New-York tribune., 1921-08-28
Cotton Comment
By William Whittam
Formerly Special Agent U. S. De-
mn ,.f A, ,.,t

i/e1| cWtNt " commerce
"The torpid manufacturers of tho
United States, who are now rapidly
supplanting US in many foreign mar
kets"
That was the lament of DR.. Ure In
the introduction to his two volumes,
"The Cotton Manufacture of Great
Britain Systematically Investigated"
written in 1885 Further on he adds:
Accumulated pressure never fails to
force open new outlets of trade, or t6
widen the preexisting channels with
the effect of not merely restoring the
equilibrium between demand and sup
ply, but Of giving fresh impulse to
production. 1t is surprising how small
surplus of commodities is capable Of
inducing a great depreciation in their
value"
AS to the gloomy forebodings of the
learned doctor anent America taking
British overseas markets for manu-
factured cottons, it is to be borne in
mind that in his day the United States
English cotton goods, and although we
were gradually supplanting Lancashire
made fabrics with those of home make,
the Briton was giving practical dem
onstration of the verify of the second
assertion of the Victorian COM
mentator, for in the year 1912, nearly
eighty years having elapsed, we find
England exporting 1894, 1888 900 worth
Of cotton, against American exports of
Sal, ,251 900.
AS one country after another built
factories of its own to supply domestic
requirements and to compete in the
markets Of manufacturing coun-
tries, England pushed her trade in
India, China and other lands which had
previously supplied their own scant
clothing needs She gave them factory
made fabrics Of better quality for
less price, paid in the products of their
own labor.
Despite this and other similar expert
ences that are found scattered through
the recorded pages of the progress of
modern commerce, we encounter body
Of pessimists among American mer-
chants who are constantly lamenting
the fact that Japan has taken from us
the cotton goods trade of China. which
few years ago constituted by far our
biggest foreign market These pessi-
mists either ignore or are ignorant of
the fact that we are to-day selling more
manufactured cottons in foreign coun-
tries than ever.
There is no cause for the cotton in
dustry to worry, as some of it's leaders
seem to be doing, fearing that the
saturation point of consumption has
been reached. All these melancholy
! mortals need to remember is that the
worlds per capita consumption Of cot
ton has trebled since 1860, being two
pounds then and six pounds now.
There are more than 400 100000 peo-
pie in China and some 319OOO,OOO in
habitants of India who are slowly and
continuously increasing their per cap
ita consumption of cottons. Indeed,
these are the only cloths that will come
within the reach Of the purse of the
coolies and ryots of these regions of
the world for some generations at
least.
The Oriental countries China, . In
dia, the Dutch East Indies, Indo- China
and the ippines-took 70 per cent
of the worlds exported cotton manu-
factures in the three years before the
outbreak of the World War, and al
though the cotton manufacturing in
dustry in India, China and japan is
growing apace, the exporters of Eu-
rope and America need not concern
themselves, because past experience
furnishes no grounds for the belief
that the increase in the manufacturing
capacity Of these countries will, over a
long period, keep up, much less over
foE Ea 10 Cf
sumo the output of their new mills and
at the same time take more and more
from their present exterior sources Of
supply.
While India is the second largest pro-
ducer of raw cotton, ranking next to
the United States, cotton satisticians
are prone to overlook the fact that
although China exports comparatively
fiber in considerable quantity for con-
sumption on hand spinning and weaving
machines as we'll as for use in the fac
tories of the country.
China now has 1889, 900 spinning
spindles. and last year imported $3.50
bales of foreign cotton compared with
10000 in 1919. In 1914 there were only
about 100000 spindles in the factories
Of the country. Nevertheless, in that
year, dCCOIulHS 10 INC 1nlnCSc vi lnlSCrV
Of Agriculture, there was an annual
cotton production Of over 100000
bales Of 500 pounds each during the
three years, 1909-1911. Since the cult
walton of the poppy has been sup
pressed, cotton culture has taken its
place to considerable degree.
Our American cable service from
American consular officers reported a
few days ago that in 1920 China con
sumed nearly 1,GO0,0 bales of cotton
in the modern cotton mills"
At home our distressed cotton grow
crs are travelling in circle. Their
efforts have been almost altogether
directed toward shifting the surplus
from American to European ware
houses. Their influence has been po-
tent in pcrsuading Congress to provide
a billion dollars to facilitate this pet
scheme Of theirs. Time runs against
its success. 1t is true that the monthly
average supply Of American cotton dur
ing 1920 was 3,915,000 bales, or ,442,-
600 bales greater than the monthly
average Of the preceding seven years
This overload may be removed when
the cotton producing section of the
community finds a new type of leader
One who can set up a workable plan
which will increase the productive and
therefore, the purchasing power of
both the war stricken nations of Eu-
rope and the backward peoples of the
Orient and SOuth America Thop ~, n