COTTON STATISTICS. [Compiled in the Bureau of Statistics, Department of Commerce and Labor.] Number of spindles in the world-Latest returns from various sources. North South............ 15,150,000 15,050,000 14,590,000 14,290,000 13,900,000 13,900,000 6,400,000 5,819,835 4,540,515 3,987,735 3,670,290 3.456,537 Consumption of cotton in the United States. Number bales taken by Southern spinners in 1902....... Total bales taken by United States......... Exports of cotton from the United States. Total exports in 1902.... Total burned in 1902....... Total stock on hand at end of year.. Of the world's crop of cotton for the six years ended June 30, 1902, the United States produced 74.6 per cent. It will be noticed that for the entire six years the total production was only 192,866 bales more than the consumption. Average prices per pound and acreage in United States, 1897-1902. STATE OF THE COTTON INDUSTRY IN CONTINENTAL EUROPE FROM REPORTS FOR APRIL, 1903. Russia.-Reports from Moscow and Lodz state that business is not so good as last year, especially for spinners. Neither fabrics nor yarn have advanced in proportion to the advance in raw material, while the production of cotton fabrics has overtaken the demand. Producers of print goods have done better than other manufacturers. The stocks of cotton at the mills of Moscow are small, while stocks at the mills of Lodz are larger than last year. More East Indian and less American is being used. Germany. From the reports of the condition of the industry for the whole of Germany, it is shown that after a poor opening business has grown better, owing to the improvement in the leading branches of trade. The consumption of cotton is estimated at from⚫ 5 to 10 per cent over that of last season. Stocks of cotton at mills are somewhat larger. Austria.-Business reported much better than last season for those spinning East Indian and the few who spin Egyptian. The only complaints come from those who spin high-class American, whose margin of profit was lost after the big advance and who are now working at an actual loss. The consumption of cotton has been up to the fullest capacity of the mills, and production has met with a ready sale. Stocks of cotton at the mills are smaller than a year ago. Switzerland.-On the whole, the business of the current season has been unsatisfactory. This is attributed mostly to the fluctuation of American cotton. On account of this the weavers have adopted a hand-to-mouth policy, producing only as orders are filed, which places the spinner in a more unfavorable position, as he must be ready with yarn to fill quick orders. As to stocks on hand, a few are supplied to the end of the season, but others for only two or three months. On the whole, however, there is more cotton at the mills than at this time last year. France.-Business has not been more satisfactory than was the case last season. Spinners have done better than manufacturers, having a ready sale for their yarns at small profits or without loss; but manufacturers have been less fortunate. After reducing prices to a loss, they still have accumulated stocks, owing to the slow demand from distributing buyers. The stocks of cotton at the mills are larger than at this time last year. BRITISH AND GERMAN COTTON SUPPLY. I select for publication, without comment, three articles—one from the London Times, one from the Daily Mail, and the third from the London correspondence of the Birmingham Daily Post. They indicate that earnest effort is being made, governmental and otherwise, both in Great Britain and Germany, to render these two countries less dependent on the United States for raw cotton. MARSHAL HALSTEAD, BIRMINGHAM, July 10, 1903. Consul. THE COTTON INDUSTRY OF LANCASHIRE, GERMANY, AND THE UNITED STATES, [From the London Times, July 9, 1903.] SIR: Mr. Macara's letter is the sort of contribution that is needed in the present discussion; he deals with specific facts and thoroughly understands his subject. I should be glad if you would allow me to make a few observations on it from the point of veiw of an outside observer who has particularly studied the conditions prevailing in the cotton industry in Lancashire, Germany, and the United States. It has a very instructive bearing on our industrial position, because it is the most important of our world-competing manufactures, and, except wool combing and spinning, it is the one in which we still retain the most decided superiority over our rivals. Further, it is one of which none of the most frequently mentioned causes of relative decline holds good. The charge of neglect brought against manufacturers does not apply to the Lancashire cotton mills; the mills themselves are as modern as any others, and the machinery is kept more up to date than anywhere else. 2. Technical education is not at fault; the Lancashire technical schools are better equipped for their work and far more largely attended than similar establishments in Germany and America. 3. The machinery for settling labor disputes is the most complete and the most successful in existence. I can not give here the evidence for these statements, but I have it. They clear the ground of a number of obstacles and permit an unusually good view of the essential position. Now, I believe that Mr. Macara is absolutely right in everything he says and that the conditions he enumerates-particularly the superior skill of the operatives-will enable Lancashire to “continue to secure a fair share of the trade of the world" in cotton spinning, cotton weaving, and the manufacture of cotton machinery (a very important item) if—and this is the pointthings go on as they are. He shrinks, and with reason, from any change which would enhance the cost of production; but he seems to me to make exactly the same mistake as many others who take the same view. He does not contemplate any other change but the proposed fiscal one in the existing conditions; he assumes that otherwise they will go on as they are, and says, "Let well alone." But, sir, I venture to say that no one that carefully studies this industry at home and abroad will admit that such an assumption can safely be made. The fact is that competition is only beginning, or, rather, it