The National Co-Operator (Mineola, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 15, 1905 Page: 1 of 8
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VOL. I.
TOO MUCH, YET TOO LITTLE.
MINEOLA, TEXAS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH IT., 1905.
No. 12
Deadlock in Cotton Trade Declared
Without Precedent in Com-
modity Records.
New York, March 12.—In the
deadlock which exists today in
the cotton trade there is pre-
sented an anomalous condition
without a precedent in the
record of any staple commodity.
With a yield of approximately
liU milium bales practically
assured, there is an apparent
growth of spinning wants of, in
round figures, two million bales.
Such a relation of supply and
demand never before occurred,
and would in years past brought
about a panic to all, and prob-
ably made new low record val-
ues, but the owner of the cotton
today llatly states that a two
million surplus bears no terrors
for him.
'"So firm is the farmer's deter-
mination to hold until his idea of
a fair price is met," said L. L.
Fleming, a director of the New
York Cotton Exchange, who has
just returned from a trip through
the South, "and so consistent is
his course with the public avow-
als on the subject, that the trade
is confronted with these abnor-
mal situations of a positively enor-
mous surplus, and yet merchants
who have contracts for delivery
to spinners find an actual scarci-
ty of offerings and what is bought
being at heart-breaking basis as
compared with their futures. The
farmer's position, financially, is
better than in years, probably
the strongest ever before, and
owing to general prosperity in
the South the banking facilities
there are competent to take care
of his surplus on a reasonable
basis."
A Plan for Diversification.
Toxiih Kurruer,
McKinney, Tex., Feb. 20 '05.
No question will interest the
farmers more than to learn how
to conduct their business this
year with a chance of realizing
best results, They are agreed
that a reduction of the cotton
acreage is necessary to insure a
price giving a .margin for profit
above cost of production. I will
give my views in the premises:
I will suppose the average farm
contains 100 acres, which should
be so vn and planted to a sextu-
ple crop—twenty acres in cotton,
twenty acres in corn, twenty in
wheat, ten in oats, ten in alfalfa,
and fifteen in feedstulTs for hogs,
and five acres in onions, potatoes
and garden vegetables. With
such a formula there will be
an opportunity to rotate crops,
which will increase the yield per
acre amazingly. Of course, there
is more capacity required to suc-
cessfully work a farm on the di-
versified plan than the-one or two
crop idea—a big area in cotton
and a little corn. But the chances
for failure are minimized besides
giving greater opportunities tor
making the farm a paying invest-
ment and affording greater pleas-
ure in agriculture.
The fluctuation in the price of
cotton are too great to longer in-
duce our North Texas farmers
to make it the only staple crop,
when corn, oats, wheat, hogs and
valuable by-products, such as po-
tatoes, onions, etc., are likely to
bring fair prices. In fact, I find
that where proper judgment,
care and pains are used in the
economical use of feedstuffs
raised on the farm, that hogs will
pay a fair profit even at 4Yi to 5
cents gross per pound.
Your Mr. W. A. Clark is a very
interesting writer, and deserves
credit for teaching his sons and
daughters to live on the farm,
rather than leaving it to run the
risk of eking out a precarious
existence in the towns and cities.
The name of farmer is rising in
the scales much faster than in
the early davs when the educa-
tional facilities and means of com-
munication were nothing com-
pared to these progressive times.
There is still room for improve-
ment, and we trust chat our law-
makers will enact a law allowing
the industrial arts taught in our
public free schools.
Aakon Coffee,
"The Old Cotton Planter."
Wonderful Watch.
