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PAGE SIX
Ot INTEREST TO WEALTH CREATORS
THE COTTON SITUATION.
As we are facing some peculiar
conditions in regard to the present
cotton situation, and having given
this matter considerable thought in
ihe last two and a half years, I would
like to reason some with the produc
ers of cotton and all interested.
Cotton is our money crop, it has
been called our circulating medium,
and experience has taught us the
more money we have the better it is
for the entire county. As proof of
this we have only to retrospect the
last two nr three years of good crops
and fair prices. We believe the pro
ducer of cotton should receive the
highest price consistent with supply
and demand. This is a short crop of
cotton throughout the South, as re
ported by all reliable sources of in
formation, the best of which we think
is The Cotton Journal, owned and op
erated by the growers themselves,
and should be in every southern home.
The demand for cotton is greater
than ever before. All cot ten goods
are 25 to 50 per cent .higher than a
year ago.
Why is this raise? It is based on
15-cent col ton. Are these goods
made of 15-cent cotton? No. But
they are made of 9 and 10 cent cot
ton. Why not the farmers raise the
price of cotton on a parallel with rise
on the manufactured cotton? Besides
this, the great Souhern Cotton Asso
ciation, in its recent session, aftei
hearing reports from all parts of the
cotton producing slates, decided on
and announced a 15-cent minimum
price for this year’s crop.
The Farmers’ Union in national
convention, announced the same price
of 15 cents for cottcn and $20.00 per
ton for seed. The S. C. A. made a
price of $20.00 per ton on cottcn seed
also, and the seed is new readily sold
at $20.00 per ton.
These people who have consulted to
gether and made the prices have done
so after months of careful investiga
tion. This is recommended as a fair
price under present conditions. Last
year we named 10 cents as a mini
mum. the vear before we named 11
cents as a fair price, and the price®
we have named in the last hree years
have been easily received. Now, why
not all join in and stand by the two
great organizations that have stood
by the farmers and saved and
brought prosperity to the country?
It has b* en estimated by some of tho
best business men and bankers of the
South that the S. C. A. and Farmers’
Union have saved to the southern peo
ple $600,000,000 within the last
three years. Is this not enough to
inspire confidence in the farmers to
stand by these organizations?
I know that there are people who
deny these claims, but a comparison
cf those who make claims with those
who deny them is all we ask. How
are we to secure the 15 cents price
for cotton? 4 ‘Stop soiling absolute
ly.*’ But we have debts to meet. This
is true, and you should remember your
merchant who has stood by you while
making your crop, and arrange to pay
him, or pay most of the account. Mon
ey can be borrowed on cotton within
a few dollars of what it would sell
for today. Then why not borrow mon
ey and not sell the cotton until it
reaches JLS cents? Is 15 cents an un-
fair price for cotton? We say not al
all. The present crop has cost the
producer about 25 cents per pound,
and it would sell for that price if all
the farmers were compactly organized
and would not sell for less. Go into
any store, and they will tell you all
cotton goods have advanced 33 1-3 to
50 per cent. Then why’ not cotton be
raised about a third higher than last
year’s price? The goods now so
advanced are made of 9 and 10-cent
cotton; nest year goods will likely be
much higher. So the only protection
the producer has is to raise the price
of cotton in keeping with cotton
goods. And, did you ever think there
is nothing else that can take the
place of cotton, even at 25 cents per
pound? We have not known the real
value of cotton until now. Who op
pose the 15 cent price of cotton? The
bear speculators and those who believe
their stories of a large crop. Suppose
some one would say we asked only
10 cents last year and 15 cents this
year. This is true; but we have had
to work just about as hard to produce
a fourth of this crop this year as we
did to produce a full crop last .year.
Now, let’s see what the difference
of 11 and 11 1-2 c and 15c means to
our cwn liitle t -wn. Say we make
here this year 2,000 or 3.000 bales.
Three and a half or even three cents
difference in present price or mini
mum set by the S. C. A. and the Un
ion would be $15.00 per bale on 3,00 G
bales of cotton, this would amount
to $45,000. Now, who can be found
in all this broad land that believes
this section of the country and this
town and our merchants, bankers and
other lines of business would be as .
well off without this amount as with
it? Should any big company come
and offer, under certain conditions, to
distribute such an amount among the
pecple of this town and country, any
one who would fail or refuse to work
for such a benefit would be considered
an enemj of the country in which he
lives.
Now, by co-operating, we can save
from sls to S2O per bale on all cot
ton sold in our town. Will we do
this? Do not the people who raise
these short crops need all it will leg
itimatelv and fairly bring. Should
not the merchants and bankers aid in
the greal effort? Are not all our in
terests identical? Would they not be
benefited by such a saving, and finally
we ask, will they now join in an ef
fort to make this saving by assisting
in every possible way the farmers to
secure the real value of their present
crop of cotton.
By our efforts in the past you have
prospered in your business, expanded,
enlarged, etc. Now. bv vour assist
ance and co-operation, we can at least
stay in business. —Welton Winn.
COTTON GAMBLERS IN NEW
YORK.
Sheltcn Sims, of Mobile, describes
in the Atlanta Constitution the scenes
he witnessed in the New York cotton
exchange. From his pen flows a deal
of truth touched up with a constant
play cf satire. He says that even an
honest cotton exchange in New York
would be about as rational a propo
sition as would he a pineapple ex
change in the Klondyke. New York
has never had an honest exchange,
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
and Mr. Sims thinks the one it has
has done the south more financial
hurt in ihe past twenty years than
have the boll weevil, tffb cotton worm,
the boll worm, and all the other nat
ural enemies of the cotton plant.
