Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1878-12-20

sofDlhS Ir.1re tnan their commission for buy
! ing the cotton for spinuers account has called
to the defence of his peopie-this Cincinnatus
II was about to say from his plow, but | for
pear as by the comparison l should do gross
injustice to one of the parties.
Ihere are generally two sides to all queS-
| tions; the cotton buyers only ask that their
| position be correctly stated, and they do not
| anticipate that any fair minded farmer will
even object TO what they ask, this demand can
be stated in one simple expression, viz: That
| tbs warehousemen of BrenhaIn who weigh
cotton for pay and without any connection
With or reference to the buyer, shall guarau-
tee his certified weight as given in his receipt
and upon which the money is paid, against
any discover three pounds upon reweight in
the city of Brenham, whiting ten days upon
an equally honest scale and by an equally
honest man.
When these reclama:ians for loss In weight
were made upon the buyers TO such an extent
as to abscrbe all the legitimate profits of le-
Sitilnate business, one of two things became
absolutely necessary. Either remedy for
the evll blythe strong lever of Cooperation"
Us Inc master expresses it, OF. else uuit the
business. j N. Williams, the .sAIaster of
Pomona Grange" unhesiiatingly declares
that corporation is the corrective of evils in
the interest Of farmers. The question might
very properly be asked, even in the face of
the structures of the gentleman upon the COM
blnation of the cotton buyers as he call it.
Why may not cotton buyers resort to it also,
suppose however it is cooperation when
uSett - u ltiticNIN lsilIller, Dut cGIltl-
nation when used as weapon of defence in
the hands of cotton BUYERS
hen this loss in weight on cotton shipped
from Brenham became pruverbial at mai:u-
faciuflns points, and threatened the loss of
our cotton purchasing business for sIlinners
aceout (some orders being semi to Texas cou-
pied with the condition that the cotton might
be purchased at any point in Texas except
brenham, on account of the fearful loss in
weigh at that point.) a meeting Of BUYERS
Warehousemen and merchants was called to
correct, if possible, this evil by devising
better system for handling the cltton of the
town. we did not question the integrity of
any warehouseinan who weighed cotton we
believed then as we believe now, that their
scales are correct. 1t Is simply question as
TO the amount of water in cotton when WHICH,
ed wet, AID which of necessity must dry cut.
When it is considered that nearly one half of
the cotton is brought TO market wet, more or
less, and weighed in that condition, it is a
matter demanding the exercise OF very supe-
ri0r Judgment in order to deal out even justice
to the producer and buyer
y public weigher to be appointed by the
Governor of the State, under a law passed by
the fourteenth Legislature, was the remedy
which suggested itself to those who had the
mntter under aavisement
A petition was accordingly sent to the Gov
ernor of the State earnestly asking the an
pointInent of such an officer. