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but in 1880 we had but 16 mills. We
had eight knitting mills in 1905.
The industry is but started in Ala
bama, but it is a healthy, vigorous
infant, and the chances are that it
will continue to grow, because every
mill in this state shows excellent net
earnings.
In the Alabama mills in 1905 the
number of women employed was
3,337 and the number of childien
3,094, or just about one-half of the
total number of wage-earners in the
cotton mills of the state. The annual
earnings of the 3,094 children was
in 1905 but $403,175, or at the av
erage rate of $l3O a year, or $2.50 a
week. —Birmingham Age-Herald.
REFUSE COTTON IN NEW YORK.
Although we shipped away in the
fiscal year cotton to the value of
$481,1660,11, yet Liverpool is ship
ping cotton to us. A steamer has
just arrived in New York toting back
2,000 bales of cotton. It is Ameri
can cotton.
Let no one think, however, that we
had overworked the export feature of
the cotton trade, and that Europe is
sending back cotton because of a sur
feit of it. Nothin gos the kind has
occurred or will occur.
The 2,000 bales in question is rub
bishy cotton gathered together from
last year’s crop. It is not spinnable.
It is not deliverable in Liverpool or
in any cotton market in the world
save in New York. The New York
cotton exchange's rules admit of the
delivery of rubbish, and the world’s
refuse cotton begins to be sent to
New York.
The sending of rubbishy cotton to
New York is of little importance
alongside of the fact that the New
York cotton exchange controlled by
New England spinners is conspiring
to cut down the price of all cotton.
July contracts are quoted in New
York at 11.80; in New Orleans, at
12.50, both professedly based on mid
dling cotton, but in New York de
liveries of any old stuff are permitted,
and the quotations of the New York
cotton exchange thus become farcical.
It is to be hoped that Liverpool
will continue to unload its rubbishy
cotton on New York. Let the nature
of the New York conspiracy against
Southern producers be fully made
known, and then all who handle cot
ton will come to see that the less the
South has to do with the New York
Cotton exchange the better it will
get along.—Birmingham Age-Herald.
EXPERIMENT WITH COTTON.
In a report just made public, Hon.
James Wilson, Secretary of Agricul
ture, states the investigations in the
production of races of cotton having
longer and better fiber are being con
tinued along two lines: 1. The mak
ing and testing of hybrids between
various short-staple varieties and the
Sea Island or long staple cottons,
and, 2. The straight selection of
certain short-staple varieties which
show a tendency to produce fairly
long lint. A number of hybrid-)
have been secured having lint rang
ing from one and one-quarter to one
and five-eighths inches in length,
which have fairly large bolls that
open wide and are easy to pick.
Some of these hybrids have been
bred in isolated patches for several
years and carefully selected, also
that at the present tims they re-
WATSON’S WEEKLY JEFFERSONIAN.
produce themselves nearly true to
type. Some further selection is ne
cessary before these varieties are
ready for general cultivation, but
they give promise of being of great
value.. The experiments started fine
• years ago in the selection of certain
standard short staple varieties to in
crease the length of lint without
hybridization have yielded somewhat
striking results. Two experiments
—one, a selection from Russell Big
-8011, and the other from Jones’ im
proved—have yielded new types hav
ing lint averaging about one-fourth
inch longer than the parental strains,
while in other respects the varieties
do not appear to be materially
changed. From the tests thus far
made these new varieties seem to be
as productive as the ordinary stan
dard short staple, and produce a
fiber of much greater value. Limited
quantities of the seed of these two
sorts will be placed with co-operative
growers next season for trial and
further seed propagation.—Griffin
News.
GOOD PRICE FOR COTTON AS
SURED.
There is every indication now that
the short cotton crop in the South
is going to be a blessing to South
Carolina and especially upper South
Carolina. The government report of
the crop condition, printed in this
newspaper yesterday, shows that the
condition in South Carolina is 79
against a ten-year average of 82 or
only 3 points behind. The condition
in the entire South is 72 against a
ten-year average of 83. The greatest
deficiency is in the big cotton pro
ducing states further west.
This has already begun to cause a
higher price. It’s an ill wind that
blows nobody good and we in upper
South Carolina are going to get the
benefit of it. We are going to raise
a crop, if nothing unforeseen shall
occur, according to present indica
tions as shown by the government
report, only three points below the av
erage, and on account of the general
crop being eleven points below the
average, we will get the benefit of
the high price caused thereby. r
course, nobody can undertake to pre
dict what the price of cotton is go
ing to be at a future time; but th«n>
seems to be good reason now f> r
thinking that it is going to be ver .’
high this fall.
Cotton in Spartanburg county has
made great improvement in the past
two or three weeks since the warm
weather began. There is some fine
looking cotton to be seen. The far
mers are giving it the very best at
tention, knowing that every slalk
is going to be worth probably more
than in many years. We believe
that Spartanburg is going to raise a
fair crop and we feel assured that
our farmers are going to get a fi m
price for it. Even if the crop is
short there is the compensating ad
vantage of a reduction in the gather
ing expenses, which are consider
able.
