.E FREE PRESS, 
German Cotton Enterprise 
(Aug 28.) 
The news that the cotton-spinning districts 
in the United States are severely feeling the 
effects of the insufficiency of the cotton supply 
in face of growing industrial demands from 
both America and Europe, and the fact that 
important mills there are being forced to 
restrict their running, or to stop work al¬ 
together, clearly show that the sooner Lan¬ 
cashire turns elsewhere for the bulk of its 
cotton supply, the safer the future of the cotton 
industry in tiro United Kingdom will be. 
Every year the surplus cotton not required 
in American mills, and therefore available for 
Lancashire must needs shrinks rapidly as the 
cotton industry of the United States grows. 
Soon the Manchester mills will no more get 
cotton from America than they could “ take 
breeks oft a Hielandman." It is the part of 
the most ordinary common sense to begin to 
look elsewhere for this needed raw material. 
A home paper shows plainly that at least the 
great industrial rival of Britain, Germany to wit, 
is not dawdling over this changing situation. An 
article headed “ German Enterprise in Cotton- 
Growing ” remarks that while America has 
come to the conclusion that she can henceforth 
4 do with ‘ .her own cotton instead of ex¬ 
porting it, while Manchester is deeming 
such conclusion may spell for her some¬ 
thing very like disaster, and while Britons, 
from long habit, unite by common consent 
in “ sniffing ” at the West Indies and firmly 
decline to put their money into these is¬ 
lands, being beset with that notion that the 
raison (Vf-tn: of the Lesser Antilles is cane 
sugar—and again, cane sugar the astute 
German, quietly determined to take time and, 
incidentally, trade opportunities by the forelock, 
is simply planting cotton “for all he is worth” 
wherever lie owus an acre of suitable foreign 
soil. To this, even the “ Agricultural Bul¬ 
letin " published in this Oolouv bears witness, 
quoting a Consular Report on the German 
Colony of Togohunl, adjoining our own Gold 
Coast Colour. It an vs ; 
w ' * 
Considerable hopes are founded ou those ex¬ 
periments that have recently been made in 
several districts wii It cotton growing. .A cotton 
plantation, eovering|pme 120 acres, was started 
in 1890 in (tie Agn Hilly, and another one was 
commenced last year at Tovo, near Misahohe, 
under the direction of three American experts. 
Soon lOo acres have been sown, chiefly with 
American seed, though Egyptiau and native 
si 'iIs were also partiallv employed. The Sam-' 
pies ot cotton w hich have been sent to Bremen 
have been classed as “ above middling A met*, j 
lean ' and the . success or failure of the Togo 
cotton plantations is believed to depend solely 
on the question of transport. 
To bring this eminently practical and Im¬ 
perially urgent question before the notice of 
the Colonial and Eh M. 8. Governments, which 
will not fail to observe that the principle of 
subsidising is officially adopted to foster the 
new departure in cotton cultivation, we do 
what public service we can by inviting careful 
attention to this portion of the article above 
referred to 
The first steps taken in the German colonies 
were largely experimental, but the German 
business man, as well as the German Colonial 
Government, has foreseen that with the prac¬ 
tical closing of the American market to 
European requirements the demand will have 
—and that speedily—to be met from else¬ 
where, and the Government is engaged in 
fostering the initial attempts made with¬ 
in its own possessions, not ohly by giving 
financial help and expert advice, where requir¬ 
ed, to would-be growers, but by facilitating 
the transport ot cargoes to Europe. Thus we 
learn from German East Africa that the com¬ 
munities of Baga.moyo, Dar-es-Salaam, Kihva, 
Lindi, Tanga, as well as some private specu¬ 
lators in this new field are to receive a pre¬ 
mium of 1,50 marks (£7 Kb) for every 
“ hectar ” of cotton planted during the twelve- 
month, providing the amount does not overstep 
the sum of 3,000 marks, which will be the 
maximum premium granted to any one com¬ 
munity or individual, while three different 
kinds of Egyptian cotton-seed are for the 
above purpose being distributed to those 
interested in the enterprise. At Mua/.a, on 
Lake Victoria Nyanza, some excellent speci¬ 
mens have been forthcoming, and the cotton 
plantations there may now, indeed, bo regarded 
as established. These, too, have t he.ndvantage 
of easy transport, in spite of their inland 
position, for the district is well oft for draught 
cattle, while the results of their crops can 
reach Fort Florence with every facility by 
.dhow, and from thence be carried down-country 
by the Uganda Railway to meet the steamers 
at Mombasa. 
