Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1931-08-16
Capital
.ANI
Chat
By
The Political
Analyst

Rep. Lawrence Westbrook of
Waco has announced the Texas
legislature will take up the cotton
carryover fight at the point where
the ~six-state cotton conference
split up and quit it.
That Is on the question OF asking
the federal farm board TO hold of
the market $500, 900 bales OF carry
over cotton, 70 protect farmers
this year from a government-in-
flicted disaster.
Gov. Ross 5. Sterling and MI.
WeStbrook were voted down in the
cotton conference on their plea for
the backing of other states in the
fight 70 keep the governments cot
ton holdings out OF competition
with this years growers.
The whole matter will go before
the Texas legislature, and the
sentiment Of those representing a
million farmers will be clearly de-
fined for the United States gov
eminent and the officials OF other
states to see and understand, Mr..
WeStbrook said.
The contest that broke IN the
conference here is a fundamental
m in the cotton associations, an
issue that has caused discord. that
has become internal politics Of var
lous organizations, and which has
obscured the welfare Of the farmer,
according to the lawmaker from
Waco.
Rep. WeStbrook thinks in terms
of cotton. He has been singled out
by governors Of Texas as their rep
resentative in dealing with cotton.
He walked out Of a cotton organ
ization because OF differences over
the same fundamental question.
Mr.. WeStbrook, in pressing the
holdover issue before the cotton
states conference had not only the
backing OF Gov. Sterling. but the
recommendation behind him Of the
head of the nations largest cotton
concern. wv. L. Clayton, Houston,
had urged before a preliminary
session that the farm board, hold
ing half the huge surplus, should
be prevailed upon to act TO the
benefit, rather than the injury, Of
American farmers.
Results Of the vote in the cotton
conference were rendered unmean-
ingful by the nature OF the vote.
Everybody there, from hired hands
and politicians to the disintereSted
spectators voted. Rep. Rogers OBJ
jected to a statement in the senate
that there were no dirt farmers
present. His presence was the
exception.
The one grain Of meaning that
can be sifted from the vote is that
a majority Of the delegate from
other states diSapproved the petit
ton 10 the federal farm board.
and their reasons were clearly
stated.
Those reasons were that thes,
delegates had been commissioned
to deal with cooperative cottor
acreage control. and had not beer
instructed by their governors witt
respect to the carryover issue.
They simply had to wait for in.
structions. Their vote did not sa.
that their states may not be firmly
entrenched in the same policl
which Gov. Sterling asked the con
ference here to adopt.
Texas furnished five-sixths o
those attending the informal con,
ference. Its representation wa!
dominated by the officials, leader.
and members of cotton associations
and these men could not have beer
expected to forget or ignore the in.
ternal contentious, diSagreements
perplexiteS, uncertainties that have
beSet the groups concerned with
the maladies OF a sinking industry
All held to the same hope,
that Of bringing cotton farming
back TO a paying business. Tht
great impounded flood Of cottoI
! piled above the uncertain barrier
OF a federal boards decision wa.
recognized by all as a distinc'
threat. The way to deal with II
was the question over which they
differed.
The legislature Of Texas, Mr.
WeStbrook insists, is largely free Of
the ~dissention Of the cotton people
themselves, and he believes 1t viii
look on the problem from the view
point of the farmer who has &c
make a living this year and next,
rather than from that Of the agen-
cieS OF government swamped with
an unsanted burden Of commodities
now worth less than the money
advanced upon it.
Upon one thing the conference
agreed. That Is, that the farmer
should look elsewhere for a large
part OF his living. That he should
not rely on cotton alone; that he
should not plant all his acreage IN
cotton alone; that he must adjust
himself to new conditions, and
prepare 70 grow the cotton which
he produces on less land than in
the past, and that he must take
care to use the other acres pro-
ductively in other purposes.
And that transcends the organ
ization politics that boiled over
about the carry-over surplus.
/ D1iI, Health