October cotton in New York went
to 12.12 and January 12.23 on the
announcement of the government re
port. There are plenty of level-head
ed men who believe cotton will be
worth 15 cents this fall and not a
few who predict 20 cent cotton. We
believe it is not at all improbable
that what started out looking like a
disastrous year to our farmers, will
turn out to be one of the most pro
fitable periods that many of them
ever saw. —Spartanburg Journal.
Hon. Thos. E. Watson, Thomson, Ga.
Dear Sir: Enclosed find a spe
cial in The Constitution regarding
why Southern people do not apply
for positions in the government ser
vice. As you wrote a very instruct
ive editorial on why people do not
enter the army and navy, I thought
perhaps you would be interested in
why Southern white people do not
enter the civil service.
If you care to investigate the mat
ter a little, I believe you could write
an article that would be startling
and I think you could in the end ad
vise the president that if he will
adopt a decent policy and average
pay that he could get all the white
applicants he desired.
Now in the first place, negroes are
given all the preference in high po
sitions that they are allowed bv
Southern sentiment to fill. For in
stance, Collector Rucker, of Atlanta,
and Deveaux, of Savannah. No
white man wants to work under a
negro, consequently they avoid po
sition headed by a negro.
But if a white man is so unfor
tunate that he is willing to submit
to negro rule in order to earn a liv
ing and stands the examination for
position under one of them, he will
be denied the place no matter what
grade in the examination he makes,
if there is a negro at all to whom it
can be given. Now, some time ago
Dexeaux, of Savannah, needed an
other man, an examination was held
to fill the place.
Two pitiful white men and one ne
gro stood the examination. Both
white men made a better grade than
the negro, yet they were skipped and
the place given to a negro. You
can find this to be true by investi
gating at Savannah.
This same method has been pur
sued in every branch of the civil
service until nearly every man in it
is a negro. In Savannah, Ga., there
are about four negro letter earners
to one white, and in Montgomery,
Ala., the carriers are nearly, if not
quite, all negroes. The Georgia
Road, on which you live, has only
three or four white men mail clerks
and about ten or twelve negroes.
In other words a white man is de
nied a chance to earn a living sim
ply because he is a white man. This
looks hard, considering that the
white man discovered the country,
worked hard to build it up and spilt
his blood to defend it from the sav
age Indians within and the greedy
English without. If a white man
succeeds, as a few do, in getting a
government position, he must sit by
the negro all day at a desk and if
a boss comes in with a friend the
negro must be introduced in his
presence, and if Judson Lyons ap
pears the white man must be made
acquainted with him and he can’t
say a word. Wonder if the same
can be said of a woman.
I am informed that so many of
the city carriers are negroes that
white men can’t join the association.
It seems also that negroes will cap-
ture the railway mail cars. There
they handle the mail and sometimes
lie on the mail sacks; the sacks are
then put off at stations and disease
scattered, for the sacks are never
washed. Around the depots of all
Southern cities, day and night, filthy
negroes may be seen sleeping on mail
sacks. The mail sacks should be
fumigated.
A negro is not a success in a cot
ton factory, nor in a mail car;
one white man can do as many let
ters as two negroes. So the tax pay
ers would save thousands of dollars
if these places were filled by white
men. A white man who could work
his job no better than a negro would
be discharged.
A negro living in Columbus, Ga.,
was fired from the railroad ma ; l
cars for stealing. He was afterward
given a job in Macon in the post
office as a mail earner. I do not
know his name, but you can find this
« to be true, if you decide to write
a piece in your magazine on th?
subject.
Mr. Watson, I have sent you this
because I would like to hear from
you on the subject and thought per
haps it had not occurred to you to
write on the question. If you do
decide to write an editorial, you can
take what I have here written you
as hints, and you can find out wheth
er true or not by investigating.
A FRIEND.
SAM HOUSTON.
(Continued from Page Three.)
iar life, and died in a few years in
the home which he had made. He left
No Indian Children
but the family of his wife was a
large and notable one, and his neph
ews and nieces are numerous in the
tribe, some of them distinguished by
their influence and intelligence. To
his credit Houston never forgot his
friendship with the Cherokees or en
deavored to ignore his life among
them. After his election to the Unit
ed States senate he was fervent in
advocating their interests and in de
fending them from injustice. Not
only as the special champion of this
tribe, but in an intelligent under
standing of the Indian question, and
the wisdom as well as the justice of
honesty and consideration, he Mas
far beyond the majority of the pub
lic men of his time, and particularly
of the spirit of border greed and
prejudice, which is by no means yet
extinct. Like some of the army offi
cers who had shared their tears and
learned to admire their bravery and
faithfulness, he was the friend of the
Indians from sympathy as well as a
sense of uprightness and honor, and
respected their barbaric virtues as he
understood the elements of their char
acter. His rooms were always open
to the Cherokee delegations when they
arrived in Washington, and he was
their friendly companion as well as
the sharer of their councils and their
advocate at the Indian bureau and mi
the floor of congress. His regards
were paid with lasting reverence. He
has a peculiar place in the remem
brance and tradition of the Cherokee
people as their faithful and powerful
friend, and his name is perpetuated
as an honorable patronymic in the
younger generations, like that of Wil
liam Penn.
fc-* • « I .
PAGE SEVEN