The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-09-26
HARDING ID SPEAK
 ID COTTON MILL
 MEN WEDNESDAY
Goes to New England and Will Probably Outline the Governments Plan
 for Relief

Washington. September 25-(speciaD
 The true situation in the south, and possibly the governments plans to re-
 llcve 1t, will Joe detailed by William
 F. G. Harding of the federal reserve
 board next Wednesday, when he vii, deliver an address at dinner to be given by the National Association of Cotton Manufacturers at Lenox, Mass
 "The General Financial Situation in Reference to the Cotton Trade will
 be The subject of MT. Harding's speech, and he is expected to give expert views from the standpoints of financier and an authority on cotton.
 MT. Harding will attend the dinner at the request of Secretary McAdoo, and will speak authoritatively on be- half of the treasury department and
 the federal reserve board
 From fever heat, around which i.
 had lowered, the temperature of the
 Alabama cotton men in Washington ap-
 rears to have subsided to about nor
 maL and their heads now are clear
 and untroubled. Which. it may be said
 is in contrast to the condition Of the
 statesmen from Texas and several other
 cotton states. who still see red and
 believe the south Is going to the dem-
 nitioa bowwows
 That the financial condition of tn. south is critical because of the war in Europe and the inability of the planters to obtain sufficient funds to carry their unmarketable crop nobody questions But that the south is threat ened with disaster and suffering such as it has not known since the civil war; as Representative Henry ex- II esses it, the Alabama men are in- clined to doubt. In brief, the Alabama statesmen have faith in the south and its people, and believe that the treas ury and the federal reserve board will work out feasible scheme of relief. As matter of fact, conditions in the south are being utilized by more than one man in Washington for his per sonal and political advertisement. By predicting fearsome panic they catch | the peoples ear, into which they promptly shout they have evolved the only preventive or cure that can save the entire south from direst poverty. 1 Bill after bill is poured into the House Hopper by such men, some for the government to buy all the cotton in the south at $100 a bale, others for the treasury to issue a billion or so of currency and ship it in carload lots | to the producers in the cotton states. and still others to compel the banks | to throw open their doors and let the | planters help themselves without in- terest or collateral.
 True, some meritorious bills are pro- posed such as Representative Black mons measure to prevent the diversion | of crop funds to other uses, but the authors of such bills as a rule are in olined to hide their light under bushel and do not hand out scores of advance copies of their measures to the news paper correspondents, sometimes with l "interviews" or eulogistic descriptions | Of the statesmen.
 | And that Secretary McAdoo takes this | view of the situation was shown by his comments at a hearing by the federal reserve board of a delegation from the Farmers Union of America, reinforced 1 by several statesmen from Texas and Georgia.
 q will not and cannot believe that l conditions are as black as you paint them,' said Secretary McAdoo, in eff {, feet, after listening to predictions of panic, poverty and Restitution.