The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-01-18

enable us to Ak the price of our great
staple, and maintain It?
Who Fixes Priees2
Il ask who fixes the price of your spool
cotton? Coates and Clark Who fixes the
price of coffee? The coffee trus. Who
fixes the price of bagging and ties in
which our cotton Is wrapped? The lutte
trust. And you may go on citing instance
after instance UP and down the line and
rev you will find who do not fix the
price of his own save the cotton grower.
Again 1 ask our merchants, bankers,
fnanciers of the south, how long will
you remain the compulsory allies of Wall
street to our hurt and poverty, discon-
tent and unhappiness? How do you pro-
pose to answer our appeal, how respond
to the question being put to you by the
southern Cotton association? Is there not
brains enough in the south and money
enough backed by this great southern
monopoly, our cotton, a crop for which
the world beckons, crop which draws
the golden dollar from the worlds re-
hottest corners a crop which can be con-
, Verted to cash on any day which comes
and goes? Whose yearly output is more
valuable than the annual output of gold,
to fix and maintain cotton, at a profitable
price to the grower?
To other interests.
LII ilC Sd9 ~ YOU southern
southern bankers and southern capitalists
it is as much your question as ours, as
much your price as ours, and we propose
to put on you your part of its rlghtful
burden. We seek your combination with
us; 1t is "a righteous one and in just
cause. 1t is the right of combination for
self-defense, "a right God-given and sacred.
The right of self-defense Is the highest of
natural rights, wrapped in the unwrit-
tar, lou # L..
and hearts of our people. 1t is the high
est right of the lowest of natures crea-
lures. The wrong Is not in the combina-
ton, 1t is in Its abuse. AS sacred as the
right to defend my person, is the right
to prevent your taking from me my home
and it's comforts. Shall we stand and
see the proper clothing longer withheld
from our children, stand and see the shoes
withheld from their feet, the food from
their mouths, while the alien and for
eigners grows rich from their labor?
Thanks AIabamians.
Fellow citizens of Alabama and of
this beautiful Alabama city, it is most At
ting that here the Southern Cotton asso-
citation should hold its third annual con
vention. We thank you most cordially,
and from our heart of hearts, for this
privilege and for your genuine hospitality
and splendid greeting, and In the name
of our association and the great states
for which l respond | again thank you.
Now no one who hears me but who
will acquit me of any criticism of our
most honorable hosts. Doubtless it has
occurred to few that our meeting here
is most fitting in that it brings in strik-
ing contrast the attitude of our govern
ment towards two of her great industries
Your beautiful city resting just for a
moment on the oars of her splendid
achievements. in this valley surrounded by
her mountains of iron; which with steel
is one of our favorite protected industries
of the tariff system, makes friends UNI
der their policy. Are not you very streets
literally paved with the fruits of this pro-
tectlve policy? Your splendid and mag
niicent buildings, rearing aloft their
beauty and magnificence under the nur-
turing care of our mother government,
as she bars from our ports the free in
gress of the manufactured products OF
the Old World for the benefit of our in
FAINT industries Likewise, does our inn
partial mother government protect the
manufactured articles of our great staple.
cotton. Yet not a cent of protection or
aid for our cotton have we ever had. To
the contrary, they once taxed our product.
Cotton Not Protected.
"On corn there is a tariff, on wheat
there is a tarl1, out cotton Is the only
, great staple not protected. Cotton grow
ers we stand alone and isolated without
protection and without bountry, while the
alien fixes the price at which we have
to sell, and their and our own spinners
grow rich, while We from year to year
plant and gather in poverty the fruit of
this princely plant.
Il blame YOU not my friends of this
great iron city l congratulate you and
rejoice with you in your past and in the
brightness of your future prospects; but
permit me to go one step further, and
point to a source of pride to u.s. the cot
ton grower, and possibly 1t win be to your
satisfaction. The last fiscal year shows
returns from cotton exported of sp4,OVV,O0
From all kinds OF breadstuf, $lS6.0OO,OO0;
from all iron and steel, s161,o000oo. One
hundred and eighty-six million dollars Is
the magnificent return of gold from ex-
port coming from the government grant
of great subsidies of free lands to the
great Trans Continental railways of the
northwest.
Saved Us From Panic.
Mark the difference cotton brought
back to us more gold than all tht
hreadstuff and all the iron and steel eX-
ports Time and again our great crol
has saved us from panic. Time and AGAR
II has maintained the balance of trads
In our countrys favor. and held her :
] ereditor while she permitted the foreigner