COTTON: ITS PREPARATION, TRANSPORTATION, AND

MARKETING.

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON
INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE,

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

Washington, D. C., Friday, August 15, 1913.

The subcommittee met at 11 o'clock a. m., Hon. William C. Adamson (chairman) presiding.

STATEMENT OF MR. HARVEY JORDAN.

The CHAIRMAN. I take pleasure in introducing Mr. Jordan, of Atlanta, Ga. The members of the full committee who are present are invited to remain and hear what Mr. Jordan has to say to the subcommittee on the subject of cotton. I will say to you, Mr. Jordan, that for many years the subject of cotton, as you know, has been discussed in all its stages before the country. We had a subcommittee appointed to hear anybody who knows anything about it. We should like to have you tell us whether Congress ought to legislate so as to improve conditions from the gin to the spinner. We would like to know how we can improve the ginning, packing, baling, sampling, transportation, and the marketing so as to enable the people who produce the cotton to get a little more for it, without robbing those who handle it and manufacture it and consume it afterwards. chairman knows you are an expert on all the stages, from the time the cotton leaves the farm until the time it goes into the fabric, and the committee would like to hear what you have to say on any phase of cotton through all these stages.

The

Mr. JORDAN. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I wish to say at the outset

Mr. SIMS (interposing). Are you going to address your remarks to any bill already introduced?

The CHAIRMAN. There have been at different times dozens of bills introduced in Congress, and this committee may take any bill and amend it to suit the occasion. There is no particular bill. There are some bills here, but Mr. Jordan may disregard the bills and tell us about the subject.

Mr. JORDAN. I will say at the outset that I am a cotton grower in Georgia and for 15 years have given the subjects of the baling and handling and marketing of our cotton considerable study and attention. It is a well-established fact all over the civilized world, wherever American cotton is consumed, that our great staple crop is delivered to the spinners in a disgracefully bad condition.

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