Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1912-10-01
NEW NEWS OF YESTERDAY
A Conversation That Helped
Change British Sentiment
Towards the Union
BY Holland.

The late John Crosby Brown, whose
grandfather established over a hun
dred years ago one Of the most inhu-
entail of international private bank
ing houses, used occasionally to tell
his friends that he sometimes thought
that the change in the attitude Of the
political leaders and of the aristocra-
cy of Great Britain from hostility to-
ward the North to something like
passive friendliness, was due primar-
lily to a conversation which one of
the partners of the Liverpool branch
of the international banking house
Of Brow, Shipley & Company had with
a British statesman.
You, know, of course" Mr.. Brown
would begin the anecdote by saying,
that at the time the civil war in this
country began English cotton manu-
| facturers were almost entirely de-
pentent upon American raw cotton.
Il was for that reason that the feel
ing in British manufacturing circles
was strongly in sympathy with the
South; and the British political lead
ers TO a great extent responded, for
political reason, to that sympathy.
For the fear was that If the North
were triumphant, that could only be
accomplished by measures which
would very greatly impair the eff
cheney of slave labor in the cotton
fields, and without slave labor it was
feared that England would be unable
to take from the United States the
cotton, which her manufacturers
needed
ut was shortly after President Lin
coin had issued his Proclamation of
Emancipation that one of the fore
most statesmen of Great Britain, in
conversation with our Liverpool part
ners, spoke in sincere apprehension
of what the effect upon British cot
ton manufacturers would be if there
were no slaves to cultivate the cotton
fields of the South. Said one of our
partners in reply:
"ln this kingdom we have been sad
ly in error about the effect upon cot
ton cultivation which will be occa-
stoned in case the slaves are freed
and the North triumphant. We look
upon cotton as king in the States. But
that is true only in a-narrow sense.
/ venture TO say that none of you gem
tlemen knows what the agricultural
product in the United States is which
is really king. I myself would not
know II l did not have the official sta
tistics from Washington at hand. !
don't think the American people know
Most of them think as you do--cotton
is king.
"'Well, now, gentlemen, so far as
the value of cotton is concerned in
money IL Is not cOttOn-it is hay that
is king i'm the United States. l have
official statistics which prove the
truth of my statement Now, if, upon
the small farms of the North they
can raise a crop which in the aggre-
gate is OF greater money value thar
cotton or even corn, there Is no rea'
son to suppose that even if the slaves
are set free and the great cotton plan
tations OF the South are cut up into
small farms they cannot raise grea
crops of cotton as easily as they rais'
great crops of hay.
"The British statesman who hearI
our partner make this assertion wal
simply bewildered. He asked if III
might borrow the set of statistics
which our partner had, and his re
quest was granted He took those sta
tistics to London. They were show
to the leading statesmen of the king
, dom, and to some of the great bank
ers of London. They occasioned@
great deal of discussion. At last
began TO be understood that If, upo
the small farms of the North-for
that time almost all of the farm
were small-the greatest of all Amer
lean crops, in money value, could b
raised, then there was no reason VIII,
even If slavery were abolished an
the Southern plantations divided int
= small farms, England would not stil
have an abundant supply of cottoI
Gradually this reasoning began to al
ter the undercurrent of political ser
> timent in Great Britain, so that tn
prevailing opinion in the kingdom tc
wards the end of the war was not III
. friedly to the Union"
To this day the money value of Oh
hay crop of the United States and {
! the cotton crop, excluding by-prod
ucts, is approximately the same.
Copyright 1912, by f. J. Edwards
All rights reserved)