The independent. [volume] (Lincoln, Neb.) 1902-1907, 1905-02-23

not consume $z5 worth, apiece! IN
basis of ten ceat cotton, fifty dollars a
bale, you have crop demanded, ac-
cording to these figures, of forty mil
lion bales. Put it at $40 head; say
that every man, every woman and
every child could be content, in all
the uses of cotton, with $40 apiece,
and put it on the same basis, ten-cent
cotton, bringing $50 bale, and yon
have a legitimate demand in America
alone for sixteen million bales OF cot
ton! (Applause)
Therefore, what you want more
than any other thing is to increase
the demand for cotton; the market for
cotton, and the uses of cotton;
say, and can maintain, that our own
laws, our own government by discrim-
ination against us, has destroyed our
market and has concentrated our
wealth until the masses of the people
who need what we have got, can't get
it, because they haven't the money to
buy it with.
Let us rise to the highest RESPONSE
bilities Of this situation, and ask
again: What must we do to be saved
First of all, we must remove from the
market, as the coffee trust did, the
over supply of cotton and limit the
output to what the world is now able
to buy. (Great applause.)
Il stand ready, and my people stand
ready, to march with you on any plan
of action which proposes to retire from
the market, either temporarily or per-
manently, what is supposed to be that
surplus which destroys the market
value of all of it.
"Then, again, you need to form a
self-defense trust which will imme-
diately limit the output from year to
year. (Applause) Again, you need
to regulate the supply of cotton to
meet the present commercial demand.
Then, again, you want to work with
might and main, year in and year out,
to broaden the market and enlarge the
demand, until the world is able to buy
as much as it legitimately needs of
your product. (Applause.)
We have got to know no republi-
cans, no democrats, no populists. We
have got to know only the southern
man who will take his stand by other
southern men. tremendous APP
plause.) As to the present time, your
duty is plain, your self-interest is
plain. 1t is to stand pat! Stand pat!
(Cries of That's right" and ap-
plause.) Let the other fellow play.
daughter and applause.) Let the
other fellow play, but you stand pat
"They tell you that millions of bales
of cotton are being sold on Wall street
Not word of it's true. They are SELL
ing hot air! Great applause.) They
are selling what Mr. Hatch of Mis-
souri, used to call wind! | was proud
to help him pass the Dingley law to
put down future gambling; a law which
the lower house passed and which our
house of lords killed. they are not
selling cotton, they are selling futures
and futures can't always rule.
Spot cotton is king, and always will
be king if we will be true to it. (Great
applause) The mills can not run on
cotton futures. CA voice: mo, you bet
they can't.) The railroads can't get
rich on cotton futures. (Great ap-
plause.) The fertilizer companies won't
get fat on cotton futures. The gamb-
ling contracts made on Wall street it
self, can't always be settled by other
contracts. Sooner or later, they have
got to have spot cotton.
Cotton futures have usurped the
kingly robes, have put on the royal red
and are welding new scepter for the
tyrant. Let's expel him. Let's run him
out. Let's be true to the south and of
necessity prosperity will follow.
What is Wall street doing? 1T is
simply betting. Betting that you will
sell your cotton in April, May, June
and July at six ard fraction. For
them to win the game you have-g to
do it; for if you don't they'll lose
the game and you win it.
II don't tell you it will be an easy
fight or short campaign. | tell you it
will be hard fight and long cam
paign, because you are combating the
inertia of a hundred years, but it's a
fight that you have got TO make, and
it's fight that you are going to make
(Great applause.)
"When this convention separates