Evening star., 1936-09-11


part of the year, the Southern
rivers we're clear streams, except in
the Springtime, when they had
many freshets and floods, just as
we do. When that occurred, soil
was washed from the uplands and
the mountains into the Atlantic
Ocean, but because they were sea-
sonal only in their effect, the
natural accretion of new topsoil
took the place Of that which had
run off to the sea-"
Hopes This Be Called
Era Of Rebuilding.
If history gives a name to the
age In which we are living, I hope
it will call this era of rebuilding
for it is my firm conviction that
unless, in our generation, we start
to rebuild, the Americans of CEN
tury hence will have lost the greater
part of their natural and national
heritage.
1t Is because in these latter years
I have spent so great part Of my
life in this Southland, and because
I have come to know its fine peo-
pie, its brave history. its many prob
lens, that speak not as a stranger
to you who are gathered here from
the seven States.
I have seen the denuding OF your
forests; I have seen the washing
away of your topsoil; I have strug-
gled through the red clay roads in
the Springtime. have taken part
in your splendid efforts to save
your forests, to terrace your lands,
to harness your streams and to
push hard-surfaced roads into every
county in every State. have even
assumed the amazing role Of q
columnist for a Georgia newspaper
that might write powerful pieces
against burning over the farm
woodlots in favor of the COW, hog
and hen program.
May I add that 1t is because Of
practical experience on my own
farm that many years before was
inaugurated President I came to
the conclusion that cotton, as 1t
stood then, was essentially specu-
lative crop and that the planter Of
cotton, because he had nothing to
say about the price he would re-
ceive, could never tell when he put
the seed in the ground whether he
would make big profit by selling
his crop for 25 cents a pound or go
broke by selling his crop for cents
pound.
Objective for Cotton
Is Told to Wallace.
1t is perhaps a bit Of history
hitherto unrecorded that in the
month of March, 1888, said this to
Secretary of Agriculture Wallace:
I'm respect to cotton. I have Q
definite objective: The cotton
farmer has been cursed for
generation by the fact of insecurity.
The price for his crop has run up
the scale and down the scale and
up the scale and down the scale
again. In recent years his total
aggregate production has been so
great that 100000 bales over
hang the market. He will starve on
scent cotton-the South will starve
on Scent cotton-and just as long
as this appalling carry-over hangs
over the market, he will never get
a price that will even bring him
out whole. My objective is to
control and reduce that surplus:
To get for him 10-cent cotton our
first year in Office and to get him
12-cent cotton or more for the pext
three years. You and I must Keep
that goal ever before our eyes.
And, my friends, ask you in simple
fairness, have we attained that
goal?
You know the story of cotton.
You know the story of tobacco,
too. There again your National
Government had a goal. I don't
believe that the great tobacco-grow-
ing States of the Nation would
wish to 60 back. to the days Of
'every man for himself and let the
devil take the hindmost"
Again, long before I went to
Washington, I was convinced that
the long road that leads to green
pastures and still waters had to
begin with a reasonable prosperity.
It seemed automatic to me that q
cotton farmer who could get only
cents pound for his crop could
not be in a position properly to
fertilize his land, or to terrace it, or
to rotate his crops, or to keep q
cow or a few head of cattle, or to
plant little orchard, or to cul-
tivate garden-in other words, to
work out for himself and his family
a well-rounded, reasonably secure
life that would tide him over lean
year Of drought.
The same thing held true, I
thought, In the case of the farmer
whose principal crop was tobacco