GOVERNMENT: Pink as a Bollworm

From the Agriculture Department last week came an alarming note. The pink bollworm, “the most threatening insect pest of American cotton,” is doing more damage “to the 1952 cotton crop . . . than its total damage in the last 35 years.” Jolted by the news, cotton traders in New York and elsewhere began buying heavily, quickly pushed cotton futures up as much as $2.50 a bale. But when newsmen tried to get some more facts on the crop damage a few hours later, faces at the Agriculture Department were as pink as a bollworm. There are no figures, said Agriculture officials, on either past or present pink-bollworm damage. What the release should have said was that the damage is the worst for any one year in the past 35, although compared to the total U.S. cotton crop, the damage will still be “a drop in the bucket.” Next day cotton futures lost most of their gains.