[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 120 (Monday, July 17, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4022-S4024]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                   TRIBUTE TO EMMETT CHASSANIOL, JR.

 Mr. COCHRAN. Mr. President, I am pleased to commend Emmett 
Chassaniol, Jr., and the Chassaniol family of Greenwood, MS, for 100 
years of service and contributions to the U.S. cotton industry.
  Mr. Chassaniol and his family are the subject of a profile published 
recently by the Delta Business Journal. The profile not only reviews a 
century of influence by an agricultural family in the Mississippi Delta 
but also the changes in the cotton industry over the decades. 
Mississippi remains one of the leading cotton-producing States in the 
country. Farmers in my State produced more than 1 million bales of 
cotton in 2016.
  Since its founding in 1917, the Chassaniol and Company has helped 
producers move cotton from the farm to the marketplace. Three 
generations of the Chassaniol family have engaged in the business of 
buying, shipping, or selling cotton. I am pleased to recognize their 
continuous role in meeting the needs of cotton farmers in this 
important and challenging industry.
  Today Emmett Chassaniol, Jr., continues the family cotton business 
established by his grandfather. Since 1996, he has expanded Chassaniol 
and

[[Page S4023]]

Company's reach, selling cotton for producers in Arkansas, Louisiana, 
and areas of the State beyond the Mississippi Delta. Emmett, Jr., like 
his grandfather, father, and other family members, has served in 
leadership positions that have helped to maintain cotton as an 
important commodity crop in my State.
  I am pleased to join cotton producers throughout my State in 
commending Emmett Chassaniol, Jr., and the Chassaniol family for 100 
years of business in the cotton industry.
  I ask that the June 15, 2017, article from the Delta Business Journal 
magazine, titled ``A Century of the Cotton Business--The Chassaniol 
Family,'' be printed in the Record.
  The material follows:

            [From the Delta Business Journal, June 15, 2017]

        A Century of the Cotton Business--The Chassaniol Family

                          (By Mark H. Stowers)

