The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1908-11-14
COTTON CONFERENCE
SEVEN SOUTHERN STATES REP.
RESENTED.
Delegates Favor Holding Remainder
Of This Seasons Crop-Address
OF Hon. Harvie Jordan.


day with representatives present from
seven Southern States.
The work of the convention after the
addresses of welcome and the responses
had been delivered, and the set addresses
of the day had been heard, consisted Of
the appointment of committees to which
all resolutions on whatever topic con-
nected with the conference will be re-
ferred.
The keynote of the entire convention
as brought out in the addresses and dis
cussions is that the delegates present,
who are most all planters and growers
OF cotton, are strongly in favor of de-
vising some means for holding back the
balance of the present years crop, plac-
ing it on the market gradually from
month to month, instead of throwing it
all on the market before the first of the
year, thereby hoping to enhance the
price of spot cotton in all the Southern
markets.
Harvie Jordan's Address.
Hon Harvie Jordan, in response to the
addresses of welcome, spoke in part as
follows:
'In behalf of the representative farm.
ers and allied business interests of the
South gathered here on this memorable
occasion, l wish to convey an expression
of the deepest appreciation for the cor
dial and hospitable words of welcome
which have been SO fttingly conveyed by
the distinguished representatives of this
great State and beautiful city.
"We have assembled here for a pur-
pose which should appeal to the hearts
and minds of every loyal and practical
Southerner.
THAT purpose is to safeguard and
protect the great staple crop of the
South from the artificial and depressing
operate to the detriment of every busi-
ness interest in this section of the
American Union.
Raw cotton is the only great staple
commodity in the world today which is
selling below the cost of production, not
outstanding the fact that it represents
one of the worlds two greatest neces-
sites.
That the silken fiber of this great
staple, upon which every interest in the
South Is so vitality dependent, should
ever sell at a price to the cotton growers
less than 10 cents per pound is a re.
Election upon the intelligence and man
hood of a people who typify the proud
est and purest blood of the Anglo-Saxon
race.
IF the growers, bankers, merchants
and allied business interest of the South
will determine that the price of spot
cotton must and shall go back to 10
cents before the month of November
fades away, that price will be paid, the
financial future of the South will be
saved and not a spindle in the world will
be injured.
Let us meet the issue like men and
solve our problems by the adoption of
sound business principles.
LET the seal of condemnation on all
forms of lawlessness go out from this
great body of Southern men that will
echo and re-echo from Virginia to the
Rio Grande.
"The very thought of night riding or
the posting of gins should have no place
in the minds or hearts of a brave and
civilized people.
''The ginners of the South are in no
wise responsible for low-priced cotton,
and never will be. They should not be
made the sufferers, or even threatened
the loss of their gin plants because
simply provide the medium through
which raw cotton is converted into a
commercial form.
"The boil weevil has already threaten.
ed the prosperity of Louisiana and is
invading the rich delta cotton
lands of Mississippi.
"The State of Louisiana will this wear
less cotton than it did in 1869,
forty years age.
"All of the old cotton States will in a
years will be at the mercy of this
lreadful insect, and whether we shall
hen be able to solve the problem of cot
;on production al well as the great
State of Texas is a matter of the gray
EST doubt and uncertainty.
"What the cotton belt needs is a chain
If frst-class warehouses, constructed at
'ur leading interior market points, and
It the ports, where cotton can be stored,
insured and receipts issued against it,
will be acceptable as gilt-edge col.
ateral for short-time loans by all the
ocal and leading financial institutions in
his country and in Europe.
Gin connection with this system of
warehouses there should be located in the
south, a great centralized cotton bank,
With sufficient capital to make it the
Innual clearing house for the cotton crop
Turing the selling season, and the me-
ium of cheap loans through the spring
nd growing season.
s'Tbe cotton growers of the South are
annually losing millions of dollars as a
for their indifference to this mat
er, and in continuing to adhere to the
way, both primitive and
the baling and delivery of their
otton to the spinners.
Bankers all over the South have writ
en- me in the past few weeks that they
re in thorough sympathy with this
movement to advance the price of spot
otton, and that they will give the cot
on growers all the financial assistance
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