CHAPTER XX
A COTTON INDUSTRY FOR WEST AFRICA
Within the past few months a subject of the greatest possible moment to West Africa, and of vital importance to no inconsiderable section of the inhabitants of Great Britain, has been discussed in concrete fashion, and there is every reason to hope—nay more, to feel assured—that practical results will follow. I refer to the movement for the promotion of cotton-growing in West Africa.
What has already been done may be stated in a few words. On May 8 a memorable meeting was held at the Albion Hotel, Manchester, under the auspices of Mr. Arthur Hutton, the President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. The Chambers of Commerce of London, Liverpool, and Oldham were represented at the meeting, together with the managing director of the British West African Steamship Lines, Sir Alfred Jones,[157] the Oldham Cotton Spinners Association, the Manchester Cotton Spinners’ Association, various other associations of a similar character from Blackburn and other Lancashire towns, the West African merchants, cotton merchants, brokers, weavers and manufacturers, &c. The object of the meeting was to widen the area of cotton cultivation under the British flag, more especially in West Africa, and before the close of the proceedings a “British Cotton Growing Association” had been formed with a preliminary capital of £10,000, to be exclusively devoted to experimenting in West Africa and other over-sea possessions. This meeting was followed by another held in Manchester in June, in the course of which the decision arrived at previously was confirmed and enlarged, and it was decided to raise a fund of £50,000. The resolutions passed at this second meeting were as follows:
RESOLUTIONS.
“(1) That, in the opinion of this meeting, the continued prosperity of the British cotton industry depends on an increased supply of cotton, and it is desirable that our sources of supply should be extended.
“(2) That in order to attain this end an association be formed, to be called the British Cotton Growing Association.
“(3) That its principal object be the extension of the growth and cultivation of cotton in British colonies, dependencies, and protectorates.
“(4) That a guarantee fund of £50,000 be raised, to be spread over five years, no guarantor being required to contribute more than one-fifth of his total guarantee in any one year.
“(5) That this association shall have power to form a subsidiary company, or companies, and to dispose of any of its assets to any company thus formed, on conditions that subscribers to this association have the first option of taking up shares in any such company in proportion to their subscriptions.
“(6) That a general committee should be appointed.
“(7) That this general committee should appoint from their number members to form the executive committee.
“(8) That the executive committee shall immediately collect all the available information on the subject and despatch expert expeditions to report on the best methods of procedure, and shall have power to (_a_) acquire land on which to make experiments and to establish plantations; (_b_) distribute seed among the natives to encourage them by advice and assistance to grow cotton on their own land, and to engage experts for this purpose if necessary; (_c_) establish stations to buy and sell cotton, or any of its by-products, animals, implements, or any other articles or goods necessary for the expeditions; (_d_) to adopt any other means that may suggest themselves from time to time to attain the object in view.
“(9) That the general committee issue a report once each half-year of the work which has been done.”
A third meeting took place at the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce on July 14, in the presence of Sir William MacGregor, Governor of Lagos, and Sir A. King Harman, Governor of Sierra Leone, when practical ways and means of promoting the cultivation of cotton in their respective Colonies for export to Europe were debated.[158]
Having thus briefly indicated the various measures adopted, we may profitably inquire into the origin and causes of the movement. That inquiry cannot fail to impress the thinking public with the importance of the issues. With every year that passes Great Britain is becoming more than ever dependent upon the United States for her cotton supply, and with every year that passes the increase in the cotton production of America accentuates itself by comparison with the production of other countries. Thus in the decades 1870-80, 1880-90, and 1890-1900 America has produced 4½, 6½, and 9½ millions of bales, while India has produced 2, 2½, and 2 millions; Egypt 384,000, 400,000, and 700,000; and Brazil 600,000, 300,000, and 380,000 in the same period. The gradual position assumed by America as controller of the world’s cotton is, therefore, clearly apparent, and although the production of Egypt and India is increasing, the ratio of increase when compared with America is trifling, while the production from countries outside India and Egypt is decreasing.
