THE COTTON INDUSTRY.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—To many outside our staple trade who read the Spectator it may be well to state just now that Lancashire is face to face with a serious crisis in her cotton industry. Before the war our foreign piece-goods trade was in a depressed condi- tion, and there seemed no immediate probability of a revival in the °verses, demand. The war has paralysed matters, and hardly any cloth " orders to make" have been given out to producers during the past two months. Old contracts have run down to a vanishing point, and looms are standing idle on a wide scale. The outlook is indeed black. Everything abroad in East and West has been dislocated. Finance, exchanges, &c., have led to " nothing doing," with the result that before we are much older most of our weaving and spinning machinery will be idle. There is, I fear, sure to be much distress in the County Palatine.—I am, Sir, &c., WILLIAM TATTERSALL.
17 St. Ann's Square, Manchester.
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