The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1905-05-25
FARM MERS
ORGANIZE
President Clark Addresses the People
Of Rankin County and An Or
ganization is Perfected.

At the court house on Monday, May
22nd, Judge Enochs having adjourned
court. after charging the grand jury,
Senator A. J. McLaurin introduced
Walter CLARK, president Of the Missis-
sippi division of the southern cotton
association, who, in an able and forci-
BILE address for an hour and twenty
five minutes devoted to the plans Of
the organization, kept the immense
audience spellbound with his logical
argument presented to the people.
After his address, an organization was
perfected, many signing the member
ship rolls through Secretary Fisher.
Every precinct in the county is now
organized.
Organization, of--course, is one of
the essential features of the associa-
tion because without unity there can
be no strength. The organization Of
the association throughout the various
cotton producing states and territories,
is patented under the political form
of the United States government. The
association, in it's head formation, is
made up of representatives from the
thirteen states and territories produc-
ing cotton; each state division is COM
posed of representative delegate
from each county or parish; each
parish or county organization is COM
posed of three representatives from
each civil subdivision and each civil
subdivision is made of the units of
the people. Thus we have a central
lied organization, beginning from
among the people at the bottom and
working through the counties, or par.
ishes up through the state divisions
and forming the parent here-the
southern cotton association. The
strength of the association is therefore
obtained directly from the people,
whose interest it seeks to safeguard
and protect. It is movement in
which the sympathy, support and ac-
two cooperation Of every man in
business and profession in the south
should be cordially enlisted.
For the past fifty years, the south
has directed its energies principally
in the production of cotton; our peo-
pie have taken but little interest in
devising the proper ways and means
for marketing the staple. or in obtain
ing proper and correct knowledge Of
the use to which our cotton has been
put and its consumption among the
nations of the world. We have,
therefore, known but little of it's val
ne beyond the price offered us by the
people who have come into our
markets to purchase it.
The annual cotton crop of the south
is the most valuable of any agricultural
product on the face Of the globe. It's
annual sales amount in the aggregate
for the raw material Of more than six
hundred millions of dollars, and,
when cnnverted into the finished fab
rio, will sell for the enormous total of
nearly two billions of dollars. It is
due alone to the cotton crop Of the
south that the balance Of trade is in
favor Of the United States in it's COM
mercial relations with foreign coun-
tries. In 1904, the exports of raw ma
terial amounted to more than one
million dollars for each of the 1865
days. And this three hundred and
sixty five millions of dollars, which
was sent to this country in gold by
the foreign spinner, paid for only
sixty y-five per cent. of the crop pro-
duced, leaving the balance, of thirty
five per cent to be woven into cloth
under the roofs Of American mills.
The enormous increase in the value
of the staple after it has passed
through the loom, presents the highest
evidence of the necessity for the more
rapid building Of cotton mills in the
south, and the exporting Of the finish
ed product from our shores rather than
of the raw material. The export Of
our raw cotton annually brings more
gold into this county than the COM
bined exports Of all other agricultural
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