The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1905-07-20
KING COTTON.
An Address About Our Staple Crop and

fne lOllOWllS dUlc SSuulcoS Woo uoAV0
cred last May during the meeting of the
Louisiana Press Association, held At
Thibodaux, by Gen. Leon Jastremski. OF
Baton Rouge, editor and proprietor OF
The People:
"I shall endeavor to interest you in a
subject that is as old as the hills OF
Dixie. 1t is King Cotton, to whose bene-
licences the South owes her glory and
her wealth and her well-founded hopes
In dazzling future. But the hour has
sounded when the South must cease to
be content TO produce the raw cotton,
sometimes below cost, and allow the for
eign manufacturers to reap the profts
from fabric that should be as much
Southern specially as the raw cotton
from which they are woven.
Productions in the cotton acreage and
diversification are but temporary expe-
dents in periods of low prices and over
production. They will not cure the
malady. Fluctuations in the price of
cotton cause fluctuations in Southern
prosperity. The South, henoeforth,
must govern the production Of the cot
ton and furnish it to the world in the
form of the best fabrics of the various
kinds and grades.
"a few years ago 1t was thought i'm
practicable to operate bank on small
capital and in 1895, just six years ago,
Louisiana had but fifty-two State banks.
Now she has 1877 and thirty six national
banks. Our neighbor, Mississippi,
boasts Of 221 State banks and twenty
national banks. How much this same
impression about factories has operated
against the establishment of cotton fac
tories, leave you to conjecture. But
for this idea, mayhay, thousands OF
small factories would to-day be in pros
perour operation, giving steady employ
ment and contentment throughout tho
South. At the touch of an electric but
ton half dozen or even fewer looms and
spindles in small apartment, can be
operated by few skilled girls and
women, and at remunerative wages
these operatives may turn out various
cotton fabrics OF superior quality. In
the old days Southern women worked
the primitive spindles and looms with
their feet and hands and made the cot
tonades and other homespuns which
were SO generally worn in the South,
and which sold at fancy prices. Why
cannot this be done hereafter, with
greater facility by means of the perfect
ed machines and the electric current that
every town possesses7 The necessity
for vast buildings, costly machinery to
operate hundreds Of spindles and looms
In such buildings and for hundreds and
thousands Of operatives has disappeared
with the advent of the electric power.
! MAKING OF COTTON GOODS.
"This matter should be at once in
vestigated, and it cannot be doubted that
American inventive genius will soon
discover the way to cover the South with
cotton factories of all dimensions and
kinds.
".The little and the big banks will find
a new field for enlarged profits In this
dissemination of the cotton factory.
Women won't have to compete with men
for empioyments which have been de-
signed for men. The products of the
farm and garden will find increasing
consumption here at home. The immi-
grant will need no invitation to come to
the South. The cotton acreage will be
reduced automatically and the home de-
mand will improve the price of the raw
cotton. The accommodating home capital
will create other manufactures and in
dustries, u and most of our troubles and
problems will be dispelled.
"Even our foreign commerce would be
assisted by this evolution, for, the
Southern cotton factories would furnish
, cloths for direct transportation to every
part of the world instead of cotton bales
for the limited number of ports to which
the raw cotton now goes.
"The Southern climate is admirably
suited for light manufactures, and We
need but to follow the example of the
French, whose forte is to excel in al
that they make. This is the secret Of
the success OF French industries, and thu
reason tor the higher prices that thei
products demand.
NEED OF TEXTILE SCHOOLS.
: "With this view, tile State should es
tablish textile schools and employ ex
iperts to teach the best methods In max
. ing the cotton fabrics from the com
;, monest to the finest.
|, "This ought to be the overshadowinl
a public policy throughout the South. 1t
. soundness has already been demonstrat
ed in several States, though with vas
establishments started and maintains
A with large investments OF capital. Tn
banks have furnished valuable objse
lessons for the dissemination of cotto
h manufacturing with inexpensive install
n lations. Let US give the subject the At
% tention and investigation that it de
e serves.
II shall now leave you to consider
in it's various bearings. 1t is brimful {
possibilities. Our own country afford
the richest market for the consumptio
of our cotton fabrics, and it is expandin
every day. We should, by every cor
ceivable means, popularize the use {
J cotton fabrics, especially by bringin
them to the highest degree of perfection