The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1914-10-01
HOPE IS GROWING.
New York Paper Encouraged as to
Cotton Situation.

This is no time for pessimism.
That fact is increasingly felt. 1t is
a tine TO pat a shoulder to the
whee! and push. The wagon may
seem to be bemired; the thing to do
is 10 push all the harder. The world
needs cotton. Foreign exchange is
getting into better shape. Export
business is bound to increase under
such circumstances in the near fu-
ture. Why not? The seas are clear.
The supremacy OF England on the
oceans is not disputed. The way is
open. Simply, credits are needed.
| They are bound to be supplied.
Necessity is the mother OF !nven-
ton" Europe will not take as much
cotton in 1914 as it did last season,
but the United States. Japan and Chi
ma will, it is believed, take more.
Besides a decisive result in the bat
ties of the Aisne in France may pave
the way for peace. Meantime, some
of the mills of this country are rum
ming night and day to supply the Eu-
ropean demand for uniform checks
and duck as well as blankets. The
sale of print cloths at Fall River last
week reached 10000 pieces, against
$4,000 in the previous week, or, in
other words, double the total then.
The business in fine cotton goods is
steadily improving at advancing
prices. Even yarns, which for long
period were so depressed, are higher,
with better demand. New Eng
lands industries are beginning to
revive. 1t is believed that the coun-
try has turn ed the corner and that
the near future will see better
state of things.
The feeling is growing that the
cotton exchanges should be opened
at the earliest possible moment.
| Practical men in the cotton trade be-
lieve that this result can be brought
about in a she It time. The long con-
tracts here need to be financed 80
that the exchange can open with
safety to all concerned. Also a clear
idea of the Lever act is needed. The
attorney general may have to be call
ed upon to pass upon some dubious
points in that curious bit Of legisla-
ton. Thoughtful men in the cotton
trade believe that the act should be
repealed and something substituted
for it, if necessary, which would be
short, clear and effective. But once
get the long contracts here out OF
the way through the medium of
strong syndicate backed by the banks,
and also by exchange in some prac-
tical way, and also get clear idea OF
what Mr.. Lever means by his act, or,
at any rate, as to how the govern
ment will interpret it, and the way
is believed to be clear for reopening
the New York cotton exchange. That
event would electrify and rejuvenate
the whole cotton trade of this coun-
try, in the opinion of some of the
most experienced and sagacious mem
bers of the cotton trade of the United
States.
The cotton trade without exchanges
is in grin earnest like the play or
Hamlet" with Hamlet left out. In
other words, it is like ship without
a rudder or a compass. This state
of things is declared to be intoler-
able. 1t is urged that it should be
done away with at the earliest posi-
BILE moment 1t is no small task to
get at the exact situation here as to
the holdings of long contracts, but
if the work is as vigorously pushed
as il was last week, when twenty
men we're out getting this informa-
ton. this task will be very soon ac-
complished if it has not been al
ready. The work of financing the
long" holdings here is not task
for small men. 1t calls for deter
mined efforts by big men. They can
do it. The general belief is that they
are determined to do it and not only
that, but that they will do it quickly.
Meantime rising prices at the South
may help not little in the Work OF
reopening of the exchanges of this
country. At some points the sales,
it is true, are significant, but at
others, like Galveston, Houston and
Memphis, the business of late has
been increasing to a degree which
arouses hope of something still bet
+a- in tho near future.-New York