KING COTTON

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 36, 6 November 1917, Page 3

KING COTTON

ANOMALY IN TRADE. President Woodiw Wilson has been hinting in America that men or women should not wear cotton except when it is absolutely necessary. Indeed, he went as far as to*say that to wear cotton goods would be considered an act of disloyalty when silk could bo obtained, which rather reverses the'esteem in. which the two products are held alter three years of war. ■ As a matter of fact cotton is one of the chief essentials of modern warfare, and millions of bales of the precious commodity have beou shot away into gases and euioke 6ince the war broko out. The fact that' Germany is still able to keep up her supply of munitions shows to what extent her preparations were carried out.

On inquiry being made here yesterday it was found that the future of cotton and cr>tton goods was one of the most uncertain things contingent upon tho war. In the first instance the British Government has been Handling all importations of raw cotton into England for a long tinio past, and each factory gets its share according to the etuffs most required—the demands of the Navy ami Army taking precedence. Still there has been up to the present a sufficient margin to enable manufacturers to fulfil some of their orders, and goods are now slowly coming to hand that were ordered a year or even eighteen months ago, and though the prices have in the meantime jumped considerably orders are being filled at the indent price—a fine testimony to the cominercinl good faith of the British manufacturer. What difference will lie made in the cotton question by the advent of the United States in the war has yet to bo seen, but the President is urging bn the nation economy in cotton as a war measure. Then again it is only reasonable to assume that the shipping shortage mill become more acute as the war lengthens out, and that will mean a greater scarcity of ships to carry the manufactured articles from England to tho corners of the earth.

The normal price of American cotton is from 6d. to Bd. per lb. At the lrtest advices it was quoted at Is. Oil. per lb. in York. What every imlentor of ■Manchester goods knows is that at the present time calicoes, sheetings, etc., cnu lie purchased much more cheaply retail in the Wellington shops than the ennie lines can be bought wholesale in London, and on top of the London price has to he piled high freight and heavy insurance- charges.