       Cotton has been king in Mississippi since the early 1800s 
     but has seen its reign diminish since the late 1980s. The 
     majestic crop has seen a rise in its ranks with an increase 
     in acres planted the past decade. For the past century, the 
     Chassaniol family of Greenwood has been part of the cotton 
     kingdom and its rise and fall and rise again. Emmett 
     Chassaniol Jr., still works in the family cotton business his 
     grandfather started in the early 1900s. He explained the 
     family history in the cotton business by gathering 
     correspondence from his grandfather, family input and his own 
     recollection.
       In 1917, the Chassaniol and Company cotton business opened 
     its doors in the Cotton Capital city when the transplanted 
     cotton shipper Herbert Spencer (H.S.) ``Pop'' Chassaniol 
     decided to stay in his adopted home town. His original office 
     was on 117 Front street but then he later moved to 110 Main 
     Street--the corner of Ramcat Alley and Main Street in the 
     ``Cotton Row'' area. He stayed in that building until he 
     retired in 1963 and then he passed away in 1966. In 1968, the 
     family sold the building to Mr. Charles Swayze.
       In 1956, H.S. recounted his career in a letter he wrote to 
     the vice president of the Hibernia National Bank in New 
     Orleans. H.S. had known the VPs father and uncles in the 
     cotton business in the New Orleans Cotton Exchange.
       ``My first job was at the age of 12, with Kline Wilson and 
     Company and your Uncle Peter J. Stoube was the manager of the 
     New Orleans office. Through my mother's family, Mr. Stoube 
     gave me my first job as his office boy.''
       From there Chassaniol worked his way up from the bottom of 
     the cotton business to owning his own cotton business. 
     Emmett's grandfather was later moved to the Delta in 1910--
     first to Greenville and then Greenwood with the English firm, 
     Alexander Eccles and Company. But they then decided to close 
     that office and move Chassaniol to Tennessee. But H.S. knew 
     he had found a business home, so he stayed in Greenwood and 
     opened up the Chassaniol and Company cotton business in 1917.
       The Greenwood Cotton Exchange got its charter in 1927 and 
     H.S. was the first president serving the 1927-1928 term. He 
     later served again from 1940-1941.
       Since then, H.S.'s sons--Pershing and Emmett (Sr.)--a 
     cotton buyer--each worked the business together before 
     Pershing started his own company--The Pershing Chassaniol 
     Cotton Factor--in 1955 after serving time in World War II. He 
     also served as president of the Greenwood Cotton Exchange for 
     the 1970-1971 term. Pershing was then joined by his nephew 
     Emmett Jr. and Pershing's daughter, Sally Chassaniol 
     McSpadden. Emmett Jr. served as the Greenwood Cotton Exchange 
     president on three occasions--1992-1993, 1999-2000 and 2006-
     2007. The Cotton Exchange's final year of existence was in 
     2009 and then it was dissolved.
       ``Pershing was in that business from 1955 to 1995,'' Emmett 
     Jr. said. ``My dad was in with my grandfather at Chassaniol 
     and Company. Sam Adams came in as partner with my grandfather 
     in 1931 but they never changed the name. That lasted until 
     1953 when they dissolved the partnership. My grandfather 
     retired in 1963 and passed away in October of 1966.''
       One of H.S.'s sons, Herbert Chassaniol, Jr., worked with 
     him in the business until June of 1939, when at the age of 
     25, he died in a diving accident on the Mississippi Gulf 
     Coast. Also, one of Pop's sons, Lloyd, worked in the cotton 
     business for different companies but never with Pop.
       ``Uncle Lloyd went to work for the George B. Wolfe and 
     Company in Greenwood representing J.P. Stevens out of South 
     Carolina. In 1963, they moved Uncle Lloyd, his wife and four 
     daughters to Greenville, South Carolina where he stayed with 
     them until he retired. He passed away in January of 2000. His 
     widow and four daughters all still live in South Carolina.'' 
     Emmett Chassaniol said. ``Doris Chassaniol Mallette, one of 
     my grandfather's daughters, worked for him as well. My 
     grandfather's son-in-law, J.E. McCurdy was married to 
     Blanche, was a cotton factor but didn't work for my 
     grandfather. Also, my grandfather's nephew, Herbert 
     Chassaniol, ended up as sales manager over at Staplcotn and 
     retired in 1965.''
       Pershing retired in 1995 and sold his building to Viking 
     Range. Then in January of 1996, Emmett Jr. incorporated his 
     business, Chassaniol and Company and moved into the historic 
     McBee building that dates back to 1880.
       For more than a century, the Chassaniol family has blessed 
     farmers and the family alike as the Chassaniols kept to the 
     foundational value as stated by Pershing quite often to his 
     daughter.
       ``He said it doesn't matter if the farmer comes in and has 
     one bale of cotton or if a farmer comes in and brings in 100 
     bales of cotton--you treat them just the same because they 
     are both cotton farmers,'' she said. ``That was one of the 
     things I always remembered.''
       McSpadden, like the rest of the family, grew up in the 
     cotton office as well.
       ``We would be up there working with them, especially during 
     the busy season,'' McSpadden said. ``I came back in 1979 and 
     took momma's place doing the bookkeeping and worked until 
     1997.''
       With no computers, McSpadden had plenty of paperwork to 
     tend to that she included her children's help with as well.
       ``I would bring work home at night and we'd be sitting in 
     the middle of the living room floor--me and my two boys--and 
     we would have all the class cards spread out and they would 
     help me put them in order,'' she said. ``But just to be able 
     to work with your daddy every day for 18 to 19 years is a 
     true blessing,'' she said. ``We had a wonderful relationship 
     and I went home every day with him to each lunch with 
     momma.''
       McSpadden invoiced and paid famers while Emmett graded out 
     and sold the cotton.
       ``I can't say enough nice things about the farmers, the 
     buyers and the other sellers,'' McSpadden said. ``They were 
     true to their word and it was just a pleasure to be in the 
     cotton business as long as I was.''
       Emmett Jr. explained his job as ``I sell cotton for the 
     farmers. That's all I've ever done as well as my Uncle 
     Pershing. My father and grandfather were shippers and buyers 
     but I don't buy a bale of cotton. I just represent the farmer 
     and get the price for him and sell cotton for him.''
       Three generation of the Chassaniol family have worked with 
     the Bank of Commerce and continue do so today, according to 
     Emmett Jr. The Chassaniols have experienced plenty of 
     technology changes on the cotton selling side as farmers have 
     seen in the field. As field hands used to pick cotton by 
     hand, all of the bookkeeping and cotton samples were all done 
     by hand with what now would seem to be primitive tools.
       ``The buyers would actually come by, look at the cotton and 
     grade it themselves and pull the staple on it and give you a 
     bid on it,'' Emmett said. ``Now, I don't ever see a farmer 
     come by the office. It's all done electronically. We get our 
     data electronically and we get our warehouse receipts 
     electronically. I've done business with a guy down in 
     Louisiana for 30 years and we've only seen each other 
     twice.''
       McSpadden's early days involved two daily trips to the bank 
     with cotton receipts.
       ``I invoiced every bale of cotton. In a year's time, we're 
     talking thousands of bales of cotton. In the beginning the 
     receipts were kept at the bank (in the main safe) and every 
     morning we would have to go to the bank and pick up all the 
     cotton receipts and bring them back to the office and I would 
     invoice them out. The ones I didn't finish with, I had to 
     take back to the bank before they closed at 2:00 p.m.,'' she 
     said.
       But then Pershing got his own safe so his daughter could 
     work a few more hours each day.
       ``That way we couldn't stop and talk to people on the way 
     to the bank every day,'' she said.
       For Emmett Jr., the introduction of technology made selling 
     cotton a 24/7/365 business pretty much.
       ``When I first started, the cotton market would open up at 
     9:30 a.m. and close at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m. Now it opens at 8:00 
     p.m. at night and closes at 1:15 the next day. While I'm 
     sleeping, the foreign markets are trading cotton. Sometimes 
     when I wake up at night and punch my phone to see what the 
     markets doing. It's really changed,'' he said. ``In 2008, 
     they went to electronic trading and its changed the cotton 
     business for ever and ever. They used to trade it manually in 
     the pits in New York but now it's just punching a button.''
       Chassaniol is gearing up for a busier year this year as 
     more farmers are adding acreage.
       ``One thing in the cotton business is that no two years are 
     alike weather-wise or marketwise,'' he said. ``In 1963 and 
     '73 we had good falls and big crops. In '73, we had the flood 
     and two million acres of the Mississippi Delta under water. 
     The price of cotton was around 28 cents and with the flood it 
     shot up to around 90 cents. But in February of '74 it fell 
     pretty good. When the water fell, people started planting 
     cotton and beans. We also had a lot of crawfish that year.''
       Chassaniol's reach extends beyond the Cotton Capital as 
     he's sold cotton out of Louisiana and Arkansas and in the 
     hills of Mississippi beyond the Delta.
       ``My favorite part of the business is in the fall when 
     we're busy but with the markets it's a year-round business 
     and you have to watch it every day. When my father and 
     grandfather did it, it was three months--October to 
     December,'' he said. ``It's been a challenge as I've seen my 
     acres decrease over the years but I've got some people coming 
     back who haven't planted cotton in five

