The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-01-24
HEFLIN'S SPEECH ON
 COTTON SITUATION IS
 IN GREAT DEMAND
Continued from Page Three)

a iair price and a living profit to the farmer ought to be investigated and pros ecuted to the limit of the law. fApplauseJ
 Let me say to all those interested in the New York cotton exchange, you had bet
 ter put your house in order. for the cotton
 exchange that does not reflect the prices
 that should follow the law of supply and
 demand Is not helfu but hurtful to the
 producer and it has no legitimate pIace
 M the cotton trade Aye a cotton ex
 change that can be manipulated to the detrlment and great injury of 90. 900 Ooo Of
 people uependent upon the cotton industry or the south ought to be abolished. (Ap- plause.)
 HOW TT CAN HELP
 NIT. Speaker, think that an ex- ehahse properly regulated and honest
 " and fairly conducted is a help to
 the cotton trade. Why should there be
 d cotton exchange in New York? We nave no grain exchanges in the south
 Aour great grain exchange is in the
 neart of the west, in the great city of chlcago' and our cotton exchanges, If
 we are going to have any, ought to be Tn the south, at Galveston, Tex, Mem
 phis, Tenn, New Orleons and savan-
 nan, and not away up in the east at New York. (Applause)
 NOW, in conclusion I want to say
 that the worlds cotton crop Of 1914
 was 24Oo0o00 bales, and the worlds
 spindles consumed 2O,0OO.O0O bales.
 felts. bats, medicated cotton, and sc
 forth, lost at sea, destroyed by fire, l,44o,OOO bales; smokeless powder and
 high explosive shells, 5000 900 bales.
 making 24445,000 bales. We dipped into
 the old supply of 1913, and it is gone NOW, then, if the world consumes this year 20,000000 bales, 1Nare are they going to get the cotton? The worlds crop is less than the American crop in l914 16,O00,000 bales. Our crop 11,O0O,- 900 bales the worlds crop outside D. 0OO,o0O bales. Your have 16,OOO 900 | bales Our crop 11,000.00O bales, the
 worlds crop outside 5,000,0o0 bales. You have 16,00C,000 bales, with less than D. 100000 of old cotton in existenve, 1s,- 100000 and the spindles will consume 2O.000,O00. Now, where is the other cotton to come from? (Applause)
 The cotton spindles of the United States will consume 1000, ,0O0 bales of the present crop, and that would leave
 only 100000 bales with which to sup ply the powder factories of the United States and to go abroad, where 10,- 0O0,0o0 bales of the 1914 crop were re- quired. AA
 I repeat, MT Speaker, where is the cotton to come from? The cotton-using world is face to face with an made quate supply of raw cotton. The fact is, next summer we are going to be dangerously near to a cotton famine am anxious that the cotton producer receive the price Justified by the law of supply and demand.
 Is not the farmer entitled to profit of $500 on 20 bales of cotton? It costs about 10 cents pound to produce cot
 ton, and 15 cents pound for 20 bales
 will give the farmer only $500 profit We will make a small crop of cot
 ton this year. We made more corn last
 year than in any previous year. We are producing velvet beans in abund- ance in the cotton belt. The peanut industry in the district of my friend from Alabama (Mr. Dent) is flourish ing, as we'll as in other sections of the south, and peanut oil is selling for 75 cents a gallon. It is splendid dye ma terial, used to dye silk. We are going to plant peanuts and we are going to plant velvet beans in abundance We are going to diversity even more than we did last year (Applause.)
 The people of the south are cooper ating better now in the matter of hold ing cotton than ever before. Let the law be enforced and the conspiracy on the exchange broken up or the ex- change abolished. Let cotton have fair treatment in the markets of the world and a good and stable price will be re- ceived by those who toll to produce it. Let the south stand firm and fear not Every fact about the cotton sup ply and demand is in her favor. If she will hold on, fair prices and living profits are bound to come. Prolonged applause)