The progressive farmer and the cotton plant. [volume], January 03, 1905, Page 9, Image 9

About The progressive farmer and the cotton plant. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1904-1905

Image provided by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

                
Tuesday, January 3, 1905.
PROGRESSIVE FARMER AND COTTON PLANT.
9
THE COTTON OUTLOOK TO-DAY.
We had intended writing at some length on
the cotton situation to-day, but the morning pa
per prints a special New York dispatch to the
Manufacturers Record which sets forth the law
and the evidence so accurately and completely
that we adopt it in lieu of any utterance of our
own. Says this dispatch:
"To judge by the wild reports of the South's
burning cotton and the equally wild reports that
would create the impression that the break in
cotton is going to cause a wreck of matter and
a crash of worlds in the South, one would be led
to imagine that the whole South is staggered by
the cotton slump. The decline is deplorable, and
of course means a heavy loss to many, but it
should not be forgotten that about '6,000,000 bales
were sold at an average of probably 9V& cents,
and if 7,000,000 bales more should average only
7 cents, the total value of the crop, including
seed, would be over $500,000,000, which has never
been exceeded but a few times in the South's
history.
"There is no reason for the South to become
panicky over the cotton situation. It has many
a time faced far worse conditions and out of ap
parent defeat wen victory. Even 13,000,000
bales, should the crop prove that large, and many
good authorities still doubt such a yield, are not
as unduly heavy, all things considered, as were
11,250,000 bales in 1898. Then the world was
carrying a great surplus stock accumulated
through several successive years of large produc
tion, and the South was poorer, with compara
tively little surplus money in its banks and with
many of its farmers burdened with debts. Now
the world has but little stock of cotton outside
of this crop, the increase in demand has gone on
for six years, and the South is rich, with ample
capital to finance a large part of its cotton,
while the farmers are less in debt than since the
war.
"Cotton is intrinsically worth more than it is
selling for. and that there 'will be a reaction in
price is just as inevitable as it was that 17 cent
cotton would decline. A staple that does not
deteriorate in quality, that like pig iron is as
good twenty years hence as now, when below the
cost of production, as it is to-day, needs only to
be held long enough to make certain of higher
figures. Just how soon the tide will turn no man
can say, nor can any one say that it will not go
lower temporarily. But the South's policy to-day
should unquestionably be, not to burn cotton, not
to crowd it to market, but to store it and hold
for the inevitable swing of the pendulum, and in
the meantime to plant less acreage in cotton and
more in diversified crops. The situation is in
this way absolutely In the control of the South
itself, and it will have ho one but the South to
blame if it does not hold back permanently a
million or more bales and then reduce its
acreage."
In the foregoing dispatch, we have the situa
tion in a nutshell. There is no reason for pes
simism. As we have quoted in our "Current
Events" department, "nothing false, nothing ar
tificial, can endure." Seventeen cent cotton was
artificial, abnormal, and could not last. So seven
cent cotton is artificial, abnormal, and cannot
last.
The plan to burn a part of the surplus crop is
one an ordinary lunatic would be ashamed of.
Better put it aside to sell next year or even
five years hence if that were necessary and rest
and let the land rest until the demand should
catch up with the supply. We are sure no Pro
gressive Farmer readers have ever thought se
riously of this Fort Gaines folly.
Nor is there any reason for urging ginners to
discontinue making reports to the Government.
It was the ginners' report which sent cotton up
to seventeen cents; let us not now complain too
bitterly if it seems against us this year. Next
fall it may turn the tide in our favor when bear
ish overestimates would otherwise depress the
price. Sometimes the truth may hurt us, some
times it may help; but in the long run truth helps
every honest industry and the ginners' reports,
year in and year out, will be nearer truth than the
speculators' reports.
With the present heavy crop and the unorgan
ized condition of the growers, it will probably
not be practicable to force prices back quite to
the ten cent mark. But farmers have only to
stand firm for ninety days longer, and then con
vince the world that there is to be a reduction
in acreage, in order to command a living price
for all the surplus cotton now in their handss.
APROPOS OF THE NEW YEAR.
It was Montaigne was it not? who said: "I
have gathered a posy of other men's flowers, and
only the thread that binds them is mine own." So
it must be said of our New Year editorial : we have
gathered a few selections from writers who have
expressed our own thought with more force
and beauty than we can command, and these se
lections we commend to our readers.
First of all, as to our New Year resolutions.
They are worth while. Even if we fail in some
measure, it is something to have aspired to better
things. Yet if we fail too miserably, we may de
spair and resign ourselves to the Slough and
Despond. The wisest word that has been said on
this subject as on many other subjects comes
from my Lord Bacon, and this is his language:
"He that seeketh victory over his nature, let
him not set himself too great nor too small tasks ;
for the first will make him dejected by often fail
ing, and the second will make him a small pro-
