RISKS OF THE COTTON MARKET 135 



No one denies the influence of the cycle of cotton upon 

 the rural and urban life of the cotton states. The tend- 

 encies seem obvious, but rural standards of living are 

 illusive things, and it is only lately that they have re- 

 ceived attention from the hands of social scientists. Until 

 data can be accumulated for a realistic study of the 

 fluctuations of the farmer's living with the fluctuation 

 of the price of his commodities, a descriptive presentation 

 from the reports of various observers is likely to be of 

 some value. 



Fluctuations in cotton affect the whole economic and 

 social fabric of the South. Journalists do not betray the 

 truth when they write: 



And what does cotton mean to the cotton states ? It means 

 life, health, happiness, and prosperity to them. In fact, noth- 

 ing else matters much. If cotton is all right, all's well in the 

 Cotton Belt. And if cotton is sick the whole South is sick. 

 The physician can collect no hills, the merchant can sell noth- 

 ing except on credit, railroads go without freight; mill opera- 

 tives languish, children grow pale, every person in the street 

 is dejected and gloom reigns throughout the South. . . . Cot- 

 ton is the barometer that foretells the industrial fogs, squalls, 

 and fair weather of the South. 44 



A good crop and a high price means more than that the 

 farmer's wife can begin to dream of a new parlor carpet and 

 a piano; it means that the preacher's son and the merchant's 

 daughter can go away to college. The clerk scents a raise and 

 cautiously enquires the price of a diamond ring for the girl 

 that for the past two years he has been seeing home from 

 church. The commercial traveler is lavish with more expen- 

 sive cigars than he smoked last year, reflecting that the house 



"E. V. Wilcox, "The Great White Way of Cotton," Country 

 Gentleman, March 31, 1922, p. 78. 



