The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1920. “THE GREAT INDUSTRY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3658, 21 December 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1920. “THE GREAT INDUSTRY.

With which ia incorporated “The Talhape Post and 'Walmarino Nows”

In a long list of industries of widely divergent character in which exploitation is said to have been more or less ruthlessly practised, cottons and woollens are among the most outstanding of manufactures. Exploitation in cotton seems to pale to insignificance even that in wool ; bad as it undoubtedly >is, and has been. A (reel of white sewing cotton is not obtainable under sevenpence, and a yard of what was known as eightpenny calico before the war is now retailing at upwards of twoshillings. All other cottOn goods exhibit similar advances. What is operating to keep cotton at such prices is not altogether apparent. The searcher after cause finds at the outset that retailers have . but little voice in price-making; they have to do they are told or supplies are stopped. This interference with the iaw of supply and demand does not appear to be regarded by the law as restraint of trade j or as exploitation. There i§ no escape from the "'fact that cotton averagely has increased during and since the war by upwards of three hundred per cent, or more. In getting right back to tbe cotton .fields no scarcity of cotton is apparent; in fact American cotton-grow-ers are going out of cotton-faiming because payable prices are not obtainable! Following raw cotton from field to mart, a positive slump in cotton is discovered; buyers are few and the complaint about cottongrowing being unprofitable is proved to be well-founded. Passing on to cotton mills, none are at all employees are idle. It is an off-day, mills are working only three days per tliere is no market for cotton goods. Subsequently, it was reported that mill-owners had offered employees permanent work at a twentyfive per cent, reduction of wages; this proved to be true, but there was no reduction in the price of cotton goods j and there is no fall of fictitious cotton values in sight. * The above ‘references to cotton might be regarded as of little interest, and reasonably so were it not for the extraordinaity far-reaching importance of cotton as a world industry. Were it to be -stated that cotton probably had as much to do with furnishing a cause for war as any other single subject most people would be astonished, incredulous, sceptical, and yet there is a very strong probability that such a statement would be true. German economists called the cotton trade “Thß Great Industry. ” By protective duties bonuses, subsidised and by every other available means Germany built up a cotton trade not second to that of Britain, Prior to the war Britain and Germany were closing as world rivals. Competing rivals wore confined jto Europe and America; to some five hundred millions of people. The great test of success was to ascertain what total of either rival’s domestic exports went into the intensively competitive markets of the other. Cotton statistics furnish the rather alarming information; Germany was sending to those highly competitive markets eighty-five per cent, of her total domestic exports while Britain could only place about one-third of her total domestic products in those markets. The Great White Industry, through (highly organised ( Efforts, | was rapidly passing into German hands. Germany was also consistently vieiug with Britain in Military anfi Naval and it is only at this time the full power and significance of that rivalry is realised. It was necessary to touch upon the foregoing excerpt from cotton history to make plain that with the defeat of Germany went the German 'supremacy in the world’s cotton market, and the only competitor ’ for the worldi’s cotton trade that. Britain had any cause for concern about. This being so the world demand virtually fell upon British mills, and that demand became so pressing that It seemed impossible ol! satisfaction. Prices went up from time to and it seemed that conditions could not change until cotton mills of other countries were again in operation. The astounding position is that although the demand for cotton goods has shrunk so that mills are uut upon half-time, or that a twenty-five per cent, reduction in wages has to be made; that cotton-farmers are abandoning cot^Dn- growing a,s being unprofitable, there is no sign of permanent (reconciliation between cotton costs and retail prices. Cotton market reports arriving by every mail from Britain and America un-

deniably disclose that <raw cotton has slumped, and cable messages corroborate the stoppage of British cotton mills, and the reduction of "wages by twenty-five per cent. It must now be admitted that no country except America came successfully out of the wap. The British Empire together with Prance and Italy arc between the devil of revolution and the deep blue sea of financial disaster, and a nice equilibrum has to be maintained to avoid a toppling over to either side. We think this fact has more to 'do with high level prices being maintained than all the laws of supply and demand. There appears to be no prospect of much lower prices generally until Empire finance is on a secure footing.