SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



payer, a picked group of Chinese cotton men, students 

 and agricultural experts, have toured our Cotton Belt. 

 They were shown everything we have; taught every- 

 thing we know. They were given generous samples of 

 seed of our best varieties, including special strains de- 

 veloped to meet special conditions of soil, rainfall, and 

 temperature. It is rumored that under lend-lease they 

 got cultivating machinery, even the latest mechanical 

 pickers, that American planters cannot buy. I happened 

 to follow this delegation through Texas and the com- 

 ments I heard would curl a pigtail into a pretzel. To 

 Texas growers the mildest, most printable description 

 of this altruistic junket was "a goddam booby trap." 



On the substitute's front of cotton's war, the battle- 

 field with synthetic fibers is quite different, but the 

 key to the campaign is the same. From 1920 to Pearl 

 Harbor, American consumption of cotton doubled, but 

 that of rayon increased fivefold. In terms of cotton, this 

 means that domestic rayon production increased from 

 300,000 to 1,400,000 bales. In terms of dollars, fifteen 

 years ago cotton sold at thirteen cents; today it sells at 

 twenty- two cents. Rayon staple fiber, which then sold 

 at sixty cents, now sells for twenty-four cents. Cotton's 

 boast of being the world's cheapest textile fiber is chal- 

 lenged. Staple rayon is ready for the machines. Cotton 

 in the bale must be cleaned and processed. And after 

 the war, the price of rayon promisesor threatens to 

 be fifteen cents or lower. 



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