The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1899-12-06

paid to producers Of the raw material
until the crop Of 1898-99, aggregating
over II, 100000 bales, brought to the
producers only G cents pound.
The decline in price has been ac-
counted for in various ways too numcr-
Gus to even mention; but according to
the story told by the statistics-the
increase in spindles at 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 manufacture. The decline in
price has, since the recovery Of the
cotton famine referred to, been due
principally to the forcing Of new goods
on market already supplied, and the
only means of inducing reaction, is
by an expansion 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 Cen
eral Kitchener met the Khalifa at tie
battle Of Omdurman, year ago, the
Khalifa' 8 soldiers were clothed in long
cotton robes. It is easy to imagine
many of these soldiers as having be-
longed to the tribes that Stanley found
naked, and it is cutie 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 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 pro-
gress in Cuba. In the Philippines,
nakedness is more common than in
either Cuba or Porto Rico, and naked
ness will be made unlawful there, as
Captain Leary has made it in Guam.
All of this creates demand for cot
ton, and wherever the Americans go
in any tropical country, they will help
to increase the demand for Southern
cotton.
Numerous remedies for the increase
of the price Of cotton have been sug-
gested. Some have been practical and
some have been impractical. The
most practical one-reduction of the
crop in proportion to the present de-
mand-has failed because Of the diff
Guilty Of putting it into execution; al
though this year, nature, with her un-
favorable season, has partially proved
its efficacy. There is one more reme-
dy 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
kcts and the further development of
old ones. AS long as the mills are
able to pro6tably 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 devclopment-not-
withstanding 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 CT individual
enterprise. The solution of the prob
lem requires what it is now receiving,
the best efforts of our most enterpris-