COTTON 
271 
the goods go to the jobber, and at last to the counter 
in the dry goods store. What are profits here? 
Sixteen thousand yards at 5 cents per yard cost 
$800; that number of yards sold at 1% cents brings 
gross $1200 — a profit as great to the retail merchant 
as the price the farmer receives for his entire crop. 
THE CONTROL OF PRODUCTION 
Is it right for the producer to control the output 
of his commodity ? Why not ? So long as supply 
is more than demand, is it wrong in principle to 
waste capital, and energy and life in producing it ? 
More than this, 5,000,000 people are directly in- 
terested in the production of cotton crops. When 
you flood the market with raw material, and send it 
forth in larger quantities than spindles can use, 
you disturb the stability of trade and menace the 
peace and happiness of these five million souls. 
Is there no injury here ? Greater evils, moreover, 
sweep over the land — even in other directions — if 
more cotton is produced than can be used by a 
consuming world. It is good business, good prac- 
tice, good morals, to move supply and demand 
along together, as they now move, and this can 
continue only by controlling the supply, for the 
present, increasing it as demand calls for more. 
So long as the manufacturer, the broker, the 
merchant live in costly houses ; so long as the spin- 
ner, the weaver, the clerks enjoy comforts in dress 
and live easily, so long should no one complain 
that the cotton farmer and his tenant likewise have 
similar comforts and luxuries. 
