The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-11-01
THE soUrHs COTTON INDUSTRY.

" ii
The Manufacturers Record is not
one of those papers which believes in
the south acting upon the assumption
hat Africa cannot grow cotton. 1t re-
fers to the attempt OF h British Cot
ton Growers Association, backed by
government, to produce cotton in
Africa on such a scale as to take from
the south her supremacy IN this indus
try. 1t rightly says the south should
not permit its domination of the worlds
cotton trade endangered.
There is no doubt that we lave the
possibilities here at the south to enable
US to .maintin our present position.
make those possibilities realities and to
prevent the establishment Of success
full rivalry in the fields of Africa. To
do this We must convince the British
spinners that we will be able to sup
ply the worlds demand, no matter how
greatly that demand may be increased.
II we do not bestir ourselves, but let
the British continue their experiments
on the gigantic scale contemplated by
the British Cotton Growers Association
We may at some day in the no distint
future find that Africa can grow cot
ton and find it SO to our sorrow, too.
The Manufacturers Record says on
this subject:
Many of the leading southern papers
on Sunday las published a syndicate
letter of several columns, written from
London, dealing with the effort of the
British Cotton Growers Association to
develop cotton growing in Africa. This
letter, written in a vein of enthusiast
tic commentator of the work which
is being dom by England cotton manu-
facturers to free themselves from de-
pendence upon the south for cotton,
claims that the British Cotton Growers
Association has secured co. 600, 900 acres
of land in Africa, and hat the work
Of development for cotton growing will
be pushed with great vigor. It is a
rather interesting fact that while many
southern papers published this letter
d d plcCS VI IcWS, lOI0 u llcIIl, So
far as we have yet seen, pointed to the
fact that, backed as this movement is
by the power of the British govern
ment, it may in time be successful in
Iessening the South's supremacy upon
the worlds cotton trade unless we pre-
pare to meet the issue. The boast of
h south for 100 years, that it domi-
mated the cotton producing interests of
the world is now met by an effort
greater than any that has been put
forth in times past to destroy our SUI
premacy, and though many high eX-
pertS have claimed that the south will
forever dominate the cotton trade, it
is not wise to ignore the possibility of
competition. Tt was in the light of
these facts that The Manufacturers
Record suggested that the cotton spn-
ners of Europe be invited to come south
and study the cotton growing capabili-
ties of this section in order that their
interest in the development of cotton
growing in the south might be enlisted,
rather than see them concentrate their
efforts upon the development of cot
ton growing in Africa and elsewhere.
Why should the south permit it's domi-
i21l1o41 VI 4aC NOt1N ~ SOSSOAA NAN0N " ~
endangered, when by a united effort Of
the railroads and the people of the
south the attention of the world could
be concentrated upon the possibilities
of turning immigration southwark and
thus furnishing a labor supply sufl-
cient to increase u cotton crop as rap.
idly as the worlds requirements may
demand, and the worlds consumption
of cotton goods will increase far more
rapidly in the future than in the past.
Bearing on this point we publish the
invitation of the New Orleans cotton
exchange, as voiced in a letter to the
Progressive Union of that city, invlt-
ing the cotton manufacturers of the
world to visit New Orleans, n in line
with invitations from other points in
the south.