The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-02-21

of production we raise these supplies at home and the effect of decreased con- sumption is speedily felt in the grain and stock belt.
 Last year the exports of cotton amounted to nearly $400, ,000, ,0O0 and when you remember we kept at home 1000, 900 bales valued at nearly $250,- 100000 to supply the mills of the South. you realize the enormous value of the cotton crop in settling the trade bal- ance of the world in favor of the United States.
 The convention adopted a resolu- tion appointing a committee to ask you as the President of the whole country and the friend of the people, to use the power of your great office to assist us in this undertaking. We were di- rected to C nfer with the leading ex- porters and among them I requested the cooperation of Mir. John Ford and Mir Silas W. Webb. President and Sec retary of the American Asiatic Associ- ation of New York. After full con- ference we have agreed and committed our requests to writing, which we will submit to your consideration.
 MT. McLaurln then submitted the ad- dress as follows:
 The Address.
 MT. PresIdent-We are here to ex- press regret that the recommendation in your last annual message for the ap- pointment of commission to study and report on the resources of the great Oriental markets as a field for American trade and enterprise has not received the attention which 1t deserved from Congress.
 We beg that the recommendation be renewed in a special message to Con- gross and we do so as the spokesmen of the Southern Interstate Cotton Con- gress held in New Orleans last month which unanimously adopted a resolution directing this committee to submit the question of how to enlarge the mar ket for our cotton products to your att tention.
 'The interest of no two classes are more closely allied, nor so mutually dependent as the cotton producers and cotton manufacturers One cannot long thrive at the expense of the other. There is some middle ground, where the entire cotton industry will find a stable basis and where labor with the manufacturer and producer will fin6 a just remuneration for its efforts.
 MT President. the full value of a raw material is only obtained. when manufactured nearest the point where that raw material Is produced.
 
 and clothing and material than we need for home consumption. and we must either curtail production or find out side markets for the surplus. The lat ter we believe can be done with profit and justice to all and with injury to none.
 We believe that the South is not af- hlcted with reproduction in the cotton industry, but that under proper methods of distribution there is a mar ket for all that we can produce.
 Exports to China
 'STake as an example China. which imported in 1903 cotton manufactures of the value of $82.0O0,000, of which the cotton production of the United States amounted to only $S,S00,000, or a little over one-tenth. For the calendar year of 1904 there was considerable improvement the amount of our eX- ports of cotton cloth to China reaching S14, ,OOO, 900. During the last six months of the year the value of these exports was sIOOOO OO0 and if this standard couId be maintained, as 1t seems likely to be. the figures for the present year would obviously be as much in excess of those of 1904 as the latter exceeded those of 1903 It may seem that trade which grows at the rate of 50 per cent per annum is not much in need of spe- ciaI encouragement or promotion. But, rapidiy as the demand for American cotton is growing In China, that de- mand stilI represents an insignificant fraction of the consuming capacity of inc vast population of the empire. Even at the present rate of export we -------------------- - v-r a