The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-10-01
Mir. Hardinv's Address

w. P. c. Harding, member of the federal reserve board and a repre- sentative of the United States treas- ury department, was the principal speaker at the semi-annual banquet of the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers at Lenox, Mass, last night. His theme was the "Conserva- tion of Cotton as National Asset" While giving due consideration to the grave situation resulting from the Eu- ropean war he was optimistic. Be- fore Mir. Harding became associated with the government he was recog- nized as high authority on banking and on everything pertaining to the south's great money crop, and now in his present position his views are sought more than ever.
 MT. Harding pointed out that the law of supply and demand, while ap- parently suspended at times, is never abrogated. It always, he says, re- asserts itself in the end. At the pres ent juncture," remarked MT. Harding, "the war is operating as an obstruc- tion to the normal current of the cot ton trade. Sooner or later, however, even should the war continue, the level of the obstruction will be reached and the flow of business, except in some of the countries actually engaged in war, will again become normal. Res toration of peace would act as a re- moval of Instructions and would re- lease large volume of business now being held back, so that we are justi- fled, if we look ahead, in taking a more cheerful view of conditions which appear at this time to be de- pressing"
 In calling attention to the fact that for many years the south has been gaining in wealth and its farmers have been growing more independent, MT. Harding made it plain to the cotton manufacturers that the present prices would be in many cases inadeouate and that much of the cotton would be withheld from the actual market. MT. Harding concluded his address by touching upon the good work of the treasury department and the federal reserve board. These were his stirring words:
 The Secretary of the Treasury has
 acted with wonderful celerity through
 out the crisis, and by his promptness
 in authorizing and issuing emergency
 currency under the provisions of the
 Aldrich- vreeland act as amended,
 has, in the. face of moratoria in prac-
 tically nearly all other civilized coun-
 tries, kept the United States not only
 upon cash basis, but upon a gold
 basis, and he asks only the intelligent
 and unselfish cooperation of the pusi-
 ness community, which he confidently
 expects, to aid him in the speedy res-
 toration of normal financial and com
 mercial conditions throughout this
 country. The tremendous waste inci-
 dent to war will, of course, be felt all
 over the world and losses will inevit-
 ably ensue, but there is no reason, as
 far as this country is concerned, why these losses should not be so uniformly distributed that they will not fall
 with crushing force upon any section,
 or upon any industry, and I firmly believe that American pluck and , American energy are going to reas-
 sert themselves, and that American
 farmers, merchants, bankers and man. ufacturers will cooperate with their |. government and with each other, in solving present problems, and that
 they will put themselves in a position
 to grasp the opportunities that the future is bound to offer.