Historic Tuscaloosa Memory Of The Week: Downtown Parade To Raise Price Of Cotton (1914)

Editor's Note: As part of an ongoing partnership with our friends at Historic Tuscaloosa, Patch will be bringing you a quick piece of local history per week provided by those working hard to preserve the memories of our community.

TUSCALOOSA, AL — This week's installment of Historic Tuscaloosa's Memory of the Week looks back on a parade held in 1914 in an attempt to boost the price of cotton to 10 cents a pound.

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In the photo, those in the parade are traveling west on Broad Street — now University Boulevard — approaching Market Street in Tuscaloosa on what is now Greensboro Avenue.

Historic Tuscaloosa's Event & Digital Media Coordinator Sarah-Katherine Helms told Patch that farmers and suppliers around Tuscaloosa protested the low price of cotton and, as a result, demanded the price be raised to 10 cents per pound.

She then identified those on the truck in the photo: Judge W.W. Brandon, Sam Clabaugh, R.B. Cochrane, Will Raiford, and Clayton Strickland.

In looking back on the Cotton Crisis of 1914, Helms said Tuscaloosa and the rest of the South suffered severe economic shock with the outbreak of World War I, resulting in the foreign market for cotton — usually two-thirds of the crop — disappearing.

Thus, the war and the largest cotton crop in history staggered the economy in the Deep South.

In response, Helms said the Board of Trade called “A Monster Mass Meeting of Citizens” at the courthouse to boost the price of cotton through the buy-a-bale movement.

"It was said that the program would boost the price of cotton, give an impetus to trade, relieve the money stringency, and save hundreds of thousands of dollars for Tuscaloosa County," Helms said. "At the same time, a call came out for a meeting in New Orleans on the cotton situation. Bankers, farmers, merchants, and every other interest represented in the South were called to attend to help make definite and systematic plans for holding, warehousing, financing, marketing, minimum price, and cutting the cotton acreage for 1915."

Helms then said Harvie Jordan, president of the Southern Cotton Association, said the South had to depend upon its own resources and cooperation to solve the cotton crisis.

In Tuscaloosa, all offices and stores were closed for the meeting and a parade, the first of its kind in the country, had a large motion picture company taking a moving picture of the parade.

Helms went on to explain that Ellen Peter Bryce — the wife of Peter Bryce, the first superintendent of the Alabama State Hospital for the Insane, which would later be renamed Bryce Hospital — represented the women of Tuscaloosa, who attended in large numbers to relieve the situation.

Helms was quick to point out that, at this time, scarcely any cotton had been sold for less than 10 cents a pound, and it was thought that the mass meeting would encourage farmers and businessmen not to sacrifice any cotton for less than 10 cents.

"The cotton parade idea, originating in Tuscaloosa, was said to have swept the South," the Tuscaloosa Area Virtual Museum recalls. "A smashing success, the parade featured farmers hauling cotton, prominent citizens driving drays, and Judge Brandon spieling from the top of a bale. Many people agreed to buy bales of cotton, hoping to encourage and enable farmers to hold their cotton for better prices. Nationwide, more than a million bales of cotton were purchased and retired from the market to be held until the market price went to 10 cents or higher."

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