Worry on Worth Street

Worth Street, on Manhattan's lower West side, is the center of the U.S. cotton goods business. In a short reach of half a dozen run-down blocks lie many of the country's biggest and oldest cotton textile houses and the starchy Merchants and Arkwright clubs for Worth Street. Worth Street firms sold more than $2 billion worth of cotton cloth and yarns in 1947—90% of the output of all U.S. mills.

Last week Worth Street was full of trouble. It started with a buyers' strike last spring. This month the Government predicted a whopping 15,169,000-bale cotton crop. On the New York...