Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1899-11-29

growers got 1910 cents d pound.
Of the condition of the market dur
ing and Immediately after the war, it
is hardly worth while to speak at
length. The high prices then, of
course, were caused by the extraordi-
nary disproporlion of supply and de-
mand. There had been a famine of
cotton goods for four years, and it is
easy TO see why the crop of 1866,
amounting to 2,259, ,316 bales, brought
1920 q pound, especially when the
American mills took of this small crop
666, 100 bales. From that year on
ward statistics show steady increase,
not only Of the takings of American
mills, but also of foreign mills !; and at
the same time steady decrease in the
price that has been paid to producers
of the raw material until the crop of
1898 80, aggregating over 100000
bales, brought to the producers only
cents Il pound.
The decline in price has been &C.
counted for in various ways too numer.
Gus to even mention but according to
the story told by the statistics-the
increase in spindles ut home keeping
pace with and rapidly gaining on those
abroad, the aggregate increase at home
and abroad keeping steadily up with
the cotton production of the world,
and the price of raw material tending
gradually downward there is but one
reasonable conclusion, to wit: While
cotton manufacture has kept pace with
cotton production, cotton consumption
has not kept pace with cotton manu-
facture. The decline in price has, since
the recovery of the cotton famine re-
ferred to, been due principally to
the forcing of new goods on market
already supplied, and the only means
of inducing reaction; is by an expan-
sion of the market.
When Stanley went into the heart
of Africa, some 20 years ago, in search
of Livingstone, he reported having
come across numerous tribes OF saw
ages, the members of which were as
naked as when they came into the
world. We are told that when Gener-
al Kitchener met the Khalifa at the
battle of Omdurman, year ago, the
Khalifa's soldiers were clothed in long
cotton robes. 1t is easy to imagine
many of these soldiers as having be.
longed to the tribes that Stanley found
naked, and it is quite certain the en-
terprising merchants who sold the
cloth for those robes, to just that ex-
tent expanded the market for cotton,
and to that extent kept up the price
that was paid to the producer. And
here is a valuable pointer. AS civili-
zation progresses among savage tribes,
the natives are made to wear clothes.
Maybe it is hard to make people do
things they don't want to do but where
people demand the right to 60 naked,
most civilized people will draw the
line. One of the first things the
Americans did in Porto Rico was to
make the native children put on
clothes. The same reform is in progress
in Cuba. In the Philippines, naked
ness is more common than in either
Cuba or Porto Rico, and nakedness
will be made unlawful there, as Cap
tain Leary has made it in Guam. All
of this creates demand for cotton,
aud wherever the Americans 60 in any
tropical country, they will help to in-
crease the demand for southern cotton.
Numerous remedies for the increase
of the price of cotton have been sug-
gested. Some have been practical aud
some have been impractical. Ihe
most practical one-reduction OF the
crop in proportion to the present de-
mand-has failed because of the dill
Guilty of putting it into execution al
though this year, nature, with her un-
favorable season, has partially proved
| it's efficacy. There is one more reme-
DIV that is deserving Of trial-the
perfectly natural remedy. The sup
ply being greater than the demand,
then if the supply cannot be reduced,
increase the demand. The govern
ment is now engaged in enterprises
which mean the opening OF new mar
kets and the further development of
OlU ones. AS lOuS % 'hS H'Aio Wv
able to proftably sell their products
as fast as they can turn them out, the
building of new mills will continue,
and the greater the number of busy
mills, the greater the demand for raw
cotton, and the greater the demand
for raw cotton, the greater the price to
the producer.
When we come to consider the vast
population of the world-the civilized
markets as yet untouched, and the
semi civilized markets only awaiting
the stimulating touch of intelligent
enterprise for their development-not-
wilhstandind the tremendous present
proportions of cotton production and
cotton manufacture, it is easy to i'm
agine that these industries are really
in their infancy. Further growth
and development now, however, seems
to be beyond the reach of individual
enterprise. The solution of the prob
lem requires what it is now receiving,
the best efforts of our most enterprislng
and progressive statesmen. w. D. G.
DISCRIMINATING are only
two types of feminine beauty that l