Evening star., 1926-10-12

Cotton producers, staggering through
crisis, with the price of their staple
falling below the cost Of production
in the midst of general prosperity,
again are being warned by Southern
newspapers that their only hope for
the future lies in cooperative control
Of production and marketing.
Memory of last years big crop and
good prices was too vivid" says the
New Orleans Item-Tribune. THE
farmers increa sed their acreage. Next
year. after this years bitter expert
ence, they may reduce it. Then the
price may rise. And that will inspire
them the following year to overplant
again. 1t is a vicious circle, an eco
nomic folly The South will not be
independent or its prosperity sound
until this is broken
Southern farmers have passed
through several crises similar to the
present, in which cotton prices pre-
vailing are under the cost of produc-
tton," explains the Birmingham News,
"but what makes the immediate ex-
tremity absolutely unique in the his
tory of Southern economics is that at
this time the price Of nearly every
other commodity IS higher than
normal. In other years, when sur
pluses of cotton appeared, American
industrials were at low ebb. In this
year there is high tide of prosperity
save only among those who carry on
the most ancient and essential indus
try of all--agriculture. That is a
strange state of affairs. It does not
help matters to grant that the pres
ent situation is in very large part the
fault of the farmers, that they them
selves are to blame for the overpro-
duction-which, of course, they are.
What must be done now is for the
farmers and the whole South to do
what may be done in the way of eX-
Treating themselves from the un-
pleasant dilemma The News be-
lieves that 'the movement to lend
money to the farmers up to 60 per
cent of the market value of their
product is eminently sound and prac-
ticable."
Leaders in the cotton trade have
said publicly that the cooperative
associations prevented a disaster last
year by holding more than a million
bales off the falling market accord
ing to the Atlanta Journal. "They
can accomplish even more toward get
ting fair price when their member
ship increases and when they control
larger percentage of tha supply.
The Journal suggests to those who
now are urging q holding movement
| as a necessity" that they investigate
| and see If the cooperative associa-
tions are not in position to accom-
plish this purpose better than any
hastily organized machinery that
might be set up. If this is true, and
! if retiring a large part of the crop
| is the thing to be done. then let the
| movement take the form of cam
paign to increase the membership of
the cooperative associations and TO
increase the amount of cotton to be
marketed by them
Did cooperative cotton associa
tions of the cotton-growing States
have control of one-third of the
product" says the Columbia State
"the price for the whole crop could
always be maintained above the cost
of production. If at the end of the
season there was an abnormal carry
over the cotton. growers would know
the exact condition and would meet
the problem by reducing acreage fol-
the next crop The State refers to
the suggestion of a correspondent
that because thousands Of cars in the
| South would have to be turned back
to the dealers If the farmers cannot
get better prices for their cotton.
some one should persuade Henry
Ford or General Motors y buy a mil