The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1922-12-20
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 20, 1922
A MENACE TO CIVILIZATION.

pending every effort Tor the olscoV'
ery of some means to lessen the dam
ages done by the boil weevil, the
Manufacturers Record, in its cur.
rent issue, states the case strongly
and truthfully when it says:
Cotton is in many respects the
most important single industry in
the world, when we consider it
from its production as a raw mate
rial to its manufacture and its wide
ramifications in world trade. 1t rep
resents an aggregate investment in
lands, in mills and cognate industries
Of $4,000, 100000 or over. The
South alone has about $1,000,00O,-
900 invested in cotton mills, knitting
nils and kindred interests, and many
billions in it's production.
"The development of the cotton
industry during the first half of the
last century was the greatest bust
ness achievement during that period
i, the world. Beginning with a pro-
duction of a few bales in the early
years of that century, cotton-grow-
ing developed in the South to a point
where it largely dominated the fnan-
ces and politics Of this country and
of Europe.
During the Civil Var the famine
in cotton endangered the welfare of
millions Of people in England. The
poverty in the Lancashire district
during that four-year period stands
out as one Of the awful records in
the life of an industrial center. A
few months ago one of the foremost
cotton manufacturers Of England
wrote to an American friend that the
inability of England to secure its
usual supply of American cotton, in
any n year, would cause greater
distress in the Lancashire district
than did the War. Millions of people
in Lancashire are wholly dependent
on the manufacture Of cotton. Mil
lions Of people throughout the world
hundreds of millions, indeed-are
dependent for clothes upon the pro-
duction, from the South's staple, of
the finished cloth. Millions of people
in this country are directly depend
ent upon the growing and handling
Of cotton, while the financial inter-
ests of the nation would be shaken
to their foundation by the loss of
the cotton trade. The South could
weather the storm better than any
other section, because the South
could turn it's farm lands into the
production of diversified agriculture,
once more regaining the prosperity
which never would have been lost if
this section had not by force of cir
cumstances unwisely centered it's
agriculture upon the production of
cotton.
"This great industry, without
which the world could scarcely main
tain it's civilization-for without cot
ton clothes we would sink back into
barbarism-is menaced by the boil
weevl. This is not merely a menace
to the South, for the South could
stand the shock of its cotton crop
being destroyed, better than the
world could stand the loss of cotton
goods. 1t is a menace to the nation
a menace to civilization itself.
at is, therefore, incumbent upon
every agency of this Government
and of all other civilized govern
ments, upon chemical manufacturers,
cotton manufacturers and fnanciers,
to spend money with the utmost free
dom in encouraging chemists and
others to find q remedy for the boil
weevil. Various remedies are being
developed; some of them are nor or
less successful; but the task is very
great. The danger of the destruction
of the cotton industry is so vast that
until the whole nation realizes the
. extent and Importance of that indus
try and the seriousness Of the men,
ace the task will not be tackled on a
scale commensurate with the magni-
tude of the problem to be solved.
"The world faces a cotton famine