Why Cotton is Short.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 18 October 1918, Page 2

Why Cotton is Short.

The American people are being instructed by their Government of the need for economising cotton by the following telling statistics. A 12in gun disposes of half a bale of cotton with every shot fired. A machine gun in operation will use up a bale in three months. In a naval battle, like the off Jutland, from five to six thousand pounds a minute are consumed by each active

warship. It takes more than 20,000 bales a year to provide absorbent cotton to staunch and bind the wounds of the injured.

One change of apparel for all the troops now engaged in the war represents more than a million bales.

The U.S.A. is now turning a million bales a year into explosives alone.