The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-03-12
INTERPRETATION
Of LAW DESIRED
Governor Hayward and Nj, Wat
son Call on President
The SITUATION IS DISCUSSED
Appropriation BY German Government
for Encouragement of Cotton Rais-
ing In Colonies Is Laughed
at BY American Experts.

<..n,...,.. March l,-,s,....,, Pres.
dent Roosevelt held conference today
, with Attorney GeneraI Bonaparte, Secre-
tary Strauss, former Governor Hayward
of South Carolina, president of the South
ern Immigration association, and L. j.
Watson, commission of Immigration of
South Carolina
The two South Carolinians are on their
way to Europe to continue their work
for immigration for the south, but the
recent decision of Attorney General Bona
parte has confused them as to just what
they can do and they will pprobably
postpone their trip until they can ascer-
tain the attitude of the administration as
to state help for immigration.
Attorney General Bonaparte's decision
has been widely interpreted as preventing
state preparing the passages of immi-
grants, which are to repay the loan.
Briefly. the Attorney General has held
that under the amendments to the immi-
grafton law made by the last Congress
a state cannot do more than advertise its
| resources abroad, and that other methods
heretofore used to secure immigration, as
In the case of South Carolina, would be
| Illegal.
Want Interpretation.
Mr.. Hayward and Mr. Watson came on
here to get a definite Interpretation of
the decision, and feel that the Pres
| ident is in sympathy with what has been
done and is being done in the south.
I'VE cannot get further in our plans
| for immigration until we know where
we stand" said Mr.. Hayward. Mr..
Watson and myself were both booked TO
sail for Europe tomorrow morning. |
| must return south, because OF the illness
Of my wife, but Mr.. Watson cannot sail
| unless he knows just how far he may CO.
l told the President that we did not want
| to nullify or secede but We simply
wanted to know where we stood. Tho
south is immensely interestea le I'M
| migration problem. All the southern
states are forming immigration bureaus
| 1t is not true that we are seeking sim
| ply operatives for our cotton factories
We want settlers, farmers, mechanics, all
sorts OF workmen. We will be greatly
disappointed II our efforts are to be re-
| stricted at every turn
To Break Monopoly.
The appropriation of $1,000 marks by
| the German government to encourage
cotton raising in the German colonies
with a view of breaking this countrys
| monopoly Is laughed at by experts They
say that the position of the United States
| as a cotton producer is in no wise endan-
| gered and that Germany for many years
will be Obliged to buy her cotton, or the
! greater part of it, from America. Great
Britain. it is pointed out, has attempted
to wrest the supremacy in cotton produc-
tion from the United States and has
| failed.
Theodore H. Price one of the best
| known cotton brokers. said that the re-
| alization of the German plans was as
! far off as ever. Mr. Price added: 1T
| has taken America 125 years to perfect
| its system of the production of cotton.
| 1t will probably taken the German col
onles in Africa twice that time before
| they attain any Importance as producers
| of cotton.
England has been at work on the
| same problem in India for the past
| seventy or eighty years. but the results
even under the close supervision of the
| colonial authorities of Great Britain,
! have not seriously menaced America =
supremacy, and the demand for Amer
Jean cotton today promises to exceed the
| supply"
| 'T should not be surprised to learn
upon investigation that the efforts to
subsidze cotton production in the Ger
man colonies is some scheme. sprung
! by men who have large tracts of land in
Africa to settle. We are not unfamiliar
| with such methods. The fact underlying
! the whole situation is that the world S
demand for cotton is expanding far more
rapidly than the worlds supply"