French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1916-1919, 1919-03-13
PROPOSAL
IS GRIPPING SOUTH
Movement is Spreading Like
WLd-Fnie. All Over The
Gotten Belt

Reports received at state neAu-
quarters, Raleigh, Of the North Caro-
lima Gotten Association during the
past few days indicate that the move
ment inaugurated at the recent coun-
ty conventions held in practically eV-
cry county in the state last week to
hold the unsold balance Of the pres
ent crop and to reduce the acreage
for the coming crop by one-third as
compared with 1918 is spreading like
wild-f1re in all parts Of North Caro-
lima. The bankers merchants and
farmers who attended these conven-
tions last week let no grass grow
under their feet upon their return to
their homes. The New Orleans, Hous-
ton, Galveston, Dallas; Memphis,
Montgomery, Atlanta, Little Rock,
Charleston, Savannah and Birming-
ham newspapers have been publish
ing daily reports of county and State
meetings held in those States to ratify
and put into practical effect the work
outlined by the general convention re-
Gently held in New Orleans. In fact,
it would seem as If every Southern
State and every county in the cotton
belt were vieing with N another to
see which will make the best record
in the matter of reducing the cotton
acreage in 1919 and holding the cot
ton now on hand for remunerattvs
prices. -
Alarmed over this movement, which
threatens, to break the strangle-hold
which the: spinning interests Of the
country, aided and abetted by the bear
spectators in the New York market,
have had on the cotton market for
some weeks past tie Northern press
is attempting to throw ridicule on the
movement and to belittle it. A typical
instance of this bear propaganda to
offset the cotton acreage reduction
movement is furnished by an -
published III a recent Issue OF tLc
JournGi 20 H~n~Yn.Eve. Some sInpce
ed correspondent from the South is
quoted in that Journal, which has al
ways been very friendly to the New
England spinning interests, as saying:
"I take little stock in resolutions
to decrease acreage. rs such attempts
at reduction are economic heresy. Too
well do many OF us remember the
dCys Of four and Ave cent cotton in
he nineties. Conventions were held
in Memphis and elsewhere to reduce
acreage. Solemn oaths were signed,
but always the result was the same,
an increase of acreage, because each
went home with the same determine
tion to increase bis own acreage as
he believed his neighbor was going
to decrease.
Such articles as these, full of mis-
statements of facts, are calculated to
have just the opposite effect in the
South from that intended by the au-
thors. Much water, in an economic
way. has passed under the mill since
the early nineties. The cotton grow |
ers of the South have learned by sad |
experience that a small crop with
good prices pays better than a large |
crop with low prices. II they had any
doubt on this score Secretary Hes |
ter's annual reports, showing the total
N1AAO VI LIZ 4OOO 1
by the South, state the facts only too
plainly. The Journal Of Commerce
statement to the contrary, no signed
hedges were required by the cotton
convention previously held in the
South. and it was this very lack Of
signed pledges that foredoomed the
acreage production movements Of pre-
vfous years to practical failure. There
never was a yea in which a conven-
ton Of this sort was held that the
acreage was not materially decreased.
"lthc ugh the cut in acreage did not
come up to what the conven-
ton had planned. Lack Of proper or
by States and counties,
the failure to get signed pledges to
carry out the objects Of the conven-
ton and the fact that no subsequent
convention was. held later in the sea
son to receive reports as to the prog
ress made by the different cotton
growing States in ~effecting a reduc-
ton in acreage were SOM Of the rea-
sons that the former conventions
proved a failure in so far as accom-
plishment went. All these loopholes
have been closed by the recent con-
Vent1on. and. in addition, a resolution
was adopted by the convention to
brand any man in the cotton belt Who
to cooperate as so lacking
In public spirit as to forfeit the conf
dence Ct the community in which he
The economic heresy'' of reducing
the cotton acreage, to which the
Journal OF Commerce refers, is a fine.
sounding phrase, but cotton men say
It Will not deceive anybody in the
South who stops to think. The New
England and Southern mills, when
they find a stock Of goods accumulat-
ing n no buyers coming into the
dry goods market at once take steps
10 reduce their output. It is argued.
therefore, that if it is a good thing
Tor the mills to reduce their OUTPUT Of