The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-13
UNANIMITY
 OF SENTIMENT 15-Cent Cotton and Acreage Reduction NEW ORLEANS CONVENTION Planters and Business Men Act
 in Concert. Bankers Pledge Support to the Far'neF in Enort to obtain Good Price
 for the south's staple

New Orleans, La, Jsttls A-s-- hc Soh- vention of Southern Planters and bus mess men today went on record as en- dorsinE the holding that part of the cotton crop still in the hands of the planters for 15 cents pound, and as favoring the reduction of acreage ID per cent by diversification.
 The convention today was slow Tn reassembling, but when President Jor- dams gavel fell. the large hall was crowded to the doors.
 State Senator Yarbrough Of Como. Miss, offered to the convention copy of the bill which he had already intro duced in the Legislature to enable cot ton growers to build factories and oil mills and manufacture cotton into fab- rics and cotton seed into oil It pro- vides for elections in counties or po- lItIcal sub divisions for or against an assessment tax on cotton produced to create a fund to build factories. The bill was referred.
 By invitation Secretary Blackwell of the National Ginners' Association, made an address to tho convention.
 '.There are not 300,000 bales of cot ton yet to gin in the entire South he said. More than 50 per cent. of the gins everywhere are closed. Many or the others have only five to seven bales to gin. Dry goods have been constant Iy advancing in price during the year past and we have only to stand togeth- CT to get the reasonable prices the as- sociatlon has asked for cotton"
 When MT. Blackwell concluded MT E. D, smith of South Carolina, deliv- cred an address on Cotton the basis of Southern prosperity"
 sum of the Work.
 That the sum of the work or the Ia rnyaG n he n declaration for 15 cents cotton with reduction in the form of diversification was practically settled at the afternoon session of the convention, when Chair man Dancey of the Committee on Hold ing. in advance of the presentation of its report. announced that the commit tee had -unanirnousiy4 decided tayoranly on that proposition. The announce ment provoked the convention 70 d whirlwlnd of cheers.
 The premature announcement or the conclusions of the committee was forced by advices from New York to the effect that newspaper dispatches and Wall Street reports printed ana circulated there indicated lack of har- mony among the elements making up the convention and dIssensions over the 15-cent proposition.
 President Jordan brought the matter
  the reports which, he said, he was in- Formed. appeared today in all the New York papers, as Dear dope" evidently manufactured by agents of the specula- tors who were sent to mingle with the deIerates of the convention. The re- norts that the convention did not have in It's purposes, plans and work. the hearty support sympathy and co-operaA tion of every banker and merchant pres
 NN hn ah out foundation.
 Alexarder H. Smith of Greene Coun- ty. Georgia, urged the sending of telegram announcing that the South needed no money from Wall Street. but had 1t to lend. He said the five banks in his county were pledged to absolute support of the farmers. and that not another bale there would be sold under 15 cents.
 Perfect Unison of Thought.
 T. E. Massengale of Georgia moved that the President be instructed to send a statement through the Associ- ated Press that the bankers. merchants and farmers were in perfect unison or thought and that he correct the state fnents to the contrary. circulated by Wall Street bear operators who were doing all in their power to break up the cotton growers organization. The motion was doOpteu.
 MT. Goodwin of Georgia said 1t was evident that New York was beginning to anticipate from the construction of the Panama Canal the transfer to New Orleans, Galveston and Mobile of su- premacy in the rich trade or the orient.
 when these people find they can no longer control us" said MT. Goodwin, they will try to secede from this Gov ernment, and I pray to God that will live long enough to help whip them back into It." Il sentiment which pro- volsed the convention to amusement and cheers.
 R. Dancey, chairman of the Holding Committee, then said that in view of the reports which had been circulated in the East of dissension in the con- vention, he desired to announce in ad- vance of It's report that the committee was unanimous in its decision to ask the convention to stand by the propo- sition that the Southern farmers will hold their cotton for 15 cents. Fur ther. he said 1t was decided to ask the Committee on Acreage to join it In a recommendation for 10 per cenl re- duction in acreage, in the form of diver sification, and a 10 per cent reduction of fertilizers In the older States.
 Tho enthusiasm with which the an nouncement was received left little doubt or the sentiment or InS COnNeN- tion.
 Resolutions of Bankers.
 Chairman Walker of Sparta, Ga, who presided over the meeting of the bank CTS today. then announced that the bankers had enthusiastically adopted the following resolutions:
 "The Southern Bankers. in conven- tion. congratulate the Southern Cotton Association on the success which 1t has already attained in it's efforts to main tain a fair and equitable price for the South's staple crop, and recognizing that the interests of the farmers. bank CTS and business men Of the South are insepara ble, therefore be it
 Resolved. first. That We, the repre- sentatives of the Southern banks, hereby renew our pledge of moral and dnancial support to the Southern Cot ton Association in their efforts to carry out this purpose; and, second, we urge the importance Of a better and more complete system of warehousing and caring for cotton"
 President W. P. G. Harding of the First National Bank of Birmingham