The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-23
Imnortsnce of Cotton,

Charlotte, N. C., Sept. 22--(special.) The next issue of The American Cot | ton Manufacturer will say:
 Next to an adequate supply of food stuffs, there Is no single crop that holds a position of such importance in | international economy as does cotton :. We have the leading position as grow CTS of the staple, dominating in fact the markets of the world. In a more or less lazy fashion our cotton manufacturers and the distrib- uters of their goods have for years talked and twaddled about export ex- pansion, but from all this confabula- ton little real advance has been made.
 A Aux of prating without real work to | back it up will not accomplish results. and the lack of organized effort Is one
 important cause for American exports | of cotton manufacturers being nothing | much more than a molecular propor- | ton of the output of the mills. Consider England. exporting in one
 month nearly double the amount of our foreign sales for a year and then
 search for other reasons for our pal try volume of exterior trade in cotton
 fabrics. American ministers, consuls
 and commercial agents abroad have
 hammered for long years at the i'm
 portanoe of our products being made tO COHIoTHi Wltn tH0 EGQulTem0nIS or foreign users. This they point out
 with vigor and insistence, is the sine
 qua non of success. Tn the face of this avalanche of admonition comes a plaint from certain exporters in New York that our trade with Cuba Is han dicapped because some sorts of Amer ican standard goods cannot compete in that market because they are made In
 such fashion that they don't fall
 within the same tarif schedule as the
 products of their foreign competitors.
 There is no hint given that their mills
 are unable to make these cloths so that
 they will class with those of European
 make, only a rather puerile lament
 that the Cuban tarifr was not made to
 conform exactly with our own domes-
 tic tastes and needs.
 No expression of willingness to meet
 the views of their customers Is heard,
 Read a part of the tale of woe:
 Handlers of bleached cottons, espe-
 cially in narrow widths and low
 counts, have experienced a steady ad-
 vance in demand from this market, but
 of late the majority have declared the
 future expansion of trade depends
 largely upon an arrangement of duties
 which will be materially different from
 that which now exists. There are
 those who go as far AS to say that
 under the present tariff duties the fa-
 brics which are made from print cloth
 yarn, manufactured for the most part
 in Fall River. will be practically ex- cluded from Cuba. The entrance of these goods and the duties exacted thereon are dependent entirely upon the weight question. In a good many instances sellers have discovered to their sorrow and pecuniary loss that goods which they expected would en- ter Cuba without difficulty have failed to meet the requirements of the law and have as a consequence been raised to another class which makes the duty so onerous that 1t forbids the market ing of these products by the native merchants. It is claimed these mar row goods cannot be weighed sufi- ciently to enter under the low rate. made as they are under a certain con struction which does not admit of fll- | ing sufficient to bring the weight up | to the required standard and at the | same time produce a finish which would | be satisfactory to the buyer"
 very small dose of our vaunted American adaptability administered to the mill managers would quickly rem edy the situation. But no, accordtn1 to these men our primordiaI methods must be maintained, rather than dis turb these. the legislative bodies of a foreign land must set in motion their ponderous machinery for our benefi, and a readjustment of the tarin ia mt out as the only alleviation, when as a matter of fact the matter rests win the maker and finisher. not only fo capture a goodly portion of Cuhan trade. but to become leaders in exnorts of cotton goods as we now are of ina raw material Then when the matter is tackled in the right way will prosper ity be enslaved by our cotton mannF,a turerS.
 There died recently Fra or.anI..