COTTON 
65 
CONSERVATISM IN COTTON ASSOCIATION DEMANDS 
On the whole, the cotton farmers' organization 
does not seem inclined to be unreasonable in its 
demands. Attending its meetings, we have been 
most impressed by the marked conservatism of its 
members generally. President Harvie Jordan is 
on record as saying: 
"It will be the part of wisdom for all cotton 
producers to discourage speculative interests that 
would tend to drive the price of spot cotton above 
twelve cents a pound, just as it is imperative that 
no farmer should ever again sell a pound of 
middling cotton under ten cents per pound. Let 
us not encourage inflated prices that will hamper 
the mills, curtail consumption of cotton, and en- 
courage the growth of this staple in foreign fields. 
We hold a complete monopoly of the cotton indus- 
try of the world up to twelve cents a pound, and at 
that price good profits to the producer can be 
realized." 
This quotation may seem to be at a variance 
with Mr. Jordan's advice late in 1905, urging 
farmers to hold the remainder of their crop for 
fifteen cents, but Mr. Jordan declares that he was 
consistent in that the average price for the entire 
crop would still have been less than twelve cents, 
and this on a short crop. 
REDUCING PRODUCTION OR INCREASING DEMAND ? 
Another way in which the South's cotton growers 
may accomplish much good for themselves through 
organization, is by working together to develop our 
foreign markets. Civilization demands, as we 
have seen, that the world consume 42,000,000 bales 