After seven years labor, a Par-
is (France) watchmaker, M. Le-
roy, is reported to have just com-
pleted what is considered to be
the most complicated watch in
the world. It is a gold watch,
and only a little larger than the
ordinary timepiece, but is made
up of 975 parts, with twenty-four
mechanical movements. Besides
marking the hours and seconds,
it indicates the days, months and
years—automatically making the
necessary change in leap years
the lunar phases, the seasons, the
solstices and equinoxes, the time
of 125 cities of the world, and the
hours of the rising and setting of
the sun. It also contains a strike
arrangement, a thermometer, a
hydrometer, a barometer, an al-
timeter, a compass and all the
features of a repeating chronom-
eter, and can be regulated with-
out opening it. In the inner case
are the celestial maps of the two
hemispheres moving at the rate
of 250 seconds a day, in which
even stars of the fourth magni-
tude, represented by 050 golden
dots, can be located in their exact
positions in the sky. The watch
is valued at $5,000, and will be
added to the Louvre collection.
Fills The Bill.
Seattle, Tex., March 10, 1905.
Kill tor Cn-Oponitnr:
Dear Silt and Bro.:—"Your pa-
per seems to "fill the bill. ' I will
send more subscribers very soon.
Our Union has not been in ses-
sion for some time.
Respectfully yours,
C. H. Bukton.
that
as
vou
much
Appeal to Cotton Growers.
Since arriving in New Orleans
I have heard many comments on
! the cotton situation, and the sad
I plight of the cotton farmer who
holds cotton. Everyone argues
'that the farmer will turn loose
now as the weather has cleared
up. They seetn still to think that
it is all play and that the condi-
tion of the roads were responsi-
ble for the small receipts. They
know so little of the situation they
really think that within one week
of clear weather the cotton has
commenced to show up at ports.
They do not know that it takes
from two to four weeks from the
time cotton is turned loose by
the farmer at interior points for
it to go through concentrating
points at compresses to reach
ports. They also say
are going to plant just
as ever.
Now the situation as I find it
is; there is a very heavy short
interest in the market. I mean
by short interest—the speculator
has sold for future delivery large
lots of cotton. His method is to
hammer the future market down,
thereby breaking the price of
actual cotton, and buying in same
to fill his contracts. Well, if this
is the situation, with the stocks
at New Orleans—the principal
future market—now over 125,000
bales less than last year and
growing smaller every day, the
time, if the present attitude of
the farmer to hold is maintained,
is not far distant when the "big
thing will come off;" hence, I
urge upon you all to not sell a
bale for at least another thirty
days.
The spot cotton buyers in all
the interior towns continue to
flood the exchange here with tel-
egrams stating that you are all
turning loose. Now we know
this is all a scheme on their part
to get everyone scared into sell-
ing futures in an endeavor to
break the market. They are
short both of contracts to the
spinner as well as on the future
markets, and if by circulating
these false rumors they can in-
fluence the market, they are just
that much better off.
The whole thing hinges on the
farmer turning loose. They have
looked in vain for this relief now
for sixty days, and the question
is, how much longer is he going
to hold? I would advise every
farmer to take his teams to town
and carry his cotton home and
put it away with tlu determina-
tion to hold for at least sixty days
more, and see what effect their
bogus telegrams will have. It
toook the "Japs" eleven months
to bring about the fall of Port
Arthur. Now with the proper
move on your part it will take
only six months to bring about
the downfall of your enemies.
You haye astonished the world,
so do not lose all the good work
you have done, by unloading now
j when the fight is half over. Some
argue that you should turn loose
and goon raising another big
crop. Stop and rellect one mo-
ment. Suppose you turn loose
upon the market the surplus of
2,000,000 bales, what is the re-
sult then? Why you simply put
that much on the market to be
htMd over your heads as a weight
in the other fellow's hands, to be
used next fall in keeping down
the price. Then would it not be
better for you to carry this sur-
plus and hold the whip handle in-
stead of the other fellow.
Some say you could have turn
ed loose at higher prices. I will
only say that you could only have
turned loose a, small percentage
more than you did when tin; de-
mands would have been satisfied,
then where would you have been.
This is not a fight for today, but
one for you to win forever; so
please take heed and listen to
men who are neither hunting of-
fice or gamblingincotton;as some
would make you believe.
A. W. Mosek.
New Orleans, La.
Rice Exports.