Mr. S«ms naturally asks how long
must the cottm growers toil and
sweat to support in luxury the use
less and hurtful aggregation of gamb
lers in New York? It goes without
saying that the prices of cotton
should be made amid the cotton fields
instead c.f a thousand miles away.
But the cotton growers have had no
more to do with the regulation of
cotton prices than have the inhabi
tants of the moon, and they never
will have until organization and co
operation became the custom, habit,
the watchword of all producers them
selves. When they are well organized
the first steps have been taken —and
when they are willing to co-operate
for the common good in the time of
larketing cotton and in the naming of
its pnee, then and not until then,
will the gamblers in New York cease
to put cotton up or down to suit their
own schemes and those of eastern
spinners. New York has ceased to
handle spot cotfa n in anv consider
able Quantities. Deliveries under its
rules are few and far between, and
they are not a bit angelic. They are.
in fact, nnspinnable. But it still
handles contracts and by pushing
them up and down it makes the price
of c'.tton at the farm. This should
not be. New York should be driven
out of the cotton business altogether,
and the way to do it consists in organ
ization and co-operation in every one
of the 800 odd cotton counties in the
country. The Farmers’ Union and
the Southern Cotton Growers’ Asso
ciation are blazing the correct way
to a consummation devoutly to be
wished.— A ge-Herald.
SHOWING THE FARMER.
Out at Shafter Lake, a new town
in Andrews county, the secretary of
the Commercial Club must be a Mis
sourian. Various devices have been
used by commercial clubs all over
Western Texas to interest farmers in
the eastern part of the state and in
the north the opportunities which the
newer sections of Texas offer. Here
tofore it has been generally supposed
that a commercial club should confine
its effort® to interesting new indus
tries in its own city and leave the
farmer to the tender mercies of the
real estate agent.
Out at Abilene a year or two agd,
the 25,000 people of that city woke
up to the fact that new industries to
any town are of no value when there
is mt a well-setthd farming com
munity to support the industries and
supply produce for the workmen the
industries attract. The Abilene Club
immediately began a branch of its
work to interest farmers in Taylor
county and the surrounding country,
and has succeeded thus far admirably.
The Shafter Lata plan is a little
bit further advanced than that follow
ed by Abilene. The Commercial Club
of Shafrer Lake has been getting out
yellow post cards, on the backs of
which are printed some facts and fig
ures calculated to make any soil-tiller
sit up and take notice. 41 Do you care
to invest your money where it will
bring you adequate returns, say, 25
per cent as a minim urn?” is the way
the card to farmers’starts out. The
card goes on- to illustrate ns follows:
4 ‘Say it costs you sls per acre, or
$2,400 for the 160 acres; after allow
ing twenty acres for pasture, which
is always needed fur a farm of 160
acres, the following figures show what
profit can be made by farming 140
acres. Now, we are going to place
this at the minimum. The following
is what you should make each year
for a period of at least ten years:
“Sixty acres of cotton, yielding
two-thirds of a bale to the acre, or a
total of forty bales, at SSO per bale,
$2,000.
“Ten acres of milo maize, at forty
bushels co the acre, or a total of 400
bushels at 30 cents per bushel, $l2O.
“Thirty acres cf Indian corn, with
a yield of forty bushels to the acre, at
40 cents per bushel, S4BO.
“Grand total, $3,400.’’
Showing the farmer that he can
make sl.uoo clear the first year is the
sort of argument that ought to bring
settlers to Andrews county, and the
Shafter Lake Club is doing a good
work in presenting such a plain state
ment before a large number of farm
ers of every state. Naturally, the
club does not guarantee the figures,
and no reasonable settler would ex
port such a guarantee. Returns from
a fawn which would yield one-fourth
the cost the first year ought to be con
sidered large As a matter of fact,
farms in the Shafter Lake country
have done more in recent years than
the specimen case the commercial club
ci* os for proof
The point of the whole proposition
is that commercial chibs ought not to
neglect the farmer in the hunt for
new industries. A man who will set
tle and develop 160 acres of land is
worth as much to any community as
a factory employing half a dozen peo
ple, and the farmer asks no bonus
when he moves.—Fort Worth Tele
gram.
AGE OF FARMER CO-OPERATION
The Friday Harbor Journal pub
lishes a news story which illustrates
the beneficial results of farmer co
operation. It states that the Lopez
Island Telephone Company has sixty
eight subscribers, located in different
parts of the island. The company is
simply a home organization of farm
ers. The system cost each man sls,
and gave the individual ownership of
the instruments. An annual mainte
nance fee of $6 pays all operating
expenses, and leaves a good balance
in the treasury. Even the most dis
tant and out-of-the-way points on the
island are connected by the telephone,
and a central station is supplied with
a salaried operator, and there are no
complaints of bad service.
We are living in an ago of farmer
co-operation. Tillers of the soil have
long since learned the lesson of how
to look after their own interests. They
have linked the city and country with
telephone and rural mails. They are
building more and better roads and
establishing an era of financial inde
pendence. They are adopting business
methods and making of the farm a
cash dividend payer in all its branch
es. The farm of today is merely a
big department store, in which are of-