The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-10-14

Messrs. Latham, Alexander a Co.'s
"COtton MOvemeDtand natl
The South Consumes Moro Than
One Third of the Cotton Manufac-
tured in the United States
The Messenger has received a
copy of the 1898 edition Of Messrs.
Latham, Alexander & Co, Cotton
Movement and Fluctuations. BE-
sides it's being q very handsome
book and a gem of artistic typho-
graphy, it's contents, embracing sta
tistics about cotton and the cotton
trade. are very complete and nvai-
liable to all business men. The sta
tictics embrace the cotton movement
from 1893 to 1898, with tables of re-
ceipts, consumption, stocks, exports
and fluctuations in concise form. The
hook is also handsomely illustrated,
and in addition to the contents men
toned it also contains a special article
on the Cotton Industry Of Japan
written by Thomas Ellison, Esq, OF
Liverpool. Mr.. Ellison is a writer OF
very marked ability, and his article IN
dicates t~horoughness of research and
stamps him as a statistical and eco
nomic expert. His observations ABOUT
Japan and it's wonderful strides IN ma
tional development and manufacturing
are replete with information and ex-
ceedingly instructive. The reader is
left in establishment at he achieve
ments of the Land of the Rising Sun.
II would lake columns to give an
idea of the value of Messrs. Latham,
Alexander & Co.'S, book, but we Will
be content for the present to copy the
following concerning the overproduc-
ton of cotton:
We have repeatedly written on the
subject Of overprOduction OF cotton,
but the planters OF the South 40 not
seem to have been impressed by the
truth or force of u arguments.
To emphasize this idea it is only
necessary to compare the ma'Aet value
of last years crop with that of the
wear before. The crop of 1867 was
S757964 bales. The average export
price Oh J1dI ClOp "oo ''IcS,
1927. 547,S 54; while the crop of 1S91-9o
was 11.199, 994 bales, which was mar
keted on an average export basis OF
5.96c, which equals $685. 32 ,4oS.
In other words, the cotton planters
of the south raised last year 2,442,O3 3
bales more than they did the year be-
fore, and yet, by reason of this over
production. that crop realized only
1854, 6O4 more than the crop of the
previous year.
Or, to put his u~nfavorable result in
another shape, we might say that the
planters of the south last year sold to
the trade of the world 2,442, O3O bales
of cotton at $500 cent per pound, or
81 45-10O per bale of 507 pounds.
Are the planters of the south bet
ter COMPENSATED simply by the con-
seriousness of making an abnormally
big crop, regardless of what the world
wants. and what they get for it, than
they would be by making a reasonable
large crop, fairly prOportiOnate with
the demands of the world, which would
always command ~remunerative prices?
The following table sets forth the
range of prices during the past year,
and likewise gives other statistical in
formation of interest:
Total crop of the United
states bales 11,199, 1894
Value of crop -. .......... 1898, 432, 45S
Cotton exported .....bales 1874, O65
Value of exports. 80. . $232,3l6,32
Average price middling
uplands in New York SIZE
Average price middling in
liverpool. ........... $3.50
The total United States consumption
was 3,443,5S1, against 2,S47,351 bales
last year.
The total southern consumption was
1921, S41, against 1,O42,671 bales last
year.