The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-11-23
COTTON PRICES
HIT BRITISH
LOOMS
Coupled With Lack Of Demand
for Finished Product,
Industry Suffers.
By DAVID M. CHURCH,
international News Service.

LONDON, Nov. 23.- England's
great cotton industry is face to face
with a crisis that threatens its very
existence.
Due to high costs Of raw cotton
and decreased demand for cotton
products it is conservatively es-
timated that the cotton industry of
England has suffered losses of near
ly $500, 100000 since the present
trade depression started.
In the great cotton manufacture
ing districts of Lancashire, there
is great unemployment and de-
preston and there appears to be
a disposition to throw some of the
blame on America, for its failure
to lower the cost Of raw cotton.
1.-THE American Cotton growers,
in spite of the restricted demand,
have been able to command a good
price for their product, and doubt
less have made their usual profits,
If not the war profits" declares a
report Of the Anlalgamated Associa-
ton of Card and Blowing Room
Operatives. "In spite Of the re-
duced demand. American cotton is
still about three times the pre-war
price, and there does not appear to
be much prospect of any relief in
that direction"
U. s. Scale Higher.
Arthur Preston, who recently
made q tour of the cotton belt of
the United States, reported to the
International Cotton Federation
that the United States is not able
to produce cotton on a. commercial
basis low enough for the purchas-
ing power of the consumer in Eng
land and abroad. Preston further
declared that the worlds cotton
industry is faced with serious
shortage of raw material, and that
the United States is not likely TO
be able to produce for some years
to come anything likeAthe quantity
which would enable manufacturers
to supply the quantities requir ed.
IL a normal demand for cotton
goods should set in.
The crisis is attacked from an
entirely different angle by j. w.
Newbold, communist member OF
Parliament, who charges that she
cotton magnates have INDUCED in
"a colossal swindle'' and have u1-
loaded stock in their factories on
the small investors, with full know
ledge that the cotton industry in
England was on a rapid decline.
"Eighty-five million pound has
been taken out Of your pockets by
localized sharks" Newbold told q
meeting of Lancashire cotton work
ers. "In return you have been pre-.
scented with the cotton mills OF
Lancashire. You are told in the
press every day that there is no
hope for the cotton industry IN
Lancashire for years to come.
Saw Failure Coming.
.These people who sold the mills
knew what they were doing. They
kneN that the cotton industry OF
Lancashire was finished so far as
the capitalist system is concerned.
They knew that they had got ma
chinery going into India, into China
and into Japan. They knew that
they would be in a position within
the. course of the next few years
to produce there nearly all the
cotton required in the markets OF
the East, and that the mills OF
this country could not produce
cotton unless wages were driven
down and hours heightened"
Remedies galore have been sug
gested for the pitiful condition OF
the cotton trade, the chief suggeS
ton being that cotton growing shall
be encouraged and increased in the
Empires dominions.
While remedies are being con
sidered, however, conditions in the
industry are fast approaching those
pitiful conditions which arose dur
ing the great cotton famine.