Pocahontas star herald., 1925-11-12
COTTON GROWERS
PANIC DEPLORED

Il
and to stop sacrificing their cotton at
ridiculous prices was issued this week
by e. ]. Rodman, vice president Of the
Union Trust Company of Little Rock
and chairman of the Committee on
Agriculture of the Arkansas Bankers
Association, and Charles G. Henry of
Newport, president of the Arkansas
Cotton Growers Cooperative Assocla-
tion.
Mr. Bodman gave his endorsement
to letter he received from Mr.. Henry
which read as follows:
"There is crying need for someone
whose advice is considered valuable to
make an effort to stop our cotton pro-
ducers who are sacrificing their cotton
at ridlcuously low prices. Not only
the farmers, but our bankers, credit
merchants and landlords seem to have
lost their heads and are throwing cot
ton on the market at any price when
they can find buyer. Cotton buyers
are hiving it forced on them when
they don't want it and therefore, have
to buy it cheap to play safe.
Half our crop is still to come in,
and, if sold properly, win give us
some needed prosperity, but if the
present emethods continue, this, the
largest cotton crop that Arkansas has
ever made will leave us worse off than
we started.
"We have a great deal Of low grade
cotton but it is not nearly as low in
grade as represented. In the country
/ the present discounts on low grades
from middling are two or three times
what they should. be. Dumping this
as fast as it is ginned onto unwilling
buyers only makes matters worse and
neither the producer, landlord, bank
er nor creditor gets anything out of it..
1--WE have boasted that the South
could finance itself and we can, but
our people are not acting like it. They
are acing more like rabbits.
'The spinners will take this crop,
good and bad grades, at good prices
if we do not throw it at them all at
once. The only difference between
good and bad cotton is the amount of
waste in it,"
Low grade cotton may never be
higher in price than it is now. The
chances are a hundred TO one that it
will be higher. We believe it will be
higher. Hold on to it at least until
the case is hopeless. There is every
thing to gain and nothing to lose.
Nobody is buying low grade cotton
now except for investment. Wait until
the mills want it. They will want it
sooner or later.
Low grade cotton is now in the
weakest possible hands and in many
instances ignorant hands-in the hands
of many who are weak financially
and who are easily imposed upon. A
, case of this kind came to our notice
recently. "What am / to do?" this
poor fellow asked, and then added, 81
need the money; they tell me that
others are selling at 10 cents and there
are only three mills in the world that
use low grade cotton"
Holy smoke! A low grade crop is a
millman's paradise. Numberless mills
use low grade cotton, and many more
than the regular users turn to them
when necessity demands, or when It
seems possible for them to do so. There
is waste involved in making low grades
suitable as substitutes for better
grades, but the mills charge good
round profit for the waste, and for any
other trouble to which they are put
! in adapting cotton to specified use.
Tinges can be bleached and what diff
ference does it make, if the yarn of
cloth is to be dyed whether the raw
material is gray or white?
This crop is not large enough to go
around without the help of the low
grades. The only important buying of
low grades so far has been investment
buying, and there would be no invest
ment buying If buyers did not believe
they had a chance to make a lot of
money out Of them.
Not enough low grades have been
bought or sold so far for anybody TO
say that price has been fixed The
only way to Judge of what they are
worth is to compare intrinsic values,
and intrinsic value of the lowest grade
now on the market is far above any
price now obtainable.
The chief, if not the sole influence
on the recent decline was quite gener-
al acceptance Of the governments last
report. Prospects for consumption,
which are excellent, were ignored
Business from the cotton field to the
retail dry goods counter feels the ef-
feet. But cotton men. millmen and
roOdg distributOrs are merely Whiting