Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1873-01-27
OUR COTTON TRADE.
It's Decline-HOW we may Regain our
Supremacy In the Markets.
The Rich Cotton Lands OF the Missis-
sippi-Need for Improved LeYees.

WASHINGTON, January 2l.-Mr. Al
! corn, in presenting his bill in the Sen
ate, to-day, to improve the levees of th,
Mississippi river, took occasion to makt
a very interesting speech on the danger
of loss by the United States OF its higf
position in the markets OF the world, ~
q producer of raw cotton. The bill pro
poses to make an appropriation of thir
! ty-siX million dollars, as estimated in
late report Of General Humphreys, to b,
necessary for constructing proper levee.
on the Mississippi. The consideration
set forth in the report is the reclamation
| of twenty million acres of waste land
embracing, as the report shows, one
million acres Of corn land of unsurpassed
| fertility, two million five hundred thou.
sand acres adapted to the growth ofsugar
! and seven million Of the best cotton
/ lands in the world. Mr.. Alcorn began
his speech by referringlto the determin-
alton evinced in the policy of Eng
| land for many years to crush our cotton
planting interests, Illustrating this fact
by quotations from speeches by men,
bers Of Parliament and Others made pre-
yious to 1867. the Senator said: "The
British government had expended in 81
lent preparation for this cotton war near
ly one million, dollars but the British is
not the only government that has tax
en- the field against us. France long
ago took part in the movement against
our position in the cotton market, and
Italy holds a high place in the ranks of
our opponents. The latter has opened
up her cotton lands by railroads, and in
vited home aud foreign capitalists to
cultivate il on liberal terms. Greece, No
rocco, Austria, Spain, Portugal and the
British Colonies are all cooperating
against us. According to the mark ct
list printed in Liverpool, we have lost
our footing in the sales of fine staples
TO the extent of thirty-three per cent.
since 1861, while we have never since
the war actually produced more than
sixty-eight per cent. as much Sea
Island cotton, of which we formerly had
a monopoly, as before, and the amount
last year was only thirty-siX per cent.
of what it was in 1889" The Senator
then read two carefully-prepared tables,
the first showing the number of bales
of cotton imported into the United
Kingdom from all countries in the
world during each year since 1860, and
the other the percentage of the whole
which each country furnished. Leaving
out the years Of the war, the percentage
furnished Great Britain by the
United States was as follows:
In 1850, 7605; 1866, 81; 1865, 35; 1865,
34.07; 1863, 30; 1870, 4S.l; 1871, 5O.7.
Mr.. AlcOrn then referred to the partial
rescue Of the cottOn-planting interest by
releasing it from the cotton tax, but
asserted that the industry had, in the
mean time, become so weakened that it
subsequently continued to retreat until
1870, when It itregained eighteen per cent.
of the fields. Passing to some of the
differences between the contests made
by American cotton early i'm the century
and that made now, the Senator said
that fifty years ago our supremacy in
cotton was won in a struggle with oppo-
nents who possessed the means Of re-
treating to industries enjoying the ad-
vantages of protection. Another differ
ence is found in the increased cost of
labor, which increases the cost of our
products. Again, English spinners
declare that since the war our
cotton has decreased in quality,
and we must struggle TO maintain
our position in the face of all these dis
circumstances. Mr.. Alcorn
gave some startling figures of the ex-
penditures from the East Indian Treas
ury for the purpose Of getting Indian
cotton to market An official report on
Indian railways, printed in 1870, sets the
cost of these works completed
aud in progress on the thirty-first of
March of that year at five hundred and
one millions of dollars; and this is in
addition TO millions more spent in inn
proving the navigation Of the Indian
rivers. The Senator showed that the
resources of this country for the produc
ton of cotton are almost inexhaustible,
II they are only developed; and money,
in his estimation, could not be better
expended than in retaining the rich
alluvial tracts of the Mississippi, and
thus placing the United States in the
proud position in regard TO this staple
which II occupied before the war.