The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1895-04-06

The principal market Tor american COT
ton is England. In 1894 we exported i,4S5.-
4si.i as pounds OF that product to the United
Kingdom. while we consumed only l,"s5.-
oo9. I5s pounds at home. We exported alto
gether I'm 1884 2, sss ~ 325 pounds. Thus IL
will be seen that England buys more OF
our cotton than we use at home. and buys
more than half the quantity that We ex-
port The United States grows most of tho
cotton of the world. AT one time We fur
nished practically all of II. and cotton was
the principal source of wealth OF this
country. Cotton was king for a good
many years. Now Russia. Egypt, India
and Peru are competitors. They do not
yet compete with Southern planters so
vigorously as Argentine does with the
Washington wheat grower. but they have
brought the price of cotton down to a
little more than FIVE cents a pound at
New Orleans.
What would happen IL Great Britain
should stop buying cotton from the United
States altogether? II would mean ruin 70
the South. some may say. Yet that very
thing may come TO pass. The English
cotton manufacturers are no longer able
TO compete with the mills OF Russia. In
dia. China, Japan and the United States,
and are considering the ACCESSIBILITY of
moving their factories 10 China and india,
Just as the manufacturers of New Eng
land are moving 20 the Southern states.
Russia is the competitor England fears
most IN the cotton business She not only
grows her own cotton. around Tihis and
I'm Turkestan, but her oil wells give cheap
fuel and the labor is cheaper than I'm
4 England. Much land In Siberia is suitable
for cotton growing, ii Is thought. Eng.
land used 10 weave cotton for all the
world: now she sees her market growing
narrower every year. until American cot
ton goods are actually exported 10 Eng
land. The mills of the Southern states
have the newest machinery. cheap fuel.
cheap labor. the raw material close at
hand: why should they not undersell Eng
land, which is compelled TO import the raw
material? While England cannot compete
with Russia and Japan. the Southern
states are better able TO do so. II we lose
our market In Europe for raw cotton. We
shall at the same time increase our sales
TO Japan. and use more cotton in Ameri-
can mills. Each year will see less cotton
grown in the United States; never again
viii there b. such big yield as in the
record breaking year fs92 There ought 10
be more steamers plying between Puget
sound and Japan. to carry our cotton and
-four.
We I've In n revolutionary time. Within
the past five years We have seen Argen-
tine and Russia drive the American wheat
grower out Of important European mar
kets and threaten 70 take others away
from him. have seen Germany become a
great iron making nation. with the GER
! tatnty 81 surprising England; have seen
+ Russia and Japan become manufacturing
nations. taking away the profits OF the
( English cctton weavers. Thirty years ago
( the man who prophesied that the time
/ would come when Europe would no longer
/ dcpend on the United States for wheat
( and cotton would have been looked upon
as dcmeutcd
No other country can make cotton fab
/ rics or iron more eheanly than the United
+ States. no other except Canada has such
/ vast timber resources. II We cannot SCH
+ raw material or manufactured goods in
! Europe We can certainly compete With
( Europe FOR ASia's trade. beside holding
4 the home market.