ceeder, though by often prevailings Where
nature is mighty, and therefore the victory hard,
the degrees had need be, first to stay and arrest
nature in time (like to him who would say over
the alphabet when angry) : then to go , less in
quantity (as if one should, in forbearing wine,
come from drinking healths to a draught at a
meal); and, lastly, to discontinue altogether. But
if a man have the fortitude and resolution to en
franchise himself at once, that is the best."
In our "Thought for the Week" in this issue,
Emerson pays a high tribute to cheerfulness.
"The joy of the spirit indicates its strength," he
says and very correctly. Cheerfulness is a form
of heroism, of bravery in spite of disasters; while
to surrender to one's morbid and melancholy
tendencies is a form of cowardice. Then, too,
cheerfulness is a form of Christianity, a recogni
tion of the fact that "God's in His heaven and
all's right with the world" who that believes in
a good God who overrules all things can ever be
a pessimist ? We make these observations because
our next selection is a New Year's plea in behalf
of cheerfulness as found in one of our ex
changes a year ago:
"Just what particular step is most needed each
one must determine for him or herself. Probably
ninety-nine out of every one hundred of us 'boys
and girls grown .tall' need most to brace up and
strengthen the round of cheerfulness, and I ques
tion if there are many of you who can make a
resolve that will do more to develop and strength
en your higher nature than an earnest one to be
cheerful even when things go wrong for from
its roots is sure to spring thoughtfulness of
others, and hope, and courage."
And just as cheerfulness is a virtue, so is thrift.
The ability to save, to lay aside for future wants,
always implies foresight, self control and regard
for others : it makes for honesty and contentment.
Listen then to- this advice of Col. J. B. Kjllibrew
in the January Southern Farm Magazine:
"At the beginning of the present year let every
farmer resolve to save at least a small percentage
of his income for investment or for pressing
necessities. It so oftens happens that when the
farmer receives a large sum of money from the
sale of his crops, as cotton, tobacco or wheat, that
he and his family at once enter upon a career of
extravagance and unwise expenditure. Soon they
find their little horde wasted, and, what is still
worse, habits are formed that make it much hard
er to practice economy in the future. If the rule
were once established in the home of the Ameri
can farmer, as it is in almost every German
home, that a part of the income should be saved
for the exigencies of a 'rainy day,' it would soon
be a source of the greatest pleasure to the family
and lead them into the ways of contentment,
thrift, peace and affluence."
And the very last o four "posy of flowers," our
group of selections, is this from the Saturday
Evening Post: perhaps it is the one of widest
application and the one that we may most fit
tingly let ring in our ears as the conclusion of
this New Year sermon:
"There are other debts, too, that it would be
wise to pay on this first day of the year. The
folk who have helped us on the way, who are not
to be reached with money, do we owe them noth
ing? You think every day that your wife is the
kindest of women, the nearest right of any hu
man soul. Do you tell her so ? There is a piti
ful story of an old ' woman in New England
dying in the arms of her son, himself a gray
haired man. 'You've been a good mother to
me!' he cried. She turned and looked at him.
'Oh, John, why did you never say it before?' she
said. Our Puritan and Scotch blood has made us
stingy of praise and kindness, of the little words
that help our neighbor on his way. This is a
good time to count up such debts."
THE TOBACCO TRUST UNDER FIRE.
President Roosevelt has ordered a special in
vestigation of the policies and methods of the
American Tobacco Company, commonly known
as the tobacco trust, and for this purpose be has
appointed Mr. A. E. Garner, of Springfield,
Tenn., a special assistant attorney-general.
This, it seems to us, is the supreme opportun
ity of our tobacco growers associations. Let
these clubs and their officials to demand that the
investigation be thorough and searching. Let
them meet as early as possible and lay out a
definite program for this purpose. If the move
ment has the hearty support of the growers, the
investigation may mean much. Without their
co-operation, it will certainly fail utterly.
We note with some surprise that the investiga
tion as now planned would only embrace the
burley and dark . tobacco districts of Kentucky
and Tennessee. It should certainly include the
Bright Belt of North Carolina and adjoining
States, and The Progressive Farmer will be glad
to join our tobacco farmers in urging this ex
tension of scope upon the Administration.
Attorney-General Moody has decided that tfil?
guessing contests by which so many trashy news
papers have built up large circulations not on
merit, but by appealing to the gambling instincts
of the credulous are virtually lotteries and there
fore unlawful. This decision will be gratifying
to the great body of reputable newspapers which
have not cared to get patronage by gambling de
vices. We are glad to know that the Attorney
General's ruling will be rigidly enforced by the
Postoffice Department.
A THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK.
And the best part of health is fine disposition.
It is more essential than talent even in the
works of talent. Nothing will supply the want of
sunshine to peaches, and to make knowledge val
uable, you must have cheerfulness of wisdom.
The joy of the spirit indicates its strength. All
healthy things are sweet-tempered. From Emer-
son's "Considerations by the Way."