Dumping and
Pay a Heavy Penalty
BY EDWIN CAMP
TIME diagram herewith is not
q drncc nathan IL is q

a dress pattern. 1t is
statistical cnart, called a
graph, and it shows a few details
of the course of the present cot
ton market.
1t is something more than a
graph, or chart. 1t partakes of
the character of a sermon. If its
lessons are needed, it will be
worth hundreds. of thousands,
even millions, of dollars to the
people of Georgia.
On July 81 there was some
doubt as to the amount of Amer
lean cotton that would be pro-
duced this year. There still is.
On July 81 there was also
some doubt as to the amount Of
American cotton the world would
need in the following twelve
months. There still is.
But there was one fact about
which there was no doubt. 1t
was this:
That not enough American cot
ton would or could be produced
to meet a NORMAL demand for
consumption, and maintain
safe carry-OVer.
This fact was known to every
cotton merchant, every cotton
spinner in the world.
A sellers market" this was
Created-a market in which
those having cotton were in po-
sition to control the situation.
Yet they did no such thing.
The trouble was that these sell
ers were 100000 people, scat
tered from southern Virginia and
southern Missouri, throughout
the southern states, all the way
to Florida and on westward to
the Rio Grande river and the
plains of New Mexico. OF these
100000 people, at least half
were negroes. OF them at least
100000 were illiterate. Another
half million, or maybe more, were
so unlearned as to have no
knowledge of the fundamental
facts of the cotton situation.
These 100000 people might
everyone of them, have OBJ
tanned an extraordinarily profit
able price for their cotton. the
produce of their years labor.
The money they might have OBJ
tanned would have gone out in
to every channel of cpmmerC e.
And everybody would have bene-
flied by such a sound distribu-
ton.
A situation had been created
for them, through no workings
of their own, which in degree
of accumulation, had never &C
Cured before. AS the season
opened, it was known to all
with any knowledge of trade that
a cotton famine impended.
The producers controlled the
market. They held it within the
grasp of their fists.
But they threw it down and
started cutting each others
throat.
They were unorganized. They
didn't know the facts. They had
debts that were pressing. They
were driven by landlord, mer.
chant, banker. They were
"skeered."
There were half a dozen elf
ferent Influences that impelled
them to rush peil-mell to mar
ket, all of them strong, yet zone
Of them valid. But the main
trouble was ignorance.
Had the steel mills of The coun
try faced such a situations in
their trade, they would nave
known what to do. Had a SINH
lar state of affairs existed in oil,
the great companies would have
extracted the profits which they
would have considered to be non
estly and justly theirs. Had any
set of merchants in any indus
try gazed upon such a sellers
market, they would have reaped
to the utmost the harvest pro-
vided for them by nature and
economics. B!,t the cotton FRO
ducers were ignorant, and I'M
organized.
The chart shows that en- jay
81 middling cotton in New York
was selling at 22.45 cents (.
pound. The markets were
closed September 1-3. but on Sep
TENDER 4, it brought 1886. On
October l, it sold at $3.50. On
November l, it had climbed to
1925. On December 1, It reached
1866. in ten days it dropped to
$50. Two days later it had
risen 2.55 cents to 36.25.
Those figures mean that a bale
of cotton had the following diff
ferent values:
July 31..............$ 112.25