Charlevoix county herald., 1909-10-09

eo11znHz~D poorest paid toilers In l*&
The United States. Intellectually the l@
rottOn-growers are surrounded and !Mz
roerced by factors which have no other l lS&
purpose than to keep them in this be- Ia
nighted vassalage. From this condition
Influences Of a new American spirit ~
must liberate them. IsM
We smile at the Celestial shivering In !sss
the midst of coal-fields larger than the sgy
state of Pennsylvania. Americas atti- ~
tudc toward cotton is almost equally E@
grotesque. On the southern rim of the 1 lM
United States, within an area of prac- E*A
tically IA states, is grown 50 per cent. T.
Of the worlds supply of cotton. The re- Ew
naming 20 per cent, grown in South l@W
America India, and the far east, is of an IL
inferior quality and cannot compete l
with the cotton grown in the United VI
States. Notwithstanding this enormous Ig&
advantage, the fact still remains that j%S&
this heaven-sent boon, paradoxical In&ss
though it may seem, does not enrich -
but rather impoverishes, the southland GMs
This is a tale of commercial inepti. In Z
tude. Our greatest asset is our greatest -
humiliation. Cotton is king, but it is q ~
badly served monarch. Other nations. r.
by farsighted policy intense activity. wv
and commercial alertness have over
come the tremendous advantage we
have, and by beating down the price of
the raw product, and with cheap labor on loom,
and machinery for the manufacture OF the fin
ished product now control the markets of tn,
world. In the Orient, where we once had on
share of trade, the market, to say the least. il
slipping from us. 1t seems almost travest,
on American business methods that English
and German manufacturers can go on tn,
docks at Galveston and take our raw cotton
carry it to Europe in subsidized ships weav
1t with cheap labor, retransport IT to the Uni
Cd States, pay the customs duty, and under
sell our home manufacturers. There is some
thing wrong here, isn't there?
Cotton is the clothing Of the uncounted mu
titudes, and even those born to the purple dc
pend upon cotton for much of their appare
ing King Cottons dominion is mankind
America, therefore, producing, PRACTICAL
alone, commodity vital to civilized life an
progress, has in that harvest the secret
incompatible wealth and power 1t is nc
steel or lumber, kerosene or corn, that insure
enduring leadership for the United States Vas
capital and dynamic genius have gone into tn
development of steel, yet this is transtor.
The scepter of steel must ultimately slip frol
our grasp. The iron-ore beds Of the Lake 81
perior region are doomed Experts have nun
bered their years as less than a generation
Lumber cannot furnish permanent found
ests are fast vanishing. Oil has contribute
one of the leading items to export trad
and has multiplied incredibly the fortunes
it's managers but the oilwells cannot disgorg
their iluminant forever. Besides the Bak
fields are ready to compete. Our corn an
wheat before the end OF many decades wi
be consumed at home. Argentina, central b
rope and Manchura produce these cereals
prodgal abundance. Even if our corn an
wheat were the worlds sole sufficient suppl
as in the case Of our cotton, the oversee N
tons could dispense with these staples. q
sore of them now do. Millions upon million
of Mongolians have not yet developed an a
petite for anything save rice. But all OF thei
are clad i'm cotton goods. An additional inc
on the shirts worn by the Nongoians woul
mean one million bales of cotton, and this
the market that is slipping from us.
Cotton Makes America Supreme Anon
Nations.
Thus it is cotton. and cotton alone, that ca
make America permanently unique ard 81
preme among the nations. This fact make
ing finished cotton products across the SCI
The only foreign customer that counted at a
importantly in the totals of our export trad
was China and our market there has pitabl
declined England Germany, and Japan al
forcing our ships from the Pacific, just as the
crowded them off the paths of the Atanti
We should be carrying cargoes of cotton gooC
To ALI the ports of the earth Instead OF tn;
the nations send here for so per cent OF the
raw supply. manufacture IL into all forms
commodities outsell us in all the worlds ma
kety. anJ even successfully ship the manuia