Rice is getting to be a large
item of export through the port
of Galveston (Tex). Recently
the steamer Tolosa cleared for
Rotterdam (Netherlands), and
among the items listed on her
manifest was 452,000 pounds of
rice of a value of $22,600. Nearly
every ship clearing for foreign
ports takes a consignment of rice
and the total value of shipments
thus far during the fiscal year
will amount to several hundred
thousand dollars. Hardly a year
ago rice shipments through the
port of Galveston were so small
that the item was classed with
the miscellaneous, hut this year
the Gulf coast product will have
a place of its own in the statis-
tics of the port.
The Beaumont (Tex.) Kice
Mills recently completed a ship-
ment of 5,000 sacks of rough rice
by the way of Galveston for Ivot-
terdam, an entire week having
been consumed in loading the
fifteen cars necessary to carry
the consignment. The concern
is now figuring on the shipment
of another lot of similar size to
the same place. The shipments
are made from Beaumont over
the Gulf & Interstate Railroad,
being billed through to Rotter-
dam. Another shipment of 1000
sacks of the best cleaned head
rice was shipped to Liverpool a
few days ago. All of the ship-
ments to Europe are of a good
grade of rice, the low grades be-
ing shipped to Cuba. J. E. Brous-
sard, the manager of the mills,
says that a particular effort is
being made to export as much of
the crop as possible, so as to
leave little or no surplus in this
country to depress the market
the coming year.
Pass the Co-Operator along to
your neighbor.
Attend To Our Own Business.
Singleville, March K, 1005.
Killtor <'o.O|n>nitor;
I thought I would write a few
lines for the Co-Operator, as I
think it is the best paper printed
today for the farmer; it is gentle,
fearless and bold; it hews to the
line regardless of where the chips
fall. I hope to be able to secure
some subscribers soon.
Well, I am one of the pesky fel-
lows that think the Southern Cot-
ton Association was gotten up for
the purpose of killing the Far-
mers' Union. Now, brethren, I
will tell you why I think so. 1
think so because it takes in men
whose interest is not the farmers'
interest; because, the merchants
and bankers say that the farmers
have not got sense enough to at-
tend to their own business; be-
cause it has not got farmers at
its head now. Who is Harvie
Jordan? Does he earn his bread
by the sweat of his brow? Who
is Mr. Cheatham? Does he plow
and hoe for his living? Who is
John Latham of Dublin? VVe all
know too well that he is a mer-
chant and banker whosells'goods
at a high price and loans money
at usury in open violation of the
laws of Texas. Are they our
friends? Can we look to them
for aid? Yes, if we have a cotton
crop to mortgage, they will sell
us goods at a credit price that
will send anv farmer to the poor
house. Will they lend us
money? Yes, if we can make the
right kind of security and pay
them thirty per cent, interest.
Br ther farmers, which is the
best, to take the merchants and
bankers into the Union or go in-
to an order with them? Can't
we attend to our own business
and allow them to do the same?
Let us attend to our own busi-
ness behind closed doors and let
the world guess at what we are
going to do. Let us ever stand
on the principles of equity jus-
tice and the golden rule, and we
can't go far astray.
John Singm:.
A local preacher at the con-
clusion of one of his sermons,
said: "Let all in the house who
are paying their debts, stand up."
Instanily every man, woman and
child, with one exception, rose to
their feet. The preacher seated
them, and said: "Now, every
man not paying his debts, stand
up." The exception noted, a
careworn, hungry-looking indi-
vidual, clothed in his last sum-
mer's suit, slowly assumed a per-
pendicular position. "How is it,
my friend," asked the minister,
"that you are the only man not
able to meet his obligations?" "I
run a newspaper," he meekly
answered, "and the brethren
here who just stood up are my
subscribers."
Invaluable.
Crawford 1 s he a good lawyer?
Crabshaw—Sure. He knows
how every law on the statute
books can be evaded.
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Pyle, O. P. The National Co-Operator (Mineola, Tex.), Vol. 1, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, March 15, 1905, newspaper, March 15, 1905; Mineola, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth254300/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Mineola Memorial Library.