4 
COTTON 
tree become extinct to-morrow, and other trees 
will take its place and our building go on as before. 
Even if corn or wheat or rice should perish from 
the earth, we could grow enough of the other crop, 
supplemented by rice, oats, barley, rye, peas, 
beans, etc., to feed both man and beast with com- 
fort. But there is no substitute for cotton that can 
be cultivated on a large scale; no substitute, animal 
or vegetable product, with which civilization's pres- 
ent demand for clothing could be supplied. 
Nor is there any plant with a history more mar- 
velous or more romantic — more suggestive of the 
legend and mythology of its Oriental home where 
it first began to serve mankind. If Frank Norris 
had lived in the South instead of California, what 
an Epic of the Cotton he might have given us- — 
what a story of Cotton, responding only to the 
warmth of a Southern sun, and yielding a richer 
fleece than ever Jason dreamed of ; Cotton, whose 
influence did most to bring us an alien race from 
Africa, and then did most to perpetuate in Ameri- 
ca the institution of human slavery; Cotton, on 
which a "Dixie Land, the Land of Cotton," once 
built its hopes while it waged one of the greatest 
wars of modern times; Cotton, which helped the 
vanquished people to their feet again, and now 
bids fair to restore them to a proud position in 
wealth and industry! 
THE BASIS OF THE WORLD'S DOMINANT INDUSTRY 
It is probably not too much to say that cotton is 
now the basis of the dominant industry of the 
globe. In their primary forms the iron and steel 
products of the world represent a value of only 
