Weekly journal-miner., 1921-07-27
COTTON MARKET TED BY SAME
 DUTY HANDICAP
By AARON H. POWERS Editor of Yavapai Magazine.


 to this country without any trouble. This was true during the fiscal year ending June 30 1913, before the Un- derwood tariff went into effect. We raised so huge a proportion of the cotton of the world and the other countries had to use so much Of the cotton America produced, that it was the American crop that fixed the worlds cotton prices, with variations established by the law of supply and demand.
 But with ali the rest of the world broke and unable to pay real money for cotton, we found in 1920 that the other countries wanted America for a market What was more, they were so badly in need of money and all other markets were so demoral- ized that they were obliged to have our market. As a result, the Ameri- can cotton grower sent his goods in to a market glutted with foreign goods and offered by sellers who had to get the money, no matter
 
 1t easier for the foreign grower was that he had no taxes to pay on raw cotton while the American grower was heavily taxed to meet the enor- nous tax bill of the nation and had heavy freight bills due largely to the excessive wage scale of railroad labor in this country.
 The foreign manufacturer was not wholly freed from taxes. The tar ifs on manufactured cottons were just about cut in half The imports of cotton goods with a lessened tar if restraint, was just about doubled.
 Under the ordinary demand of 1913, there was shipped into this country 166680,918 pounds of cot ton. In 1920, when the American grower tried to sell his cotton, he had to face the fact that foreign countries had shipped into America, without any tax, 299,994,353 pounds. Every pound of this cotton took away the market for a pound of American grown cotton because there was no market for cotton abroad at any price.
 Manufactured cotton goods were shipped into America during the ifs cal year ending June 30, 1913, to the extent of $62,133808. They paid a tax to America of $34,153,263.26. Dur ing the calendar year of 1920, similar imports had jumped to $123, ,576, although the taxes paid were only $50, 1884, ,929.27. It must be remem- bered that every dollars worth of these goods took away the market for a dollars worth of goods made by American workmen. It also les sened the possible market for Ameri- can cotton by that amount.
 These things help us to understand why the growers of the Salt River valley could find no market for their cotton. Of course, many American factories had to be shut down, owing to the enormous influx of foreign made goods. But some of them kept going. When these mills went into the market for cotton, they did not ask: Where was it grown?" They asked: What is the price?" And no matter what the price was, the 1 American cotton was not taken be- cause, in the face of an offering of American cotton, the foreign grower was prepared to say: "I will shade | the price"
 It cost the foreigner about one fifth as much for freight to ship his long fiber cotton from Egypt to Boston as it did for the Phoenix man to reach the same market by rail. Wages were hugely less. Taxes were not so heavy Besides, the American dollar is worth about $1.30 | in English money today. Added to this is the fact that the foreign grower is in this market because he must sell and intends to sell and the kind, noble, generous American, moved by brotherly love, holds the bag.
 The most unfortunate feature of these conditions IS that the countries of the world are going to remain inn POhOl4ohCu lOl dHOlllGI generation, al least. This means that if America wishes to continue to raise long fiber cotton, and sell 1t, she must do one of two things. She must either re- duce her labor costs to those of the fellaheen of the valley of the Nile, and then some more to offset the higher freight rates and the rate of exchange, or else she must put such tariff on cotton as will make up ( for the difference in the costs of i production on cotton landed in the ! American market Unfortunately there is large group of men in Arizona who belong tc a party, one of the prime tenets of which is that a protective tariff is a crime" The partisans/ of this . group cannot recognize that in this { country, producing almost immeasur- { able new wealth each year, a protect ' i've tariff is necessary if that wealth f is to remain in America, to be di. vided among Americans. The cotton growers of Arizona and those who t