On Monday in the Economic Science Section a very in-
teresting paper was read by Mr. J. A. Hutton on " Cotton- Growing in the Empire." The consumption of cotton had overtaken production, with the result that many mills had to run short time, and that a magnificent field was afforded to the cotton gambler. Short time, the remedy generally adopted, was a costly remedy, and did not go to the root of the evil, for which the only lasting cure was the widening of the basis of production. This was the task of the British Cotton-Growing Association, which had established the fact that sufficient cotton for Lancashire's needs could be grown in British possessions. Mr. Balfour, who opened the discussion, speaking both as a Minister and as a Lancashire Member, doubted whether the increase in the area of produc- tion would check gambling, but thought it would diminish the chances of a great shortage, since in that case no common cause could produce a universal shortage,—" a bad frost in America would not hurt Indian or Egyptian crops." He agreed with Mr. Hutton that in our tropical possessions cotton-growing must be established as a native industry, and the supply of labour, which so far had been the chief difficulty, he did not think an insoluble problem.
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