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Show COTTON DISCOUNTS THE WAR Prices Fall Off While Demand for Raw Product Increases as More Men Are Impressed Into Army. With a rea.ization of the seriousness serious-ness of the latest German note, the exchanges of the country acted with what looked to be marked inconsistency. inconsist-ency. Stocks rose generally in price, and cotton sold off sharply. Why? No cotton is going to Germany anyway, any-way, and It would appear that the threat of war would have the effect of depressing anything in the way of a security. Whereas, the same threat of war in a larger theater would tend to promise an increased consumption of cotton. The point of vltw of the markets probably was that, with the United States threatened with war, tfitsre would ensue a feverish if unnatural activity in Industries generally; whereas the consumption of cotton In quantities large enough to take care of the predicted crop and the surplus Is a thing that must hingt! on peace. As to stocks, the view is probably sound, especially since war would automatically end ttie liquidation ot any German-held securities. As to cotton, the case is not so plain, slnci-every slnci-every man impressed into an army or set to work in a foundry adds just so much to the demand which the mills must meet, and to the raw product prod-uct that the mills must take from the farmer. Columbia (S. C.) State. |