Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1905-02-03
SOUTHERN COTTON
Principal Source Of Americas
Wealth.
THERE Is NO SUBSTITUTE.

Money Sharks of Great Britain and
New England Have Fattensd on the
Industry of Southern Growers-When
Our Own Statesmen Begin to Devote
Their Talents and Abilities to This
Great Commercial Lever, They Will
Lay Perpetual Tribute on the Entire
World.
Richard H. Edmonds, of the Manufac-
turers Record In the Youths Com
panion.
We are accustomed to count the iron
and steel interests as the greatest Of
all industries but cotton-King Cotton
1t may justly be called-has a right to
dispute their claim to supremacy. Few
have ever quite understood or appre-
ciated what 1t means for our southern
states to hold a practical monopoly Of
the worlds cotton production. Destroy
corn, and you could find substitute.
Destroy wheat. and other grains would
furnish bread for mankind. But cut
short the south's cotton crop by one
half. and the financial and commercial
world would stagger.
Cotton, the South's crown Of glory,
Is the one staple which enters into
every civilized life; It is needed in the
palace Of the king as we'll as in the
humblest hut Of the peasant; 1t is the
siistening sail alike OF the royal pleas
ure yacht and the ship of commerce.;
1t is the basis Of the greatest manufac-
ing more than two billion dollars of
capital. and annually producing an
equal amount Of manufactured goods,
or three hundred million dollars more
than the value Of the primary forms
Of manufactured iron and steel; 1t is
The dominant power in commerce; 1t
brings to us from Europe an average
Of million dollars every day In the
year. And yet how little do we show
our appreciation Of 1t.
We gin 1t with the gin made by
Whitney more than q hundred years
ago; we compass 1t with machinery
a century old; we waste It's substance
md destroy its vitality; we even sell
Its best seed to the oil mills and plant
he inferior. Then we wonder why its
virility has been weakened and Its pro-
duce lessened.
But better day is dawning. The
ablest scientists are seeking to im-
prove the quality Of the seed and the
method Of cultivation; experts are
and clean and compress cotton; the
world Is anxious to fill the south's fields
with labor that its production may be
increased, to keep pace with the
worlds constantly growing demands.
Ever since cotton became the greatest
power in commerce, European coun-
tries have striven to find a source of
supply sufficient to make them inde-
pendent Of our southern states. For
three quarters of a century this agita-
tion has been carried on, and as far
back as 1S40 a large number Of expert
southern cotton growers were employ
ed by English companies organized
for the purpose Of developing cotton
interests In India and other British
possessions. In that year eight men
were engaged in Natchez alone for this
purpose.
Cotton and the Civil War.
Later on, when the civil war cut
short the cotton supply. bringing about
great disaster alike to the spinners
md operatives Of Lancashire-cotton
being so scarce that II sold at one time
FOR one dollar and ninety cents a pound
N New York-the most vigorous ef-
forts were made by English people. as
veil as by the government itself, to
levelop cotton cultivation in Egypt,
india and elsewhere. But the south
till maintains a practical monopoly
# the worlds cotton production. Clim-
ltic conditions. soil, labor and other
advantages combine to insure the per-
nanency of it's control of this indus
'ry.
The buyer is always bear" ard
-eeks to depress the price Of what he
Is compelled to purchase. Foreign
epinners and to a considerable extent
he spinners of New England, have had
no interest In the south other than to
get their cotton at the lowest possible
cost. Naturally, they have been even
more pronounced in their bear tenden-
cies than buyers in general, where
there Is more reciprocity Of interest.
Hence for some years the combined
influence and wealth Of the cotton
manufacturers of the world have been
used to beat down the price Of cotton.
The propaganda looking to the grow
ing Of cotton in other countries Is pro-
hably more largely bear movement to
depress prices than a serious attempt
to make a commercial success Of cot
ton growing elsewhere.
The encouragement and desponden-
cy which existed among southern cot
ton growers from 1891 until about
three years ago was great barrier
to immigration to the south, either OF
western farmers or Of foreigners, since
immigration seeks the home Of pros
perity and not Of poverty. With an In
creasing demand for laborers in indus
trial enterprises and railroad work, the
supply on farms has steadily grown
smaller. and the former poverty Of the
growers, largely produced by the cot
ton mills of the world themselves, was
responsible for preventing an influx of
other laborers.
The financial editor Of the New York
Sun recently, in discussing the infiu-
ence OF the mills upon prices. said:
For wears spinners or their agents