COTTON CONTROL IN AMERICA

Press, Volume LXXI, Issue 21449, 15 April 1935, Page 11

COTTON CONTROL IN AMERICA

Owners And Workers Dissatisfied DAMAGE TO INDUSTRY ALLEGED (UKIIT.D FRESH ASSOC UTI < ELECTJUO TCI.KGr.AWI COFYKIC.ny.) (Received April 14, 7.5 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 13. A number of factors appear to be forcing a crisis in the Administration's cotton control programme. Since the strike last September operators have complained bitterly that they have been unable to operate profitably under the Recovery Act wage schedules, and at the same time pa}' the processing tax levied by the Agricultural Adjustment, Administration.

The employees are equally dissatisfied, and from time to time have threatened to recall the strike, but in the meantime, according to the Millownevs' Association, scores of factories have , been forced to close, claiming that "oppressive" domestic policies have been made worse by continually rising imports of finished products, notably irom Japan. Mr Roosevelt has been asked to place a virtual embargo on Japanese goods, and to revoke the processing i.a- :s, or if that is impossible, to pay the farmers an outright subsidy Irom relief funds. Both requests Mr Roosevelt indicated would be refused, while Mr IT. A. Wallace (Sec- ! retary for Agriculture), in a speech at Atlanta to-day, urged the South to defend the curtailment programme against criticis. There was no official comment to- j day on a report from Tokyo threatening to reduce the consumption of raw cotton if America curbed -ales of finished products, but considerable unofficial comment followed the publication to-day of trade figures, i showing that raw cotton exports for | the eight months ending March 31 were only 3,573,000 bales, compared I with 6,098,000 for the corresponding period in 1933-34. Critics of the Administration alleged that the nation was well on its' way to losing one of its most important world export ' markets.