29 DECEMBER 1928, Page 2

By far the most encouraging industrial development in the last

month has been the desperate effort of the principals in the cotton trade to compose their differences, as revealed in the Report of the Joint Committee of Cotton Organizations. The hopelessness of meeting changed conditions by the ancient expedients of short- time and wage reductions seems at last to have been recognized by the majority, at least, of the Master Cotton Spinners. It is too early to speak of mergers in an industry which has always been based on the very opposite idea of " horizontal sectionalization " and competition a outrance, but the principle of combination is conceded.