The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-26
HISTORY OF SOUTHERN
COTTON ASSOCIATION
BY B. DIXON ARMSTRONG.

tainly not exceed 10000 0G0 bales s., add
ing the 100000 surplus carried over, we
would still have 100000 for sale. The
consuming world would not suffer By this
arrangement. We would plant food crops
on abandoned cotton acreage, and every
body would be happy and satisfied.
The convention therefore, pledged itself,
and called upon the farmers, bankers,
business and professional men of the
south to aid us in carrying out our pledge,
and pledge themselves to hold our cotton
until 10 cents was offered for it; also to
reduce acreage in cotton and the use of
fertilizers under cotton planted % per
cent. Every man who lived up to that pro-
gramme was rewarded by receiving 10
cents. and over for his cotton. In order
to make assurances doubly sure" we
took the precaution of organizing a hold
ing company. This company was to be-
gin operations as soon as it was sure
that acreage and fertilizer had been re-
duced as pledged. 1t was to go in the
market and buy up all cotton offered un-
der 10 cents and hold it until 10 cents
was paid for 1t, or in the event those who
were loyal to the association; but, by
reason of pressing demands, had to have
money, the holding company was to adj
vance it to them-up to within 2 cents of
our minimum.
AAiAc AAiNh ldPptlltu i HOiiltlliliiS
dreamed of in our philosophy, and 1t
has caused a large number of us to lose
confidence in the statements of those owl
wise experts Even until this good hour,
We have not been able to overcome our
loss of confidence in the wise men whose
word had been as pure gold to us until
this ''show down. was forced on them.
You see, twas this way, when these
wise ones" had called upon us for in
ion a1,1
of our crop from time to time, and fin
ally as to the number of bales of cotton
ginned by us and the weight of each bale,
We gave 1t up to them truthfuIly and
gladly. We believed they were as honest
with us as we had been with Them They
told us that we produced 100000 bales
more than they had any use for; that
this 100000 bales we had was surplus.
We believed them, and we also believed
we knew what a surplus meant. We were
taught that a surplus was a something
over and above what was needed, hence
being more than was needed or wanted
or anyone had any use for, it was prae-
tically without value. Nobody wanted IL.
hence we could get no money for it,
But low and behold, before the new crop
was matured, we found these same wise
men after us for the 100000 of surplus
we had made arrangements to hold till
next year, and not only were they asking
us to sell it to them, but they even cf-
fered us a to 12c more per pound than
the minimum price we placed on the CROP
and they got 1t from us and paid us %,
1O14 and 10h cents per pound for it. This
put our holding company out of bust
ness. We, of course, had no need FOR
running big company at heavy expense
to protect our cotton up to 10 cents
per pound when the buyers were willing
TO pay above that price for it. Some Of
us are even now trying honestly to know
just how many bales we must produce
to cause real surplus. We think It is
the duty of the federal government to
supply us with the information which
would answer this question. The govern
ment attempts to supply the trade with
the amount of cotton we produce In re-
turn for this information we claim chat
the government is doing but half its duty
by not in turn supplying us with the de-
mands for our cotton. In later issues Of
The Age-Herald the history of the or
sanization up to date will be given and
other matters of moment will be pre-
scented.