1 Ocr., 1902.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 269° 
Empire. Mr. J. E. Newton (vice-president of the Oldham Chamber of Com- 
merce) presided, and there was a large attendance of prominent spinners and 
manufacturers. A resolution agreeing to form a guarantee fund of £50,000 for 
facilitating the growth of cotton was adopted. In the discussion which 
followed it was felt that the inquiry should be on the widest possible basis. Mr. 
John Thomson, president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, promised 
£250 as a donation to the project, and Sir George Colton said he would give the 
same. Financial help was also promised from Liverpool. On behalf of the 
cotton operatives, Mr. Thomas Ashton, J P., said they would give the project 
every possible support. ‘What they wanted was a better supply of cotton, so 
that they should not have to depend on the success or failure of the American 
crop. Mr. Ashton stated that in one district alone it cost the Operatives’ Society 
between £10,000 and £15,000 a year to pay for the stoppages necessary through 
the shortness of cotton. 
INTERESPFING TO COTTON-GROWERS. 
The following letter, written to the Manchester Courier (England), should 
act as a strong incentive to farmers in all parts of Queensland to add cotton- 
growing to their ordinary cultivation. It does not follow that farmers should 
throw up everything else and devote all their energies to cultivating cotton. 
On the contrary, the crisis in the cotton-spinning industry simply enables them 
to add another yaluable string to their bow, with every prospect of making a 
fair profit in addition to that made on sugar, coffee, wheat, &. 
The letter is headed :— 
BRITISH COTTON-GROWING. 
(To tae Eprror or tHE “ Mancuester Courier.) 
Sir,—The meeting convened last week at the Manchester Chamber of Commerce 
was not held one minute too soon. With those who are interested in the cotton 
industry and watching its vicissitudes, there can be no two opinions as to its present 
unsatisfactory position and future serious outlook. Put briefly, the increase of 
spindles throughout the world has more than overtaken the world’s supply of the raw 
material. As a director of one spinning-mill and a shareholder in more than a score 
of others, all of which are financially strong and up-to-date, I can. safely affirm that 
at the present moment it is impossible for a cotton-spinner to make a profit, and. 
difficult not to work to a loss. In other words, the “margin” ‘between cotton and 
yarn has Spare vanished. The price of cotton (middling) which, about two 
years ago stood at 34d., reached 6d. a year since, and now stands at about 55d., with 
several months in front of us before the advent of a new crop—notwithstanding 
concerted action in running short time, and in spite of this year’s supplies probably 
reaching 10,500,000 bales, or a little more than last year. As to prospects of relief in 
the near future, they are but faint, for the highest authorities and statisticians have 
already concluded that the American acreage planted for next year is about 27,000,000, 
or certainly not more than the current year, and yet cotton-mills in Great Britain, in 
the United States, and elsewhere are increasing at an alarming rate. The tension, 
therefore, is likely to continue, and possibly become more acute unless there be some 
way of escape. Clearly, it is to shake ourselves loose from the grip in which we are 
so firmly held by the American planter, who, roundly speaking, grows as much and 
more cotton than the remainder of the world, and supplies more than four-fifths of our 
own requirements. Besides, what guarantee have we that some fine morning we may 
not wake up, in these days of “combines,” to find that a handful of millionaires have 
coolly taken over the entire manipulation of this commodity, the value of which, to us 
in Lancashire, is simply immeasurable, and which is, in fact, our very “* bread and 
butter.” From such an appalling catastrophe the Lancashire cotton industry ought, 
without a moment’s delay, to take steps for its protection. With this object in view 
the association alluded to has been formed. : 
This brings me to ask the pertinent question, Is the association starting on right 
lines? I fear not; hence this jetter. The promoters are evidently in earnest and 
mean work, but the danger, it seems to me, is (to retain the metaphor) that the lines 
upon which they are starting may run the association on to a “ siding,” where it may 
