The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-08-21
HEFL|N RESENTS
 BR|TA|N'S ACTION
Tells Veterans Steps Must Be Taken to Maintain
 Price of Cotton

Hartselle, August 2o.-tSpecial)-T an nual reunion of the Confederate Veterans of Morgan county was held here today All greatly enjoyed the speech of Con gressman J. Thomas Heflin. the orator o
 the day. A splendid dinner was serve, after the speaking. MT. Heflin praised the Confederate soldier and paid a beau
 tiful tribute to the women of the Con
 federacy. He then discussed the cottor situation and spoke in part as follows:
 The south has a monopoly in the pro. duction of cotton and by intelligent CO operation between merchants, banker. and farmers, she can dictate cotton price.
 to the world. The neutral nations oi Europe have taken advantage of the fact that Great Britain. Germany France an6 Russia are engaged in war and they have
 been getting some of the cotton good. trade that those countries used to have In order to supply this new trade the, have been running their spindles day and night and have consumed more Americar cotton than ever before.
 Tn spite of the war and the fact that Germany and Austria are cut off iron shipments of American cotton, the de mand abroad has been so great that ws have already exported more than sooo,o co,
 bales of cotton and within a few bale. of the amount shipped last year in time
 of peace, when trade conditions wer, normal. The multiplied uses. to which cotton is being put-the increased con. sumption in various ways-the sliort cror being produced this year in India, ir Egypt and in the United States, and coupled with this the limited supply and
 high price of wool. all point to goot prices for our cotton, if we will unite our forces and hold cotton until the price
 is satisfactory. Millions of soldiers arc in the fields and millions of pounds oi bandages made of sheeting and denims are in use there-medicated cotton anc gauge are in constant demand on the bat. material are being consumed in making guncotton. smokeless powder and othe, explosives.
 Great quantities of cotton are beina consumed in ropes and flags, tents and uniforms, and if the war continues cotton Will be scarce and high in few months from now. If on the other hand the wa, is over, Germany and Austria will need 100000 bales for their cotton mills Great Britain is a rich nation and her cotton spinning industry is the greatest money. making industry in all the United King. dom, and when the spinner of Great Brit. tain called upon that government few day ago to make cotton contraband of war 1t was not merely to keep cotton out of Germany and Austria but it was for the purpose of depressing the cotton mar ket, putting down the cotton price and to make sure of her own cotton supply from the short crop now coming into view. The war has ragged in all it's fury for year but the cotton crop of last year was large and the average price was not 12 and 13 cents that Great Britain has paid for five years but it was cents and cotton was not placed on the con- traband list until 1t dawned on fsrea' Britain that neutral nations spinning American cotton were making inroads upon some of her foreign cotton goods trade and she was face to face with the fact that the worlds crop would be the smallest produced in many years and then that high prices would inevitably follow unless she did something to curtail the market and hamper the price: then it was that she did the bidding of her spinners and decided to make cotton contraband of war.
 q know that the war is costing Great Britain great deal of money, but I am opposed to the arbitrary and high-handed method that she is employing to burden the cotton producers of the United States with a large portion of that expense. Cotton. a product so useful and helpful to the world that world congress in London in 1909 in which Great Britain participated. placed 1t first on the list of things that never should be made con trahand of war. Now, just at the opening of the cotton selling season the spinners of Great Britain get the government to do thing that greatly helps the spin ming industry there. but works great in jury to every cotton farmer in the Uni ted States. In the face of this condition produced by the action of the govern ment of Great Britain, we call upon the government of the United States to re- spond to the wishes of the cotton pro- ducer and do the thing necessary to pro- tect this cotton crop from the deliberate pllage and plunder planned by the gov ernment of Great Britain. In 1913. Presi- dent Wilson had government money de- posited in the south to help move the cotton crop and that act on the part of the ffeSluent prevented panic ana ell- abled the farmer to sell his cotton for 13c a pound. In 1914 the war greatly disturbed the cotton business and caused the sacri- flee at a low price of the principal pro duct of 30,000,00 of American people
 "The cotton fund of Sl35, ,000O 900 raised by the bankers at the suggestion of the President did good and the fact that it was in existence helped to raise the av- craze price to Sc. If the big crop of 1914 of 16.500000 bales brought an av- the world why this small crop of 1915 should not bring from 12 to 15c. Presi- dent Wilson is arranging to have money deposited in the south so that the cot ton farmer can borrow on his warehouse receipts. I believe that in this emer- gency created by the action of the Brit lsh government that small rate of i'm terest will be charged and that the farmer will be enabled to borrow from to 7c per pound on his cotton. Hon. John Skel- ton Williams, comptroller of the treas ury, has just announced that there would be plenty of money to finance this cot ton crop. Mir. W. P. G. Harding of the federal reserve board is coming to Bir- nipgham next Thursday to discuss the plans of making these loans to the farm ar. Somebody is going to make money put of this cotton chop, and trust that hat somebody will be the farmer Tn fiew of the fact that we have monopoly n the production of cotton. producing lear two-thirds of the worlds crop. cot on ought to be the cream of all the ,rops, bringing increased riches to the 'outh with each recurring selling season. This can and will be done year after