COMPETITORS OF COTTON 



height that cannot be indefinitely maintained, even by 

 the United States Government. 



Third, Government aid has heretofore been aimed to 

 help the grower whose position is now better than it 

 has ever been in history, and now it is high time that 

 something was done for cotton. 



Garrard's three simple statements make a fine intro- 

 duction to any consideration of the cotton problem, 

 and from any point of view historical, economic, or 

 social cotton is the proper starting point for any con- 

 sideration of Southern raw materials. Factually Gar- 

 rard's propositions are correct. Essentially they are true, 

 no matter how sharply the experts may disagree over 

 their meaning or their solution. Such a foundation of 

 fact is desperately needed because pernicious combina- 

 tions of sentiment and selfishness in the South and of 

 prejudice and ignorance in other sections, have ob- 

 scured the real and very high stakes that all the Amer- 

 ican people have in this greatest of all our crops. Senti- 

 ment and prejudice are difficult to deal with, but both 

 selfishness and ignorance may be at least enlightened. 



Cotton is in a bad way. Most Americans know this 

 and most of us appreciate that cotton is at once our 

 most valuable textile fiber and the most important crop 

 of our Southern states. But few people who live North, 

 East, and West have the cloudiest realization of what 

 all this means in the South. 



This thought was driven home at a delightful Sunday 

 23 



