The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-18

sociation today. Mr.. Haden spoke, in
part, as follows:
THE cotton fields of the south need
a larger volume of currency at the
harvest season. Cotton ut that season
so nearly abSorbs our whole banking
capital other lines OF traffic are made
to suffer ] am here to ask your dis
tinguished body to throw the weight
-of its great influence in favor of some
plan that will relieve the yearly con-
gestion. 1t is unfair and unsafe that
We be left wholly dependent upon
New York. 1t sometimes happens that
demands enormous and unforeseen are
made upon New York for money Just
at the time of the cotton movement.
Il will pause at the threshold OF my
argument to say that we want only
sound money. Cotton is to the COM
modities what gold is to money-the
most universally coveted. the NEST
readily cashed, the most widely con-
sumed among the great staples ot
trade. 1t demands currency as good
as gold-a currency regulated and
warranted by the federal government.
and redeemable in gold. Federal in
dorsement and gold redemption from
the citadel of American financial sta
bility, and upon it floats the flag of
our national business supremacy. 1t
is necessary that | approach by way
of certain established facts. as upon
:stepping-stones. to prove the truth OF
my postulate.
Our parts of our republic. in the
first half of the last century. accumu-
lated their surplus in the way of the
yellow metal, or its market eQuival-
ent; but the cotton states held their
cash reserve in black. Drawn and
snew. 1t would he irrevelant to re-
count the story OF how this cash re-
serve was stricken from the balance
sheet.
Beginning with the crop OF 1865
and continuing by very slow and
gradual diminution for about thirty
years, the cotton crop was literally
sown and reaped in debt. For the
first decade of that period, contrary
to our national traditions, and in vio-
lation of the federal constitution. the
cotton crop was punished by a direct
federal tax. During the first decade.
and indeed through the greater part of
the second, our people were oppressed
by degree OF poverty which can be
understood by those who know the
wreckage of a war of invasion. and by
debt which trails the footsteps of
poverty as the jackal pursues the
wounded prey
"A system OF crop mortgages pre-
vailed throughout the south. Cotton
was the only crop upon which the
farmer could obtain advancements of
supplies. 1t alone commanded gold,
and gold was at premium. In most
instances the crop was mortgaged be-
fore the seed germinated; the laws
forbade that the lien should be made
before the seed was planted. The
supply merchant gave his mortgagor
line of credit and charged against
him his supplies at profits so eXor-
bitant that they would sting even the
conscience of modern trust. In his
turn the merchant pledged these
mortgages to the eastern wholesale
merchants. who. in their turn. de-
manded profits commensurate with
the helplessness of the consumer. The
supply men were generally called
factors. The farmers vaguely thought
that this word was corruption of
mal-e-factors.
Banks and money-lenders were few
and remote. In September, when the
cotton bolls began to unfold their
palms, displaying the crisp, white
staple. the clamor for swift liQuida-
ton began. The eastern wholesaler
called the factor and the factor called
the farmer. The factor sent his pat
rolls on horseback through the dis
tricts to inspect the crops of his debt
ors, and to see that the staple was
hurried to the gin and from the gin
hurried on to the factor. Sometimes
years came and went before the farm
-er saw real dollar of the money he
earned. All debts matured at harvest
time and no one was willing to wait.
The importers of Liverpool and Man
chester arbitrarily named the price.
1t was a sale without negotiations.
There was but one question, How
much will the English spinners give?'
1T is painful to consider that era
those desperately dark years in which
1t seemed to me. as boy. that the
sun OF hope which warmed the earth
and gilded all nature had forever set
upon the scenes of my childhood The
greatest agricultural product OF the
world was disposed of by the toilers
OF the field as if by beggars. Our
government allowed its monopoly, in
herited by nature, to be slaughtered
by alien hands. Lacking financial
support, lacking available currency to
hush. even temporarily, the clamor of
creditors while the cotton producers
could hold their crop long enough to
negotiate with foreign consumers. the
people of America lost and the people
of Europe gained within those thirty
years, at the lowest computation, more
than billion dollars of gold.
During the years of the travail of
cotton. iron and steel were the fav-
orite offspring of the protective tar
if system. The government as a
fostering mother, barred our ports
against the free ingress of the manu-
featured products of the old world to
protect our infant industries-indus-
tries that. though new hoary with age,
are yet sucking at the breast-and
in return these infants brought back
into America during the last fiscal
year the splendid return of $161 ,OOO,-
900. Herein was wisdom justified of
her children During the same era
the government, by enormous subsi-
dies of land to the transcontinental
railroads, developed the great north
west. opened practically free lands
to the landless immigrants, and
amazed the world by the rapid expan-
sion of corn and wheat fields. Last
year this other favored child brought
back through exports to foreign
shores, in the aggregate from sales of
breadstuffs, the magnificent yield of
$186.OOO.OOO of gold. Cotton, without
government favors. direct or indirect
yielded to our country in the same