The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1906-05-04
GROWER AND SPINNER
IN CONFERENCE
MR.. E. D. SMITH PUTS SOLUTION
UP TO MILL MEN.
Much Talk-Many Men Express Their
Opinion On the Subject of
Cotton.
The State Bureau, 1417 G. Street, N.
W., Washington, Nav |,

W., Washington, May l.
The first day of the cotton confer
ence has been given over to talk, lust
talk. 1t has been interesting, but in
the opinoin of E. d. Smith and some
others who are constantly clamoring
for something to be done, much Of
the talk would have been better if,
like congressman home consumption
speeches, it had been by unanimous
consent printed in The Record with
out delivery on the floor.
Mr.. Smith kept butting into all
sorts of platitudinous discussions and
learned lectures on the. boil weevil,
methods of balng cotton, methods Of
planting and so forth, with a pro-
posal TO get down to business and see
if the spinners from New England and
from old England were willing to en-
ter into some kind of agreement with
the cotton men of the South as to Sc
curing a just, reasonable and fair
~ rcmmerativc price for cotton. Up
till dark they were still talking. There
is no session tonight, but the delegates
arc standing around hotel lobbics still
talking.
But tonight, in the informal con-
tabulati0ns more attention seems to
be given to the Smithsonian doctrine
than the South has the monopoly on
the supply Of cotton, can raise all
the world wants, will do it if the price
is reasonable and just, will not do It
unless the price is reasonable and
just, because having soil, which will
produce food crops and being indie
pendent she doesn't have to. Mr..
Smith stated this in the various sum
dry interesting ways he knows so
we'll how to state, not SO much in set
speeches but in little impromptu in
terpolatory remarks.
f.. d. Smith is the financial agent
and general manager of the Southern
Cotton association and was strong
factor in calling this conference, and
while he is not exactly the whole
thing he furnishes most of the fire
and the firccrackcrS. One or two
others, notably Mr.. Vandivcr from
Alabama, assisted materially in get
ting the proposition straight TO the
spinners that the object of this meet
ing is not TO saw the air nor to COM
pliment one another, but to devise
some means Of preventing the spccu-
lators and middemen from keeping
up this continual fluctuation of ths
market.
Congressman j. T.. Ellerbe was the
first speaker early this morning. He
talked about the methods in the pro-
duction of cotton, declaring that there
had been no improvement since he
was boy, that he was forced to use
the same hoe, the same hand, the same
mule and the same negro, and he de-
clared this was the same with all the
best farmers of his section.
Representative Livingston of Geor-
gla made a few remaks along the same
line, saying that the labor problem
was the most serious one, the cduca-
ton system in the South being such
as to take the negro away from the
farm.
Mr.. Smith, Plain Talk.
Then T.. ID. Smith was introduced
for his first instalImcnt. Hc said
tle white man could not stand i'm the
physical position necessary to do the
cotton picking. "Thc ncgro,' he
said "is par excellent the cotton la
borcr,' and in reference to Mr..
l,ivingston's remarks about the negro
leaving the farm for the town, he
said, "Givc us price which will en-
able us to bring him back to the farm,
and We will say to the West: you 90
ahead and raise the wheat and the
corn and be not afraid that We will
not make all the clothing you want to
wear while you are doing this" He
said the plain proposition is: "Shall
the South grow 12,0O0,000 bale
crop for $400,000,000 or 1O,O00,OO0
bale crop for $600,OOO,OOO7 We can
raise all the cotton that is needed, but
we are not fools enough to raise it
for nothing or at loss"
"Nor,"n h he ) ssaidi, "saro, wo, any longer