Last year the committee of German East 
African Planters deputed Herr C. Welulig to 
visit the Southern. United States of America, 
in order there to study exhaustively cotton j 
trade, and the best modes of cotton transport. 
And this gentleman, after sojourning in ail the 
largest and best-known centres, ami “absorb¬ 
ing,” as probably no one can better than a Ger¬ 
man, the “ true inwardness ” of all he saw and 
the best methods employed by .American tra¬ 
ders, returned fully pruned to East Africa, 
where his collected experiences are now being 
actively put into practice. Two private steam¬ 
ship companies besides the State-subsidized 
Deutsche-Ost-Afrikn Lime have, until such 
time as this young industry shall have found 
its feet, undertaken to carry all cotton to Ger¬ 
man ports free of cost. 
-t'nrfli'M- infAcocj+incf f*vrvvi nyOn f si iyt 
• - - • " ' - cj . • ■“ f 4 
cotton-growing have also been made in the 
Cameroons, the results being excellent. Here 
the seed used has been brought from Ecuador, 
and the quality of: the- cotton raised is pro¬ 
nounced to be quite equal to the best North 
American. In the hinterland of the Cameroons 
Colonel Pavel had last year some extensive 
stretches of land laid under cultivation ; the 
crop was, however, exclusively reserved for the 
use of the natives, and there is, at all events 
for the present, no thought of exporting the 
product from these possessions. Some further 
specimens of cotton have recently been brought 
to Europe from German South-West. Africa, 
and these show promise also, being of a remark¬ 
ably long and fine kind. Another sample grown 
at Out.jo shows a striking similarity to the kind 
produced in China, although it is longer, its 
market value being appraised as above “ mid¬ 
dling American.” 
We may observe, in closing, that, this rapid 
springing .up of a non-foreign supply lor the 
home market is being followed with intense 
interest by North and Central Germany’s great 
cotton manufacturers, who are constantly en¬ 
gaged in applying new and exhaustive tests as 
to the durability and relative value of each 
different sample from time to time transmitted 
from Germany “ overseas.” 
To return to the general question of the 
futility of fighting for the limited raw cotton 
supply that bv-and-bye the 1 Kited States will 
be able to absorb entirely for her own require¬ 
ments, the “Pall Mall Gazette.” makes a com¬ 
ment that is much to the point. The refer¬ 
ence is to the recent meeting of the Cotton 
Conference, an assembly of employers and 
operatives. The. passage runs thus :— 
It’ was announced by t he chairman that for 
four successive years the world’s yield had 
fallen short of manufacturing requirements. 
The cause of that deficiency is vvell known. 
The mills which the protective duties of the 
United States have called into existence are 
absorbing an im Teasing proportion of the 
American' cropland no one knows in how many 
years they Will he in a position to,require the 
whole Where is LYii.M.sh;re’s raw material 
to come from when find iko. has fully ar¬ 
rived f The vaguest iw-vlk ton of the ter¬ 
rible suffering that .prevailed when the 
American Civil War interfered with ship¬ 
ments to this country will forbid the treatment 
of this inquiry as a matter of idle specula¬ 
tion. Is it. or is it not . worth while to con¬ 
sider the raising of a cotton supply within 
the Empire as an Imperial qiiest km r Is it not, 
indeed, a matter of that lu-ead-ami-bitUer 
imperialism, which t he. most-stay -at-home 
politicians cannot dismiss with taunts of 
“Jingoism ” r Is it not essential Jo the “ Food 
of the People " that we should look ahead for 
the means by which Lancashire may in the 
near future keep her spindles going, and her 
three million people employed and satisfied ? 
Upon the relations of Mr Chamberlain's 
programme with this problem i here will be 
many opportunities of taking counsel. 
o 
