New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-09-04

pressed in that republic. 1.-THE import
trade OF China has, up to the present
practically only been done with the
coastal and river ports. The inland
foreign trade has been negligible, great
~ because Of the likin tax, which pro-
hibiitively increases the price of i'm
ported comm ODDITIES in localities that can
less afford to pay high prices than those
nearer the coast and main waterways"
All attempts to abolish this trade him
ORANGE have proved abortive, the prin-
cipal difficulty being that the likin tax
Is under provincial control. With the
abolition of this imposition the i'm
portation of foreign goods should be
tremendously increased" American
exports e0 Of piece goods to China in
1919 were 100000 yards. Time was,
when cotton was cheap, that this coun,
try sent two to three times that many
millions dollars worth Of it's cotton
goods to China.
India is also land of enormous
latent possibilities. Usually that coun-
try of some 320,000,0O0 people takes
about 40 per cent of the total export
output of the British cotton mills. AS
the second largest cotton producing
country of the world, India is making
great efforts to emulate our own South
and spin year after year, more and
more of her own crop. AS matters
stand at the present time she exports
oo per cent Of her cotton raw, Is per
cent is sent abroad in the form of warn
and the remainder is spun in the
indian mills. 1t is computed that the
production of the mills to-day is ca
pable of satisfying between IS and 40
per cent OF the present requirements
Of the country for factory made pro-
ducts. Enormous quantities of crude
cloths are still made, and the yarns
Tor them spun by hand. 1t is taken for
granted that India will perforce be
dependent upon imports for the better
grades of fabrics and yarns until the
quality of the home grown cotton is
very much improved. Since 1901. the
production of Indian mills has in
creased five times, and her imports since
dSl3 have steadily decreased, being
o,l97 100000 yards in that year, and
l,O81 100000 yards in 19l9-192O.
In l919-1920 the mills of India pro-
duced 636, 100000 pounds Of yarn for
sale, and exported 51,870,000 pounds.
greater quantity than was spun for
sale by the factories of this country.
and more than seven times the Amer
lean exports of cotton yarn in that year.
BESIDES which, she is successfully in
vading the export field with her piece
goods; To nearby Asiatic countries
and East Africa she exported in 1918
o3,234,O 900 yards and in 1919, 1885,
900 yards.
How almost every commodity has
an influence, direct or indirect, on cot
ton, and therefore on the wellbeiny of
the United States, is illustrated in a
publication Of the National City Bank
New York;. 'The loss of the Russian
market has affected seriously India"
Ii. says. because Russia consumed
about 20 per cent of all the tea grown
in the world. Tea has had calami-
tous fall, and the ability of India to
buy cotton goods affects the ability Of
Manchester to buy American cotton.
1T Likewise affects the price of silver,
and the fall of silver has affected the
ability Of both India and China to i'm
port goods from the Western world"
SO that altogether the Orient will
influence the future Of the American
cotton trade, both grower, manufac-
turer and merchant, more and more as
time goes on. AS facilities for equip
ment return, India and China are pre-
parlng to take as much of the available
product OF machinery as they can get
The former country has for the first
time a protective duty of II per cent
on cotton manufactures, and. although
Lancashire is fighting tooth and nail
to prevent this protection being ex-
tended beyond the year, it is for the
present established, for the Indian con-
tingent of the empire are just as
strenuously contending that this pro-
vision of the Indian tariff be made
permanent. And the significance Of all
this to America lies in the fact that
every curtailment of Englandss exports
to this, her dominant overseas market.
will strengthen her efforts to capture
an ever increasing share of the cotton
goods purchases of every other i'm
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