The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-15
POOLE TALKS ON
 COTTON INDUSTRY Make important Address III
 Baton Rouge PLEADS FOR BETTER ROADS Urges Concerted Action Toward Inter- estins Capital In Building Cotton Mills In South, Where the
 Staple Is Raised.
PLEADS FOR BETTER ROADS

Baton Rouge, La. October lt-'9pe- ciaD.-R. R. Poole, commissioner or agrl-
 culture of Alabama and president or the
 Cotton States association of commission
 CTS of agriculture delivered an address
 before the annual meeting of the organi-
 zation in this city today.
 President Poole made some very perti-
 nent remarks along the lines of cotton
 raising. cotton manufacture, good roads | and other features of enterprise peculiar to the south or needed especially by this | section. Coming as we do, from cotton growing states" said Mir Poole, in open ing, ''the chief money product of our soil and the basis of all our prosperity and wealth, it Is but natural that our dello- erations should be fraught with great in- terest and our proceedings attract not
 only the attention of home people but Of
 the civilized world
 Demand Exceeds Production.
 The speaker showed that the value of
 the cotton crop of the country is the enor-
 nous sum of $412,4O3,659, and with the Sea Islan,. crop, $4lS ,35S, S66, to raise which 27114,103 acres of ne best land of the
 country Is used. The production is not
 up to the demand, it being noted that last
 year the shortage from the demand being
 75o,OOo bales. Right here MT. Poole
 stopped to say that he believed the farm
 CTS could raise cotton at a profit for 10
 centh, and that such price would give
 the agricultural classes a great upift in the world
 Looking into the prices of the staple for years back, Mir Poole recalled that at
 the beginning of the Nineteenth Century
 cotton sold for A cen.s a pound, running
 down to 13 cents in 1889, and to 563 in 1884, the lowest range ever reached. IL
 sold for $1 a pound during the civil war.
 and for several years after fluctuated be- tween 42 and 13 cents The size of the crop has run from 720,55o bales in 1923
 to 10,002. 026 bales in 19O3-4 The staple en- ters into every form of wearing apparel and hundreds of other things made of 1 cloth It has actually become almost im- possible to detect it's mixture with wool
 in many kinds of goods
 Armies Use Cotton.
 While vast numbers of new avenues of 1 usefulness have been found the produc- 1 ton has nat kept pace. The armies of l the world use cotton clothes, the United 1 States taking 13,OO0O0O yards of eight 1 ounce Khaki cloth in four years Great 1 Britain uses it in India and the armies
 of Russia and Japan are making use of l large quantities of it. Our own navy Is
 finding it valuable and taking large quan- titles for uniforms. In thousands of ways 1 it is used in the manufacturing plants of 1 the country, cement bags are made of 1t by the millions and overcoats are made 1 of it in lighter climates.
 T have long since seen the necessity of l the south manufacturing the products of 1 it's soil and the gain of bringing the fac | tories to the fields where all the power
 and fuel are at hand and where cotton 1 can be made into cotton goods much | cheaper than elsewhere; bringing to our l people many millions of dollars year l that now go to eastern and foreign man ufacturers. The demand for cotton has l increased at a much faster ratio than | the production.
 ] The limit of production, for the present 1 at least, may have been attained, but if we can induce thrifty and intelligent l class of immigrants to come to our sec | tion and farm our lands in an up-to-date l improved and scientific manner, this in-
 crease in production can be brought
 about and enough more made in this
 country to meet the demands of the en- | tire world. But we must come to the
 manufacture of the product before we
 can do anything else just now to secure | that advancement and progress of our 1 section which we all so much desire.'' Invitations to Spinners. | Reference IS here made to the proposi- l tion to invite International and eastern | spinners to the south to observe the con
 ditions here and to get them to look into conditions they exist at the cotton | fields. The good work along this line of 1 R. II. Edmonds of the Manufacturer Record was highly compimented. | Speaking of the conditions of the farm CTS, MT. Poole said: "rhe farmers of the south are much improved over the past ] few years and the future is most bright
 and promising. Last year the crop was
 marketed while the price was low. and the vast majority of the farmers were not | benefited by the rise in price, but this 1 year it has been different: the prices have 1 been fair from the beginning. and the crop will be marketed at the present rate, | 10 cents or over. The present favorable weather is pouring the crop into market, and the farmer is certain tc get good and reasonable price whether he holds 1t or not. 1 am gratifed to say, too, that | this change of the conditions is brought about by the bringing of the corn crib