is only reaching the point at which it is beginning to be felt, and it will not stop there. Germany and America, to mention no one else, will go on in their respective ways-the one steady, deliberate, methodical, and farseeing; the other with spasmodic and adventurous leaps. The ground they have captured is nothing to what they mean to capture. They have overcome the climatic difficulties and they are acquiring the skill. As the director of the Aix la Chapelle technical school said to me the other day, “It is only a matter of time." Already they spin at Chemnitz for their hosiery and underclothing factories and at Munich-Gladbach for the 16,000 cotton looms in that district; already at New Bedford, in Massachusetts, they spin the highest counts-I have some yarn of 150 counts taken off the spindles there-while the Southern States have captured our China trade in coarse goods and are capturing the Indian; already English machinery, which was indispensable a few years ago, is disappearing from German and American mills. They make their own looms, and, though the spinning mules of Oldham, Manchester, and Bolton are still unrivaled, the American ring spinning frames are superior and becoming more and more efficient, and they mean to go on with all might. I do not take a desponding view of British industries. Our competitors have their defects and they have their own troubles to come; our people have more natural energy and in many respects more capacity, and with a fair field they can hold their own. Perhaps they need no assistance; it would be a splendid exhibition of capacity and resource if they kept their place in spite of the handicap. I should love to see it. But will they? For the moment, yes; Mr. Macara is right. But in ten years time? The handicap is heavy. Their competitors have the following advantages: (1) Longer hours of work; (2) less State interference; (3) more State help; (4) lower wages in (parts of) Germany; (5) unrestricted child labor in the Southern States; (6) a protective tariff. Now, if our cotton industry is to keep in check the steadily advancing wave of competition, which has already passed the point where it begins to damage, either greater efforts must be made and more work put into the business, or the handicap must be reduced. For my own part I think the first alternative is greatly preferable, and I believe that Lancashire-both employers and employed-will do their honest best; but when I think of the odds against them I doubt if it will be enough. Your obedient servant, SAVILLE CLUB, July 4. A. SHADWELL. EMANCIPATION FROM AMERICA FOR COTTON SUPPLY. [From the London Daily Mail of July 10, 1903.] The Colonial Office, thanks to the active interest of Mr. Chamberlain, is strongly supporting with money and other help an effort that will make cotton "corners" impossible. Ever since the American civil war men have preached that it is madness for us to remain solely dependent on America for our raw-cotton supplies. For a long time no one heeded them. Then last year the British Cotton Growing Association was formed, and it promises within a few years to revolutionize the situation. Its first step was to obtain experts-mostly young Americans-to go to the colonies and examine what could be done to start plantations and to watch results. · The Colonial Office agreed to pay the salaries of these experts, the association finding the men and sending the seed. Up to the present there is every promise of success on purely commercial lines. The British Cotton Growing Association aims to raise £50,000 ($243,325) as a guaranty fund for the experiments, and already has raised the greater part of it. GERMAN COLONIAL COTTON. [From the London correspondence of the Birmingham Daily Post.] I learn from Berlin that there is being sent to the Foreign Office a copy of a report that has been furnished to the German Government on the cotton-growing experiments which have been made in German West Africa. These experiments, which have extended over nearly two years, and which for the past two months have been made under the supervision of some American experts, who were specially engaged by the German Government, have proved by demonstration, I am told, that cotton and also flax might be produced in great quantities in the territories, and that only capital is wanted to make large industries out of them. BRITISH COTTON SUPPLY. The very interesting question to American planters, the supply of the British cotton markets with cotton other than that from the United States, India, etc., is discussed in a late number of the South African Exports. It says: The dependence of the Lancashire mills on the Southern States of America for a supply of raw cotton will soon be greatly modified. For some time past businesslike experiments have been in progress to ascertain the possibility of growing marketable cotton in some of the central districts of Rhodesia. The results are absolute. Rhodesia will grow first-class marketable cotton from either Indian, Egyptian, American, or indigenous seed. Samples of Rhodesian cotton have been dealt with by a Liverpool cotton broker, and it has been found that they will be able to command the highest prices on the Liverpool market for white cotton. A syndicate has been formed to embark in cotton growing in Rhodesia for the British market. It is to engage in the enterprise under special advantages. The cropping of some of the varieties is continuous, and during the harvesting period of the crops there is an ample, even overwhelming, supply of native labor available on the spot. The cotton crop matures just when the native mealie crop is ending, and is ready to be picked exactly at that season when the native, having gathered his own, has nothing in particular to do. He plows after the September rains and gathers in his harvest from March till the middle of April, while the cotton ripens in May. There appears no difficulty in the way of securing a permanent African cotton supply, or in other words there is nothing to operate against the syndicate obtaining a perfect success. Of the economic value of such a market to the country we need say nothing. It is obvious. COBURG, June 15, 1903. OLIVER J. D. HUGHES, |