CHAPTER III. 



DOES FOREIGN COMPETITION THREATEN THE SOUTH^S 

 SUPREMACY? 



The figures we have already quoted and the ta- 

 bles of statistics we have given leave so little to be 

 said about the subject of acreage and production 

 in the South that we now proceed directly to the 

 inquiry which is doubtless uppermost in the minds 

 of most of our readers: 



Is the South likely to maintain its present su- 

 premacy as the world's chief source of raw cotton? 



For it is really the South against the field, and 

 all the countries that now make cotton on a small 

 scale are interesting in this respect only as we re- 

 gard them as a combination which might eventually 

 rob America of its prestige. 



ENGLAND'S EFFORTS TO BECOME INDEPENDENT OF 

 SLAVE-MADE COTTON 



It is not a new subject. Before us now is a bulky, 

 time-worn volume, bearing on its title page the 

 legend, "Cotton is King: and Pro-Slavery Argu- 

 ments," and one of the weighty problems which 

 engrossed the attention of its compilers was the 

 effort England was making to free herself from 

 dependence on slave-made cotton. I have also dis- 



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