The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-10-31
Fly ERNEST l.. HEIrKAMP

of American control of raw cotton and competitive purchasing, principally by Germany which has made enormous strides in cotton weaving industry of late years and by American manufac- turers. is the fluctuation in the prices. concrete example will show how the multiplication table works an enor- nous injury and loss to England with each one cent rise in the price of the | raw material. Not many years ago cot ton was selling at cents a pound; at | the beginning of 1914 1t reached 15 cents. Now England consumes in her cotton mills an average of 4,000,000 | bales, or 2,000, 100000 pounds every year. rise. of one cent a pound means a difference of f1.1 per bale. rise of | g cents-from 6 cents to 15-means a difference of f9.9 per bale, or total of more than f40,000,0O0 ($200, 900, 000) per year in the cost of raw material to the cotton manufacturers of Great | Britain. Naturally it means a propor- | tionate increase In the income of the planters of the south, but it is hardly necessary to say that that does not 1 compensate the Brtishers for their | loss.
 Fix and Control Prices | It is to fix and control these prices that the English manufacturers work | ing with the sympathy and active as- sistance of the British government, are | planning. One of Sir Charles Macara's pet schemes for years has been the l purchase of an enormous stock of raw l cotton, running into the millions of 1 bales, to be placed in storage These, l it.. need hardly be said, were to be 1 bought when prices were ldy and held | against any tendency of the market to | rise. As soon as prices showed an in- | clination to soar enough of the huge [ store was to be thrown onto the mar. I ket to "bear" figures to what the Brit ish manufacturers thought was cor l rect. When prices once again reached the low level, the reserve store was to be replenished That, roughly Is the present scheme.
 The big langl sh manufacturer Of cot | ton goods believes that he need fear little from the competition of American mills In any open market. He is firmly con vinced that the tiny corner of England known as Lancashire, of which Manches- ter is the heart and cotton the life blood is suited as is no other corner or tnls earth for cotton spinning and weaving. As the properties of the water in the northeast corner of IreIand make that section predominant in the manufacture of linens, so the wet fogs and mlstS ana rains of Lancashire, which make the dis trict such a depressing and detestable place for a mere visitor, marvelously simplify the difficult business of cotton spinning In less fortunate districts such as Rhode Island, in the United States, 1t Ills necessary to do by artificial means what nature does for Lancashire, and even in the latter place, when @ cold, dry wind sweeps across country from Yorkshire moors, spinning must be done in the steam rooms to prevent the constant snGpping of the thread.
 But the British manufacturer is satis- ted that he has other advantages. Lis- ten to Sir Charles Macara:
 md hoc ar, over the United States in the matter of Icctton spinning and weaving. In the first place we have the advantage in opera lives. When was in Rhode Island some years ago a friend of mine took me through one of his mills and pointed out
 people of seven different nationalities
 working at the looms.
 "I cannot tell he said. from day to day how long these people are going
 to be with me-
 English operatives grow up in the in-
 dustry. In my own mills have had
 sev eral generations of the same families. Only a man who is engaged in the busi- ness of spinning and weaving can under stand the value of this continuity. Then 1 am firmly convinced. after great deal los investigation, that nowhere in the United States is there to be found an ideal climate for spinning and weaving. And
 finally England had the advantage of a long start because of the genius of her early inventors
 Thus. even if the American manufac- turers were competing with us on level terms. that is with American wages as low as English. he would never be able to give us any great worry"
 Hard Hit by War
 The cotton weaving industry of Lam cashire has been hard hit by the war, In fact 1t has been almost as hard hit as
 has the German industry, despite the fact that the German mercantile marine
 has been run to ground while the British mercantile marine roams the worlds
 seas. Shortage of bottoms, high freights and the constantly growing shortage of labor. with increased charges, not only for labor, but for almost all overhead items, has brought production down with
 a rush. The mills of Lancashire. in nor
 nal times, and so per cent of their pro- duction to be marketed abroad. A con-
 siderable part of this foreign trade has sappeared. The raw cotton formerly voraciously consumed by the mills of
 Lancashire is now either unbought or is being steadily accumulated in the ware
 houses of Liverpool. Manchester or even farther af1eld-the English credit in New Orleans or New York-to come on the in- ternational market as "spot" cotton at some future time when British manufac- trrers believe that the American grower is getting too much for his product.
 It Is a fascinating romance, the de-
 velopment of England's cotton weaving
 industry leading up to her audacious at.
 tempt in the middle of the greatest wa.
 she has ever waged. to capture the con-
 trol of the worlds supply of raw cotton.
 If fs typical, too, of the uncanny fore
 sight that has played so large a part
 In the commercial growth of John Bull,
 England suffers from peculiar form of commercial astfgmatism which al-
 though 1t prevents her seeing . month
 ot year. ahead. enables her to rec q