Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER V COTTON GROWING UNDER THE BRITISH FLAG To provide cotton clothing for the human race it is calculated that 42,000,000 bales of cotton, or 15J lbs. for every human being, would be required each year. The world's consumption of cotton to-day is, approximately, 23,000,000 bales, and of this, during the last decade, the American crop has averaged about 13,000,000 bales. The market for British goods extends throughout the world, and the industry, so far as it concerns this country, is unique in that it possesses about two-fifths (60,000,000) of the world's spindles, and has to depend entirely upon other countries (chiefly America) for its raw material. Herein lies a serious danger to the future well- being of Lancashire's premier industry. Our American kinsmen have always boasted that the Almighty had given to them the only soil and climate where good cotton could be grown in sufficient quantity to meet the world's needs; and that any attempt to grow cotton where God never intended it to grow, was doomed to failure. COTTON MILLS OP THE WORLD CountryMillsSpindlesLoomsConsump- tion, BalesHands Em- ployedGreat Britain. . .1915 U.S. North... 1915 U. 8. South 19152,009 697 75459,904,873 19,663,294 12 737 498808,145 436,638 253 2023,881,230 2,900,790 3 164 896655,000Canada . 1915421 405 65631 979184 68518 055Germany 191437210 162 8722302001 979 958375 000Russia 1915997,665 654213,1791,400 000370000Poland 1914381 322 25731 000325 00050 000Finland, etc 1914 France 19146 430236,752 7 400 0005,741 108 00025,000 1 1200006,857 160 570Austria-Hungary 1914 Switzerland . 1915160 624,941,320 1 385 441170,000 21 561842,591 99 000175,000 21 000Italy 19154804,600000140,000850 000170000Spain . 191525710000055000420 00070 000Portugal 191432428 00012,00056 00025000 531 77500024000250...