The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-02
CetterS tc tbe Gdftor
Cotton and Politics.
Editor The Advertiser:

EQlLOF The AQVertlSeT.
 Your supplement of today Septem- Der 1, presents very valuable record of great political importance too, while purporting to be no more than review of commerce and industries in the town of Montgomery for twelve months last past. I refer here specially to the table of cotton production since 1865. I propose to trace the facts of civil gov ernment in the Cotton States in that time through the authentical data of that table. One of the most distin- guished soldiers of the Confederacy lately published, over his own name, the absurd statement that the free ne" groes of the euth are now producing five or six tines as much cotton as the slaves produced" The free negroes produce not half as much as an equal population of slaves produced.
 The Federal census of 1850 gave the cotton crop at 2.445,793 bales; the cen sus of 1860 increased the crop to 5.1ss,- last decade of slavery then was 3,821.- 935 bales.
 I propose to trace the production of cotton through three political periods, each of ascertained historical distinc-
 CD the reconstruction br military district period. 1865 to 1876; (2) the period of menace of Cotton States cleo ton, 1877 to 1884: (3) the prevailing pe- riod of accomplished white supremacy In the Cotton States.
 The average crop of the military dis. trict period. of eleven years. was 3,326,- 632. We should consider that during the first eight years of the eleven em- braced in this period, cotton averaged not below $125 the bale; that the old plantations were operated, unbroken in thcir ante -bellum system of cultivation with very inferior labor, and that throughout the other three years of the eleven cotton was not lower on average than 10 cents.
 Money was in all that time abundant Demopolis, etc., to make the crop. In a word. there never had been condl- tions of agriculture so favorable to proht in any country as were offered to the cotton farmers of the South in that period of high prices with the single exception of sufficient labor. The ef- feet of military rule upon the labor becomes palpable and disgraceful when the same labor applies itself in the same field in the next succeeding period of bettered politics.
 The production of cotton after Presi. dent Hayes came into office and the troops were withdrawn, leaving civll authority in force, yet the public mind hampered and the public peace in per. petual jeopardy by reason Of threats of the Republican party-the produc- tion of cotton in this period, 1876 to 1884, rose to 5,719,0OO average per year
 ' market In those seven years was fallen to $35 and $40 the bale-not one-third Of the stimulating price of the military district time
 We reach now the third and present period. White supremacy is the es- tablished fact. and cottonfeld labor is measurably content. The resuscita- non nIe % or the spirits Of the Southern peo- first term: with the tour of President Davis. in 1886, to Alabama and other States; with the organization of the Daughters of the Confederacy Mon uments to our soldiers lift their proud heads, State Constitutions have dis placed military despotism and the solid south goes to national conventions the controlling force. Tn this period the average yearly cotton production has risen to S,4s6.ooo in the period of nine ieen years n; In this pr9d of rapid market price of cotton to the producer has been nevertheless eight to ten dol lars a bale lower than in the second period, while 1t has taken, in some years. six to seven bales to net as much money as was derived from the sale of period.
 keted yields an appreciable income. that in the earlier time was lost That IS the cant of the oiI mill and the fer tiilzer factory; The marketing of cot
 
 injury upon the business of cotton farming that Is incalculable.
 The census of 1900 shows the num- Der of farmers by race. but not the separate productions of race farms. From this authority. we discover that in Alabama there are 94.OS3 negro farmers to 129,l37 white farmers; in Texas there are 65,536 negro farmers to 2S6,654 white farmers. We should be instructed to know the aggregate production of race farms, but politics bids us nay.
 The State of Alabama now taxes her. seld. say, $2,000,000. The share of this state in the single item of pensions to Union soldiers Is $4000,O00 annually. About 50 per cent of our cotton sales left, after paying this pension tax, Is given to tariff favored industries not Tn Alabama. We of the South can ar rest this robbery. We can move the cotton mills here; we can control the price of steel and coal; we can trans- Ter the cotton exchange from New York to New Orleans. where the price Of cotton will be fixed; we can make New Orleans, Mobile and Galveston the Import and export ports of the entire Mississippi Valley from St. Paul down. These things. and more, are coming our way and greatly will we laugh at the enemy. Syphax.