THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[May 1, 1920. 



Stabilizing Southwest Cotton Industry. 



CorroN-GRowiNG is assuming such large proponions iu the 

 Southwest, and so many are the problems to be solved 

 in connection with the expanding industry, that lead- 

 ing growers and dealers in this essential commodity of auto- 

 mobile tire manufacture have formed the Pacitic Cotton Ex- 

 change in Ixis Angeles, California, which will also make 

 the latter city the chief distributing point for the product of 

 the plantations of California and Arizona. The establishment 

 of the exchange is expected to give the raising of Pima or 

 long-staple cotton a great impetus in the states named, and 

 incidentally yield considerable service to the rapidly grow- 

 ing rubber industry in southern California, which was be- 

 ginning to feel keenly the need of such a "balance wheel" 

 for the new cotton trade. 



One of the chief objects of the exchange, as set furtli liy 

 its president, Thomas W. McDevitl, to a representative ot 

 The India Rubber World, is to stabilize 

 prices. There is no "future" market for 

 long Pima, as production and grades 

 have been uncertain, and standards of 

 quality must be established, as well as 

 fair prices be insured to producer and 

 consumer. Owing to the great demand 

 that has sprung up, and as large sums 

 will be loaned to handle and market 

 the cotton, the new exchange also pur- 

 poses seeking state legislation to safe- 

 guard the large amounts that will be 

 advanced to aid the industry. As cot- 

 ton is a cash crop, definite rules must 

 be set up for making loans on com- 

 mercial paper, warehouse receipts and 

 bills of lading, as well as for insuring 

 against losses of various kinds. Means 

 will also be devised for protecting 

 crops against insect ravages. 



The new exchange has temporary 

 quarters in the I. W. Hellman Build- 

 ing, and its sessions start at 6 a. m. 

 daily to conform to the hour of open- 

 ing of the New York Cotton Exchange 

 — 9 a. m. Eastern time. The other officers chosen, besides 

 Mr. McDevitt, are: M. P. Scott of McFadden Bros., vice- 

 president; K. M. Turner, treasurer: C. H. Hartke. attorney; 

 Board of Directors, Messrs. McDevitt, Scott, Turner, Hartke, 

 and E. M. Fowler of the E. M. Fowler Co, 



Mr. McDevitt says that in California and .Arizona, 200,000 

 acres are now producing cotton. They should yield 100.000 

 bales or. at an average of 500 pounds to the bale, a total 

 of 50,000,000 pounds this year. The Goodyear, Fisk, Fire- 

 stone, and other tire concerns, which are financing many 

 growers, as well as raising a great amount of cotton them- 

 selves, guarantee a price of 60 cents a pound with growers' 

 option on the market beyond that price within a year. At 

 this price the total value of the southwest cotton yield this 

 year will be at least $30,000,000, not counting the seed, which 

 will be worth about $5,000,000 more. 



The average cost of putting the cotton in bales is 22 cents 

 a pound and some has been sold recently at $1.24. In 1916 

 when the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. took over 7,000 acres 

 for planting in the Salt River Valley, Arizona, at the instance 

 of Mr. McDevitt, cotton was selling at 52 cents a pound. 

 He ventured the prophecy that in three years it would sell 

 for 75 cents and that the total southwest cotton area would 



reach 175.000 acres. Both figures have been far eclipsed. 

 The value of Arizona cotton in 1914 was $2,000,000; in 1919 

 it reached $45,000,000. At the present rate of growth it is 

 expected to total $100,000,000 in 1922. 



Land values have shared in the southwest cotton boom, 

 too. Choice acreage that could be had three years ago for 

 $125 now brings $500, and land renting for $10 an acre in 

 1916 easily rents for $60. This soil is irrigated with water 

 from the Colorado River, which has in a large measure come 

 to be in the Southwest what the Nile is in Egypt, where 

 land sells from $600 to $800 and yet yields a large return on 

 the investment. Plans are now being considered for a wide 

 extension of the fertile area through desert irrigation by 

 means of new canals in California and Arizona from the 



le new exchange is very optimistic, not 

 only about cotton-growing, buit also 

 about the rubber industry in the South- 

 west. He says that cotton raised there 

 can meet plantation rubber in Los An- 

 geles and, after being fabricated into 

 tires, can be taken through the Panama 

 Canal to New York and there compete 

 with any similar products of Akron. 

 .\11 of this he promises in the very near 

 future. 



Thci.m,\s W. McDevitt. 



TO ORGANIZE INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER 

 OF COMMERCE. 



The new International Chamber of 

 Commerce, projected at the International 

 Trade Conference at Atlantic City, New 

 Jersey, last October, will be formally or- 

 ganized at Paris during the week of June 

 21, 1920. Invitations have been sent out 

 by the .American group of the Interna- 

 tional Organization Committee to business 

 and industrial associations, asking them 

 to name delegates to participate in the 

 organization meeting. About 100 Ameri- 

 can delegates are expected to attend. 

 The International Organization Committee is to meet at Paris 

 in advance of the general organization meeting to prepare and 

 report a plan of permanent organization. 



In view of the disturbed conditions in international trade 

 brought about by the exchange situation, this meeting is expected 

 lo assume additional importance. The vital question of interna- 

 tional credit, as well as shipping, tariff regulations, unfair com- 

 petition in international trade, and other problems of equal 

 moment affecting stability in international trade and production 

 in all the principal countries in the world, will be discussed. 



The International Chamber succeeds the old International 

 Congress of Chambers of Commerce, which ceased to function 

 with the outbreak of the World War in 1914. 



Membership is to consist of chambers of commerce, commercial 

 organizations, banking and similar associations, firms, corpora- 

 tions and individuals, holding associate but not voting member- 

 ship. Meetings of the membership will be held every two years, 

 and a system of referenda will be inaugurated during the interval 

 between the bi-annual meetings. 



At the first meeting in June only the five countries participating 

 in the International Trade Conference — the United States, Bel- 

 gium, Great Britain, France and Italy — will be represented. 

 Later, business organizations in the other principal countries of 

 the world will be taken into membership. 



