The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-18
DETAILED ACCOUNT OF
FIRST DAYS PROCEEDINGS
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 0. }

feres with the working of any other crop
at the same time. Though she may not
demand all of the farmers time and at
tention, cotton, as said before, is a jeai-
Gus and eXacting mistress, and few
days neglect at critical time may
suit disastrously.
Two hundred dollars per farm 500 per
male per year. for period of eight years,
of the biggest crops ever raised, and at
10 cents per pound. Ten cents That
magic figure at which we have been
schooled to believe the cotton producers
ills would al ltake wings and fly away and
peace and plenty would settle over our
land. Ten cents per pound, That magic
figure beyond which cotton must not go.
lest the laborers could not spend their
profits in the country but must seek the
towns and cities in order to get rid of IT,.
Two hundred dollars per year in the
money per farm, to be used only for
clothes and sugar and coffee, and me.i-
cine and doctors bills How could q
farmers family spend that huge amount?
But was this maximum of 5000 per farm
all in money to be spent for clothes and
other comforts of life? Have the cotton
farms for the eight years under discussion
been self-supporting? This is answered
in the negative by the millions of dollars
sent out of the cotton belt each of these
years for meat and meal and other ne
cotton farms been self-sustaning. had the
cotton producer lived at home there would
be no need for such a convention as this
The cotton acreage would have been
necessarily much curtailed. the cotton pro-
duction much decreased, cotton would be
selling at fabulous prices, the south would
he rolling in comparative wealth; her
boys and girls would be at school, her
young men and young women would be on
the farms, instead of crowding the towns
If any convention was being held at all
ii would be In the grain and hog growing
states. where all our spare change has
gone for the past twenty years.
Was Not Net Profit.
NO, Mr., President and gentlemen of
the convention. this 500 per farm, per
year. for the labor in producing cotton has
not been net, in excess of board and lodg-
ing If ii was net, no one, with one drop
of the milk of human kindness in him,
can argue that the laborer has been fairly
remunerated. | cannot admit that at 10
cents per pound for the past eight big
crops the producer could proftably sell
his labor. And. now, after twenty-five
years of experience, and Il close study of
the matter from every conceivable stand
point ! make bold to stand before this
audience, composed of the brain and in
telligence of the cotton producers. and
state 1t as my uellDerate ana 0rm con-
victon. that cotton costs the producer
more than 10 cents per pound in labor.
Does Not Know Cost.
Il do not know the average cost of pro-
ducing a pound of American cotton; no
one knows; and 'twere vain for any one to
hazard a guess-in cents. in money! One
many raises it for one price. another for
different price, no two men the same.
One farm will produce it at one cost an
other at a different cost. One season
will permit its production at one price,
the next season may double or halve the
cost. In cents no one can fix the cost,
but we all know that its cost is reck-
oned in the sweat drops of millions of
our people in days of toll that bring no
just measure of recompense. We all know
that, for years past. its cost has been the
financial freedom of a people. politically
and socially. the freest of the world. We
all know that 1t has cost us the milk of
human kindness that should make the
whole world kin; that 1t has brought us to
look with sem-terror on high prices for
fear our tenants, the real producers. may
become Independent and cease to work for
nauner WAGES. We all know that 1t pas