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     years. You're going to lose some customers and you're going 
     to pick some up.''
       As the Chassaniol women married, many of those joined the 
     cotton business including the McCurdy part of the family. 
     McSpadden knows that the kingly crop brought and kept her 
     Chassaniol family close together.
       ``I am extremely proud of my entire Chassaniol family. They 
     are wonderful people and we've stayed close over the years. 
     Daddy had six brothers and sisters. We have all stayed close. 
     There were 22 grandchildren. Even though we are scattered 
     around we always know what's going on and we keep in touch.''
       With the parents working long hours in the business, they 
     made sure the kids made it to their extracurricular events 
     over the years as well.
       ``They had this older man, Sidney Matlock (a porter who 
     worked in the sample room) started with momma and daddy. He 
     was somebody that was big in our lives. Momma couldn't get 
     away to take us to Girl Scouts, well they'd send Sidney to 
     take us,'' she said.
       ``I worked with Sidney for a number of years and he was 
     there until his health failed and he retired. We probably 
     opened 100s of thousands of samples of cotton,'' Emmett Jr. 
     said. ``That's how you sold cotton back then. He was a pretty 
     good judge of cotton himself.''
       Chassaniol has relied on his secretary, Penny Kesterson for 
     the past 16 years to keep his office a success and running 
     smoothly.
       ``She is invaluable in the office she pulls in our 
     electronic data warehouse receipts and classing info. She 
     does the recaps invoicing and sees to wire transfers, plus 
     other clerical duties,'' he said. ``I could not do without 
     her.''
       100 years of working in the cotton business with plenty 
     more to come--the Chassaniol family of Greenwood.

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