PROCEEDINGS OF THE BOLL WEEVIL CONVENTION. 67 



that have been so spent within my recollection in a public gathering of 

 our craft in this State. 



There can be no doubt, after having listened to the papers and the talks 

 of these men of scientific research as to the great danger that confronts 

 us. The danger is great. The danger is imminent. It behooves us, as 

 has been said, to watch along every line, and leave no stone unturned, as 

 it were, under which one of these weevils might hide. 



I think that this Convention has so far pursued a very wise course, 

 and that its labors must result in great benefit to the cotton producers, 

 not only of this State, but of all that country lying east of the Texas 

 line, where the pest now is so bad. I realize, gentlemen, when such ques- 

 tions as these confront us, there are two or three mistakes which are to 

 be guarded against. One is that of becoming panic-stricken, losing confi- 

 dence in ourselves, and in this combat that we are engaged in. On the 

 other hand, we must not be over confident. We must not feel that this 

 great danger can be minimized, that by meeting in convention and spout- 

 ing a lot of talk we can check the ravages of the boll weevil ; but we must 

 feel, gentlemen, that when we go away from here, every man must feel 

 that upon his shoulders, to some extent, rests the cotton industry of this 

 State, and he must be willing, if necessary, to sacrifice himself to the 

 protection of the great mass of cotton producers. 



Now I must say as to the future that I have great doubt, but at the 

 same time, I have infinite hope. I believe that with the Southern man 

 everything is possible. I believe that with the cotton planter of the 

 South there is no great danger that he cannot cope with. In his wisdom, 

 guided by the experts that may be put at his disposal by the State and 

 the National Government, there is no danger of this sort that he cannot 

 successfully meet and overcome.. Go back through the history of the 

 South for the past forty years and who can doubt this assertion. Go 

 back to the times when most of us were children, when our fathers took 

 up their guns and their swords to fight for a principle. They were over- 

 run by superior numbers, but though overrun and overborne their cour- 

 age was still as great as ever. They went to their desolate homes and 

 their ruined farms, threw away their guns, and took up their plows, and 

 undertook to reclaim their devastated country. Later on, when the worst 

 trouble came, when the people of the South were overridden by hordes 

 of scalawags, and when he had the heel of the Federal Government upon 

 his neck, did he sulk, did the Southern man and the cotton planter cease 

 in his work? He took up again the proper line of action, and freed him- 

 self and his State. Come on further down, when going over the great 

 alluvial lands of those sections, to put in the crop of cotton and corn, he 

 saw the rivers rise in their torrents, and year by year his crops were devas- 

 tated, did he quit? No, but calling to his advice and to his side the best and 

 most skillful engineers of modern days, he built levees along the great 



