COTTON 59 



Jordan sounded the same bugle-note which South- 

 ern farmers had hitherto refused to heed. 



Now they heard him. 



A call was issued for a great mass meeting in 

 New Orleans January 24-29, 1905. 



One of the most pathetic pictures in history is that 

 of the faithful remnant of the old French nobility 

 crowding around poor King Louis when his star 

 had almost set, thrilled again by a deep loyalty to 

 the ancient throne then tottering, and passionately 

 swearing allegiance once more to their hapless 

 king, while the touching strains of "Richard, My 

 Richard, All the World is Leaving Thee!" floated 

 through the ill-fated Parisian palace. 



It was with some such earnest loyalty, but with 

 confidence the exact opposite of the French despair, 

 that the followers of King Cotton met in New Or- 

 leans that January day. What they said and did 

 it is not our purpose to record here in detail. They 

 did resolve that the South should reduce her acreage 

 20 per cent, as compared with the previous year, 

 and they organized the Southern Cotton Associa- 

 tion to carry this resolution into effect. 



With a manifest overproduction, with cotton 

 selling at the time for six or seven cents, and with 

 five-cent prices confidently predicted by the bear 

 leaders of the New York Cotton Exchange, it took 

 considerable courage for the New Orleans Cotton 

 Convention to declare that the remainder of the 

 1904 crop should be held for ten cents. 



Such a resolution, however, was almost unani- 

 mously adopted. And within six months the ten 

 cent figure was reached largely as a result of the 

 success of the movement for reducing the cotton 

 acreage. 



