The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1914-12-02
TIMELY SUGGESTION TO
SAVE COTTON FARMER.

In MS ISSUE "a tlle IeSo diiu hoii
ner will be found an interview had
with Congressman Aiken which ap-
peared last week in the Anderson
Daily Mail, touching the attitude OF
Congress as to the cotton situation.
1t contains some interesting facts
about cotton and the attitude of the
National government in the present
crisis. The interview speaks for it.
self, however, and it is our purpose
to comment on only one important
suggestion, which in so far as we
have noted is entirely new, and
which seems to offer something more
substantial for the improvement of
cotton prices than any suggestion
that has been made public yet. The
Suggestion is that the Bureau of Sta
tistics require its statistical agents in
the various countries, already on sal
AIRY, to furnish a statement of the
number of acres now planted and
proposed to be planted to grain, corn
land other crops than cotton. Once
this data is officially obtained and Of
|fcially announced by the National
government, cotton prices would
most surely advance.
English spinners openly announce
that they will not enter the cotton
market until they feel sure prices
have hit bottom. American spin
ners are buying what cotton they
can, only for immediate demand, in
the effort to break the farmers hold
on the staple. Neither English or
american spinners believe that the
cotton farmer will cut his cotton
crop forty to fifty per cent in 1915,
and nothing but the actual facts Of
fcially stated by the government
will convince them. Once they are
convinced, there will be a scramble
for the very cotton that today seems
to weight down the market.
1t is all nonsense to suppose that
England will not spin more than
two thirds her normal supply of cot
ton in 1915. There is absolutely
n othing to keep her from it. Cotton
is not c%ontraband of war and if it
were, England has full control of the
Atlantic. England has a population
of about forty-five million people,
exclusive of her possessions. This
represents between nine and ten mil
lion heads of families and perhaps
twelve million males including boys
capable of labor. And then again
the cotton industry in England, as
in America, is carried on largely by
female labor; SO that England can
keep every cotton mill within her
bodnds running on full time, and
|supply even three million men TO
the war and never miss them.
England has sixty million spindles
which is nearly twice as, much as all
other foreign countries possess. Ger
many comes second, with something
like ten million spindles, and since
cotton is not contraband, even Ger
many may not entirely suspend the
manufacture of cotton. England,
Germany and America then should,
even under present conditions, con-
sumo fully two-thirds of the worlds
supply of cotton, and other cotton
producing countries are so hemmed
lin by war conditions as to supply
practically none of it. Indian and
Egyptian cotton can not run the
gauntlet of the Mediterranean sea
which is being patrolled by hostile
fleets. It must then in the main be
American cotton or no cotton.
These are self evident facts. Then
llet the cotton manufacturing indus
try learn as a certainty that the sup
ply of cotton for 1915 will be cut in
half and cotton prices are bound to
reach new high levels.
Now, let us see how MI. Aiken's
Suggestion can be put into effect. In
every county in the South there is
an office that corresponds with the
County Auditors office. The Coun-
lty Auditor IS books contain the name
of every land owner in every county.
THE Bureau of Statistics could pre-
pare blanks to be mailed by it's
Iagents to each land owner in each
county, designed to obtain the fol-
lowing information:
Total land now in condition for
cultivation.
Number of acres already planted
to oats.
Number of acres already planted
to other grain.
Number of acres to be later plant
ed to grain.
Number of acres reserved for corn.
Number of acres planted 1914 to
tpoftOp