The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1918-04-01
URGES SOUTH TO
GROW BIG CROPS
FOR PRESENT YEAR
Must Grow Cotton, But
Must Also Produce More
Food Crops, Says
Ousley

Clarence Ous1ey, assistant secretary
of the United States department of ag-
riculture, sent to The Age Herald let.
ter of prime Importance as follows:
eat the risk of making myself UNI
popular in some quarters, ] feel com
PEELED again to call the attention OF
southern people to the needs of the
nation with respect to crop production
in 1913
81 have observed, in a report of a
meeting of cotton merchants and buy
ers recently held at Galveston, re-
mark by one of the gentlemen present
upon the necessity of getting the gov
eminent to furnish sufficient shipping
facilities to handle, the cotton crops
of the southern states, and the recon-
nendation that the association, with
like organizations over the south; en-
deavor to impress this fact on the
right men in Washington so that these
facilities will be provided The fur
Their remark was made that in many
places cotton is the only crop which
the farmer can grow with any sue
cess.
II am far from saying that the coun-
try does not need a good cotton crop,
but as have pointed out heretofore,
we can actually get an increased yield
of cotton from the same acreage by
better methods of cultivation, and that
method will leave acreage enough for
all the food and feed crops that the
south needs
1.-THE particular point that concerns
me and somewhat alarms me is that
well meaning men who are in a posi-
tion to be fairly informed do not seem
to know that the shipping facilities of
a xYnT ld orr af lar.r All
reasonable prospect of great improve
ment before another cotton crop can
be grown and transported
This nation is fighting for its very
life; we have army in France, and
we must increase that army as speedily
as is humanity possible; we must pro-
vision and furnish it with guns and
other equipment; the government is
straining at every point to get in
creased shipping in order to reinforce
the army, feed the army, and save the
nation from unspeakable calamity.
"And yet in the face of this ship
ping crisis, representative business
men in the south start a movement
urging the government to furnish
more ships for cotton. Surely it ought
to be understood by this time that the
governments with which we are assoc
ciated in waging this war for civiliza-
ton are in control of shipping facili-
ties. that they are apportioning ship
ping among the various needs to the
best possible advantage and they are
furnishing for cotton all the ships that
can be spared for that purnose. Now
to start a movement to Influence ac-
ton in Congress or action by the gov
eminent to furnish more ships for cot
ton appears to me to be more mis-
chievous, and 7 am sure the gentlemen
who propose it have not stopped to
consider the consequences.
Il would not take the trouble to
write about the subject If 1 did not
have reason to believe that the sug-
gestion reflects certain state of mind
In many quarters of the south, and that
word of caution and protest is
needed.
Let me say, with all the seriousness
that | can command, that the winning
OF this war depends upon popular con-
cert upon the adaptation of every in
dustry and every mans activities to
war needs, and that any activity which
tends to confuse, to irritate, to nag
or to divert governmental endeavors is
hurtful
II hope and pray that the south will
not put itself in a position which will
subject 1t to the charge of unpatriot-
ism by insisting upon more shipping
for cotton than can be spared without
NSeA AilioHI ~ lHe necessary military
movement. ] hope, on the other hand
that the south will so order its agri-
culture and It's other business. and so
adjust its state of mind to the ma
ttonal purpose, that it will be willing
to do all that 1t can do without undue
sacrifice to help the nation in this
crisis.
Il beg business men and thoughtful
men everywhere to resist all such sug-
gestions as that to which I have al
iuded, and to lend their Influence. not
passively, but actively and persistently,
to a self-sustaining agriculture as the
best means of winning the war and as
really the best method of maintaining
southern urOsneritv,f