The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-10-29
HARDEN CONVICTED
Sentenced for Attempt to Bribe Pro-
 hibition Agent
By Associated Press

By Associated Press Atlanta, October 2S.-John Henry
 Harden, merchant and farmer of
 Cherokee county, was convicted in fed
 eral district court here late today of attempting. to brbe a, federal prohibi- tion agent not to interfere with illicit stills.
 Harden was sentenced to pay fine
 of $1,500 and to serve two years in the
 Atlanta federal penitentiary His counsel filed notice of appeal and bond
 was set at s3,00O.
 After Harden had offered to sbuy protection" last spring for $500 dic- tagraph was concealed in the hotel room here of E. E. Dixon, a prohibition enforcement officer. according to the
 testimony today and other federal of ficers listened from an adjoining room to the conversation when the money changed hands. Harden testified that
 the money was simply a loan which he made to Dixon after the latter told him he was in debt because of illness
 in his family.
 as good collateral as can be found any where.
 Birmingham has no such warehouse and daily loses crops which would
 otherwise would be shipped to this point for storage.
 When warehouses are bonded their
 insurance is reduced automa tically and the reduction pays for the bonding fee
 Besides this, each grower joining our
 association will be asked to pledge
 himself to diversification of crops in
 writing. He will sign a contract which
 states that he will plant two-thirds of
 the land on which the 1920 cotton crop
 was grown, in feed and grain for 1921
 and give the association the right, if
 he breaks his contract, to come down
 to his farm with a team and blow
 it up.''
 During the course of the luncheon it was stated that E. B. Conner, in reply
 to telegram from mill owners in
 South Carolina, asking him to join them in shutting down for thirty days, wrote back:
 T will not join you in shutting down the cotton mills, but I will join you in buying 100000 bales of cotton at once."
 Resolutions protesting against the proposed action of the state tax com ! mission to tax foreign capital were adopted by the meeting. Leon Bradley was authorized to draw up the resolutions, which were to con- tain the protest and the statement that ! <tldDdIAet. cSpGCldlly thc IdEDltTS anu cotton growers of Alabama, need all of 1 the foreign capital that it can get. The l protest will be sent to Governor Kilby | imm mediately.
 | It was stated that the people would pay the taxes for all companies that remained in the state if the taxation was put over and that many of the foreign concerns would withdraw the 1 capital from the Alabama field. 1 Several companies, it was stated, have already been notified of the 1 taxation measure which was passed during the Conner administration and as result have withdrawn their cap ita1.
 J. E. Morris of Montgomery, on be- half of the members of the Travellers Protective Association, pledged the support of the 5000 members of the organization and stated that they would spread the campaign throughout the state in their travels. T. o. Smith of the Birmingham Trust ard Savings Bank stated that south ern bankers had not done their share in helping the farmers. but that as soon as the system of the bonded ware
 houses was completed the bankers
 would be glad to lend on such good security as cotton crop always is. " H. Hanson of the Birmingham
 News and c. M. Stanley of TheN Age
 Herald pledged the support of the To- cal press in the campaign for mem bers.
 In closing his remarks Chairman AL Ter stressed the economy of having cotton compressed at the gin, stating that it would save 10,S00 freight cars per day for four months every year if the practice of compressing at the gin was followed. The meeting was then adjourned.