The news & observer., 1905-09-02
HARV|E JORDAN
COTTON MAN"
One of the Most Interest
ing American Figures.
THE AIR OF THE WEST
How the President OF The Southern
Cotton Growers Association Looks,
Talks and Acts.-. The Farmer in
The SaddIe".-.Time Has Come
for Fair Minimum Price.
for Fair Minimum Price.

If one did not know that Harvey l..
Jordan was a Southerner of Virginia
extraction now running a farm in
Georgia eight hundred acres of which
are devoted to the cultivation of cot
ton, there is certain type to which
ne would be instantly credited.
One would look about for his
mount.
BY this l mean that there is that
about the pose the self-reliant poise
of the head, the keen glance of steel
blue eyes and the droll humor that
fickerss about under the dropping
black mustache that suggests the
something which has come to be de-
scribed as savoring OF the West.
Here is a strong man." one would
say at once. "A man of power and
brain, used to difficulties and sudden
chances, meeting them as they come
and laughing for the very joy of meet
ing them. A man who can befriend
and hate. who lives free and strong
and hard, who has no patience with
coward through inabilit- to under
stand him. Who, with it all, is frank
ly pleased with himself and his do
ings."
And then one would say under his
breath: But he can be cold as
nailS!"
In some such manner did Harvey
Jordan appear to the eyes of)that deep.
interest which is begotten by men who
have done things" When first seen
he was in the middle of his address
to the Farmers Convention. As a
speaker he is deliberate, thoughtful,
devoid of am ofatoricai art.@winHtng
his force by eertaiff straightforward
1saff 4 kafFa Faf1fft afska
of simple words in the making of
phrase. That he knows farming and
that he believes sincerely that he
knows not only what the cotton farm
er ought to do. but can do, is not
surprising; that with the air, the style
and look of a plain man making ex-
temporaneous business suggestions, he
should weave into the statement of
sober facts the persuasiveness that
other men seek through eloquence is
not so clear. Yet that is what he did.
the way he talked-and he finally
stopped through sheer stubborness
or wisdom when his audience was
calling to him to go on.
On the platform dressed in serge
coat. vestless with blue checked shirt
and cuffs, in low collar and flowing.
careless tie, his sinewey shoulders, the
look of contained muscular power in
the whole figure heightened the WeS-
tern comparison to which | have al
luded.
In conversation, Mr.. Jordan is
frank, open, and twinkling with that
inner humor which comes from large
experience. When he smiles, it takes
i'm the whole lean face the eyes gilt
ter, the mouth twitches senSitively,
the deep wrinkle in his left cheek
twists itself in sympathy with his
thought. 1t is not for more than
moment, however, that he gets away
from cotton: that he thinks it his life
work is as evident as the squareness of
his chin; that il is his life work be-
cause he happens to be doing it now is
quite as transparent.
Harvey Jordan has always known
how 10 farm but he has not always
been a farmer. He has done many
things, from running an agricultural
department for Hoke Smith in the At
lanta Journal to clerking In a hotel.
Whatever he has done has been ac-
complished in the way OF q hustler
that again is a Western term-and
he has succeeded.
Farmers Are the Masters.
1.-The farmers can do what they
please with this cropl" Mr. Jordan
made the statement with the utmost
confidence. 81 know a plan Ivy which
this fall and winter could be made to
seeAa new high record price. 1t would
take just a million of so backing and
I would know where to find the mill
lion"
But, don't you think that wild
prices OF that sort would do more
harm than good in the long rum"
broke in the cotton merchant
The Jordan smile lit up the keen
face with n score of twitching muscles
81 didn't saw that was what / was
going to try to do, or what / would
advise. just that it could be done"
Again the smile: IF i got into a thing
like that. I'm afraid I'd stop: / couldn't
go on. 1t would be too easy"
More seriously, Mr. Jordan went on
to discuss his and the associations aims
and what had been done.
II go from here to Atlanta, and
from there to Asheville. What we
propose to do is to fix minimum
price at which We will sell our cotton,
tell you that can be done / don't
say what the minimum price should
be, whether eleven cents or eleven and
a half or twelve. We want 10 do the
right thing, but we propose to make
that price stick"
Somebody suggested that II would
not do to have the price put below the
market, someone else saying that 1t
ought to be put at ten cents and kept
there by the farmer
Mr.. Jordan did not think the last
suggestion practicable or even neces-
safy. The point was a minimum price
and the fact that it was set at a mini
mum would prevent no one from hold
Continued on Page Five.l