The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-12-10

executive officers and placed before this
 body chosen by the people.
 1. No one man. no matter how prll- liant and honest. or how much he en- joys and deserves the confidence of the people, need hope to carry through such an undertaking. One man of blameless character Is more easily destroyed than 100 men of blameless character It makes
 too easy the task of his enemies or the associations enemies to destroy him and in so doing, the cause he represents and those whom he would benefit are made to
 suffer.
 ,. That tine biggest strongest and only invincible bear" Is spot cotton. No man
 or set of men can "bear' cotton, If the farmers refuse to feed the market. G. The farmers alone are not in position
 to finance holding movement. The ac-
 tive cooperation of the bankers and | merchants must be cultivated There can be no question but that these three in- terests are so interWoven, so homegen- eous and interdependent that they may naturally be drawn together to cham pion this common cause. In fact, a profit able price for our staple in every cotton growing county is of common concern
 to all who live where cotton grows, for
 good prices for our cotton assures benefits to every interest in the south.
 [ The south must provide d system
 of warrant warehouses of best construc-
 ton that she may be able to store her
 cotton and sell it on grades and weights shown on the face of warehouse receipts. We must sell no more cotton in October
 than in June. One-twelfth of the crop
 must be marketed each month.
 S. The ability of the south to withhold her cotton for the actual demands of the
 trade will always be in exact proportion to her ability to feed man and beast from
 the products of her soil. Mules should
 be raised, not bought our wheat, corn. potatoes, pork and beef to eat we should
 produce, not buy; oats peas and hay we should raise. Not alone should we raise these things to avoid debt and make ourselves independent and assure pros perity, but rotation of crops. raising
 horses mules and cattle builds up our l lands and saves an enormous expense for fertilizers, enriches our soil, increasing | the lands capacity to y1eld large crops
 and enhances the value per acre many fold. Raising cotton on any land year
 after year impoverishes that soil and its
 market value is approximately de- l creased
 | 2. Last, but not least, we must under
 stand that the marketing of cotton is a
 business, and a very big business, at that ! It has enriched thousands. It has been | engaged in by the brainiest men in our 1 country and abroad and many of these
 men have accumulated millions in the
 business, by simply taking hold of cot | ton after 1t is prepared for market and | delivering it to the mills. Such men have 1 thousands of trained agents who receive
 large salaries looking after their inter- i ests. If we propose to market our cotton ! to our best advantage and retaining the | profit, which heretofore has gone to l others we must spend some money. Ten | cents per bale will without a doubt, as-
 sure a profit of $10 per bale, that is If the | owner of each bale promptly remits the 1 10 cents. Every bale must be taxed and
 that tax remitted as soon as 1t is ginned.
 to our agents. Unless we have made up
 our minds to pay our agents this small
 tax per bale and send 1t promptly, just | as we transact any other business, we may just as well bow our heads and
 submit our necks to the yokes of our | former masters