292 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



of the thoughtful members who are already considering whether 

 natural science cannot give them a better and more dependable 

 supply, the extra cost of which would be covered by less expense 

 in the preparatory stages of spinning. 



The trend of affairs is to indicate therefore that natural 

 science will before long be called upon — indeed, the call has 

 already been made — to link together the widely separated ends 

 of the cotton trade, the grower and the spinner. The task will 

 not be an easy one, nor will it be done in a year. The two 

 persons who ultimately typify the grower and spinner are 

 respectively a skilful but uneducated native, working simply 

 for the maximum profit with the minimum of trouble, and a 

 highly skilled operative, cramped by trade unionism and working 

 within a specialised series of operations by rule of thumb. 

 When transport facilities were such that the employer of one 

 could not reasonably expect ever to see the work of the other, 

 much had to be taken for granted, or admitted as inevitable, 

 which now demands explanation or reform. 



We must not jump to the conclusion that all responsibility 

 for the past half-century of uneventfulness lies with the spinner, 

 though if circumstances had made it worth his while to formulate 

 his demands in a form which bore some relation to the exigencies 

 of cotton-growing, more progress might have been made quietly. 

 The grower has also a large share of responsibility to bear, or — 

 since he is personally low down the social and intellectual 

 scale — his advisers must bear it for him. Bodies of various 

 kinds, official and private, have come into existence of late 

 years, as the realisation of the coming needs began to dawn, but 

 their concern has naturally been to meet the immediate urgency 

 for greater output on the one side, or to raise prices on the 

 other. This urgency chimes with the interests of the countries 

 concerned, who find in cotton, or in an increased output of it, 

 a source of extra revenue. Many economic considerations render 

 rapid expansion impossible, even in areas which are capable of 

 growing good cotton, the chief of these being the need for cheap 

 labour, and even the favoured areas will soon find it necessary 

 to meet the increasing labour cast by producing cotton of higher 

 value or of greater yielding-capacity. Increased production 

 may in its turn depress the price, but a steadily increasing 

 demand for fine cotton may be confidently expected. 



The circumstances on both sides of the trade have thus been 



