Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-01-06

United States Senior Hoke Smith
has been received by the Tri-Week-
ly Journal:
ITO MY GEORGIA FELLOW
CITIZENS: Tom Watson, in his Co.
lumbia Sentinel, is attacking the eff
| forts of Congress to compel the re-
sumption OF work by the War FL
| nance Corporation, and claims that
| those who are supporting this meas
ure are 'fooling the farmer again.
''He refers to Senator who pro-
posed in 1914 various plans to lift
lid cotton patch into the Elysian
| Fields and then declares that the
plausible plans put the Senator back
into the Senate What was the re-
suit of the grand promises of Sen
ator Puff and Bluff and Humbug?
never flourished in the soil of mis-
placed political confidence
1.-THE attitude of Watson is what
might be expected from one who
never serves, but always criticises
and kicks what others do.
'In the fall of 1914 cotton could
not be sold for over 6 cents a pound.
You had raised large crop. The
war cut off your markets. After
was nominated for the Senate I
| sought first to pass a bill requiring
the Government to buy at 10 cents
pound, and hold for two years, five
thousand bales Of cotton. Not hav-
ing secured the passage Of this bill,
l worked to help open up markets
for the sale of your cotton.
"Your markets were cut off in
all of Central Europe. y Cotton was
non-contraband-tha is to say it
was a commodity so little used for
military purposes that according to
established rules of international
law, owners of cotton had no right
to ship it wherever they pleased, and
Great Britain had no right to pre-
vent its being sent into central Eu-
rope, and even to Germany.
qualifications in London claimed
that Great Britain would seize any
cotton shipped to northern Europe.
This frightened exporters and ship
owners so that they were afraid to
send cargoes of cotton to Germany
and middle Europe.
"On October %, 1914 l introduced
a resolution in the United States sem
ate calling attention to these facts
and providing for the appointment
of committee which should, through
the State Department, force Great
Britain to show her purpose with
reference to cotton. I secured the
immediate passage of this resolu-
ton and was chairman of a COM
mittee of Senators, who, next morn
ing, laid our case before the Acting
Secretary of State. He sent at once
for the British Ambassador and ask
ed an explanation of the conduct of
Great Britain. On the 26th Of Oc-
tober, 1914 the British Ambassador
wrote the. State Department as fol-
lows: Last night I received reply
from Sir Edward Grey, in which he
authorizes me to give assurance that
cotton will not be seized. He points
out that cotton has not been put on
any Of our lists as contraband. 1t
is, therefore, so far as Great Britain
is concerned on the free list, and
will remain there
= "This assurance from the British
government was communicated
to the cotton exporters and ship
owners, and by the latter part OF
November, 1914, many ships loaded
with cotton were sailing to northern
Europe, and before the first OF
March, 1915 we had sent approx
: mately three million bales of cotton
into middle and northern Europe.
= ''The depression of the price OF
cotton had been due to the large
crop and our inability to get mar
G ket for it, This sale of three million
e bales of cotton so far improved the
e situation that, while cotton was sell
Ting in October, 1914, for scarcely 6
cents pound. by March, 1915, it
1 was selling for 10 cents a pound.
= helped bring about this result.
/ "on March 1, 1915, Great Britain
, issued an order declaring that there:
= after British ships would seize al
[ cotton destined to countries with
= which she was at war. While Great
D Britain had right to blockade Ger
man ports, Great Britain did not have
a right to prevent shipping cotton
i through Holland or Denmark into
Germany. I attacked this order OF
the British government in the press
and on the floor of the senate. /
helped induce the president to at
= tack it in letter of March 81, 1915
sent to Great Britain by the state
department. I kept up the fight
3 fight on through the summer of 1918
e insisting upon our right to ship cot
ton to Germany and to Austria
! through ports of countries not en-
gagged in the war.
$ 1.-THE latter part of August, 1915,
Great Britain made an order decIar-
J, ing cotton eontraband The British
! authorities knew this order was IL
I legal Russia undertook to do the
D same thing in the Russo-Japanese
l war, and Breat Britain made Russia
/ rescind the order.
: Representatives of the British
government in Washington declared
that hey were obliged to make the
order, but that they would seek TO
> make up to cotton raisers the loss OF
their central European markets
. Carrying out this promise, British
representatives bought large quanti-
ties of cotton in September, 1915, and
cotton rose in short time TO prices
higher than those for which it sold
before the European war began
These purchases by Great Britain
were made to prevent hostile feeling
r in the United States against Great
Britain. The fight we made on the
, British interference with our trade
.. led the British government to make
the purchases. They feared hostility
which might induce the president to
insist upon our right to ship cotton
to Germany.
Neither Tom Watson or anybody
else can take from me the satisfac-
: ton of knowing that I helped i'm
prove the cotton market and the
price of cotton, and by doing so
; served you.
''Now let us come to the present
situation. There are cotton mills all
through middle Europe now idle be-
cause their owners cannot buy cot
ton in the usual way. They need
longtime credits. On March 9, 1919,
we amended the act creating the war
finance corporation, corporation all
.N0Rs "