That is one consideration. Another consideration is this. Forty years ago England took the bulk of American cotton. To-day the Continent, thanks to the growth and to the marvellous success of Continental spinners, takes one-third of the entire American crop.
Yet another factor is the increase in the American consumption of cotton. A few years ago the American _consumption_ of cotton was almost _nil_. America now consumes a third of her produce. In the opinion of some experts—although in some quarters a contrary opinion is held—America will consume by the end of next year at least one-half of her production.
Now these are very serious facts for industrial Lancashire. The terrible distress which visited Lancashire in the days of the American Civil War is still sufficiently recent to be remembered, and one shudders to contemplate the consequences which would ensue if anything should again prevent Lancashire from obtaining her share of the cotton crop of America, with nothing but the existing inadequate supplies from other parts of the world to fall back upon. The danger is a very real and pressing one. As matters stand at present, Great Britain is practically at the mercy of the United States, and in a position of almost entire dependence upon the market manipulations of American speculators, in whose power it is to regulate the price to suit their own convenience. So unsatisfactory is the actual condition of affairs, that for the past three years it has hardly paid importers to ship cotton to Liverpool. The fear of an American syndicating of cotton is not, perhaps, altogether groundless in these days of vast trusts and combinations, while the competition from Continental spinners, and, above all, increased American consumption, make the outlook as gloomy as it well can be. It is therefore imperative that something be done to increase the area of cotton production under the British flag. So much for the wider aspect of the question.
Those to whom this matter specially appeals have naturally enough turned their eyes towards West Africa, and it is in connection with the possibilities of the development of an export cotton industry in that part of the world that some remarks may fittingly be made in this volume. I say an “export” industry, because, as we know, a native industry to supply local wants has existed in West Africa for centuries past. We have seen, for example, the paramount part which the cotton industry plays in the prosperity of Kano and Northern Nigeria generally, where, in addition to supplying local wants, manufactured cotton cloths are an article of barter; in some regions indeed a veritable currency, sent far and wide to countries of inland Western Africa where the excellence of the Kano article is in perpetual demand. But what is true of Kano is true of many other portions of West Africa. The cotton shrub (_Gossypium herbaceum_)[159] is met with in a wild state all over West Africa, and cultivated very extensively. Wherever Islam has spread, cultivation has increased, but in pagan communities the manufacture of cotton cloths is indulged in to no inconsiderable extent. The pagan tribes of Sierra Leone, of the Gold Coast and Liberia, turn out the most beautiful cloths. Their excellence and felicity of design are such that no one who has seen them can fail to be impressed with the capacity of the races, with their primitive appliances, which produce them. The endeavour to promote cotton cultivation on a larger scale in West Africa will not be, therefore, a new thing, and what might have been an initial difficulty is happily non-existent.
Nor will West Africa be called upon for the first time in its history to supply Europe with raw cotton. When the American Civil War broke out, high prices were offered for West African cotton, which was universally pronounced by experts to be of excellent quality. Cotton was exported in its raw state from the Gold Coast, Fernando Po, Lagos, the Gambia, and Angola. Indeed the export was continued long after that, and between the years 1878 and 1885 raw cotton to the value of £56,501 was shipped home to Europe from the Gold Coast and Lagos. Even before the American War, as was recently recalled to memory by Mr. Elijah Helm,[160] himself a Quaker, the constitutional objections of the Quakers to utilise the products of slave labour led to the formation of a small association, which imported cotton from West Africa of a quality so good, and in quantities so considerable, as to provide for the not very extensive wants of the Quaker fraternity.
But with the close of the war, and the considerable fall in price since those days, the West African export cotton industry has become virtually extinct. A very little, I believe, still finds it sway to Europe from the banks of the Volta and from Angola, but that is all, with the exception of the Togoland experiment of last year, of which I shall speak later.
