The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1906-01-12
COTTON GROWERS
CONTINUED from First Page.)

-ceipts, guaranteeing grades and
weights, and underwritten SO as to
max such receipts absolutely safe ,
collateral, cheap money can be secured
at any financial center whenever need
ed. These receipts can be-Sold direct
to the buyers or spinners and the
present primitive and costly system to
the grower entirely obviated."
Concluding his address, President
Jordan urged the wisdom and necessi-
ty for compact organization among the
growers in every cotton producing
country in the south.
At the opening of the afternoon ses-
sion of the Southern Cotton conven-
ton, announcements were made Of
members from the various states to,
serve on the committees which do the
actual work Of tine convention. The
committees provided for are OH acre
age and diyersiication, pushing the
work of organization, and financing
the association, warehousing, holding
balance of unsOld crop, trade relations
and statistics.
An address by Hon. H. s. Scott, of
Mississippi, on work in cotton fields
provoked considerable discussion. Mr..
Scott said the conclusion could not be
avoided that the negro laborer in the
south had finally become a general
wOeful failure. The change was grad
ual at first, but within the past two
years the fall of the negro in useful
ness had become almost perpendicular.
1t would not be many years, he
thought, when the negro in the south
would become a thing OF the past. Sir.
Scott gave the results of three months
study i'll Europe last yea is an effort
to find a solution for the labor Situa-
ton in his own state. He visited Eng
land, France, Germany, Holland and
Italy, and gave reasons for believing
that only to Italy could the south look
for an avenue Of escape from its diff
aculties. He praised the frugality, in
'dustry and peaceable disposition when
well treated, of the natives of southern
and central Italy, and urged a move
ment to increase the means of ocean
transportation, that Italian immigrants
might be brought to southern ports
and distributed in the cotton fields to
meet the labor famine. Mr.. Scott de-
Scribed successful experimentation
with them already made in his state.
Mr.. ClarkSOn of Tennessee, gave
some figures to show the wonderful
developments of the south since the
war. He said it had been made with
negro labor. Mr.. ClarksOn did not
think that the south had done it's full
duty to the negro labOrer. 1t did o
treat him as it was proposed to treat
the Italian. He believed large impOr-
tations Of Italians would prove a
source Of great danger to the south
and believed the opportunity still ex-
listed to make the negro the best la
borer on the face of the globe.
Mr.. Irvine, of Georgia, said extern
sive Italian immigration would ulti-
mately result in Italian possession of
southern lands. He thought the cher
gies of the south ought to be directed
to the education of its youth in the
advantages of farming, and to the
sending of city boys to the field.
Mr.. Smith, Of South Carolina said
that the south during the past year
had made all the cotton needed with
out difficulty and with negro labor,
and there was nc occasion for discuss
ing the question of securing additional
labor until the southern farmers were
assured of an enriching return on the
cotton they We're able to raise.
At the conclusion of the discussion,
d. A. Tompkins, of Charlotte, n. c.,
was introduced to speak on cotton val
ues in textile fabrics.
MIR. TOMPKINS' SPEECH.
Mr.. Tompkins spoke on Cotton
Values in Textile Fabrics He ad-
vOcated the sale of cotton goods to
China instead of the raw cotton to
England, and especially emphasized
the need of development Of a knowl-
edge and skill in manufacture that
would lead to the production of better
goods than Onsnaburg and standard
~sheetings, so that in time cotton would
become in a degree a basis for the sale
of knowledge and skill necessary to
the production of the finer fabrics.
He quoted figures which he had COM
piled as showing that at 6 per cent per
pound, the price when the comparison
was made, the North Carolina crop
was i'll its raw state worth SIS. ZOO, 900.
Converted into duck at fourteen cents
per pound, it was worth $4,000, 900.
The value, he continued, rapidly ad-
vanced until, when made into embrOid-
cry at $50 per pound, the crop III North
Carolina would be worth So, 900, OO0,-
600. Continuing, Mr.. Tompkins said
1T was the cotton manufacturer who
drew from the competition in cotton
production large numbers of working
people, and gave them employment in
occupations that made them the Gus
toners of the farmer Tor p~eriShable
farm products, thereby giving the farm
1er resourc which he did not have be-
fore. This same movement took so
many people off the farms that for
those left there, double the price is
now being obtained for the raw mate
rial owe what it was a very few
years ago. The manufacturer has
never objected to a high price for cot
ton, but on the contrary, whether in
tentionally or not, the southern cotton
manufa cturer has been most instru-
mental in increasing the price Of cot
ton by tie two means above mention
ed With better values Tor the manI-