Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-09-19
a., ..1rity Shrouds Deceit

IeSSu1p
,fton have be IN issued by the
British Board of Trade. There reg
nations do not affect the price OF
Southern cotton, but. on the contrary,
are themselves governed by the price
Of cotton here. Paragraph 3 OF The
resulat tons states: The spot prices
ruling in the Southern States of Am
erica in the case of American cotton,
and in Alexandria in the case OF
Egyptian cotton, shall be taken as the
basis Of official value, and to this
shall be added approximate cost Of
transportation. insurance" etc. The
naxinum price at which raw cotton
may be bought or sold shall not eZ-
coed by more than five per cent. the
official value last fixed for the cot
ton" according to paragraph S, but if
any seller can prove to the satlsfac-
ton Of the board that the cotton ne
proposes to sell exceeds the maxi
mum price authorized. the board can
in its discretion permit him to sell al.
reasonable increase over the au-
thorized price.
These regulations have been adop-
ted in the hope Of putting a stop to
speculation in cotton. bat profiteering
in the commodity il this country will
go on apace nevertheless. This calls
to mind an Inconsistency on the part
of the cotton growers of the Southern
states. who exercise such firm control
over the American Congress. They
are, probably without single eXcep-
ton. free traders, believing that pol
icy to be proper which enables them
To sell their cotton abroad and with
the proceeds to purchase foreign
goods made at production costs far
under ours, due to the low wage
scales in Europe and the Orient. They
have recently given evidence Of an
extreme solicitude for England, which
has manifested itself in their ex-
pressed desire to have no protective
rates of duty written into the tariffs
of this country which will tend to re-
strict imports of British textiles and
other manufactures competing with
the products of our own mills. In eff
feet they say: England has been so
staunch an ally. so firm friend, has
bled so freely for us, acting as our
first line of defense, that it would be
base ingratitude to enact a tariff. Jaw
! which would fail to give England the
freest hand in our domestic market,
and enable her to pay her war indeb-
tedness with goods instead Of gold"
Sounds altruistic, doesn't it?
Obviously the retort is that for two
and half years Southern control Of
Congress prevented us from helping
England in the war, prevented us
from making any prepa ration for the
war, whereby we we're forced to de-
pend on England for a large part oe
our war equipment, was followed by q
campaign playing up peace sentiment
for a second term of Southern con-
troll and now we find the cotton
crow, taking advantage of our
staunch ally by demanding profiteer
prices for cotton, and preventing a
fxation of price of war tax on that
product by this government over
which they hold the whip hand.
Charity may cover a multitude ,f
sins, but it rarely succeeds in shroud-
ing deceit Lord Northcliffe. and
other British leaders knew where
sympathy for England was to BE
found before the war. There also is
to be found the sentiment for protec-
ton to home industries, not for the
purpose of injuring England, but in
order to preserve our own industrial
structure.