398 THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD I May 1, 1914. 



Ijerforce he of interest to the niliher inamifai-turer phice of the pi ippy. 'J"hc resuh is that the Chinese cot- 

 In The India Ritsber ^\■()KI.D of hist Nt)\embcr ton out])Ut for the present year will eonsideraljly ex- 

 attention was called to the t|^reat proportionate increase ceed 5,000,000 liales. China has already be,t;un to ex- 

 in the production of foreign cotton over American cot- port cotton, some of it tioin;;- to Japan, which hitherto 

 ton, and it was pointed out that the cotton production has been a considerable ])iirchaser of American cotton 

 of India — which in 1910 amounted to 1,400,000 bales — t;oods, but which now is e(|uipped to do much of its 

 would for the present season probably reach 6,000,000 own manufacturini;, 



bales. Recent information brings to light such a pro- It is obvious that our ."-louthern States can no 



nounced increase in cotton growing in another eastern lunger maintain their serene confidence in their own su- 



quarter that it now seems necessary to toncede that i)remacy. They cannot compete with the cheap lab(.)r 



the position which .\nierica has held for a hundred of India and China, and if they are to hold their own 



years, of producing the larger part of the cotton sup- in this vast industry, which for a number of years has 



ply of the world, can no longer be maintained, as the added to the wealth of the South a billion dollars a 



combined production from foreign fields will un- year, they must tind some way of using more nia- 



doubtedlv this year surpass that of our Southern chinery and less hand lal)or. It is a well-known fact 



States. tliat there has been \cry little development in the 



For a number of years past the entire cotton produc- methods of growing, picking and handling cotton since 



tion of the world has been placed in the neighborhood the time when Andrew Jackson made such an effective 



of 22,000,000 bales, of which the United States pro- entrenchment of it at New Orleans-^a hundred years 



duced two-thirds. During all these years several for- ago. Hitherto there has been no compelling necessity 



eign governments— particularly England, France and f'"" improving these methods, but with the great and 



German) — have made supreme efforts to inaugurate rapidly growing competition from the East this neces- 



cotton growing on a large and profitable scale in their ^it.v 'la^ now arrived and undoubtedly will prove ef- 



various colonies. England especially has spent a vast fe^'tive in introducing many economies in American 



sum of money in this endeavor, and has met with a cotton production. With greater competition and 



certain measure of success— in Egypt and in Southern the exercise of economy which it may necessitate, the 



India. But outside of these two localities these gov- l"''ce of cotton should gradually drop : and with the 



ernment operations have not resulted in a satisfactory greatly decreased price of rubber the manufacturer of 



way, and the Southern States have felt secure in their t'res and other articles combming these two materials 



supremacy. Hut it api)ears now that in a distant ^an confidently look forward to permanently lower costs. 



quarter of the globe which has been considered almost -^ ~ 



negligible and as in no way threatening American cot- THE LONDON RUBBER SHOW IN JUNE. 



ton dominatitm there has recently taken place such an 



impetus in cotton planting as to bring the entire for- tT is the pleasant and commendable custom oi many 



eign cotton production to an aggregate figure higher 1 men in the American rubber trade to tie up, early 



than that accredited to our own country, where this in June, the cares and perplexities of manufacture and 



year's production is estimated at a little under 15,000,- distribution for summer storage and to betake them- 



000 bales. selves across the water to get in touch for a month or 



This new cotton menace comes from China. The two with the more ancient ci\ilization of the Conti- 



Chinese have raised cotton for many centuries, but iient. It is timely, therefore, to remind all such of the 



only for local consumption, the cotton being spun by Rubber Show which will open in London, in the Royal 



hand close to the field where it was grown. But during .Agricultural Hall, on the 24th of June, and continue 



the last few years a numlier of factories have been erected until the 9th of July. 



in the vicinity of Shanghai, and an additional great This is the fourth International Rubber Exposition, 

 impulse to cotton growing has been given by the gov- The first was held in London in 1908. It was necessar- 

 ernment inhibition against the opium trade, which ily somewhat experimental, but it proved so success- 

 makes it necessarv that tlie fields previously de- ful tliat it was followed three years later by another 

 voted to the poppy plant should be turned to some exposition, held in the same city, but much larger in 

 other use: and in most instances cotton has taken the its scope. The third International Exposition it is not 



