Evening star., 1935-01-27
BY HERBERT F. L. ALLEN.

can cotton from world markets at
q not distant date seems more than
q probability.
In the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, the
Belgian Congo, the Cilician Plain OF
Turkey, the valleys of Turkistan and
Azerbaidjan, in Russia, in Mexico,
Brazil and Peru cotton growing is
making rapid strides, under the favor
able conditions of rich virgin soil,
irrigation and low labor costs, while
in the United States cotton growers
are compelled to stagger along under
the heavy burden of high labor
charges and expensive fertilization.
Nor is it clear just what advantages
American cotton growers derive from
a restriction of acreage in this coun-
try when cotton producers all over
the world are expanding their plant
mgs.
Seventy-seven years ago United
States Senator ]. H. Hammond of
South Carolina proudly declared: IF
no cotton is furnished by the South
for three years, England will topple
headlong. You do not dare make war
on cotton. No power on earth dareS
to make war upon it."
England Lost Heavily.
The subsequent cotton famine, end
ing in 1865, did not cause England to
topple, but it did cost the British
cotton trade the then huge sum of
$3.50 100000, not including S20,000,0 600
expended in public aims to relieve her
starving unemployed, and did lead to
an undying determination by the
British government to make war on
American cotton for the express pur-
pose of supplementing it with empire
cotton. an all inclusive term for cotton
of India, Sudan, Egypt, Africa or any
other part of the empire.
At first it was thought that the
development of Egyptian cotton would
bring about the desired displacement
of the American product, and, except
for an early decline in soil fertility
in Egypt. that hope might have been
realized before the beginning OF the
World War. But it was not until
about 1900 that evidences of decreased
production in Egypt seriously attract
ed attention. Two years later the
British Cotton Growers Association
was formed with the definite objective,
as expressed in its prospectus: ITO
relieve Lancashire from its dangerous
dependence on the United States for
material" Evidently England would
never forget that famine Of 186l-65.
Launched with a capital of $780,
900, the new association selected as
its first field of operations the rich
Ghezira Plain of Sudan, containing
4.5Oo square miles, of which 100000
acres consists of the richest black
cotton soil in the world, where 400
pounds of lint to the acre could be
raised without artificial fertilizer and
with natives tilling the fields. Com
pared with Sudan's total area OF
1,O14,400 square miles, this modest
beginning of the British growers was
viewed as a very minor undertaking.
Imperialism for Trade.
Territorial expansion has always en-
abled our foreign competitors to bring
into production virgin lands worked
by cheap labor, and not only Great
Britain, but other nations have freely
expanded their imperialistic policy
whenever the need for raw materials
grew pressing.
United States expansion for cotton
growing lands began in 1902 with the
acquisition of the western territory OF
Georgia, now embracing Alabama and
Mississippi. Next, in 1903, the Loulsi-
ana Purchase gave us Louisiana, Ar
kansas and Missouri, while in 1919
came the cesSion of Florida and in
1845 the vast acreage Of Texas. Later
years found California, New Mexico,
Arizona and Oklahoma among cotton
growing States, but territorial expan-
sion for cotton ended in 1845. Thus
out cotton growing sphere became
limited and bound.
As early as 1902 the British cotton
trade recognized that the Sudan had
certain limitations. The soil was
there, the cheap labor was there, the
climate was there, but water, while
there in seasonal abundance, was not
always available.
A British report gives the eXplana-
ton: "The Blue Nile flows swiftly
north-northwest to Khartoum, where
it empties into the White Nile. 1t
has a discharge of II, ,780 cubic yards
per second at Khartoum in Septem-
ber, but minimum of only 131 cubic
yards in May. Here, then, exists the
reason for Great Britain's desire to
dam the Blue Nile at Lake TSana in
Abyssinia and thereby impound the
waters to provide irrigation for cotton
growing in Sudan.
Child Labor Permitted.
With 100000 meter cube of water
impounded at the mouth of Lake
Tsana, there would be a water re-
serve that would provide irrigation
during a two-year continuous drought
for millions of acres of cotton grown
with native labor, men, women and
children, for while in the United States
child labor is prohibited, the only re-
striction in Sudan is a minimum age
of 10 years, be it for work in the gins
or the fields.
In his mile and the New Sudan"
Sidney Peel says: eff the Sudan Is
to be of any real interest to the cotton
spinners of Lancashire, its export
must be counted, not by few paltry
tens of thousands of kantars, but by
hundreds of thousands, millions" OF
the Ghezira district, comprising the
fertile area between the two Niles, he
says: 1T is the kernel of the Sudan.
1t all comes back to water and irriga-
ton"
To the demand for water, Lake
Tsana in Ethiopia is the only answer,
# American cotton export trade is to
be destroyed. The lake is at an alti-
tude of 6,372 feet above sea level,
Is As miles long, 81 miles wide and
has q depth varying from 80 to At
meters and from 70 to 100 meters,
according to the season. 1t is sur
rounded by high mountains, the water
shed of which rushes down so separate
rivers, causing a flood rise of from
16 to 18 feet. All around the lake
and in the whole of the Blue Nile
Valley there is black cotton soil and
at the mouths of all the largest rivers
flowing into the lake are extensive al
luvial plains also composed of cotton
soil. The main inflow of the lake
IS so DETECTED by certain islands that