Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-09-19
ASK PRESIDENT To
CALL MEETING ON
EUROPEAN CREDITS
Wannamaker Announces
This to Southern Business
Leaders Here - Governor
Harding Is Guest

President Wilson has been asked
by ]. S. Wannamaker. president Of
the American Cotton association
acting in behalf of the association
to call a meeting of all the great
interests of America for the purpose
Of arranging financial credits tc
Europe.
This became known Wednesday
afternoon when Mr.. Wannamakel
delivered one of the principal ad-
dresses at a conference of bankers
business men and farmers held I'M
der the auspices of the Atlanta
Chamber Of Commerce and Ameri-
can Cotton association.
Speaking Wednesday evening at
the Capital City club to several hum
dred guests assembled at the dinner
given in his honor by the American
Cotton association, w. P. G. Hard
ing, governor of the federal reserve
board in Washington, declared it to
be absolutely necessary to arrange
foreign credits If the price of cotton
is to be upheld.
No matter how much the bellig
erent nations of Europe may need
and want cotton, Mr.. Harding pointed
out, they can not buy it unless they
have money or credit. Immense de-
struction of liquid wealth, caused by
the war, renders it practically i'm
possible for them to pay cash for
cotton in very large quantities at
prevailing rates of exchange. Hence
they are obliged to have credit for
long-term periods ranging as high
as three to five years. To protect
the price of her staple commodity
by keeping open the foreign mar
ket, it is therefore Imperative that
the south should Immediately take
steps to provide these credits.
Mr.. Harding regretted that the or
ganization of the proposed American
Cotton Export Financing Corpora
ton, launched some months ago at
New Orleans at his suggestion, has
not progressed very far. He ex-
planned that the organization COM
mittee lost enthusiasm during the
recent summer months because the
steadily. They overlooked the fact,
he said, that this was due to emer-
'gency purchases of cotton by Euro
pean belligerents with money loaned
to them by the United States. Now
that the war loans are nearly used
IL ic
purchased in large quantities in Eu-
rope, the price is declining.
Mr.. Harding Endorsed whole-heart-
eddy the objects and purposes Of the
American Cotton association in so
far as it proposes to protect the in
terests of the cotton producer and
improve his conditions, but he
stressed with great emphasis the
proposition that foreign credits must
be arranged and he urged the i'm
portance of pushing forward the ex-
port financing corporation as a COM
pan1on movement which ought to go
hand in hand with the cotton asso-
citation.
Dinner Largely Attended
The dinner Wednesday evening
was largely attended by most rep
resentative gathering Of men from
the whole cotton belt. In the au-
dience were farmers, merchants,
bankers, editors and men in other
professions and lines of business.
The dinner followed conference
held Wednesday afternoon at the
Atlanta Chamber of Commerce,
where an address was delivered by
Mr.. Harding along lines similar to
his evening address. In the after
noon he stressed the necessity for
foreign credits, as he did in the
evening. The number and repre-
resentative character of the men at
tending the conference and dinner
was in itself remarkable evidence
of the strength of the movement to
organize the farmers and their bust
ness allies in a great association for
mutual benefit and protection.
Clark Howell, editor of the At
lanta Constitution, presided at the
dinner and introduced Mr.. Harding
in an eloquent and forceful address,
emphasizing the Importance of or
ganization to prevent the south's
great staple crop from being dumped
forcing decline in prices and
forcing the farmer to start again in
the vicious borrowing circle which
has been the bane of the south's
Organization, coupled with the facili-
ties afforded by the Federal Re-
serve system, declared Mr.. Howell,
are destined to emancipate the cot
ton producer and make him the most
prosperous and independent agricul-
turist in the world.
Governor Dorsey spoke briefly
along the same line. He said the
hour has struck when it would be
stupendous folly for the farmers
and business interests to fail to or
ganize. If the business interests
fail to assist the farmer, he said,
they deal their section the hardest
blow it has had since the civil war.