THE WORLD'S COTTON SPINDLES The continuous growth of the population of the world and the improvement of the standard of living in most countries naturally produces an increase in the demand for clothing. To some degree it is met by the improvement of old or the discovery of new types of fabric, such as that of artificial silk. But in the midst of all such competition cotton cloth retains its place not only because of its comparative cheapness, a vital consideration with the poorest con sumers of the East, but also because of the wide range of quality and appearance that can be produced with it. This increased demand for cotton cloth is reflected in the steady increase of the number of spindles in the world. Even between 1900 and 1913 world spindleage was increasing by 3% per annum, whilst the growth since then has been marked despite the difficulties of the war years. Thus the number of spindles has increased from 000,00o in 1913, to 164,000,000 in 1926—an increase in 13 years of about 14%. The general conclusion to be drawn, therefore, is that the war years checked the rapid growth in spindleage which existed before the war but that the check was not severe and will probably be temporary.
Raw Cotton Spinning Spindles of the World (Not including Doubling or Waste Spindles. International Cotton Federation Statistics. 000's omitted.) It is, however, both incorrect and misleading to assume that Great Britain retained her relative supremacy up to 1913 and that between 1914 and 1918 some sudden shock robbed her of a position which she had maintained intact from the beginning of the century. Even between 1900 and 1913 it was evident from a study of the growth of spindles in other countries, and noticeably in Japan and India, that the dations were being laid which eventually would produce tition to undermine the able monoply which the United Kingdom had formerly enjoyed. The World War may, indeed, have hurried on movements which otherwise would have shown a more slowly developed cence and maturity. But even if there had been no war, powerful economic factors were in operation which ultimately would have produced a fresh world distribution of textile activity largely on the lines of the changes revealed by the tables given below. Between 1905 and 1913 India increased her spindleage by a third and al most doubled the number of her looms. Japan, in the same pre war period, almost doubled her spindleage and increased her looms threefold. Indisputable facts such as these suggest that the redistribution which has taken place to the disadvantage of Great Britain was less the result of the war than of the slow and inevi table culmination of deep-seated movements.
Estimated Number of Spindles in India, Japan, Italy and the United States 1913= too (Figures taken from The Comparative Position of the Lancashire Cotton Industry and Trade, by G. W. Daniels and John Jewkes.) Although the World War has had but slight and transient in fluence upon total world spindleage, its effect upon the distribution of spindles between different countries has been significant and will probably be permanent. Japan, India, China and the United States show such a marked percentage increase between 1913 and 1926 that the centre of gravity in the textile world is moving away from Great Britain and towards these countries which received a stimulus during the war, a stimulus which may now have disappeared but has left each of these four countries with a much enlarged productive capacity. The increase for several im The general term "spindles" covers two different pieces of ma chinery—the ring spindle and the mule spindle. Roughly speak ing it may be assumed that ring spindles produce the compara tively coarser qualities of yarn and the mules the higher "counts," though it is possible for the ring spindle to turn out fine quality products. The division of the spindles of any country between ring and mule will give a broad measure of the degree to which the cotton industry in that country is engaged upon fine or coarse work. The ring spindle is the more modern invention. As the fig ures below disclose, it has been widely, almost wholly, adopted in those countries where the industry is developing rapidly. The reasons for this are connected both with the question of the in dustrial skill of the available labour and that of mechanical tech nique. The ring spindle is more easily operated than the mule; the widespread use of the latter demands a labour force which combines advanced manual dexterity with a high degree of in telligence, alertness and initiative ; the ring spindle may be oper ated by comparatively unskilled labour provided that the super vision exercised by superiors is constant and close. One of the fundamental facts in the development of textile industries in the East is that the ring spindle is well adapted for operation by semi skilled workers who have had a rapid training but are not fully instructed. Obviously this is an advantage where oriental labour is concerned.
The table below shows the relation between mule spindles and ring spindles in the whole world in July 1926.
Calculated World's Cotton Spinning Spindles (For half year ending Jan. 31, 1927. 000's omitted.) BIBLIOGRAPHY.-The "Bulletin of the International Federation of Bibliography.-The "Bulletin of the International Federation of Master Cotton Spinners" supplies biannual figures of the spinning spindles in every country in the world. The Memorandum on Cotton published for the International Economic Conference at Geneva, 1927, provides interesting world comparisons. J. A. Todd, The Cotton World (1927), and the numerous reports published from time to time by "The U.S.A. Bureau of Commerce" should also be consulted.