The four main requirements for the successful cultivation of cotton are: (1) a suitable soil, (2) adequate irrigation or a regularly recurring rainfall, (3) sufficient labour, (4) transport facilities. British West Africa can, in the main, give the first three, in some places better than in others. British West Africa’s capacity to furnish the fourth depends upon whether the grassy upland plains of the interior may be considered more fitting or less fitting than the swampy, better-watered regions of the coast. If the former be thought the most likely, the country behind Lagos alone affords the necessary qualifications at present. Lagos, moreover, is particularly fitted in respect to the third requirement, that of labour. A railway 125 miles long runs up from Lagos town to the interior, passing through the naturally rich and productive belt of forest, where it is hopeless to expect, and where it would be dangerous to attempt to promote, cotton cultivation. But beyond the forest belt a park-like country opens out of an area of some 10,000 square miles in extent, the greater proportion of which would be suitable to the cultivation of cotton, and would go far to justify and hasten, if taken up in earnest, the extension of the existing railway line to the Niger. If, therefore, it be a question of experimenting in a region of grass-covered plains—similar to those of Texas—Lagos, by reason of its railway, is the only British colony where such experiments can at present be undertaken. The intelligence of the Yorubas, their agricultural and industrial capacity, the dense agglomeration of population met with in the country, the need of providing or strengthening the _economic_, as opposed to the strategic, argument for a continuation of the line (let us fervently trust under different conditions) to the Niger; all those factors render it in the highest degree to be hoped that Lagos may be chosen as a centre of activity for the new movement. Lagos, let it never be forgotten, is one of the doors of Northern Nigeria.
If, on the other hand, the consensus of expert opinion favours the low-lying coastwise regions, where fluvial transport to the actual port of shipment is relatively easy, the Gambia and Southern Nigeria primarily suggest themselves. Those possessions seem to me to offer advantages over Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast. The present condition of Sierra Leone is not encouraging. The railway, if it achieves anything at all, which is doubtful, can only do so by increasing the yield of the fruit of the palm, and by bringing the interior oil-palm districts into closer touch with the coast markets. This may enable that unfortunate Colony to bear the heavy burden under which it is now staggering. To cut down the forests in the Eastern districts of Sierra Leone in order to plant cotton would be suicidal. In the Gold Coast, again, there is an opposing factor in the shape of the gold-mining industry. The mining companies are perpetually grumbling about the scarcity of labour, for which in many cases they have themselves to thank. Their demands upon the population have already resulted in drawing away a number of people from their usual avocations, with the result that the export of timber is decreasing; and any further deviation of available labour, such as the cultivation of cotton would necessitate, would seriously affect the producing capacity of the country, not only as regards timber, but in respect to other natural and cultivated products, such as palm oil and kernels in the first category, and cocoa in the other.
For the Gambia, on the other hand, the advent of a new industry would be a boon. The Gambia entirely relies for its existence upon the ground-nut. It is always a bad thing to have all your eggs in one basket. When an article like the ground-nut is in question, it is very bad, because you are at the mercy, as it were, of the seasons. The ground-nut is necessarily a fluctuating article on that account, and one year may produce a fine crop, to be followed the next by an indifferent one. Sir George Denton—the genial and popular Governor of the Gambia—intended, I know, to try and start a better system of irrigation in certain parts of that Colony, in order to widen the extent of ground-nut producing land, and any such project would be all to the good, of course, for cotton cultivation. The population of the Gambia being mostly Mohammedan and largely composed of those most enterprising people the Mandingoes, and Mandingoes crossed with Fulani blood—remnant of the old empire of Melle—a cotton industry (to which they are long inured) could be started with so much greater hope of success from this fact.
In Southern Nigeria[161] the field is vast. You can march for miles on either bank of the main river through a cotton-growing country. The density of the population varies, of course, in different districts. Fluvial means of transport abound. The people, it is true, are not blessed, or cursed, with many wants; but there is no valid reason why, with a little painstaking care and sympathetic treatment; with improvements in the production of kernels which, as already suggested, would release a considerable amount of native labour for other pursuits; with a greater display of combination between the official and mercantile class; with a good deal less blood-letting, fewer punitive expeditions, “clearing away of the refuse of the population,” “drastic measures,” and so forth; the natives of Southern Nigeria should not be induced to take up cotton cultivation for purposes of export.
