The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-01-29

Tn an address before the Cotton Growers Convention in New Orleans, La, on Jan. 25, on Cotton and War" Captain Richmond Pearson Hobson spoke in part as follows;
 Nr. Chairman and Members of the
 Conventions:
 Permit me to express my full ap- Precia tion of the compliment and hon. or paid me by the invitation to at- tend and address this great conven- tion.
 l trust that the deliberations of so many earnest men gathered from so many sections may result in measures ganiZation that will have a -reach- ing influence in relieving the present depression ana ip promoting the fu- ture welfare of our Southern people.
 The price of cotton. like other prices. Is settled by the relation of supply and demand. In face of the sudden de- pression, due to the increased volume of supply, Is the large crop. we are liable to overlook and underestimate the importance of the factors influ- encing the demand. Sojourning about the world has convinced me that the factors of demand are more pliable and more accessible than those of sup ply. In truth single factor reducing demand, the war in, the Orient, is re- sponstble for depression amounting to from ! to cents a pound, while the
 
 scarcely more than cents a pound.
 Furthermore, the question of adJust- ing the supply for the next year can not be intelligentiy settled until after investigation of the probable demand. Question of Demand.
 Therefore, l beg to invite your att tention for few minutes to the ques- | tion of demand, and especially to the factor of war, since we are now in the presence of a war in the Orient which is tending to become general war. The old sources of demand, Europe and America. have gone on slowly in crea2ing with the increase of popu- lation, and the rise of the standard of comfort. Though a check was sus- | tained by the outbreak of the Boer War. which saw falling off of over one million bales in the consumption of the united commodities. This slow increase in demand has been more than balanced by the steady increase in supply, coming, chiefly from the larger acreage and larger increase of commercial fertilizers in the South. Consequently, for several decades the price of cotton has had a steady trend | downward. It was only when new de- mands come from new markets that the price started upward. Tn echief of the new markets are those of the Orient. Japan has made great strides in the | cotton mill industry until at the out | break of the present war, she was | consuming over $50,000,000 worth of cotton annually. .'-
 But more important even than Japan has been the new market of China which, when the present war came, | amounted to more than $90,000.000 an- nually, chiefly coarse cotton goods, of which a large part has been furnished by Southern mills.
 consume more cotton than Is produced by Alabama and Mississippi combined. It Is not surprising, therefore, that in | spite of the steadily increasing pro- thA veto hau Sfa T-io oaVa The rise has been especially marked since the Boxer disturbances that were followed by a new impulsion in the | opening up of China.
 Infancy of Eastern Market. As great as this new market has become. 1t Is only in its infancy. If | China were opened up, free to the commerce of all nations. its four hun. dred and thirty millions of industrial people would rise from 5-cent wage | basis to a 20-cent, 30-cent or even | 40 or 50-cent basis, and the average man instead of having his present outfit of about a half suit of cotton clothes, would have four or five whole suits. which are pulled on in multiple numbers, according to the, coldness of the day. This would so increase the worlds demand for cotton that even with a 20,000. .000-bale crop, the price could hardly be kept down to 20 cents
 The picture here disclosed is not l worked under my inspection for months reconstructing gunboats at Hong Kong. The above estimates of 1 their industrial capacity are conserva- tive. Knowing both peoples. l do not hesitate to say that their industrial capacity of a CEinaman Is far greater than that of a Japanese, while there are over ten times as many Chinese as Japanese. Moreover, the facilities for communication are advancing, the eyes of the world have been thrown upon China, and the point of the wedge has been entered. A few decades can see marvellous growth in this young giant of a market. I estimate that before l this century is half turned, China
 properly opened up. will add more than l $5, 900, ,000.0 .000 annually to the worlds | commerce, and one of the chief staples l of this commerce will be cotton, first the goods then the raw materials, ere ating a consumption as great as that 1 of all Europe combined.
 But this greatest of all coming