The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-10-22
They are Pledged to Hold Cotton. THE WAREHOUSE PROJECT Several Negroes Join in Enthusiastic Meeting. Montgomery Growers Assembled as
 stoddard and Had an aIl day
 Meeting ListenfnE te sev-
 eraI coed Addresses.
BY CHARLES L. HAROLD.

Ramer, Oct. 21.--(Special Stan Cor respondence. .)-The planters of Beat l5. Montgomery County, have been holding their cotton back from the market con sistently all the season but never have they declared for their rights in more vigorous terms than at a mass meeting held today at stoddard. three and one half miles from Ramer. r.
 Over one hundred people by actual count crowded the Aurora school house and overhowed onto the surrounoins grounds to hear the economy of the cotton holding campaign preached ana to pledge their support in the propor ton that the crops bear to the yieio or the etire State.
 The planters who were present and nearly all of Beat Is was on hand-oio more than merely hold open tneir as sais to what was said. They exempiined the truth of the cotton situation in the South embraced in the declaration of famous leader in South Carolina: The time for deliberation is past, the time for action has come" These people almost to the man. put down their names to over 900 shares of stock in the pair of warehouses that are 70 pc erected in Montgomery. These ware houses are to subserve the interests or the farmer. The feeling of the meeting was pronounced time and again against the methods of the average warehouse man and the movement which was started in Montgomery few days ago for the, farmers ownership of the en- terprises was given material impetus at the meeting today.
 Money Was Produced.
 There were among the men present today an even thirty-six who paid up the dues assessed against them which are to furnish the funds for the fight of the. South's salvation. There are more members than this, however, in Beat Is. These are simply the new members who have not had an oppor- tunity of. expressing their loyalty to the Southern Cotton Growers Associa- tion in terms of cash.
 Today's meeting also brought out a repudiation of the charge that the ne- gro tenant Is not in the ranks of the Cotton Association. There were In the groes who were there to represent their quota of the crop in the beat. They were as unflagging in their attention to the speakers of the day as the white men. They were also as quick to pro- duce their initial fees. to pay their as- sessments and subscribe to warehouse stock as their friends of the other race.
 
 cially applauded as he walked to the secretaiy's desk and laid down his dues for membership and the assessment for forty bales of cotton which he has rais- ed this year. It Is not every white farmer that gets this yield of cotton from his acres. But Hardaway was not the only negro tenant to enter the com pact open to the farmers of all classes by the Southern Cotton Association. Practically all the negroes present went forward with their dues and manifested much interest in the speeches which were delivered
 Scored the Speculators.
 Again the planters did not adjourn without scoring the speculators of the cottcn market Upon the "bears" as in previous meetings were heaped odiums almost without limit. They wers the object of intermittent attacks from the speakers during the morning and afternoon sessions. The gathering lasted from 10 o'clock in the morning until clock in the afternoon with I dinner served on the grounds.
 With all the verbal assaults on the Wall Street speculator, however those who were on the rostrum of the school