per pair; tobacco, $1 per pound. All these prices had to be covered with cotton worth 114 cents per pound. In 1868 the farmer realized on fifty bales $2,531, and lost, in consequence of the fall of price from 40 cents in the preceding year to 114 cents in 1868, $6,468.50. So that his losses for the years 1867 and 1868 amounted to $12,318.50. Shortly after this the price went up to 36 cents. It did not benefit the farmer. Strange manipulation of prices! This heartless, conscienceless gambling in cotton. prices ruined thousands. Hon. B. H. Hill, of Georgia, was during this period hopelessly involved to the amount of $250,000. From that day to this the method of business and the debts of farmers have kept a firm pressure on the yield of cotton. These causes have been main elements in the large yield. The increase of population and the use of fertilizers have added their per cent.

It was shown in a former chapter that the mercantile system of business had much to do in deranging labor, and this condition had its effect on the increase of the cotton crop, not so much by what was done in raising cotton, as by what was left undone not raising meat, and often very little corn. There is a bill lying before us on the table which will illustrate this point. Wade Sherman, a negro, made, in 1890, three bales of cotton valued by his merchant at $130.51. He bought corn, meal, and grits, valued at $34.05; the bacon bought cost him $38.55; the corn and bacon cost $72.60. When this was paid out of the cotton proceeds, he had left $57.91. More than half the cotton was spent

for corn and bacon; the merchant held a lien on all his live stock, valued at $225. The bill at the store, including the old debt, was $230. Wade was anxious to pay up, and for this reason raised mostly cotton, neglecting the cornfield and the hogpen. This folly impoverishes the poor negro, and not a few white men. But this is not all. The bill has another important food article-flour, costing $26.50, increasing his food bill to $99.05, leaving to Wade $31.46 for a year's work, after paying his provision account, consisting of flour, corn, and bacon.

If the demand is in excess of the supply the price rises. The demand for Southern cotton has made a constant gain in the markets of the world since 1872. Then "the American supply of cotton was 3,241,000 bales. The foreign supply was 3,036,000 bales. In the year 1888 the American supply was 8,000,000 bales, and the foreign supply 2,100,000 bales; both expressed in English bales. Since 1872 the population of Europe has increased 13 per cent.; cotton consumption in Europe has increased 50 per cent. Since 1880, cotton consumption in Europe has increased 28 per cent., the consumption of wool only 4 per cent., while the consumption of flax has decreased II per cent."*

The business monopoly has reversed and perverted the laws of trade and the canons of commerce. Healthy competition is dead. What there is, in the form of stimulating honest rivalry, is confined to small traders. Monopoly rules the farmer. "I

* Henry W. Grady.

have taken on twenty new customers-can't take any more," remarked merchant Windem. There it is. They are fast. Their trade belongs to Windem, and if Windem says cotton, cotton they are sure to raise.

There is no escape from the argument that the credit monopoly, controlled for twenty-five years by the merchants, has had much to do with the increase

of the cotton crop. Debts and high prices can only be paid by this crop. Considerate merchants who advised farmers to raise corn, grasses, bacon, and stock were almost powerless. If they wanted the farmer's trade they must sell corn, bacon, and mules. But still there is a vast difference between the two merchants; one discouraged his customers from buying corn, bacon, and mules, the other was eager to sell to them whatever they wanted. This eagerness was rarely freely and frankly expressed, but rather adroitly concealed. The farmer's need was an open book. To make him cringe, and servile in his requests, was the thing wanted. The favor dearly bought was granted. Such men could hardly complain of prices. Such a man was Mr. Easygo. Windem bought for Mr. Easygo a mule costing $55, and charged him $115; took Mr. Easygo's note, drawing ten per cent. interest, and secured it by lien. He sold him flour for $15-cash price was $8; bacon for 15 cents-cash price, 7 cents; and molasses at 75 cents per gallon. Mr. Easygo was advised to make a big cotton crop. Cotton only can pay for these big prices. All this huckstering business had but one end in view-to get a grip on

Mr.

the man's property and his trade for years to come. The trade was forced by a law of necessity into this merchant's hands. No matter what reasonable and lawful inducement conscientious merchants held out, the farmer's trade had to flow through one and More cotton! "From Maryland "From

only one channel.

More cotton!

through Texas the merchants are prosperous. Maryland to Florida, and from the Atlantic seaboard to western Texas, the farmers are poor. Under the agency of these causes cotton increased and the price fell. Lands, live stock, chattels of every sort, and a half dozen cotton crops, went down to satisfy the claims of creditors.

"Superb estates, that had brought $200,000, dragged at $10,000; and estates that had sold for $65,000 went unhindered to the sheriff's hammer for taxes. Broader than these personal losses was the oppressive system entailed on the planting class. Having once mortgaged his crop for supplies to his merchant, the farmer was practically the slave of that merchant."*

If such was the fate of many lordly estates where intelligence and knowledge of business obtained, what could be expected of those humbler estates valued from $500 to $5,000, where income, gains, and losses are rarely calculated; where business. and management are practically hap-hazard affairs? Who can doubt that the oppressive system was the strong inducement to increase the acreage in cotton?

The planter depending on this one crop, cotton, * Henry W. Grady.

will remain poor so long as this one crop must pay all his obligations and expenses. In 1892 the world's requirement of American cotton was 8,500,000 bales, and the increase of this demand is 1 per cent per

annum.

If this be accurate, the world's demand for American cotton will be, for 1893, 8,600,000 bales; for 1894, 8,736,000 bales; for 1895, 8,867,000 bales; for 1896, 9,000,000 bales; for 1897, 9,135,000 bales; for 1898, 9,272,000 bales; for 1899, 9,412,000 bales. In 1890 the cotton crop was estimated at 9,000,000 bales. Had it been 7,000,000 bales, it would have been too large under present canons of trade, though the price, in this event, would have been enhanced. Whenever this crop is a million bales in excess of the world's need, it is ruinous to the farmer under prevailing circumstances. Three related causes conspire to the serious disadvantage of the South: over-production of cotton, under-production of grain and meat, and buying on long time.

"The corn acreage in this country is 10,000,000 acres short.”* Whenever the corn acreage is short in the West, and the raising of this grain is neglected in the South, the consequences to the South are apparent.

The line of duty and of interest of Southern agriculturists is to live at home. Raise the necessaries on the home farm. It is a safe rule. It is the road out of trouble. There is no heart-ache in it. The delusions of the past ought to satisfy any sensible man of the wisdom of this policy. Reduce the cot

* Mr. C. Wood Davis in Atlanta Constitution, 1892.