The sea coast echo. [volume] (Bay Saint Louis, Miss.) 1892-current, 1915-11-13
YEAR. No. Al


: Cotton was selling for 1sc before tn,
war was declared in Europe. Th'
good old state of Mississippi had tbt
brightest prospects we ever had II
1.-THE month of July, 1914. Prosperit,
Twas on every hand. The future wa
bright with great possibilities. From
13c cotton dropped to &c. Couldnt
sell it at all. / saw it coming. W.
had the example of England, who
when war was declared, saw that cot
jton was going to nothing, lessi:et
the cost of production. was couins
| out of my apartments one mornins
about this time when Senator Sritf
of Georgia said to me; Don't yor
think we had better call the Cover.
nors of the south to Washington for &
conference" I said "No; we dont
want and Governors. Some of them
don't know anything about what
ought to be done, and If they knew,
wouldn't do it. This is something we
have got to do ourselves" All the
| southern senators and representatives
had meeting, and met thereafter
every day for month, trying to make
a plan by which we could save the
people from being pennlless. Finally
we all agreed on the plan that we
should borrow from the Federal Gov
ernment, $250,000, 100000 with which
we hoped to retain bales of cotton to
be purchased from the farmers and
| distributed among the southern states
| in proportion. We had the whole plan
outlined, written up and agreed upon.
But since we were a government by
the President, we couldn't make any
head-way until we got his approval.
We carried it to him. His first OBJ
lection was that the Government
could not issue money on perishables
as pumpkins, tomatoes, potatoes, on
| ions, and watermelons, and other such
lperishable stuff. 1t wouldn't do. We
answered that with, "There is nothing
| in the world, more lasting than cotton,
It is better security than railroad
bonds, and it wasn't in the same cate
CORY as wheat, corn, onions, potatoes
and other products of the farm. You
can leave a bale of cotton In ware
house today, and protect it from fire
and water, and it will be just as good
seventy years from now, as at the
time you rolled it in there" We
wanted to give them mortgage on
our crops for the years 1915, 1916 and
1917. and there would not have been
one bale of cotton sold for less than
ten cents per pound. "But," they
said, "That's populism gone mad. It's
socialism in the extreme" And the
President with his sweet smile said,
"You are not in such bad fix as you
think you are" When they told me
those ships we're going to carry cot
ton, knew they had no more inten-
ton of carrying cotton, than burning
coal or fire, or carrying you to the
Promised Land. I want to tell you
that it makes my heart bleed when ]
see the effects Of It in Mississippi, and
| he more think of it, the more firm
s1y convinced I am that l was abso-
| utely right about it. | want to say
20 You that L You dan't think | did
right, / want to return you my COM
mission unstained by such an act.
/ CRITICIZES PRESIDENTS PRE-
PAREDNESS POLICY
Well there are other things. I read
| he most admirable address of the
President, delivered last night on the
| question of preparedness. No man
| in America can talk as that man does
| He is the most gifted writer of The
english language on earth, and the
| most potential individual have ever
seen. He commands congressman as
| if they were putty and the little fools
| Law down on their stomachs before
him like trained pups. The plan, as
understand it, and as it has been OUT
lined to me, means the expenditure OF
about three-quarters of billion dol
| liars, which means the quadrupling of
,ur army and the doubling of our
| navy. My friends, it is always dis
1 agreeable for me to be at all respon-
/ sible for any dispute in the Senate,
but | believe in teamwork. / think
1 the other fellow should play his part
las every baseball player in the game
But I don't believe In the kind Of team
work like unto the man who has q
couple of donkeys attached to wag-
on, and driving the whole business.
We have the best navy we ever had,
| he best in the world, excepting Eng
| and. We have an army four times
larger than prior to the war of 1899,
the Spanish American war. For fifty
years before that time we had an
army of more than $4,000 men, but for
| some reason the President said in his
/ special message we were in danger of
being attacked by some nation. We
are on good terms with the world.
With some of the nations it became
necessary to expend half billion dol
liars for ships and get millions more
soldiers, That is Just the beginning
i've are today. if you will stop TO
think, just finishing paying the ex-
penses of other wars that have been
fought, and now to get ready for an
| other-that isn't enough. We are in
no danger of being attacked by any
Ination. What it takes to build one
battleship, $18,000,000, is nearly as
much money as is spent on the Agrl-
lcultural Department of the United
States every year, because that enfy
gets $22,000,000 a year. Think of the
value of one battleship II spent in the
state of Mississippi on public roads.
lit would mean a pike running by ev-
iery home in Mississippi, for the eest
iof one battleship if spent in cur state
swhen we are on good terms with the
whole world. My friends, this war in
Europe is the worst in history.
don't understand how anyone hap
ipened to say that preparedness is 6
guaranty against war. Well, the bes'
iprepared to fight are those fighting
now, and fighting to the last man
They are going to fight until all o.
their men and money are gone. Ger