The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-09-27
NOT SATISFACTORY
EUROPEAN COTTON SPINNERS
 HAVE COMPLAINT.
Year Ended August 31 Not Up to the Average in Prosperity.
 Col. Alfred Shepperson
 Writes of the Situation.

. Europe from which he has recently re- turned. Colonel Alfred B. Shepperson, the wel-known cotton statistical expert of New York is convinced that the year ended August 31. was as a general rule. far from satisfactory to European cotton spinners. Discussing the situation Colo
 nel Shepperson writes in this weeks is-
 sue of The Manufacturers Record as fol-
 lows
 The Continental spinners have had
 dull season. chiefly from over-production
 in previous years. The condition is worse
 in Germany and Russia than elsewhere
 owing to the depression in general busi-
 ness, as we'll as in cotton manufactur-
 ing. In Great Britain there has been
 somewhat more activity but the profits
 of spinners have been very narrow at
 best, while some mills have been work
 ing al loss for several months, it being
 impossible for them to convert cotton
 into yarns and sell the manufactured
 product without an actual loss of fourth
 of penny per pound. These unprofita-
 ble mills have kept at work, hoping for
 an improvement in the condition of af-
 IdlIS, IL DelnP considered DetIer 10 WOfk
 for some time at a loss than to stop work
 jug and thus suffer from the loss of the
 established trade for their product and
 the inconvenience resulting from a disor-
 ganization of their force of operatives.
 With the final conclusion of peace in
 South Africa and the rather better con-
 dition of general business in Germany,
 with the gradual restoration of order in China. there is the prospect of a larger and more satisfactory business for Euro pean spinners during the new cotton sea son which commenced on September 1st. The improvement, however. would proba-
 ply be checked should much higher prices rule for cotton than at present. as 1t
 would be difficult to obtain a correspond
 ing advance in the price of yarns and
 goods, owing to the full stocks and poor
 demand.
 "I was in Liverpool when the figures
 of the commercial crop of the season end ing August 31st, were published by the
 New York Cotton Exchange, making the crop 10 76S. .0O0 bales. I was also in the same great market when the estimate of the Department of Agriculture of the condition on August 26th. of the growing
 cotton-mis- called it's September report
 of condition-was made public. Never
 have I seen a greater contrast than the
 
 to these two reports. There was no
 unkind criticism of the New York Ex-
 changes report of the out-turn of the
 crop. It was acquiesced in alike by those
 who had anticipated a larger or a small
 CT result. For the estimate of the crop condition by the Department of Agricul- ture there was literally none so poor as to do 1t reverence It is stating 1t very mildly to say that very few in cot
 ton circles in Liverpool gave the slight est credence to the Departments report 1 The temporary advance in the market | was entirely due to the higher prices | In America. The sales of spot cotton in | Liverpool on the day the Departments report was made public were only 6,00t | bales."
 | After referring to the Department g | estimate of December Srd. last and to | criticisms of it. Colonel Shepperson con- | cludes as follows:
 | Tt seems evident. after taking into | consideration the difference in the quanti- | ty of cotton in the interior of the South l ern States at the beginning of the season l and at it's close, that the growth during | last season was fully equal to 10,6OO,OO | bales, being 1,317,000 bales more than the estimate of the Department of Agricul- ture.
 "The consumption of American cotton
 by the world last season was about 10,- 100000 bales, the quantity being the same as my estimate in an article published in December last.
 "On August 31, the European mills held about 10000 bales of cotton of all kinds
 more than at corresponding time of the previous year, while the stocks at the the American mills were about the same
 as at the close of the previous season.
 -ta in
 very moderate. It is exceedinkly gratify-
 ing that the increase in cotton consump-
 tion last season was far greater in the
 Southern States than anywhere else It
 was about 350,000 bales and this great in-
 crease was the especially noteworthy fea-
 ture of the statistics of the season.
 Tt is too soon to make an intelligent
 estimate of the growing cotton crop. as
 so much depends upon the date of kill
 ing frost and the weather conditions to
 that time. Many favorable reports of the
 crop are being received but it should be remembered that the promise early in the season was most brilliant and the deterioration had been from an exceed ingly high prospect. A farmers crop
 might easily fall far below his early ex- pectations and yet he fairly good yield. The Manufacturers Record published | this week an interview of it's special cor respondent in New York with MT. George J. Gould in which the latter expressed an expectation of very great development | in the Southwest for some years. and | discussed the extension of his road be- | tween Memphis and Kansas City through | the wonderfully rich mineral lands of l Northern Arkansas. Mir. Gould said that | the work of construction would he car | red on from both ends and would be | pushed to completion without unavoid- | able delay. The correspondent says: Tt is very evident that this new line | of his must be regarded much more se- | riously than as a local developer, im- | portant as it will he as such. and that instead of a connecting link between two stations of lesser magnitude. it is. IS a new Kansas City Memphis through line to become a factor in the railroad situa- tion in the Southwest MT. Gould has much faith in the future of Arkansas, with it's wealth of timber and mineral resources and it's fertile soil. and he ex- poets to see a steady development of that section-looks for the swamp lands to be drained, the country to he more fully | occupied by incoming settlers, the great natural resources of the State to he de yeloped. and the whole country to be built up and it's prosperity greatly in