The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, November 20, 1904, Page 17

Pages CALL Pages 17 to 26 ) [Py 7 SAN FRANCISCO, SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1904. BRITISH LOOK TO THEIR COIin'c’S for Cotton FOR A UTURE SUPPLY Driven by American Speculation to Try Africa for Product for the Mills at Home. . P AdAressing . o RT, ont_ o —3\‘5 United f equal qual er, that ct in as the , it will en years to get on n across WILL VISIT IN AMERICA. re cotton man the he Southern m and talk I s will ion a ally as to the stock rs in cot- accept cotton men n that w out of fheir hand to increase in the try has been South. to the rests g on the out- have all asion. It is that pendent on the bulk of her cot- nufacturing r indirectly 000 at no distant ational disaster ling as the loss of her people, S AWAK ING. resent production of estimated by a Lan- 16,000,000 bales, of ates produces 11,- 2,000,000; Egypt, &- increase licted that 19,- required to keep and in fif- : the 1at popu » rapidl grow- n mills increasing, her ust inevitably de- has come ut that the Lan- folk have “waked up.” ‘That ng has borne fruit in the or- i jon of the British Cotton Grow- Association, which has for its ob- » promotion of cotton culture in British Empire. It has made pro- n for a fund of $500,000 to carry the work. Although the cotton pinners have had to work for months on short time, one of their associations has contributed over $5000 to the fund, so convinced are its members that in the success of the movement lies their only hope of getting steady work and full pay at their trade in the future. THE MAN AT THE HEAD. At the head of the association is Sir 1 Jon one of the brainiest and gland’s self-made. As proof of his he British empire rowing undertaking he has 60,000,000 acres in Sierra Leone started raising cotton there on a er s energetic direction the as- sociation has dispatched agents to spot out all the likely places in the empire where cotton can be raised and made v. Large consignments of cotton seed have been distributed. Machinery been purchased and sent where it needed. Expert cotton cultivators have been engaged, several of them from America, to show the natives the best methods of raising cotton. Many asmples of cotton have been received from agents of the association that Lancashire manufacturers have pro- nounced good and some of it quite equal to the American product. As a result of all that has been done thus far it is confidently asserted that in gland's possessions all the cot- ton needed for her mills can be raised and as much more as the rest of Eu- rope may need. Indeed, one enthusi- astic member declared that America some day be importing cotton British colonies. RICH FIELDS IN VIEW. The latest reports of the association gives a long list of places in the Brit- ish colonies and dependencies where cotton is now being grown, or can be grown. It is being raised in Malta and Cyprus in Europe. In Asia, as is of « well known, ly cultivated in India, but it is also grown in Ceylon, in the Straits Settle- ments and in North Borneo. In the Western Hemisphere it is grown in the West Indies, in British Guiana, in Fiji and in Australia. In Africa cotton has long been a sta- ple product of Egypt and is now being cultivated in earnest in the Soudan. At Kassala, at Sennaar and Shendi the planting will be extended as soon as the Suakim-Berber railway is completed. Cotton can be grown in many parts of South Africa, such as the Lydenburg district, Swaziland and Basutoland. 1t is grown in Natal and in the Guama River district of Cape Colony. . It flour- would ishes in Rhodesia, in Britith Central Africa and in Uganda in various districts. On the West Coast it is cul- tivated in Lagos, Sierra Leone, in Gam- bia, on the Gold Coast, in Northern and Southern Nigeria, also in Mauri- tius and the Seychelles and in St Helena. HOPE IN WEST AFRICA. It 1s in Africa, and more especially in West Africa, that the British Cotton Growing Association expects to en- throne another King Cotton who will some day rival the American poten- tate. In this district the inhabitants have been familiar with the growing, spinning, weaving gnd dyeing of cot- ton for centuries—before William the Cenqueror had invaded England. It is one of the beneficent results of the early spread of Islamism, which taught the virtues of cleanliness and clothing, besides closing the gates of Paradise against those who get drunk. In Mohammedanized British West Afri- a the weaving of cotton is universal. Notwithstanding the primitive nature of the looms, some of the cloths pro- duced, it is declared, are so beautifully finished as to defy KEuropean compe- tition. But owing to the care lavished on their manufacture they are much dearer, even there, than the imported Lancashire article. In the great city of Kano, the with over 100,000 inhabitants, the cot- ton industry plays a leading part and the same is true of many other centers of Northern Nigeria. The total area of the British posses- sions in West Africa amounts in round figures to 500,000 square miles, The it is extensive-: “Manchester of Africa,”- = soil is said to be well adapted to cotton culture. If only one-tenth of it were devoted to that purpose at the rate of one-thirgd of a bale to the acre, it would yield 