The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-12-13
POLITICS INJytTED
  Boil Weevils Meeting in
 Dnoil.
 s- DEADL< .KED IN DEBATE Four Hundred Delegates Were Welcomed. Questio. rcdentisls and Election of Permanent Omcers Threw Con- vention at Shreveport in Tremendous Uprear.

E
 Shreveport, La, Dec. I2.--After being almost hopelessly dead-locked In a par liamentary tangle over the question of permanent organization. the first ses- today finally adjourned until o'clock tonight without selecting permanent officers
 More than 400 delegates. representing every cotton growing State in the South, assembled at the Grand Opera House at 3 o'clock this afternoon for a fourdays' meeting to discuss the boil weevil situation and devise, if possible. ways and means for the eradication or control of the pest. The session was largely preliminary, temporary organi- tion of Hon. W. G. Bolton of Rapides. La., as temporary chairman, and Prof. J. H. Connell of Dallas. Ttx., as tem- porary secretary.
 The convention was called to order by Judge J. c. Pugh, chairman of the Executive Committee. who voiced the purposes of the gathering in a ringing speech. Judge Pugh said that the dele- gates had been called together to con- slider a question of vital importance to the welfare of the South, and. indeed. 
 gravity of the situation had not been fully realized by the people The cot | ton fields of Texas and part of Lou | isiana, had been invaded by an insect, ] sweeping in its destruction, and if this 1 convention could not map out a practt- | cal plan to check or exterminate this l pest, the cotton crop of the United States would soon become so involved as to cause most serious disaster to i the producer and the commercial fn- terest which this industry supports. The entire cotton belt is threatened by the boil weeviI, he said, and unless decisive, prompt and energetic meas ures are taken to arrest it's progress. | the weevil will, in the course of time, | destroy one of the greatest money crops of the nation. Judge Pugh con- l tinued: ys.sta g.f is I gro me. there are two Shases of the l problem for this convention to consid- CT. First, can we arrange to go out 1 of cotton for one year In the area at present infested, and thus get rid of the entire weevil menace? Second, In | the event an extermfnation of the pest | is impossible by any method that can 1 be suggested. let us then adopt somo | recommendation that will meet the | issue in the very best way and see that these recommendations are enforced by iegislation necessary. throughout the length and breadth of the infested Earea."
 Temporary Chairman Bolton. in a brief address, made an earnest plea to the delegates for action. Mir. Bolton then read the following telegram from Secretary of Agriculture Wilson at Washington.
 Hon. J. C. Pugh, Shreveport, La: "Dr. Howard, entomologist of this department, who has had wide expert- ence in boil weevil work in Texas, goes to represent me at the Shreveport con- vention I would be with you if my duties here did not imperatively keep me in the city. I hope your delibera- tions will be instructive, helpful ana conservative. I go before the House Committee on Agriculture today to urge the appropriation of large amount of money to deal with the boil weevil in the Southern States, particularly Louis- jana and Texas, for the coming year.
 The reading of the message was greeted with an outburst of applause. Speech of Blanchard. Governor Blanchard of Louisiana next welcomed the delegates to the State. He said:
 The question that has brought you here to hold this great convention Is not one affecting merely the cotton growing region of the South. It af- fleets intimately and directly the whole country. If the cotton crop of the South Is to be destroyed oy this pest If the growth of cotton as commer- ciaI product in the South is to cease as inc result of the invasion of this insect-it will prove worldwide cala- mitv. It will affect ruinously large commerciaI interests; 1t will affect dis astrouslv every commercial interest and every line of trade the world over. More. perhaps, than any other single product of the soil, cotton permeates and adjusts and regualtes the balance of the worlds trade.
 Tia culture and harvesting. its prep aratIon for the market, It's transporta- ton to market. it's marketing. it's manufacture and the sale of its fabrics 0ive Amnlovment to millions of people in our own country. US transporta- tion abroad gives employment to many thousands of ship-building and seafar- ing men. and its manufacture into cloth in foreign lands. and the sale of such manufactures, give employment to millions of men ana women there'
 As A merchantable product. 1t Is we'll nigh indispensable to the worlds trade But more than this. The con- tInued growth of cotton In these South ern states seems absolutely indispen- sable to the convenience and comfort, aveI even almost to the existence it, self, of the people of the world. In the far greater part the people of the world depend on cotton fabrics with which to clothe themselves.
 Their reliance is on the Southern states of the great American Republic for that which clothes them. for here in tha South we have the practical monopoly of the growth of the cotton plant.
 treasure have been made to develop it's srowth in other regions of the worlds surface but without success
 srhs cotton in the world grown out s,da oI the United States has scarcely an anpreciable effect on the cotton nar&et The eyes of all are on the sn,tb.s cotton. What Is the Ameri- osn crop going to be? what the price ', yvIli likely bring? These are the ruestions men ask of one another the world over.
 ,,on is the clothier of the world. Let t,S crop of cotton fail for three years