Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-10-17
DAILY LEADER.
A National cotton Growing COnven-

! The following correspondence Is OF SUM-
Gent Importance to attract the attention Of
, the people, North as well as South:
WASHINGTON, October 9Th, 1866.
MAJOR General o. o. Houcard Commits
siOner Of the Freedmen's Bureau DC.
SIR: The relation which the freedmen
bear towards the cotton crop, and the re-
lation of the cotton crop to the finances of
the country, viii justify me in addressing
you on the proposition for a national cotton
gro10ing convention, having, as YOU do. an
oversight of so large a percentage of the
national labor hitherto engaged in cotton
culture.
The holding of a national c~otton-grow-
ing convention, 1 believe, would be Of en-
inent service as a financial measure in the
present condition of the country. We
have reason to apprehend hard times in
getting from inflated war prices to specie
payments, Such has been our past expe-
rience as to suspension and resumption.
The circulation of bank notes in lS6O-a
prosperous year-was $207, 1O2,4 All. The
paper circulation now is a little overS95O.-
000,0 900, but a reduction of one-third of the
present circulation cannot be safely effect
ed with moderate rapidity without much
distress. A larger volume of paper cur
rency may be sustained now than in 1860
with good cotton crops. 1t is idle to talk
of specie payments resumed, and at the
same time have an easy money market,
till we can largely increase our exports,
reversing the outflow current of gold, by
which the state of the foreign exchanges
would change front. If the country can
next year grow a crop of cotton of 500, 900
bales, the same quantity as that before the |
wal, We can reach specie payments by the
spring of the following year. Then why
not a convention to devise means to gain
such a consummation-a concert of action
that cannot fail of the happiest results to
the nation, as well as of profit to the cot
ton-grower and good wages to the laborer2
Such a result can only be attained through
cotton exports.
The subjects which would naturally
engage the deliberations of such a conven-
ton are many, among which we should
hope that the Old-fashioned wooden mould
board plough, in Use in some sections,
would be discarded, and hrst-class agricul-
tural implements in large supply intro
duced. Another matter would be the
question of laying an export duty on cot
ton, which is being agitated in high quar-
tors. Besides being unconstitutional, it
becomes a bounty to all other cotton grow
countries seeking a market in Europe.
Our four years war has demonstrated to
the consumers of the fabric that it is
to buy cloth made of our cotton,
that lasts three years, at n~inepence ster-
ling a yard, than that made of India cot
ton, that wears but one year, at sixpence a
If NAV fharofnra 10 a--o,A,l
when prices decline, that we shall drive
India q .ton from the European markets.
But Egypt and Brazil grow a quality
equal to ours; the former having largely
exported wheat, has by our war changed
to cotton culture, and imports wheat.
EXPORT OF H NATIONAL LABOR.
The annual value or annual product of
the labor of the nation may be stated at
100000. Our exports, including gold ;
silver, for 1860, a year of largest
amount, were 1914, 23s, 527, which may be
the exported tabor of the nation,
md was nearly 10 per cent. of the total
7alue of the national labor. The value of
he cotton exported in that year was sl9l,-
Jog, 555, being 60 per cent. of the entire
exports. Our exports of raw
otton have always been in excess of those
f breadstuis and provisions. If next
ear a crop of cotton be grown of like
-uahtity, 100000 bales, at the present
rice, which it is. said in well-informed ]
may be maintained for two or three :
reps, it would amount, at $500 a bale, to
j, O20, 600, 900, and "a per cent. exported
6 in 1860, would yield a return of S765,
90, 900. (England's entire exports of
$50 were 732. 446. 64Ol1
What a tide of prosperity would set in
With such crops, the increased production
the fall of prices to the same ag-
regate amount II is to be considered
hat the preseit price III DUR seap1rts Is
ut a shade higher than the gold price at
liverpool. With such a crop next year,
lstead of ten per cent. of the national la
exported, we should have 20 per cent.
F that labor exported Ill cotton alone, the
ygregate remaining as above. K
If, as is said, labor is d-isorganized in C.
he cotton States, then that will be another ~
,pic of consideration for the convention, q
nd how it can be remedied. 1t Is not h
to be a convention ofcottoh grow
s merely, but of representatives from all o.
lie practical business pursuits Of life in 81
/ parts of the country; for cotton grow l.
x IL a AdAADAAal AAALCACCNF W " AdAllluCd- NI
extend to every portion of the re- K
ublic. d
We can see how well it would be not NJ
Hf the prosperity of the nation, but Y,
II the ~pecuniary welfare of the freedmen IL
lemselves, for them to be employed in D
,tton cultivation rather than migrating
-orth, or even to be engaged in the less N
atiunal wealth-producing occupation of
Embarrassing III States near 10 Tie cotton
Labor everywhere seeks the high lo
t compensation, and nowhere can it have
stter returns than in cotton culture. The
pertinent reported by Mf. featman, of
T. Louis, in his report of t~hirty-three J.
eedmen leasing land in Arkansas, and
a crop of 377 bales of cotton,
hich sold at S9l, 900, being nearly $4,000 /
each hand, it must be allowed as an ex- W
aordihary ihstaheeof remuhefated labor. tn
Nc Land may have been of great fertility, @,
ut it shows what may be done. 1t may be Oh
lfely affirmed that for two or three years 81,
come, one mans labor in cotton grow on
G will be worth, to the nation, that of pu
We men in the gold mines. Indeed cot LIE
fields are the gold mines of the nation. :
l need hardly to mention how much =
lch a next years crop would sustain the -
secrpfties, and how much the rela- :
ons of well nursing the cotton culture
ould have to the payment of the public
ebt.
May I not hope for a favorable response,
as your position is TO the cotton =,
llture, to the proposition for a general ar
Itton-growing convention. to assemble in
November or December in Washington, if e
lere be no more eligible locality2 II
Very reepectfully,you obedient servant,
A. PENFIELD. AZ
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