The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-08-29
FARMERS WILL GET COTTON BAGG|NG
Union Business Agent Has Ar-
 ranged for Supply
HOME MILLS TO MAKE IT
Leading Negro of Mound Bayou Is Trying to Have Farmers Institute Held In His Home Town for
 Benefit of His Race.

Jackson, Miss. August S.-(Special.)-J. L. Collins, state business agent of the Mississippi division of the Farmers union, announces that he has now made arrange ments by which the farmers may get all the cotton bagging they may desire. Two months ago State Business Agent Welch made a similar statement but it fell through. Mir Collins went to work along different line, eliminating the middle man entirely, and has succeeded where his successor in office failed.
 A home concern, the Textile Mills cor poration at Wesson, Miss, has guaranteed to make all the cotton bagging the farm- CTS of the south may need, and as 1t is abundantly able to do what it says being the largest mill In the state and backed by all kinds of capital, there need be no fear that 1t will fall down on the con tract. The agreement is that the mills will furnish 42-inch Odenheimer bagging, weighing from Il to F ounces to the yard, at IA cents per yard f. o. b. at Wesson, five cents per yard to accompany the order, and bagging to be shipped bill of ladng attached for the balance This
 
 sufficient for 10 bales. It has been tested in every possible way, and is found very much superior to the jute bagging. meet ing every requirement as to fire, water, hooks and weather. The price made on
 the cotton bagging is about twice the
 price of the jute, but there will be nine ] pounds saved in tares, thus making the ! cost per bale the same as jute.
 MT Collins has issued circular letter, which he is sending out to all union men, enclosing a sample of the cotton bagging, assuring them of abundant supply al
 ready on hand at the mills, and urging them to go to using it at once. lie says: '"Try it, members; we have to begin sooner or later. Next the ginnery com- press, and the cotton bagging will be a
 pair to draw to that will cause some
 thinking as to our capacity for business"
 sample roll of the cotton bagging has
 been placed on exhibition here. and is 1 attracting a great deal of favorable com
 ment The only objection heard is that
 42 inches is not wide enough, but the mills guarantee to make it 72 inches wide,
 if wanted.
 l Isaiah T. Montgomery, founder of 1 Mound Bayou, a town of considerable l commercial importance in the delta coun- ] try, and one of the most prominent ne-
 groes in Mississippi, was in Jackson to-
 day to see Commissioner of Agriculture 1 Blakeslee as to the prospect of securing
 a farmers institute for his town on the 1 occasion of the promised visit of Booker | T. Washington to this state.
 1 Montgomery is coal-black negro, but l he has made d great success of life, ] financially and otherwise, by attending strictly to his own business and taking i care of what he made. He was a slave in the family of Jefferson Davis, and i reveres the memory of the Confederate leader to this good day, just as much as does any white man in the state. He represented his county in the constitution al convention of 1SO0, and voted with the white people to eliminate the vicious and l ignorant element in the control of affairs i, in this state Later he was appointed re- 1 ceiver of public moneys by MT. McKin- ley, served a year or two and resigned | to return to his private business at Mound Bayou. He appreciates the im- | portance of the diVersincation of crops, farming on the extensive system, use of 1 labor-saving implements, etc, and for that l and other reasons would secure in- ] stitute to encourage his people to be bet l ter farmers and better citizens generally. l Attached to the grating of the cashiers l window at the state treasury Is placard | bearing this legend:
 "In future no money will be paid on warrants at the treasury department Warrants will be paid when presented to state depository. Those in Jackson are the Mississippi Bank and Trust com pany, the First National bank and the Merchants Bank and Trust company" This notice is signed by Treasurer George R. Edwards, Jr. and he states that the rule will be strictly enforced, even the employees of the state having to go to the bank to get their warrants cashed.