Imperial Valley press., 1918-04-01
Great Exodus of Cotton Field Work
ers to the Industrial Plants of the
Coast Section and the Middle West
Has Told on the SituatiOn-Prices
Bound to Go Higher.
BY w. w. Morrison.

ing reduced production of cotton. 1t is
one of the unavoidable results of the
draft. AS other drafts are to follow,
no relief can be expected. On the
contrary, the situation can be expect
ed to become more acute. It seems
well, therefore, that we look into the
prospective effect Of this reduction of
business.
Modern machinery greatly multi
plies the capacity Of labor when it
comes to growing mots of the staple
food crops, especially of grain, and
it incidentally affects the growing of
livestock in the same way. So, this
very scarcity of labor, in connection
with the greater profits in growing
these staples at the prices fixed by
the government, can logically be ex-
pected to increase the output of food
products. For the same reason it
looks as though cotton is the only sta
pie agricultural product that can log
ically be expected to be reduced.
In manufacturing, an increase in the
output of war supplies can, of course,
be looked for. The chief reduction
will be in the manufacture of those
products that go to supply the civil
ian populations of the world. A scar
city in these products has been felt
for some time and there is every rea-
son to believe that the tendency will
be for this scarcity to become more
acute. The. markets every are short
of the primaries, like structural steel,
motive power machinery, farm imple-
ments and woven. goods.
AS this relates to cotton goods, the
writer during an extended trip found
marked shortage in the supply in
all the minor retail markets. Mer-
chants said that it was not cues.
tion of price, but question of get.
ting the goods. The opinion was gen.
eral, also, that there was no relief in
sight. Every day this condition is
and has been, steadily pressing hard
on the primary markets from every
section Of the country and plainly ac.
counts for the sustained, and at times
Somewhat spectacular, advance in the
price of cotton goods. A conspicuous
example of this we have recent,
seen.
This acuteness is traceable to two
well defined causes: The reduction i,
the consumption of raw cotton and the
temporary reduction in the consump
ton of cotton goods. This may ap
pear contradictory on the surface, bu,
that both finally brought about this
situation in the supply of cotton goods
IS perfectly logical. While the wa,
increased the consumption of Inter,
and low grades and the small amount
Iof cotton used in the heavy counts
IKE Osnaburg, it reduced the con.
sumption of spinnable cotton to some
thing like 100000 bales per annum
which means that the output of cot.
ton goods was reduced below the nor.
NAL to that extent. The fact is, the
production of reserve stocks was sum.
marily shut off by the war.
The rigid regime of economy the
war brought about was put into ef-
feet in the use of cotton goods. as il
was in everything else. For a time
people generally used such cotton
goods as they had on hand and bought
nothing new. The demand that came
when these old goods were worn out
quickly absorbed whatever reserve
stock there was in existence when
the war began. With the reserves
gone, demand based upon the abso-
lutte necessities of the world, military
and civilian alike, had to contend with
the condition of under-production to
which we have referred, and which.
1T is important to note, has now been
running for nearly for years.
The Unsuitable demand so conspicu-
Gus, during the last eighteen months
especially, is the perfectly logical out
come of this situation. Clearly this
condition must continue until there is
such an increase in the consumption
of raw cotton that it will, not only
meet this demand, but will create
again good reserve stock of cotton
goods. 1t looks as if it will take
something like 100000 bales of cot