The Penn's Grove record., 1909-10-15
STEPS TO CURTA|L COTTON
OUTPUT THROUGH WORLD
Lancashire Movement Taken Up
in New England.
100000 sPINDLEs MUST SIGN
All Mills viii Be Obliged to Run Full
Time Until January to Fill Pres
emit Orders-Southern Mills to
Unite in Movement.

Boston, Mass. A gigantic move
ment, born of unrest of long standing,
Is in progress throughout the leading
cotton textile districts of the world
looking toward a general curtailment
OF production after January and dur
ing 1910. The principal reasons adj
vanced for the movement are the
gradual increase in the cost of raw
material in the Southern States and
in Egypt, and the failure of the dry
goods markets to respond in a way
which would assure continued profit
to manufacturers during the next
twelve months.
The curtailment movement had its
Inception in Lancashire. the greatest
cotton goods producing district in the
world. In Lancashire the yarn spin
ners have been running their mills on
short time for two months. and re-
Gently many other English mill own
ers voted to shut down two days each
week until November 8.
On September Is the Arkwright
Club, of Boston, representing A.
100000 out of the II, 900, 900 spin
dies in New England, sent out to all
the cotton mills in this district, which
Is second in the industry to Lanca-
shire, forms for an agreement for
signatures for a curtailment. The
Investigations of the Executive Com
mittee of this club convinced it that
no difficulty would be experienced in
securing the signatures representing
100000 spindles.
Tho nrnnoctf3on nntf. -. IT, -.
pension of work for 224 working
hours between the date of the agree
ment and August /, 1910, to become
effective when no less than 7,000,0 900
spindles have been signed. Reports
rom different sections of New Eng
land indicate that the proposition of
the Arkwright Club is meeting with
an encouraging response.
The Rhode Island and Fall River
manufacturers are. as a rule, willing
to curtail production, providing that
they are not called upon fguratively
to hold the umbrella" for other Sec
lions of New England, or, in other
words, to withhold goods while out
side centres continue to run in full.
The curtailment movement is of
great interest in New Bedford and
other places, where a restoration Of
a ten per cent. cut in wages made in
1908 has been refused. 1t is sug-
gested that if the New Bedford man
ufacturers are in sympathy with the
thirty-day closing movement the eff
feet of a strike in that~city wsesl5 BE-
partially nullifed.
The curtailment has also been
taken up by the Southern cotton mill
owners The board of governors of
the American Cotton Manufacturers
Association at a meeting in Charlotte,
N. c., adopted resolutions setting
forth their claim that the present dis
parity between the price of cotton and
cotton goods precludes the possibility
of the successful operation of South
ern mills.
In certain cotton producing and
selling centres the claim is made that
the present curtailment movement is
largely an attempt to hold down the
price of the staple. The officials of
the operatives unions in several New
England cities profess to see in the
an attempt to avoid an adj
vance in wages, but the officials of the
Arkwright Club deny that the wage
question has anything to do with
heir existing plans.
The cotton mills of New England.
including yarn mills, employ upward
Of 100000 hands.