SELF-HELP FOR COTTON 



knows that cotton and wood are both cellulose, so he 

 looks upon cotton's synthetic competitors without the 

 least trace of awesome fear. 



"Cy" Williams voiced these political tribulations 

 when he said, "A political price is so utterly undepend- 

 able that it undermines all plans for the future. It makes 

 every commercial project shaky at the base. Any for- 

 ward-looking research program can so easily end in a 

 useless triumph that this uncertainty deadens imagina- 

 tion and saps initiative." His energy and enthusiasm 

 belie his despondent words. 



"Gotten is a cross-eyed stepchild," he went on as we 

 sat at his little desk in the corner of a big room filled 

 with spinning and weaving machines. "Every agricul- 

 tural raw material competes with synthetic rivals in 

 industry under a tremendous initial disadvantage. No- 

 body carries on research for their uses. Certainly the 

 many small farmers cannot do it, and all the scientific 

 work sponsored by the Government is aimed to help the 

 producers, not the product." 



"Them's harsh words," I said, laughing. 



"But true," he shot back quickly. "Cotton must stand 

 on its own feet upon a price base. If the Government 

 withdrew the loans today, my guess is that next week 

 the price would drop a half. At eleven cents most of 

 cotton's competitors would fold up and none of us 

 around here would have qualms about the future. As 

 it is, faced with the chances of a political future, all that 



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