The times-news. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1927-current, 1937-11-13
PRICE FIXING EXPERIMENTS

Es fA'' JAW "'A-"' N>'''"~s
PRICE FIXING EXPERIMENTS
After years of costly experimenting with
price fixing to control that country's great
export crop. coffee. Brazil has abandoned
the price fixing scheme. One authority
SAYS that the Brazil experiment has col
Iapsed in failure, adding another to the
long list of price fixing experiments which
have failed.
How true is the last statement! The
long list dates back almost to the begin
ming of the records Of world history. 1t Is
an experiment that was tried two thousand
years ago by the imperial Roman govern
ment. 1t failed in Rome. 1t added heavily
to the handicapS which ultimately wrecked
the Roman empire.
Price fixing and production control have
failed in this country. Under Republican
administrations preceding the Roosevelt
regime, more than five hundred million
dollars of federal government funds were
wasted by the politicians in monkey bust
ness" labeled farm relief"
The record of the present administra-
tons mOnkeying with farm relief is
fresh in the minds of all thoughtful citi-
ZenS. Now the country is faced with the
threat of crop control and price fixing on
such a scale as was never dreamed OF be-
fore. 1t may cost the tax payers as much
as a billion dollars year; it is admitted
by the most enthusiastic advocates of the
scheme. If these gentlemen are willing to
acknowledge the corn to the tune OF
billion dollars at this stage, it is certain
that sum is by no means the top figures,
if the fiXers. controllers and believers have
their way.
Throughout the present cotton season
the political manipulators have been try
ing to control cotton prices. Efforts to hold
prices up. to freeze them at fixed point,
have failed in spite of government prom
iseS and subsidies; and cotton prices have
steadily slipped down the grade. Every
time the government announces it is going
70 do something more to help the cotton
growers, the cotton market goes down.
Comment at length to sustain this esti-
mate of the value of production control
and price fixing could be cited. We quote
the Economist of The Christian Science
Monitor in an interesting discussion of
Brazils coffee experiment and this coun-
try's attempt to control" cotton produc-
ton and prices. The Economist says:
1t is a curious thing that, while other producing
countries have profted from Brazi's self-denial
Brazil herself has profted from Americas self-de-
NAL as regards cotton. Brazil steadily expanded
cotton production as America restricted 1t. Now
the United States is back in production again, with
crop estimated as the largest since 1882. But
foreign markets have not come back Other pro-
duccrs, including Brazil, obtained more than toe
hold in consumer markets while the United States
was engaged in restriction.
Moreover, American cotton need not be sold at
the world price This privilege is the result of the
pledge which Uncle Sam made last congress to
guarantee a fixed price for cotton. The fixed price
is II cents and will go to farmers "who have COM
piled" with the Legislation contemplated for
1888, j. e. in the pending farm bill. With the price
now around eight cents, doubtless many farmers
are holding their cotton, and it looks if the
Farm Board ramp of Hoover days will be repeated.
In the South l see more and more references
to the unwsdom of price-fxing. | mean unwisdom
from the South's well the national point of
view. In the Texas Business Review just received,
there is the following remark:
"World markets, such the cotton market, are
extremely sensitive to artificial interference be-
cause they destroy commercial values. 1t is highly
important that federal subsidy loans, or loans
above market price, should be abandoned if we
propose to hold our foreign markets for cotton.
In addition to creating uncertainty in the market
loans above market price sustain the market for
foreign competitors, and force the accumulation
of SURPRISES to plague American producers"
AS to the loss of markets the figures are telling.
Prior to the World war the United States furn-
ished about 45 per cent of the commercial cotton
consumed outside the United States. During 19S'