Evening star., 1917-09-09

Copyright, 1917. by Frank C. Carpenter.)
ATLANTA. Ga
q WRITE today Of King Cotton. For
months I have been travelling over
this realm. and I am now in one
. Of the brightest spots of his
splses In the SUM-" King Cotton is
the richest. the most benefcent and
just now the most terrible monarch on
the face Of the globe. His dominions
encirele the world. His annual income
IL twice that rof all the gold, silver
and diamond mines upon earth. He
clothes the most of mankind, and, now
that we are at war. his wrath will
SOW death and destruction beyond
computation. Gun cotton and other
explosives are but the breath of this
king. We used more than 100, 900 900
pounds of his product in making mu-
nitions two years ago, and last year
we increased that amount by 80 per
cent. This Is in addition to the cotton
employed in making explosives IN
Europe, where it has its part in every
great battle.
But first let me show you the realm
of the king and how important 1t IS
that the greater part of it is ruled by
our own Uncle Sam. Cotton can be
crown here and there in strip round
the Globe wider than the distance be-
tween New York and Rio de Janeiro,
but the total area where 1t can be
probably cultivated is only in small
part Of that belt. AS compared with
the Omitted States, the other cotton
fields are petty colonies. We own the
main kingdom and often produce more
. than three-fourths of the worlds crop.
In fact, all Of the best cotton lands
upon earth belong to US and our allies.
The cotton raised last year amounted
ALL told to a little more than H.
Oo0, 900 bales. OF this about 12,60o,o0o
bales were grown upon United states
Noil Thirty-flve hundred thousand
bales were raised in British India and
10000 bales came from Egypt and
other British dependencies. Russia
(which is also one of our allies. mad
About a million and a half bales. while
t;ermany, Bulgaria and Austria Hun
gary grew cotton whatever.
have travelled over most of the cot
ton fields of the world outside the
United States. They are mere patches
beside our mighty farm known as the
tie valley in the desert of northern
Peru where she raises a kind of tree
cotton of a reddish-brown color, and
in Brazil there are larger patches
which produce a low-grade staple OF
several hundred thousand bales Africa
outside Egypt, makes not enough 10
supply breech cloths for the negroes
along the equator. and the production
of Asia is confined to Russian Tur-
kestan. India. China and a small area
in Turkey and Persia
And now let US look at King Cot
toms dominions on the North America n
continent They lie in the United
States and cover almost one-third OF
the southern part of our country. Their
area is more than 600. 900 square miles
1t is greater than Austria Hungary
Turkey. Bulgaria and the whole Ger
man empire.
II you will draw line from Nor
folk. at the mouth of Chesapeake bay,
westward through southern Virginia
on west along the northern boundary
of Tennessee, then north to Cairo, ILL.,,
and west again through southern Mis-
souri, and on across Oklahoma. you
will have the northern boundary. All
of the land south of that will produce
more or less cotton. The staple is
Is made in great quantities in North
and South Carolina. Georgia. Florida
Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana. Ar
kansas. Tennessee. Oklahoma and
OF these states Texas leads. 1t makes
about one-fourth of all the cotton
grown in the Uniop~ - 1912 1t pro-
duced almost 5000, 900 BALES. and the
crop sold for enough to equal $500 for
every family in the state. Georgia
stands next to Texas as a cotton pro-
ducer. and then come Alabama, Mis-
sissippi and South Carolina. Okla
homa has now and then a crop of more
than a million bales, and the same is
true of Arkansas The other states
produce less. California made about
10000 bales in 1914.
The cotton crop of the United States
|. n so great that 1 despair of making
you appreciate its size or it's value
The product last year was small in