10,000,000 bales. Cheap labor is abundant. A conservative estimate of the population of West Africa places it at 20,000,000—in Northern Nigeria alone there are supposed to be at least 10,000,000 natives. CONFIDENCE IN LEADER. It is Sir Alfred Jones’' prominence in the movement that more than anything e inspires the confidence of the Brit- ish public in its ultimate success. He has a record of never making a failure of anything he has undertaken. He owns some Welsh collieries which he found were not paying. He installed a new plant at great expense, but the re- sults speedily compensated him for the outlay, for he saved 75 cents on every ton of coal mined. He called it bring- ing himself “up to - date”—a favorite phrase of h He has been dubbed the “Banana King,” though his success in developing that industry in the West Indies and the Canaries is really one of his minor financial achievements. It is now freely predicted it will not be long before the title is superseded by that of the “Cotton King.” Enormously rich, at the head of five great steamship companies and several minor lines, he is in no sense a money- grubber. He is a man rather of the Cecil Rhodes type, with whom money fs a means to an end, and that end the development of British trade and com- merce. g He is 54 years 'old and wedded only to business. His gospel of success he tersely summed up as “Work, hard work,” ‘and he practices it far®better than he preaches it, for he is a man of few words. : Sir Alfred Jones has not done much talking about the British Cotton Grow- ing Association: heretofore, but - the other day he made this significant ut- terance: “We have got through now with the preliminary process and diffi- cuities, and are rapidly approaching results which are likely to astonish the cotton world.” —_——— Statue in Memory of St. Pierre. PARIS, Nov. 19.—A legacy of 50,000f having beerf left by the late M. Potron for the erection of a statue of Ber- nardin de Saint-Pierre, author of “Paul and Virginia,” a monument, the work of the sculptor Holweck, is shortly to be unveiled in the Jardin des Plantes. The statue will have a bas relief at its base, representing Paul and Virginia as children. ———— ' Cab Horse Goes Fifty Miles Daily. PARIS, Nov. 19.—For the purpose of ascertaining the amount of work a Paris cab horse can perform regularly in a day La Vie au Grand Air sent a reporter to make a trial in a cab fur- nished with a taximetre. The result proved that the ill-fed, ill- treated cab horse can make an average of fifty miles a day without being un- usually fatigued. . oJ AETHUR, ifuTIol NORTHERN = NIGERA"~ MEN WHO ARE AIDING THE MOVEM THE UNITED STATES FOR AN SOME SCENES FROM THE ENT IN ENGLAND DIRECTED AGA N NDEPENDE N UPPLY, COLONIES WHER NT _ COTTON 5. IT 1S GRO No Stockings for the King. LISBON, Nov. 19.—An amusing feat- ure of the preparation for the depart- ure of the King and Queen for Eng- land was the fact that Lisbon was overturned in a search for stockings for his Majesty. No hose of the pecu- liar shade required in England for formal court affairs could be found, although those attached to his Ma- jesty’s household searched every store. The news got abroad, and the King was deluged by English hosiers look- ing for an advertisement. —_————— Chinese Give Trouble in Africa. JOHANNESBURG, Nov. 19.—The Chinese in the mines appear to be unsettled, and there has been serious trouble at two mines. In one instance a policeman used his revolver, wound- ing five coolies. The authorities are taking active re- pressive measures. Some natives ar- rested’ a deserter near Pretoria under the belief that the Chinese are canni- bals and eat babies. Discuss X-Ray as a Cure. LONDON, Nov. 19.—The annual meet- ing ‘of fhe Rontgen Society, held this week, is taken as giving an official opinion about the value of the usa of X-rays in-illness. RBriefly, the position taken up by Dr. Thurston of Holland, who presided, is that so far as knowl- edge goes at-:present it is difficult to say that any real case of malignant growth had been cured by the applica- tion of X-rays. On the other hand, he thought that it is more satidfactory than the Fingen light for lupus. ——————— Dog Dies While Doing Duty. SCHAERBECK, Nov. 13.—The Bel- gian police dog Tom, which has assist- ed in the capture of twenty criminals during his lifetime, has just died on the field of nonor. Seeing two individuals breaking into a goods wagon in Schaerbeck station, he dashed upon them, true to his train- ing, but was killed in the act of cross- ing ' the line by a passing train. Schaerbeck is the headquarters of the Belgian Sheepdog Club, T0 BE HOST TO EDWARD AND QUEEN WILLIE JAMES IS TO ENJOY HONOK VISIT THIS MONTH ———— LONDON, Nov. 19.—The announce- ment that the King and Queen will visit Mr. and Mrs. Willie James at West Dean Park, Chichester, this month is regarded as an exceptional mark of royal favor, for it is a most unusual thing for the sovereign and his consort to be guests of a commoner at the same time. A few months ago the King spent a week-end with this pop- ular couple and the Queen was enter- tained by them when she was the Princess of Wales. Of course Mrs. James plays an ex- cellent game of bridge. She is also a clever amateur actress and shares with the King his fondness for yachting. Mr. James, by the way, is of American descent. > Ancther house which the King will probably visit soon again is Rufford Abbey, the Nottinghamshire geat of Lord and Lady Saville. He recently told a friend, and that friend told oth- ers, why he finds a charm in Ruford Abbey that is conspicuously absent from several other aristocratic country houses which he visits. It is because FURNITURE. WILL COST A FORTUNE IT 1S SPECIALLY MADE FOR R DUCHESS. —_— TO KEFIT CASTLE ot LONDON, Nov. 19.