CHAPTER XXVIII. 



STATISTICS : HOW THE WORLD WATCHES WHILE THE 

 PLANT GROWS 



There is a reason why statistics of production 

 and consumption of cotton should be made accu- 

 rately, completely, and frequently. Trade has be- 

 come so complex since the advent of the Cotton 

 Exchange because of the rapid developments of 

 re-selling on close margins, taking advantage of 

 fluctuations in prices and dealing in futures; and 

 using unnatural influences to fix prices by manipu- 

 lators that every one interested has come to rec- 

 ognize the need of some strong disinterested agency 

 to make reports of actual facts so that all concerned 

 may be better guided as how to buy or sell. 



The producer, the merchant, the speculator, and, 

 the consumer must ever be informed as to the 

 movement of the law of supply and demand, that 

 the market of neither the raw product nor the 

 finished material, may be congested or overloaded. 

 Let this happen, and not only that form of cotton 

 immediately concerned, but all humanity, will suf- 

 fer in consequence of the abnormal condition. 

 The hope lies in publicity complete and accurate. 

 These reports must be made by disinterested par- 

 ties: not by the speculator who reports a bearish 

 condition of the market that prices may be de- 

 pressed, trying to favor his own operations; nor 



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