6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 



At the conclusion of his remarks, Mr. Brittin introduced the perma- 

 nent Chairman, 



HON. CHAS. SCHULER, 

 who spoke as follows : 



"Gentlemen of the Convention and Brother Farmers Interested in the 

 Culture of Cotton : This Convention has been called by His Excellency, 

 the Governor of this State, with a view to consulting with the people 

 most interested in the welfare of the State and the cotton industry, to see 

 whether it is necessary to call an extra session of the Legislature to take 

 steps and pass laws by which to check the progress of the insect that 

 is threatening the welfare not only of the State, but of the country. 



"The State of Louisiana is threatened on the west by an insect known 

 as the Mexican cotton-boll weevil. It has been a mystery to me that the 

 great State of Texas, with its immense territory from west to east, would 

 permit an insect to destroy millions of its property without any effort, so 

 far as I know, on the part of the State to check its course. How was it 

 that the veterans who sacrificed their property and their lives to drive 

 back the human vermin that infested their State would suffer this insect 

 to overwhelm them? If we consider the amount of money that is in 

 circulation; if we consider the number of people that live upon the pro- 

 duction and handlings of this staple, we can realize the immense import- 

 ance of the crop. 



"I am not going to suggest any method of combating the insect, or to 

 describe his habits. I want to call your attention to the fact that this is 

 not a personal and individual or even a State matter, but a national con- 

 cern, and I think it will be the greatest of calamities if this great Govern- 

 ment of ours does not check the advance of the insect. 



"Mr. R. H. Edmunds, editor of the Manufacturers' Record, in a recent 

 article, makes the statement that from the year 1881 to the year 1900, the 

 export value of cotton and its products, manufactured and otherwise, 

 reached, in round numbers, the enormous sum of $5,900,000,000. He also 

 gave figures to prove that the export value of wheat, corn and flour in 

 the same period only amounted to $4,150,000,000. The great European 

 centers of France, Germany, Belgium and Australia encourage the rais- 

 ing of the beet sugar by a large bounty, not to encourage the production 

 for home consumption, but to balance the account of nations. 



"A few months ago the Secretary of the Treasury, in order to afford 

 financial help, in a period of monetary stringency, distributed among the 

 national depositors $100,000,000. This great sum had the effect of bal- 

 ancing trade conditions and preventing what would have been a great 

 national calamity. The export 



VALUE OF COTTON 



during the month of October, in this last year one month, no more 

 amounted to $60,000,000. Does any individual, knowing this, think that 



