PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 5 



A large number of delegates representing nearly every Cotton Parish 

 in the State, were present testifying their interest in the objects of the 

 Convention. 



At noon on the 3Oth Nov., the Convention was called to order in the 

 Odd Fellows Hall, in the City of New Orleans, by the temporary chair- 

 man, Abe Brittin, President of the N. O. Cotton Exchange, who spoke 

 as follows : 



"I bring you 



GREETINGS FROM THE COTTON EXCHANGE, 



which extends you its privileges while you are in the city, and will co- 

 operate with you in any movement for the extermination of the Mexi- 

 can cotton boll weevil. 



''You are called upon to consider ways and means for arresting the 

 further progress of the pest. More than this, you are expected to devise 

 means to permanently exterminate the weevil. It is folly to say that this 

 cannot be accomplished. It can be accomplished; it must be accom- 

 plished; it will be accomplished. When the vineyards of France were 

 threatened, France produced her Pasteur, and the vineyards were saved. 

 America will produce her Pasteur, and the cotton fields will be saved. 



"'Last September I said that the most momentous peril involved in 

 the cotton outlook was the Mexican cotton boll weevil. The evil is 

 spreading, and eventually it will spread from Texas to other States 

 The seriousness of the situation should be brought to the attention of 

 the Government. 



"With the increased acreage, improved fertilizers and methods of 

 culture, we are to-day five years away from the production of a maxi- 

 mum crop. This has not occurred in twenty-five years, and, if we except 

 the period of the Civil War, it has never occurred in the history of the 

 South. Production is not keeping pace with consumption, and if this con- 

 dition be not relieved, some other section of the world will produce the 

 cotton needed. This should not be. This may be a time for the States 

 to hedge the weevil in or out, but the paramount responsibility rests 

 upon the National Government. And we need not go to Congress as 

 mendicants, but, with heads erect, present the situation, and say that if 

 it would protect the industry, a remedy must be found. 



"It is almost impossible to imagine what would have occurred to the 

 trade of this country if the cotton crop had failed last year as completely 

 as the corn crop did. There is not a financial institution in this country 

 that would not have been shaken to its very foundation. So the east is 

 more interested in the matter than the South, for the South, without 

 cotton could, by other resources, stand alone. But the Nation's contmerce 

 must be maintained, and if it costs a million or five millions to destroy 

 the weevil, it would pay the Government to do so." 



