The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1905-05-10
What The Southern Cotton Association
Stands For?
(BY JORDAN
COTTON HAS NO COMPETITION.


1t is now a we'll established fact that
the South holds a complete monopoly of
the cotton crop of the world, and that
no material which can be woven into
cloth, can be used as a competitor
against cotton under Id cents per
pound. Our cotton has but four COM
petitors wool, flax, silk and foreign
grown cotton. 1t is only when Ameri-
can cotton is sold at Ia cents per pound,
that foreign-grown cotton can be pro-
fitably manufactured as a competitor,
and the price of the staple must adj
vance to 25 and 80 cents per pound to
permit wooden goods to be manufac-
tured as a competitor. The limited sup
ply of silk and flax places them beyond
the realm of competitions; hence, we
must conclude that the only competitor
to-day of American cotton is a surplus
of American cotton. The only reason
why the price of our cotton has been
deprecated below it's maximum value
in years past and gone, has been due to
either a bad system of marketing with
reckless disregard of it's sale, or, to an
ov~er-production of the staple, and per-
hitting the over"production to be used
as a hammer to beat down the price of
the staple actually needed for con-
sumption, either through speculative
influences, or the combined energies of
the exporters and spinning interests of
the world. With the knowledge of
these facts, it is the imperative duty of
the cotton-growers, aided by the COM
bined efforts of all the allied business
interests in the South, to devise ways
and means which will protect the sta
pie from depressing influences which
have annually robbed the South of from
two hundred to three hundred millions
of dollars that should have gone into
the pockets of u people.
VALUE OF THE COTTON CROP.
The annual cotton crop of the South
is the most valuable of any agricul-
tural product grown on the face of the
globe. Its annual sales amount in the
aggregate for the raw material to
more than six hundred millions of dol
lars, and, when converted into the fin
ished fabric, will sell for the enormous
total of nearly two billions of dollars.
1t is due alone to the cotton crop of the
South that the balance of trade is in
favor of the United States in it's com
mercial relations with foreign coun-
tries. In 1904, the exports of raw cot
ton amounted to more than one million
dollars for each of the 365 days. And
this three hundred and sixty-fve mil
lions of dollars, which was sent to this
country in gold by the foreign spinner,
paid for only siXty-five per cent. of the
crop produced, leaving the balance, or
thirty-fve per cent, to be woven int;
cloth under the roofs of American mills.
COTTON MILLS IN THE SOUTH.
The enormous increase in the value
of the staple after it has passed through
the loom, presents the highest evidence
of the necessity for the more rapid
building of cotton mills in the South,
and the exporting of the finished pro-
duct from u shores rather than that
OF the raw material. The export of our
raw cotton annually brings more gold
into this country than the combined ex-
ports of all other agricultural products
and agricultural implements shipped
from America to foreign countries. A
crop of such magnitude in value. and
one upon which the entire civilized
world so absolutely depends, should re-
ceive the immediate protection of every
business interest in this country. No
cotton grown in foreign countries up to
the present time, can be delivered at
our ports at a less price than Id cents
per pound. 1t is generally admitted bv
experts which have investigated the eff
forts made to produce cotton in foreign
countries, that up to the present time,
such efforts have been a failure, and it
is extremely doubtful if there will ever
come a time when foreign grown cotton
can be produced .profitably in com
petition with American grown cotton.
OUR AsIATIC TRADE.
1t is confidently believed that the
Panama Canal will be opened to the
commerce of the high seas within the
next ten years, after which time. the
South will be in a position to secure di-
rect ana quick trade relations with the
Asiatic nations of the Far East. In
China alone, more than four hundred
and fifty millions of people are ready
and willing to wear cloth made from
American cotton. In Japan, more than
forty:iv millions of people are equally
willing to be clothed from American
grown cotton. With the introduction of
our trade relations with three hundreds
of millions of people, a crop of fftv
million bales of cotton can be consumed
with the same ease as is now done with
a crop of ten millions, among the civ
ilized nations of Europe and America.
With these splendid possibilities lying
just ahead, only waiting for proper de,
velopment, the time has come when the
South must no longer look to the mere
matter of production, but in the devel.
opment of our agricultural resources
we must begin to reach out for wider
markets in order to meet the develop.