Evening star., 1931-06-21
Old King Cotton Is Sick

/ duction must be exported: it comes into
competition with cotton grown in India.
| Egypt, Brazil, Peru and some 40 other
! countries. most Of which have a stand
ard OF living far below that Of the
United States. The Southern cotton
farmer is now engaged in q struggle
with the producers of these other ma
tions. which, reduced to elementary
terms. means simply a competition to
see which can draw his belt the tighter.
Competition Unfair.
"If this competition were fairly con-
Quoted, one might play the American
farmer to win, due to his greater INTEL
ligence. industry and modern methods
OF working. But. balanced against these
admitted advantages of our farmers.
the foreigner not only can underliye the
American, but the latter has the enor-
nous disadvantage of working behind
one OF the worlds highest tariff walls
and alongside Government stabilization
or price fixing and under the withering
influence Of the political or war debts.
"The tariff increases the farmers cost
OF production and lessons the ability of
his foreign customer to buy: Govern
ment stabilization OF cotton prices has
merely served to prevent adequate cur
tailment OF acreage while driving our
, best customers into the hands OF our
competitors, while our attitude about
the war debts forces these same Gus
toners to use all their available sup
plies of gold for payment on the debts,
leaving little for buying American prod
ucts.
"Other factors in the plight Of the
Southern cotton farmer are soil de-
pletion, resulting in lower yields and
poorer quality, and the archaic credit
system of cotton production. Practical
ly three -fourths Of the acreage planted
in cotton is financed with borrowed
money from the moment the seeds are
,put into the ground. Landlords who
finance their tenants sometimes require
the latter to plant all his land in cot
ton, since cotton is the money crop,
and in consequence the farmer often
raises no food, no vegetables-not even
hay or grain for his horses.
This credit system is hazardous, it
Is big weight or toll On the cost of
production, and vet it is more or less
inherent in one-crop agriculture. The
obvious remedy is the growing Of suff1-
cient food and feed on every cotton
plantation to feed all the people and
live stock on that plantation so that
some Of the cotton money may 60 into
the farmers own pocket. This would
greatly lessen the need of credit and
would automatically cut the cost Of
production.
These problems OF soil conservation,
diversification, lowered yields in guam
tity and quality and credit reform are
all closely bound up together, and can,
in time, be solved by education, and
indeed some progress is being made in
various parts of the South, especially
under the spur of present distress.
The results, however, are slow and
almost inflnitesimal when compared
with the immensity of the problem.
The Federal Farm Board, working
through the cotton cooperative as
sociations, might do valuable work
here. It could focus the farmers at
tention on his farm problems, which are
not how to reduce production and
how to produce more and better cotton
on fewer acres and at less cost.
Hits Farm Board.
Instead of doing this, the Farm
Board has preoccupied itself, so far as
cotton and wheat are concerned, with
futile attempts to peg the price.
Even il cotton were an American
monopoly, Government attempts to peg
the price could not permanently sue
ceed. But the world does not have to
depend on the United States for cot
ton. There are more than 30 other
countries in which it grows, and in
some of these-India and Russia are
notable examples-acreage is being In
creased, methods of cultivation have
been improved, quality CT staple has
been raised to higher standards As a
result, consumption of foreign growths
has appreciahly expanded while con-
sumption Of American cotton shows q
heavy shrtnkage."
Mr.. Clayton turned to q file of sta
tistics on his desk. Last season the
world consumption Of American cotton
decreased about is Der cent. while world
consumption of foreign cotton increased
more than 10 per cent. And during
the first six months Of the present sea-
son, American cotton has dropped still
farther-our decrease is more than %
per cent below the low record of the
corresponding months Of the previous
year, while foreign cotton holds all the
gain recorded In the first six months
OF the last season"
Foreign cotton Is gaining and Ameri-
can cotton is losing in this world trade
for three principal reasons, thinks Mr.
clayton.
First, Government "stabilization" in
1880 served to keep American cotton
prices at an artificial level above world
cotton prices.
Second, because the cheap labor Of
the Orient Is able to grow cotton at a
lower cost than the American farmer
can grow 1t.
Third, because the present position
Of the United States in world eco
nomics-with the leading industrial
nations owing it huge sums Of bor-
rowed capital ana with protective