Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1919-10-19
THE COTTON PROBLEM.

session at New Orleans the past week,
at which 81 nations were represented,
a neminent authority on economics
declared that "a restriction IN corvu.,
acreage would be nothing short of a
calamity, says the Dispatch.
The requirements, he said, were
unlimited, and his judgment was sup
ported by textile manufacturers from
England, Italy, Switzerland and 9th
err nations. The textile industry in
those countries is slowly getting
back to normal, but the Old Worlo..
demand for cotton goods far exceeds
the manufacturers productive
capacity and if anything should hap
pen to reduce the supply Of the raw
material the consequences would be
distressing.
But the cotton broker, whose
| spokesman was President Shottowe
Wanamaker of the American Cotton
association. presented another slice If
the picture. Mr.. Wanamaker said
that cotton had been the curse Of all
the Southern states. The industry,
he pointed out, had depended for it's
very life on cheap labor. White wo-
men and children have to go into the
cotton fields because the price Of
cotton, except under abnormal and
rare circumstances, did not permit
the employment of capable, well-paid
labor. This condition, he insisted,
must be remedied, and the world con-
ference, he frankly stated, would be
a failure if it did not effect some
understanding between manufactur-
ers and growers which secured for
the latter price that would raise the
growing Of cotton from level Of
serfdom to the plane of an American
industry.
| Further, the arguments, one might
say, the entreaties, of Europe against
a reduction of cotton acreage at the
New Orleans convention must have
provoked some confusion among the
people of Louisiana, where decid-
eddy spirited political campaign for
the democrats nomination for COVER
nor is now being waged, in which the
future of the states agriculture is
one of the big issues. The necessity
Of crop diversification, which, after
all, is but another way of advocating
a reduced cotton acreage, has been
strikingly shown by one Of the cam
didates. According to the figures
quoted, Louisiana last year produced
only 40 per cent of it's stock feed
corn, oats and hay-spending $780,
100000 for those supplies in other
states. Of dairy products but Is per
cent was grown at home, while $780,
100000 worth was imported. So with
other produce, the result being that
Louisiana sends out annually more
than $100,000,000 of her money for
food and feed hich could be produced
at home.
i Obviously, production in this desir-
able variety can only be attained by
diverting some of the acreage or, at
least, a good deal of the energy,
which now goes into cotton. More
over, the movement for crop diver
!; sification has already made sub
stantial progress in many of the
Southern states and is steadily win
nj gfavor. 1t is sound policN.gIt is
making a happier, more prosperous
South. No valid objection can be
offered to it. But it means cotton,
unless, as Mr.. WanamaKer explained,
the production of cotton is made a
profitable business, conducted ac-
cording to American standards.
4 There can be little doubt that the
| problem Of cotton production will be
solved, and though its solution can