The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-10-04


States go shopping in the same
week in October and that all buy cotton
goods. ghe young woman Is Miss Gene
We've Clark, daughter of the Speaker
of the House of Representatives. The
proposal was made half playfully, Tor
Miss Clark has a sense Of humor and
a nationwide bargain sale was her idea
of lively time. She had no idea that
ANYTHING unusual would follow. but her
remark came 10 the ears OF serious
business men. and the nationwide sale
Of cotton goods In the week beginning
tomorrow, Monday october ), Is to be
fact.
At first the idea was ridiculed as
unsound economically The more II was
studied. however, the more sensible and
economically sound It seemed To be to
those who took II up. Beginning with
newspaper stories. accompanied by pic
cures of Miss Clark, Miss Callie Hoke
Smith. daughter OF Senator Hoke Smith
W Georgia and Miss Lucy Burleson,
daughter Of the Postmaster General,
who Joined with MISS Clark in the first
announcement OF the nationwide sale
proposition. it has taken a wider and
firmer hold on serious people.
As focus for the cotton sales week a
held ~ the New Willard Hotel by
official society of Washington. wiki
the wives Of Vice President Marshall,
Speaker Clark and other prominent Of
ficials as patronesscs. The young
women have made gowns to be ex-
hibited. the moving picture man has
displayed the prime movers to millions
of thcatregoers and the chance remark
of young woman has become the seri-
Gus business Of n whole nation.
No wonder. for cotton touches every
human being and war has demoralized
the cotton industry Yet without cot
ton there could be no war. Without
cotton not a modern gun could be fired.
Cotton is the basis of high explosives
and OF smokeless powder. The armor
clad warship carries relatively more
cotton than was used by the frigate of
n century ago with all its sails. Wool
was discarded long ago for uniforms
and cotton clothes the armies of the
world; yes. and all the people Of the
world. from the polar region to the
tropics. The Hottentot spreads a film
OF cotton cloth across a few poles to
keep out the suns heat. The Arctic
explorer pads his duck suit with cotton
and finds 1t warmer and lighter than
fur
" is evident, therefore, that cotton
touches all the world But clothing
Is only one of the many points of con-
tact. Did YOU ever comb your hair with
cotton comb? Yes. you did. for celu-
loid Is nothing but cotton treated with
acids. All those useful celluloid things
would be unheard of II It were not for
cotton.
Cotton is the chief ingredient Of the
automobile. Those soft cushions are
cotton felt covered with more cotton
that looks like leather and you go
bounding along on inflated cotton tires
treated with rubber. Bang, There ~ a
puncture' It's hole in the cotton and
the rubber is no good without the cot
ton.
Without cotton there could be no
great office BUILDINGS, for freproofng
would be impract!cabc Besides ii
would he too expensive to get the
cement To the spot without the bags
that consume 10000, 900 yards Of cot =
ton cloth every year. These are facts.
They are dug up by e. Il. Revere, the
cotton expert. Light your pipe and
think II over, but as the smoke rolls up
10 the enamelled ceiling remember that
the foundation of that enamel Is cotton
and that one single company requires
a million yards of cotton cloth to shade
tobacco plants growing in Cuba and
Florida and 100000 yards for the
little bags i'm which that same tobacco
goes TO the consumer.
Cotton is not king. Cotton is the
master and servant Of all the people.
Cotton Is all things to all men. After
clothing them and housing them, it
makes all their paths smooth and still
has energy left to fatten cattle with its
seed. When the great American hog
falls down on his job of shortening hot
biscuits cotton is ready to do the work
more cheaply and more dolicately. Let
us sing praises of cotton to the strains
or music pumped through the organ
by cotton bellows.
This is the age Of cotton The world
has achieved its greatest progress since
Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin
Eliminate cotton and the mere stoppare
of splndles and looms would be but a
tribe compared with the paralysis that
would visit countless othC. Industries
In the last year a new high record
has been established for the consump-
ton Of cotton by the world, the total
being more than 10000 900 bales. The
ordinary citizen thinks only Of sheets
and pillowcases and dress goods when
he speaks Of cotton. but such things are
relatively unimportant compared with
the vast consumption of cotton for
other purposes.
The railroads and trolley lines Of the
United States use more than 100000
bales Of cotton a year for cnamelleC
ceilings, plush chairs, leather seats anc
airhrake hose. The automobile con
S9imes about 400 900 bales a year. Mos
" It goes into the cotton duck basis
Shich is the essential feature of tn,
tires, and the rest goes largely fol
kather cushions and seats.
The largest individual contract 70
cotton goods In the world is the on
placed annually by the greatest OF tn
harvester machine companies. It call
for millions Of yards of cotton duck, tn
consumption for the entire harvesting
machine industry being estimated a
above 5o,o00,000 yards Of duck yearly.
an normal times the New York mar
ket alone consumes 400 900 pounds O
yarn weekly for the electrical industry