—It appears that the rich and costly furniture which the late proprietors of Kylemors left at the castle when the estate was trans ferred to the Duke of Manchester is not good enough for the Ameri Duchess. She has given Instructions to a firm of Dublin auctioneers to clear the lot out and sell it at what it may fetch without a reserve price. The fur- nitpre is early Victorlan and the Duch finds that it does not hs moni with the scheme of decoration which she has decided on. The best furnishing houses in London and Paris are now being drawn upon to refurnish the castle from floore to ceiling, and it is estimated that this alone will cost a fortune or as much as the Duchess intended originally to expend on the whole transformation of the castle. scheme of decoration is white and pink and the furniture will have to be made especially to suit this. The same scheme will obtain in the new house ch the Duchess has acquired in Grosvenor Square, London, X | | | | | | | GINNING COTTON AT LAGOS:~ =3 at Rufford Abbey his host and hostess and which is now in the hands of treat him much as'an ordinary guest while still observing those points of etiquette which are always associated with royalty. At most places where he is enter- tained a gorgeous flunkey is at every door through which he is likely to pass, to open it for him with a pro- found obeisance. At Rufford he is al- lowed to open doors himself, and can stroll about the house or the grounds without having it thrust upon him at every. turn that he is regarded as a special object of reverence and adula- tion. ARTISTS POKE FUN BIG WIGS FRENCH AT POLITICAL Caricatures to Be Sold for the Benefit of Unfortunate Brethren of the Brush. . PARIS, Nov. 19.—Well known artists and caricaturists are forming a Pari- sian society known as Le Cornet and have gone one better than the organ- jzers of the Salon d’Automne by arrang- ing for what they call a Salon de Hiver. This is now being heid in the exhi- bition rooms of the Figaro. A spirit of gentle satire inspires most of the exhibits and is. directed against the political big wigs of the day and the artists of the more formal school. All the works exhibited are to be sold to create a benefit fund for brethren of the brush who have been unfortunate. A great feminine success is recorded in the Ecole des Beaux Arts. For the firs. time a woman has won the first medal for figure painting. The suc- cessful competitor is Mlle. Rondenay, a pupil of Ferdinand Humbert. Among the competitors are MM. Muller, Midy and Charpender, who are classed after her. The competition is only second in importance to the Prix de Rome, which Mlle. Rondenay will probably win. ——e——————— Wine Adulterator Fined, PARIS, Nov. 18.—At Carcassonne a wine grower has been fined 97,000f in the Assize Court for adulterating wines with an admixture of ingredients dan- gerous to the public health. builders and decorators. The beauty and enormous size of the fuchsia bushes of Kylemore have ex- cited the admiration of all who have ever visited the neighborhood. The late Queen Victoria admitted that they ex- celled anything of the sort she had ever seen in her travels, and she made several unsuccessful efforts to introduce the specles into the royal gardens at Windsor and at Buckingham* Palace Queen Alexandra has just had ome of the bushes brought bodily from Kyle- more, and the Duchess of Manches- ter's own gardener has come over to see it planted-at Sandringham. The gardener, like a large section of his countrymen, is possessed of the popular superstition that Irish-grown plants cannot flourish in English soil, and he frankly told her Majesty that he could hold out no hope of a success- ful experiment in this case. Asked by her Majesty why this particular spe- cies should not flourish at Sandring- ham the old gardener answered, “Sure, your Majesty, there’s more virtue in the rocks of Connemara than there is in all the fine castles of England.” —_—————— Sees Reforms for Warships. LONDON, Nov. 19.—Albert Vickers of Vickers’ Sons & Mason made an im- portant. announcement about naval batteries at the Mayoral banquet at Barrow-in-Furness. “I am convinced,” he said, “that the time has come when only two calibers of guns, 12-inch and 9.2-inch, will be used togéther with quick firing guns for repelling destroyer and torpedo boat attacks. ~ “What I should like to see and what I think I shall see in the near future is battleships with a dozen 12-inch guns using armor piercing capped shot, strongly protected by thick armer plate and with a good twenty Knot speed.” —_———————— Cheaper Rates for Autos. PARIS, Nov. 19.—It will be interest- ing to Americans expecting to take an automobile to the Riviera this year to know that reduced rates for carrying automobiles on the railroads are now in force on all the principal lines,