The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-13
On the Cotton Industry
Paper Read by C. c Thach Before the Amscan Eccnomi
 Association, New Orleans, December sD 1905.

IAe supreme interest or tne Sopfe ah- der discussion no one can question. Though deposed from time to time by wnfaous economists and up@tessaate agris cp1turists, cotton was never more an ae- s0lufe King than today. The world. wide scramble for the staple, the phen0- m1uni leap in p&ice to the higfest mark since the years immediately succeeding xhs Civil War. the Eierce struggle for the rnnznol of the market: the grave eppre- hanss0n as to the adequacy of future sup nzN$ ns to labor, as to the boll-weevtl, the HS2efzaFakaon of seed and other pests and pAf4ss to production; the possibilities Of cotton culture in regions other than the SoMfI14<these and ether manifold phases Of the cotton question fill the public rfess, and attest the vital importance Of khe commodity to the entire country, in- deed. to the entire world.
 m truth, 1t is weli-nigh impossible to 0VAr6sate the supreme importance of the H0fkon industry in the South. As a mat ter oz fact, cotton is the staple aericuit tszfaa product of ten States in the Union, efn6faklhx d population of 1s, ,116o00 peo- 1fA or about one-foufth of the entire unlzan States At an average price of ten cents per pound, the crop of ten million baxss as estimated by the Department of A&E2cnltufe as of tremendous financial #nIsze. aRRrekating the immense total of S11 1000 This advance since last De- tembAr from eight to twelve cents a moz{fs8 represents an increase to the Nn&fh6fn planter Of Se0O.00o,08o over any Hr9n that he has ever raised, about $SO,- o11.Soo of this increase being still to &C., cree upon the cotton yet in the hands of 4ilA producer.
 wurthermore, we are the cotton store hotse Tor the world. producing threeA foaz4hs of the worlds supply: and say MhaA p6opae may about India, China, La- m6e and Egypt, the South for generations fn some will hold practically a monopoly of 4zlis great product.
 ssglthout cur cotton" says an eminent Gnamnaer. ~the money market of the l3M4xAa States would be in Bad way" asRa ~A1W4 Of cotton exports for twenty years has totaled the stupendosHs sum of flvA &ll3lpA dollars Or $550.oe0,000 . year, lar e<f0eN6ing any other export. Cotton hl7ss being payable in gold enable us to { m,asnkatn aa1r gold balance with 'tbe rest Of ahs weFid. e
 H2ale hasten to express my hearty NfAnfno1nessk of the main contehtion Of fiah Nag&fmguislsed gentleman who has pre- eede9 me. yet, if, as a clergyman once put zt, .I may beg leave to differ with Hf. RAuL"sI ask briefly to call in, ques- xlon the proposition advanced that slavery wab never any advantage in de- Ve10pine a system of cotton produe- fion me question is. indeed, long os1A, and is perhaps or only academic in- 4traaf; yet from the standpoint of eco nosnfc history 1t is of value
 Certainly if slavery may not have been an advantage. 1t was the actual social eonaitdnn under which the cotton raising fisamNtRy Mas planted, fostered and de- 4kshnAd an America; and developed at that. to immense proportions. 1t is a case Of post hocC: and apparently a case of ssnt0pfAk hoe For think what we may of the humanitarian or ethical aspects of 4he anestfon. and tiisfnissing them as in no wise germane to the discussion, still ffsa1A d purely Ne0hemie standpoint sla- wefv. nS social organization or machine, ~sas a most Nfilelent agency for getting wazk Zone. Indeed, as they say nowadays nbslt ebsnegolent assimilation" the in- hfituti0n was our destiny, was provS- aeftiaL aauiv, it seems to me that with Eoaeayern States woald have been retarded Aan d century or longer. at least until flSA &reht tide of immigration had flowed euur ehe sApppalachian watershed, and covered fhe fertile reaches Of the great Nar2hWsstern territory.
 Kes, the winning of the South wal lAsNely the work of the negro. Un' ttanbly his tropical origin, and &xsa&ar immunity from malignant ma ss&ai daseases peculiarly adapted him tC fl8e ssws1m artiagery of feliing the forests 84AxNsnR the marshes and subdulng tC ealtivak30n the more fertile sections of tho e2sts1repieal country in which cotton MS 4enud te thrive.
 and the efficiency of the system oi 4AEy in the growing of cotton Is fuIiy s*falaished by the statistics in the case T.AB decade from 1850 to 1S60, for instance. shows as great 8 percentage or increase h nrpauotion as any decade in the his. 18FH df the eonntry-being. Indeed, great M alian nearly any other consecutive ten
 In iyse1sB the crop was 4.ssl.2Oe bales. nn amount not again attained until 1878 zs eiehteen years later. and thirteen NeaFs after the close of the war. al- ksaamkh the population had increased 1aan@haye nearly forty per cent. Tn faeE the increase In production Of cotton since the war has not kept pace with the ltlcrenne 10 population in the South e. B. in 4SsD: the cotton crop was 4.s6l. .7O2 bales; fn 1eg0-i. 10,SS3.E .E22 bales, an increase of fIs per cent, the population of the cot len states being for the same dates re- MnAckively f,s1s609 and 18.ll6,000, or an in- exeMse of 4a0 per cent
 AA q eseee agency Tor producing cotton f4peak slavery was erlfnently eff1cfent or course the mere production Of raw hest6h dosA n6t constitute an ideal eco honiIc NtAte, and every one knows that lhe instituti0n of slavery stuffed the mo thaieag and scientific spirit qf Southern nofE and made Impossible Qe highly NrgaEi8, complex industrial Ne which
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