The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1918-12-03

American holuS, and mas long held,
a monopoly of the worlds cotton pro-
duction.
Every year we raise 100000 to
100000 bales, and bale contains,
on the average, 500 pounds of cotton.
Every year we export something like
100000 bales to keep the European
spindles turning and the balance we
use in our own mills, writes Richard
Hoadley Tingley in the Du Pont Mag
azine. These are peace-time figures,
our war production being too erratic
to base averages upon.
The bales of cotton we send abroad
and to our own mills have long been
disgrace. Pc rfectly good cotton is
baled in such an unscientific, haphaz-
ard, hit-or-miss way that, in its long
journeys, it often loses all semblance
of its original shape and form and be-
comes a mass of dirty, weather
beaten fiber, greatly deprecated in
value. By the time it reaches the
mill, be the mill in Manchester, Eng
land, or Fall River, Mass, it is dis
grace, scandal, a crying imputation
upon our boasted efficiency. Who is
responsible? Many people; many in
tersts.
Measured by the standard of dol
lars cotton ranks second in value of
all our agricultural products, corn be-
ing first. The money value of an
average cotton crop is, at war prices
now prevailing, something like ST.
600, 100000 War cotton is about
double the price of peace cotton. But
be the cotton crop worth $2,000,000,-
600 or half that amount it is of suf-
ticient Importance to command more
respect than it has ever yet received
at the hands of those responsible for
raising, harvesting, ginning, COM
pressing, baling, sampling and trans
porting it to the "haven where it
would be-"
Abuses of Perfectly Good Cotton.
Corn, wheat, hay, sugar, tobacco
and all other agricultural products
are carefully and Systematically pre-
pared, inspected, graded and certi-
fed in accordance with established
rules and based on sound, up-tO-date
business methods. They are so COW
cred as to insure against damage
from rough handling, the vicissitudes
VI "CollLCiy anu 4OOoCo W IIAuG4lGblOJl
and theft. The care devoted to the |
preparation for transportation of |
these commodities indicates intelli- |
gent, progressive and commercial
methods; but behind all this is the /
powerful incentive Of competition,
an incentive that is lacking in the
case of our monopolistic cotton.
The world demands something
more than 100000 bales annually,
a demand that is rapidly increasing.
Since no real competitor country or
group of countries has yet come for
ward it is apparent that all who want
cotton must come to the United
States for it, and necessity compels
them to accept our product in such
form as it is presented, good, bad, or
Indifferent. If the spinners of Eu-
rope could obtain cotton elsewhere
in sufficient quantity and of the right
quality they would not come here
and accept our unsightly, Anticipated
bale.
There is no commodity that enters
into the domestic or foreign trade of
any country so carelessly prepared
and so inadequately covered as our
American cotton. In the markets Of
the world it is priced and eXecrated
in one breath; priced for it's inherent
qualities, execrated for the slovenly
condition IN which it is presented.
This condition is admitted by all.
Annual Waste of $1OO,OOO,O0O
1t is estimated by cotton experts
that at least $1O0,000,000 is annual
ly unnecessarily wasted in one way /,
or another in planting, packing, sam
pling, ginning, COMPRISING, baling |
and transporting this product. In
nearly every one of the processes to |
which cotton is subjected while on its
way from the plantation to the mill
there is remedy that might be APP
piled to eliminate the present unnec-
essary waste; there is an approved
process that could be installed; there
is an economic method of handling
that could be adopted Nearly all
of these are we'll known and prov
en-, and would, if applied, help great
ly in cutting down this 100000,
900 waste that is going on every
year; waste equal to nearly 6 per
cent of the present abnormal value
of the crop; waste nearly equal to
~ per cent of the normal value of a
years crop.
Distinct and separate losses are
sustained in the mutilation of the
fiber in the operation of ginning and
COMPRISING; in exposing the raw
cotton to the elements; in dragging
it through the dirt, oil, and other for
eign matter; in baling it into pack
ages that force the cost of transpor-
tation far beyond what it should be;