Granted the necessity; given the soil, irrigation rainfall, labour and transport, as specifically mentioned above; admitted an experience in cotton growing, spinning and weaving among the natives; what remains to be studied in this great enterprise destined, let us hope, to make of British West Africa a great cotton-producing country on which England can count in case of need; to assist in freeing us to a large extent from a position of dependence upon America, and so prevent the accumulating dangers of the hour, and of which the creation cannot fail to confer the greatest benefit upon the British West African possessions?
Obviously the first consideration is one of price. Can a cotton industry in West Africa be made to pay? Can sufficient inducement be offered to the native to encourage him to produce cotton for export? Can West African cotton compete with any degree of success against the American product in the matter of price? On what lines can a cotton industry in West Africa be promoted? Based upon the data available, which are not, of course, by any means complete, the general consensus of opinion amongst experts appears to be that, with the inculcation of scientific methods of cultivation, the treatment of the cotton shrub as an annual instead of a perennial, the introduction of the necessary implements and of ginning and compressing machinery it will be possible to make cotton-growing profitable. In this respect the experiments of the Germans in Togoland are particularly interesting. To Germany belongs the credit of initiating the new cotton movement. From the German Colony of Togo came last year, for the first time in its history, fifteen thousand marks worth of cotton. The conclusions of the German Agricultural Committee were precise. The absence of adequate transport facilities alone prevented the complete financial success of the first experiment. Further, it was shown upon analysis that, of the various types of cotton raised from American, Egyptian, Indian and native seed, the type raised from the native seed produced, as a whole, the best staple, equal in quality to average American. This absence of transport is likely to be remedied in time, as a survey is now being made for a railway from the coast to Misahöhe. Meanwhile the Germans are so far from being discouraged that a company is, I understand, about to be brought out for the express purpose of developing the cotton industry in Togo[162] with a capital of £37,500.
[Illustration: TRAVELLING ON THE NIGER IN THE DRY SEASON]
The French are also devoting a great deal of attention to the subject just now. Some years ago the then military Governor of the French Sudan, Général de Trentinian, took the matter up. Nothing came of his efforts, but M. Roume, the new Governor-General of French West Africa, has now adopted it as one of the planks of his platform, so to speak. He is anxious to establish a cotton industry in Senegal, which, like the Gambia, lives upon ground-nut production. More ambitious schemes are vaguely mooted, and some enthusiasts already speak and write as though the valley of the Upper Niger were about to be converted, as it were by a flash of the magician’s wand, into a rival of the Southern States. That with its magnificent soil and splendid natural irrigation the valley of the Upper Niger may some day fulfil the aspirations of the French is, perhaps, more than possible.[163] But we are a long way off that yet.
It seems difficult, then, to believe that this simultaneous impulse on the part of competent men in England, Germany and France can be founded upon a miscalculation in respect to working expenses, and I think we may feel tolerably certain that, if cotton costs an average per lb. of 2⅛ _d._ to produce in Texas, such parts of West Africa as can be endowed with similar facilities in respect to machinery, and where transport, either by rail or water, is available, will be able to produce cotton at a lower figure; and as the interest of the West African shipowners is to fill their ships homeward bound from the West Coast, we may also presume that they will make reasonable concessions to encourage the industry.[164]
There remains the question of how to set about establishing a cotton industry in West Africa upon a sound basis. Shall it be attempted in the form of plantations managed by white overseers and with paid native labour; or shall it be left very largely to native initiative, and develop itself on the lines of a native industry—as, I believe, is the case in India? I think that all who have some knowledge of West African matters will unhesitatingly pronounce in favour of the latter solution. West Africa is essentially a country of native industries, and the best economic results have been obtained in West Africa when the motive power all through has been the native, with the European as teacher, instructor and guide, but _not_ as manager or director of native labour.[165] In the construction of public works the same phenomenon is observable in a somewhat different form. Experience has demonstrated that where the recruiting of labour for railways or road construction has been left in the hands of the chiefs, requisite labour was forthcoming, and sufficient left on the farms to allow usual production, and therefore the export trade has remained unaffected; whereas when recruiting operations have been directed by Europeans outside the authority of the chiefs, labour was indeed obtainable, but at the cost of disorganising the general labour supply of the country and consequently affecting adversely the export trade.
