Imperial Valley press., 1921-07-13
COTTON WILL
N D VI 4 7
HIGH ER
PRICE
Decided Advance Would
Mean Increased Activity in
Industrial Centers of the
World and Betterment Of
Conditions.
(By w. w. MORRISON.)


The number of representatives of
American firms engaged in exporting
cotton who went to Europe this year
was very large. In fact, the number
was much larger than it has beer at
any time during the last six years.
They were all practical cotton men
and had dependable knowledge of
the cotton trade abroad.
These men have done great deal
towards rehabilitating the spinning
industry in Europe and starting it on
the way to normal conditions. The
truth is, they have really done more
towards re-establishing our foreign
trade in cotton than the government,
whose methods, as expressed through
various finance corporations, have been
cumbersome and inefficient. / guess
it would not be going too far to say
that they have been rather VIGOROUSLY
so.
One of these representatives, re-
Gently returned states that on the
whole, economic and industrial condi-
tions abroad are on the mend, that
labor is fast losing its illusions and
going back to steady work and that
business is rapidly supplanting politics
in the minds of the people. In prac-
tically every detail thsi is in line with
recent report made by authorities
who have for many years maintaincd
most intimate connection with the
industrial, economic and political life
of the Old World.
As regards the status OF the cotton
situation abroad, it was stated tnat,
with the exception of Germany, rlost
countries are loaded up with high
priced cotton, or high priced cotton
goods 1t is thought the liquidation
of this situation may slow up some
what the return of the spinning M
dustry to prewar conditions, ard, as
a consequence, slow up in the same
degree the movement of American cot
ton abroad.
The belief is general, both in this
country and in Europe, that decided
advance in the price of cotton would
greatly accommodate this situation.
AS matter of fact. it is felt among
the best informed that marked and
sustained advance in the price of cot
ton would not only tremendously ac-
celerate the return of the cotton trade
to normal conditions, but would also
affect, in most favorable way, world
conditions generally. Indeed it seems
hardly anything, that it is reasonable
to expect would do more to restore
confidence, which the world just now
seems to need more than anything
else.
1t might be of some interest to state
here that should prices remain around
current levels the prospects are that
the supply next year would oe dras-
ticly reduced again and the result
would be a cotton famine in the rexI
two or three years. This would likely
produce such an upheaval in prices
that it would mean dramatic and
possibly a disastrous disorganizatlon
of the cotton business. So it looks,
when viewed from any angle, that the
best interest of the world is Involved
in the price of cotton going well above
the levels which prevail today
This naturally brings up the quts-
tion of the prospective movement dur
ing the coming year. Many inquiries,
coming to this office, both from this
country and abroad, Indicate that
large interests are beginning to be in-
terested in this matter.
This much can be said: 1t is practis-
ally certain that the financial obliea-
tions against the supply will nave less
to do with its movement into market,
and the price also, than such obliga-
tions ever had before. AS u matter Of
fact, Investigations tend to show that
obligations existing now against the
carry-over are very much less than
the public generally believe them to
be and there is nothing to indicate
that such as there are witt press fer
liquidation. Wherever liquidation has