HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE REGARD- 
ING THE COTTON-BOLL WEEVIL AND APPROPRIATIONS FOR 
THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
BOLL WEEVIL. 
CoMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE, 
HovusEe or REPRESENTATIVES, 
Wednesday, December 16, 1903. 
The committee met at 10.30 o’clock a. m., Hon. J. W. Wadsworth 
in the chair, for the consideration of the following bills: H. R. 4477, 
H. R. 5496, H. R. 7300, H. R. 7304, and H. R. 7646. 
The Cuarrman. Gentlemen, the business before the committee this 
morning is the cotton-boll weevil question. I think Mr. Burgess, of 
‘Texas, wishes to address the committee. 
Mr. Burieson. Yes; Mr. Burgess desires to make a brief prelim- 
inary statement, 
STATEMENT OF HON. GEORGE F. BURGESS, REPRESENTATIVE 
FROM TEXAS. 
Mr. Burexss. Gentlemen of the committee, I shall endeavor to 
make a brief statement of my understanding of this whole situation 
and in support of the bills introduced and now pending; and I will 
thank the committee if they will permit me to make the statement 
without interruption, assuring them that when I have concluded I will 
gladly answer any inquiry that the chairman or any other member of 
the committee may desire to make with reference to any matter. 
The bill which I shall advocate immediate prompt action upon by 
the committee, and early report and a prompt action of Congress, the 
number of which is 5496, is not a hasty nor ill-advised one, and per- 
haps the strongest argument I can make in support of it would be to 
ive a brief statement of the steps which successfully led to its intro- 
duction by myself, by request of the whole Texas and Louisiana dele- 
gations in Congress, unanimously. 
You will notice that the bill states that it was introduced by me by 
request. arly in the session the Secretary of Agriculture and sev- 
eral of his subordinates having inspected the boll-weevil district in 
Texas and attended the boll-weevil.convention at Dallas, Tex., upon 
their return we had a conference with the Secretary. As the result 
of that conference we prepared and signed a statement made to him 
in the form of a petition, which the committee will find printed in the 
Congressional Record of the 24th of November, on page 329. That 
petition is signed by all the members of the Texas and Louisiana dele- 
gations and gives a statement of the magnitude of the cotton indus- 
tries of the United States, of the nature and extent of the peril that 
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