A knowledge of these facts suggests, therefore, that the cotton industry can be promoted with the greatest chance of success by interesting the rulers of the country and their councils in the movement; by giving the chiefs the benefit of expert advice; by enlisting their sympathies and good-will; by supplying them with cotton seed, implements, and possibly hand-gins, gratis; and so on. Here at least the necessity of proceeding on lines of instruction entirely is manifest. The object is to improve an existing industry, to greatly enlarge and systematise it, _to get the people of the land interested in it_. If the native can see a profit in the business, he will take it up. That is morally certain. It has been so in every branch of West African commerce. So keenly has the native embraced new trade outlets offered to him that upon occasion he has, when uninstructed in the art of production, compromised the future. Absolute and entire co-operation of officialdom and commerce is essential if the cotton movement in West Africa is to be attended with success. The Germans may here serve us as a model to imitate. The home Government, the local Government; the forces of industry and commerce in Germany, and in the particular Colony where the experiments are being made, have vied with one another in the effort to achieve an aim of common interest to all. Centres of instruction have been established in the Colony; model farms have been created; Negro farmers from the States have been brought over through the instrumentality of Mr. Booker T. Washington, the distinguished Negro scholar and manager of the Tuskegee Institute.[166] In all these matters the official world has worked hand in glove with the commercial world.
It is equally important that the cotton associations and merchants should be in earnest. No mere pecking will suffice. Disappointments and delays must be discounted in advance. There are sure to be plenty of both. Ginning and compressing machinery must be set up either on the coast, or, if it be decided to try Lagos, at large centres such as Ibadan and Abbeokuta; and preferably what is known as the “American round lap,” which ensures simultaneous ginning and compressing in 250 lb. round bales, instead of the more cumbrous and more expensive separate ginning and compressing machines, which produce the 500 lb. square bale. In short, the movement must be engineered, from the beginning, on a real scientific basis. If Togoland with its transport difficulties has been able in the first year’s experience to export 70,000 decimal pounds of cotton, what may not be achieved by those of our West African Colonies where transport facilities exist; where the population is at least as dense if not denser; and where British subjects have been in contact with the natives for periods ranging from fifty to one hundred years?
I cannot leave this subject without referring to the indirect relation it bears to the Negro problem in the States. At present all is vague and uncertain. We cannot tell what may be the outcome of the movement; but if it be a success, what vistas does it not open up for the future! We have seen how the Germans have invited the co-operation of American Negro cotton farmers. The few who have gone out—the German reports assure us—have elected to remain. More, it is announced, are to follow. What would the attitude of the American Government be in the face of a steady flow of emigration on the part of the coloured population of the Southern States, to help to build up in its country of origin what it has built up in America? In what light would the Americans regard the up-springing of a great cotton industry in West Africa? If, as events seem to indicate, America is likely to become on an ever-increasing scale the principal consumer of her own raw cotton, would such an occurrence be viewed with equanimity by the American public? Or if not with actual equanimity, with at least the feeling that the danger, presuming it to be one, might be cheerfully faced if a deeper peril could thereby be diminished, and in time perhaps altogether removed? Could white labour in the American cotton plantations, with the exception of the more swampy and malarial regions, be substituted for Negro labour, in the event of appreciable emigration? These are questions for American statesmen and thinkers to answer. If American intelligence can perceive in these tentative suggestions a clue, be it ever so faint now, of future potentialities, a clue worth following up and investigating, let America remember that a million square miles of African territory, which was declared in 1884 internationally free commercial land, and in the consolidation of which under its present _régime_ America is to a large degree responsible, is in the grip to-day of a band of greedy monopolists in whose bowels reside no scruples, no pity, no humanity; who are sowing red ruin wherever their influence can be asserted. If America ever seriously turns her attention to West Africa as a solution of the greatest problem of her internal politics, let her cast her eyes upon the Congo State, misnamed Free—the abode of cruelty and persecution, of slavery and reaction.