The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-18
J. M. CRAIG TAKES ISSUE WITH KETTIG STATEMENT
 ON ENGLISH BLOCKADE

A A 1 the blockade by every means in her | power, even going so far as to pay | full compensation for contraband car | goes and freeing the ships that carried ! them. And to show how little United | States commerce has been interfered
 with 1t is only necessary to point to | United States government expert sta
 tistics, which plainly show that com pairing the exports to Germany, Austria 1 and neighboring neutral countries for | April, 1914. and April, 1915, we gained
 twice as much with the neutrals as
 we lost with Germany and Austria. In | 10 months the exports to Germany, | Austria, Turkey and Belgium fell from
 s3S4. ,549 to 49,27ss41. In the per
 iods compared exports to the neutrals l bordering on Germany jumped from l S192, 1S0, ,93l to S493, 1868. Increase in
 sales to allies in the same periods
 from 69o,S2o,o5O to s103e. s01,115. These figures plainly show that the | British order In council established the most benevolent restrictions on neu- | tral commerce in the history of the
 world
 At the beginning of the war, the low price of cotton can be accounted for | by the fact that the Atlantic was in | fested with German commerce destroy ers. These being disposed of by the British navy, cotton could again move | freely and the price went up Actually | 1t was British sea power that enabled | the southern states to market their l cotton. And now 1t Is proposed by MT. | Kettig, backed up by The Age Herald, | to nullffy this very sea power, when 1t
 Is exercised In preventing the destruc- | tion of it's own people. It was not the | ''buy-a bale" movement that saved the
 situation for the south; 1t was the ! British. navy.
 I If this British embargo Is the ini quitous thing MT. Kettig would have us
 believe. how is it that the price of cot
 ton went up after 1t went into effect? According to the New Orleans cot 1 ton exchange statement the cotton
 market on March and April 1s reads
 as follows:
 March July, sale, New Orleans; | December, s.72c; spots. 7.75c.
 April 19-July, 10.20c, New Orleans; | December, 1069c: spots, 9.68c.
 It will. I am sure, be noted with l interest that cotton went cents pound higher after the embargo went I into effect, and yet MT. Kettig would
 have us believe that this very em-
 bargo Is going to be the means of mak- 1 ing the south bankrupt
 Glad to Be Enlightened
 As to MT Kettig's statement that | the New England mills have allied ! | the price of cotton. what justifica-
 tion is there for such indictment
 of a great American industry by member of the board of directors of
 the federal reserve bank? The Age ! Herald editorial says that MT Kettig
 shows that such an alliance Is in ef- feet. I may be pardoned for saying
 that MT. Kettig shows nothing of the
 kind. He simply states that 1t is so
 Anyhow, I feel sure that the public will be glad to be enlightened as to l the foundation for so serious a state
 ment, especially as the southern mills must share the indictment with the
 rest of the mills of the country. It l Is to be hoped that this part of the
 Kettig interview has been incorrectly
 reported. What foundation has MT
 Kettig for his pancky statements as
 to the probability of bankruptcy facing | the south? What is the real situa-
 tion In the south? I don't mean politi- cal conditions, which seem favorable from the politicians viewpoint: I mean
 economic conditions It is quite true
 that the visible supply of cotton Is
 at the present moment 3,S1G,694 bales.
 This Is the carry over from the great
 est crop on record, but the carry over
 from the previous crop. much smaller
 one. was 2,014,715. Had the 1914t5
 crop been no larger than the 1913-14
 this years carry over it Is just as
 actually smaller than the previous
 year, notwithstanding the war. If 1t
 is reasonable to blame England for
 this years carry over; 1t is Just as
 reasonable to blame her for the carry
 over from the previous crop. As a
 matter of fact. the cotton exports from
 this country from August l to June 25, were only 776293 bales less than the
 l913-14 exports, so that the carry over can be blamed only on the south it. self It is nothing less than an ab-
 surdity to contend that Englands em- bargo is intended to bankrupt the
 south, when 1t Is an undeniable fact r that by the simple expedient of crop diversification, the south could demand
 as high as 16 cents or even 20 cents for its cotton and at the same time < keep the enormous amount of money i at home that Is annually sent to the middle west for corn and other farm l produce that could just as easily be raised here.
 The United States department of az riculture tells us that 5,SS1, 900 fewer
 acres has been planted to cotton this year than last year. This added to the fact that the present growing crop will be much smaller than usual h. deed if the lint secured per acre is based on the last 10 years average GS2 pounds) it will be seen that the acreage planted to cotton this year | S,f bales. This is without taking into ac- count the heavy decrease in fertiliza- tion. There is one bright oasis, even in the dismal desert of MT. Kettig's imagination, that he seems to have overlooked, and that is the tremendous increase in corn and pea acreage and hogs In the south
 Opens New Markets to America Germany's supply of cotton if cut off will enable the mills of the country tc
 sell their finished product to China South America and all other markets heretofore supplied by Germany. Even Germany herself will have to rely upon American mills for her manufactured cotton goods. England not being al all likely to declare manufactured cot ton goods contraband of war, stocks of cotton goods that have been de- pleted on account of buyers hanging
 back all over the world will be re- plenished. and with the tremendous amount of cotton needed to manufac- ! ture ammunition and furnish uniforms for the armies, all out of a diminished crop, there seems to be no Justification for the pessimism displayed by MT
 Kettig in his interview. Isn't he Jus, naturally pessimistic? Isn't the world ! always going to the demnition bow
 vows according to MT. Kettig? It is l pleasing to know that this pessimsn is not shared by Mir W. P C.. Harding
 of the federal reserve board, who writ