The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-18
Chas. j. Haden's Address
DELIVERED TODAY BEFORE THE AMERICAN
BANKERS ASSOCIATION IN SESSION
AT ST LOUIS MISSOURI

This bank carried through the panic
Il cash reserve OF IL per cent. At the
s;,nie time Il national bank OF our CITY,
| the oldest in the Cotton States, and
| one CT the best in America. only had
| Il cash reserve OF 10 per cent. During
the same period the Bank OF England
| had only legal tender reserve of 6 per
cent. and the aggregate banking in
tereSts in Great Britain averaged a
legal tender reserve OF less than Z
per cent. In the fall of 1868, more
than Il year after every southern port
had been blockaded. Nicksburg had
fallen. Sherman's army was on Geor-
Sia soil and Grants farStrung battle
lines were coiled around Richmond,
the death-rattle was in the throat of
the confederacy; its treasury notes
were worth less than ten cents ON the
dollar. The confederate government
issued what was known as the cot
ton bonds III the total sum of Sl5.-
900 and pledged as security there
for cotton owned by the government.
which was scattered on the various
plantations where it WIS grown. from
North Carolina to Texas. BY the terms
OF these bonds the cotton was to be
delivered, should the war continue,
within ten miles OF a railroad or navi-
gable river, within confederate lines.
Within twelve hours after the sub
script!on books We're opened in Lon
Don, the price of the bonds being fixed
at ninety cents on the dollar. subscrip-
lions received We're five times the
amount Of the aggregate issue. 1t was
not the credit of the conference.-the
Nfl1A hn1
world hunger for cotton.
In the fierce light that now beats
upon the despised state banking sys-
tenn OF the old days there was one
whose name remains spotless. and
that one the banking system OF Lou
siana. They were required by law
and did maintain a specie reserve of
SO per cent. This system lasted %
years. There were no failures When
the war came on and specie payment
WAS suspended throughout America,
the banks OF New Orleans never hest
tated. failed or refused to redeem its
obligations in gold and did so up to
the very hour that the federal fleet,
under Admiral Farragut. captured
both the cash and the city. Years
afterward | saw the explanation in
two heroic figures in the Louisiana
state display at the Worlds Fair; the
one a white-haired and crowned old
monarch with his arm around
young girl at his side, and below was
written the inscription, King Cotton
and his Darling, louisiana
After careful study of the pater-
nal policy of England l am confident
that If the cotton crop was grown
under the English flag that that coun-
try would by an export tariff or APP
propriate bounties, reserve for its
home manufacturers the monopoly OF
the raw material for the clothing of
the world. Such a policy is I'M
American. But currency system by
which the people of America are en-
abled to hold their cotton. allowing it
to percolate into the market as the
spinners need it, enabling the pro-
ducers to enjoy the full benefit of
competitive buying.'is wholly compati-
ble with the policy of our republic,
and wise beyond controversy.
Cotton is child of climate more
than Of soil. During the cotton fam
inc of the civil war millions were
spent and wasted by the European
governments in the effort to establish
cotton fields in other parts of the
world. All in the end failed. So, re-
Gently, was lost ten million dollars by
Manchester manufacturers who at
tempted to establish cotton farms in
the Congo basins of Africa.
so universal is its consumption
that In strange lands, among strange
tongues. where your government
bonds would not be collateral for a
breakfast. this white fibre of the cot
ton fields is sought and bought, and
woven and worn. Had the monopoly
of this product been placed by nature
just nine degrees further north. | am
profoundly confident that the law of
self-preservation which inspired the
tariff and the transcontinental rail-
way subsidies would have found
means by which Americans would
have to large degree named the
price and the terms upon which the
old world might obtain the material
for it's clothing. Financiers would
have found it abundantly safe as an
asset currency. In past era of mu-
tual prejudice the habitat of cotton
was then deemed a wooden-limb an
pendage to the cody polite, through
which neither blood nor money need
circulate. That era, thank God, is
ended. Now let us meet on the level
and part on the square.
Under reasonably good storage.
baled cotton will preserve unimpaired
more than ten years. Instances have
been known where, after being stored
IN a farmers barn fifteen years, it
brought the current market price.
Cold from Copenhagen to VALPARAISO
goes in search of it as earnestly as
the medieval knight Grant went in
search of the Holy Grail. Again and
again our government, through the
subtreasury. has fastened to the res
cue OF the New York banks, amidst
the glddy whirl of stock gamblina
panic. Is Americas foremost gold
yielding crop less sacred to the public
veal than the paper properties OF
Wall street? There has never been
an hour for forty years that it could
not instantly be reduced to cash. Is
any promise to pay better security
than the essence of wealth? Five hun
dred million dollars is required in the
south every year within period of
about three months to handle this
crop. Our banking capital is made
quate. Why should we need to send
our money to New York nine months
IN the year to gain the good will of
the banks of that city, that they NAV
lend it back to us in the harvest seas
on to handle crop for which the gold
or the earth reckons? We feel kindly
toward New York; that city has been
our friend. But we want the fullest
measure of independence that condi-
lions justify. Is it prudent or lust that
| any one city Or saction cho,.1a L.. ~