The Washington times., 1914-10-24
THE COTTON FILIBUSTER

1t is all well enough foc critics to
set up protest against the tilibuster
that members of House and Senate
have been conducting, at the close cf
the Congress session, in favor Of leg
islation to relieve the cotton situa-
ton. But cs ling these men silly and
childish will not do any particular
good. The truth is that the filibus-
tiers represent the state of mind of
their constituents, and that state of
mind is entitled to be expressed in
the halls of legislation.
Some of the voluble critics of
! Southern insistence talk and write as
if the cotton crisis were merely an
uncomfortable condition temporarily
existing at the South. They are
quite too sanguine. IL is a situation
ir which, tecause there is no power
tc fix a stable price and therefore
make a market for cotton, the whole
great staple crop that commonly
pays our foreign trade balance, is be-
ing rendered commercially valueless.
This is not a local concern of the
South, and the sooner there is an
adequate understanding Of the fact,
in all its bigness, the sooner will
there be initiation of measure. cf-
fective for relief.
A certain metropolitan newspaper
assumes to scold the cotton insur-
gents for making a nuss right at
the end cf Congress. l. finds the
iIibuster IN undignifcd and very
childish performance, altogether to
be regretted.
Now. in the matter of filibusters,
much depends on the identity IF the
OK that's gcred. Just a few brief
weeks ago another filibuster was be-
ing pressed in Congress. Day after
Day gentlemen read useless matter
into the Record, and repeated the
same arguments, from the same
facts, holr after horr, day after day.
Yet that same newspaper thought
that filibuster was n highly credit
able, patriotic, and wholly laudahle
enterprise.
The filibuster of a few weeks ago
was aimed at killing the river and
harbor grab. The filibus1er won, the
grab was l-illed. 1t was a splendid
piece of work; more more earnestly
than this newspaper urged and en-
couraged IT TO success.
That filiEustcr that saves thirty
odd millions of dollars was just a
plain filibuster; nothing more; just
pitting Of a few mems tiruewastirg
ingenuity against the determined eff
fort of the majority 20 get its busi-
hess concluded. That is about all
flibustar ever is; but to chide all
f.libusters for children's play IS non
serse. The fiibuster is one of the
great weapons with which the minor
ity fights to compel recognition. 1t
is one that commands attention when
argument fails.
Seldom does the last fortnight
Of Congress pass without a more
or less spectacular hrid-up through
the proce SECS of the filibuster. The
fight of the cotton men ut this ses-
sion is no more truculsnt or ;llman-
rered than any other filibuster has
to be; thar scores of others in re-
cent years h&ve been. Half Of the
reforms, Legislative and parliament
tary, that have been effected in the
last decade have enlisted the filibus-
ter, at one stage or another, on their
side.
These observations have additional
force, in the present instance, be-
cause of the gravity of the situa-
tion to which the filibusters are in
sistently directing the attention of
the nation. 1t is true that some
startling propositions have been put
forward by gentlemen who want to
do something for cotton. Some of
them seem quite to have overstepped
the bounds of business soundne3s and
economic discretion.
But that is not the immediate
point.
The point is that Congress is ad-
joorning, after making provision for