The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-11-14
Cotton Was Due to Drop in Price Even Though War
 Had Not Come
STOCKS HAD BEEN
 GROWING TOO FAST
And Yet Experts Think the Man Who Is Able to Hold His Cotton Will Make a
 Fortune

Liverpool. October 30.--CspeciaI Cor respondence.l--rhe demand for actnsi cotton has broadened ont and quite a business. considering the condition of trade, has resulted In both old and new crops \ few ships just landing are meeting with n brisk inquiry. and prac- ticaiIy most of their cargo has already been sold. and anything near at hand looks like being snapped up.' It is about cent a pound cheaper than the spot cotton here, which has 10 be bought on the value of Liverpool futures. which arc vet considerably above the value of cotton in tho United States. but we have reason to believe they win he re- duced as rapidly as money can be got in from the 'rest of the world.
 Now we must not run away with the idea there is no cotton in Liverpool. Ger tainly grades above fully middling arc not plentiful, but the stock here of all growths totals well over Go0,0O0 bales
 How Mills Are Running
 Some of the Lancashire mills are work ing overtime, others on half, and many closed down. one min which 1 had the pleasure of being shown through in Wi gan last week. which employs 1000 hands, still remained on full time weaving coarse. unbleached shirting for the In dian market, although tho Indian demand is nova three-fourths off.
 The government requires very little pure cotton goods. Those spinning cotton and wool mixtures are busy. A few mills manufacturing tenting, sheeting and tow cling arc working on full time and some overtime Those weaving colored oxford shirtings are working half time, as lot of this material has been used for gar ments required by the hospitals. The mills spinning the very fine yarns. such as ;oos aud to0's for the fine nainsools, are closed As these yarns are bought fin enormous quantities by Germany France. Austria and Italy all this trade is nil at present.
 England imported from the states alone from September 19ls to August, 1aii in | elusive. 3.isI000 bales; onc-fifth of this was used for home oonsumption--the other four-hfths were exported She will probably import one-half of this amount this year, and if the war continues very likely her exports will fall off 75 per cent.
 Prices Were Due to Slump Even if the war had not come about and tho very big crop in view. prices would have had e big drop in any case, as the shelves of the world" so to speak, are full and overnowing. The prices of the textile trade of the world were good from, say. the sully year. until tho big crop of 1911. when prices dropped ma 1 terially. Then the merchants of the world who had let their stocks of goods run low, began to puy, then the spinners ''busted' by this enormous buying or goods began buying the raw material ahead. some as much as four years ahead.
 1 India bought cotton goods in large quantities. They even ovorbought in the year Of tho Dunbar The consequence was this boom in buying filled tho shelves
 to overflowing; now not only tho war, but n big crop has come about and prices are obliged to drop. On the other hand there | is SO little money to finance the buying 1 of raw material Manchester banks have been carrying many mills since this over trading caused by overbuying both of the manufactured goods and raw cotton. Running Too Strong Ranks are in the position of having | financed mills output for the last six months at full time when trade did not warrant 1t and they made these un-' wanted stocks out of I'd tpenny)-lfc- cotton and the unsold stocks abroad were so big that no more could be sent and | stocks heaped up here. Then war and fall In prices. On to this the Manchester contract allows a man to buy and to take 1t up when he wishes. so the buyers even 1 when wanting cloth are replacing at stun out of 5d (penny)-or 10c-cotton and leaving the already bought goods that yContinucd on Page Nine)