COTTON 31 



bear witness to disappointment and failure. Amer- 

 ica had re-entered the field of competition, and was 

 rapidly gaining ground so as to be able to bid de- 

 fiance to the world." 



AFRICAN AND INDIAN EXPERIMENTS NOT A SUCCESS 



An even more vivid picture of the inducements 

 to foreign competition which England held out 

 during the Civil War period is furnished by the 

 1869 report of the Cotton Commissioner of India. 

 So immense were the profits that the Indian cotton 

 farmers received, he says, that they committed all 

 sorts of absurdities: "Silver plowshares and tires 

 of solid silver for cartwheels made their appear- 

 ance here and there; fancy prices were paid for 

 bullocks of a favorite color or possessing some 

 peculiarities of tail, and enormous sums were 

 squandered on marriage ceremonies." And yet in 

 spite of the enormous subsidies (virtually) which 

 were paid, and the energy with which the experi- 

 ment was prosecuted, it was found impossible even 

 with artificial inflation to carry the Indian crop 

 beyond 3,000,000 bales. 



As to Africa, the experiments there have never 

 been at any time anything but inglorious failures; 

 and it is said that the cotton made in the Niger 

 territory has cost 50 cents a pound. A West Afri- 

 can correspondent of the London Times says that 

 the much vaunted "colonies of Lagos, Southern 

 Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and Gambia, 

 under the most favorable circumstances .... 

 will not be capable of producing more than 350,- 

 000 bales, and these figures will not be attained for 

 many years, if ever." 



