The Washington times., 1915-07-24
SENATOR SMITH ON COTTON

Senator Hoke Smith, who has been
very active in effort to involve this
country in troubles with the allies
by reason of their interference with
the cotton trade, writes in letter to
the Washington Post that in truth
the United States never declared
cotton contraband Of war. He as
serts that it is utterly erroneous to
claim that cotton was made contra
band during the civil war; and there
fore, he assumes, England and
France have no right to make it
contraband now. 80 =
There are several holes in the
Senator's argument. In the first
place, cotton was made contraband
of war during the civil war. EARLY
in 1862 President Lincoln declared
the blockade of group Of Southern
ports. By subsequent proclamations
that blockade was extended until the
North maintained blockade of the
whole South, though there never was
day when it compared for effec-
tiveness with the blockade on Ger
many now maintained by the allies.
That blockade, though it was con-
stantly passed by cargo-carrying
vessels going both ways, was tight
enough to receive the recognition Of
the neutral nations, and prizes taken
in the effort to pass it were con-
demned.
What is blockade? 1t is merely
a declaration Of universal contra
band., Instead of making certain
things, contraband. it declares, in ef-
feet, that everything is contraband;
coming or going. A cargo Of cotton
leaving a Southern port was seized
and coniscated if a Federal naval
vessel could get it; a cargo Of arms,
or salt, or saddlery, or anything else,
entering a Southern port, was con-
fiscated if it could be caught. No
matter whether it was munitions or
what not, it was taken and there
was no redress.
Cotton was not used at the time
of the civil war in making explo-
sives as it is now. There was not so
good reason for making it contra
band as exists today. But it was
made, if not technically, ut least ac-
tually and most effectively, contra
band of the Federal Government. It
was seized wherever found, on land
or on sea; in ships or in freight
cars; in warehouses or on the farm.
1t wars the particular thing that the
South possessed that the North was
determined to make as neaSly value
less as possible; and the success Of
that policy contributed far toward
the North's success. When 1t could
not be transported to the North to
be utilized, it was burned where it
was found.
Senator Smith knows all this, and
he knows that the United States is,
of all nations, in the poorest position
to protest against the very reason
able conditions that the allied gov
ernments have imposed. They have
not taken our cotton and confscated
it, as they might have done under
the rules we laid down in civil war
times. Instead, they have taken it,
appropriated it-and paid full price
for it. They have not torpedoed
ships bearing it, and sent them to
the bottom of the sea along with
crews and passengers, men, women
and children, neutrals and belliger,
ents, as Germany has done with
ships carrying what it chose to de.
nominate contraband.
T. Senator Smith and others of his
type are doing the very worst thing
for the cotton producers of the
South. They are liable to continue
, their unreasonable agitation unit
. they force cotton into position that
will give it just as bad treatment al
the Germans would give it were the,
in control of the sea. Does the Sen
/ ator, does anybody in South OF
North, doubt what Germany's treat
ment of cotton would be, right now
if Germany controlled the seas al
Britain does? Does anybody ques
| ton that Germany would be enforc
ing the most rigid rules of seizure
: condemnation, and confiscation, pre-
{ cisely as the United States did un
der it's blockade regulations?
} Senator Smith by his utterance!
: on this subject does himself and tn
l South the great injustice of mis-
stating the case; of assuming re
sponsibility for Misrepresentation
, that will be recognized as such, ant
) that will weaken the case for tn,
T South. ------.