COTTON CONTROL

Wairarapa Daily Times, 15 April 1935, Page 5

COTTON CONTROL

CRISIS THREATENED PRESIDENT’S FIRM STAND. Press Association Electric Telefiranb— Corrright WASHINGTON, Saturday. A number of factors appear to bo forcing a crisis in the Administration’s cotton control programme. Since last September’s strike the operators have complained bitterly that they are unable profitably to operate under t the N.R.A. wage schedules, and at the same time pay the processing tax levied by the Agricultural Adjustment Administration. ■

Employees are equally dissatisfied and from time to time have threatened to recall the strike. In the meantime, according to the Millowners’ Association, scores of plants have been forced to close, claiming that the “oppressive” domestic policies have been made worse by the continually rising foreign imports of finished products, notably from Japan.

President Roosevelt has been requested to place a virtual embargo on Japanese good and to revoke the processing taxes, or, if impossible, to pay the farmers outright a subsidy from relief funds.

Both requests, Mr Roosevelt indicated, would be ,refused, while Mr 11. A. Wallace, the Secretary of Agriculture, inj a speech at Atlanta to-day, urged the south to defend tlie curtailment programme against critics. There is no official comment to-day on a report from Tokio threatening reduced consumption of raw cotton if America curbed the sales of finished products, but considerable unofficial comment followed the publication of trade figures showing the raw cotton exports for the eight months ending 31st March to be only 3,573,000 bales compared with 6,098,000 for the corresponding period of 1933-34.

Critics of the Administration are making charges that the nation is well on the way to losing one of its most important world export markets.