AGRICULTURAL RELIEF

141

another matter, from one of my assistant managers, who has just
added a paragraph at the bottom, to the effect that tax-paying time
and interest-paying time is approaching. We have to pay taxes
the 1st of February in Mississippi, and he said the consequence is,
“We are witnessing the greatest sacrifice of actual cotton I have
ever seen in the Delta.”

He says, “The people are giving it away, because they have to
meet their obligations.”

That is putting it into trade, but putting it into trade at a sacrifice,
and at the cost of the farmer.

Mr. AsweLL. What is the price of cotton now?

Mr. StoNE. On January 20 New York futures closed at 18.73.

Mr. AsweLL. That is twice what it was this time last vear.

Mr. StoNE. I don’t remember about that.

Mr. AsweLL. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.

Myr. Stone. Here is a bulletin which we get out every week, which
shows the whole situation with respect to staple cotton in the Delta,
and also on the discounts and the premiums, and the price at which
tt is passing into the trade.

Now, then, to get back to the point I was trying to develop. It
is this continuity of operation that is the contribution that the cotton
grower, and likewise the growers of other commodities,—it is the
contribution which the producer makes to industry. It is that thing
which makes it possible for the cotton industry, the manufacturing
industry, and the trade to go on. And if that cotton is going to be
produced and is going to be available regardless of price—in other
words, that the producer is going to continue to produce—of course,
it can be argued, and we all admit that, that the consuming end, the
manufacturing end, is absolutely as necessary as the producing end
in the cotton industry, and that is the whole basis on which our
particular organization is founded. In other words, when we started
out, seven years ago, we started out on the basis of cooperation, not
only with the producers, but also with the mills and the consumers of
cotton, and we have pursued that policy from the very beginning to
the present date.

In other words, all this talk about the effect of legislation of this
kind, the effect of placing within the control of the farmer the matter
of having some word to say, whether final or not, about the value of
his commodity, having a harmful effect on processors of the raw
commodity we have ourselves in our own operations demonstrated
the fallacy of it, because we do work in the very closest and most
harmonious relations with the mills.

{ will come to that again, though, because before I get my mind
off it, I want to give you the figures in this matter of creating a
surplus. We had an analysis made, taking the certified figures from
the Department of Agriculture as to the actual acreage harvested
and the actual number of bales produced and the yields per acre
for 1914 to 1926, which period covers some of the widest fluctuations
we have ever known, both in price and in yield. I took those ficures,
or had our accounting department take those figures, and apply the
high and the low yields of each of the years in the series to the acre-
age of each year of the series of years. I did not know what was
comg to be the result—I simply wanted to find out what would be