The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1898-10-26
their State from the enemy. South
Carolina hopes earnestly that they may.
-Coiumbia State.
TIE PRICE OF COTTON.
The Production Quadrupled Since 1872
and Price Falls in Proportion.

USuIeS SoupIIeu " tle lIcdSuIS UuIcd
of statistics:
The phenomenally low price of cot
ton recently reported, said to be lowest
point reached for many years, lends
special interest to series of tables
just compiled by the treasury of stats
tics, showing the remarkable increase
in cotton production and coincidental
fall in prices. These tables show that
the United States, the chief cotton
producer Of the world, has Quadrupled
her cotton production since 1872. and
that the prise Of cotton in the same
period has fallen to about oue-fourth
that which prevailed in that year.
In 1872 the cotton crop of the Uni
ted States is shown to have been
1884, 0S4.949 pounds, with an average
price Of -. l9 cents per pound; in 1898
the crop is reported at 1861 81, 051
pounds, with an. average price of 6.23
cents per pound. Thus the production
Of 1898 is more than four times the
amount of 1872, and the average price
little over one-;;ourth Of that year.
When it is considered that the other
portions of the world that grow cotton
have not al reduced their production,
meantime it is apparent that the in
creased cotton supply Of the world in
the quarter Of century under consid-
Grafton, has been very great and far IN
advance of the Increase Of population
or consuming power. twenty-five years
ago the United States produced 20 per
cent. of the cotton of the world: today
she produces S. per cent Of the worlds
cotton.
This increase in the percentage has
been. not because Of reduction Of the
world, but simply on sccouut of the
increase in our own. The cotton sup
ply of the other cotton producing sec
tions of the world in lSI2-73 was L.,
66l 900 bales. and in 1898, 1860
600 bales. The average cotton prcduc-
tion of other countries from 1872 to
1878 was 1,6le, 600 bales per annum,
showing that there has also been a
slight growth ii cotton production IN
other parts of the world, while our own
production has been increasing enor-
mously.
Not only has the price of cotton fall
en- about the same rate that the pro-
duction has increased, but there has
also eeen corresponding fall in the
plice of clothes manufactured from
cotton. The reports of the bureau Of
the statistics show that cotton print
ing cloths were quoted at !.SS cents
per yard in 1872, while reports just
published show an average rate Of III
cents per yard in the cotton year 1898
for the same grade of cloths, the fall in
the price of the manufactured article
thus having, in this case at least, near
ly or quite kept pace with the fall in
the price of raw cotton, and the in
crease in production of that article.
The New York Financial News has
the following explanation Of the barriers
to the export trade in cotton, which
prevent increased consumption Of our
cotton in foreign countries: The bureau
Of statistics Of the treasury department
has been at work compiling table Of
cotton statistics in order to find not the
real but plausible reason for the de-
cline in price in the past quarter cen
tury.
The figures show that in 1872 the
United States produced ], ,3S4, ,0S4, 494
pounds, with an average price of %. 19
cents pound, and in 1898 crop of
1861 ,372, 05l pounds with an average
! price of 6.23 cents pound. That pro-
ducsion had increased more then a four
fold, and prices were little more than
fourth those Of twnty-ive years ago.
That in 1872 we produced 20 per cent.
Of the worlds crop and S. per cent. in
1898. The main point sought to be
made is that the worlds increased pro-
duetion, the increase coming in great
part from the United States, has outrun
| the worlds consumptiye demand out OF
all proportion and that the fall in prices
is logically and wholly due to the legiti-
mate operation of the law of supply and
demand.
AS to our own consumption and that
of Europe, it would be governed Who'll
ly by two things, increased population
and the relative prosperity in the re-
gions named. There has been no new
fiber or textile produced to interfere
with the ordinary demand for cotton and
no change in its relative demand for
clothing and other uses.
But in the meantime great part
of the world in Asia, containing more
population than all Europe and the
United States combined which, twenty
FIVE year ago was practically walled off
from the worlds trade, has been opened
and as matter of fact, China, Japan
and Southern Asia east Of India, and
India itself, are countries where cotton
will make clothing not only for inner
butfor outer wear Why has not the
opening Of that country to the world S
commerce brought about natural de-
mand? For the simple reason that that
country works and earns, as of old,
on silver basis. 1t must pay either
for raw or for manufactured cotton on
a gold basis, and its possible purchas-
ing and import power is cut in half in
fact. In balving the purchasing power
Of the dollar in China and in all silver
using countries, we have cut down their
importing power and raised Il barrier
OF our own creation against our export
to them as efficient as the old barrier
that these countries had abolished.
The Hip Pocket.
During the course Of a trial at Wood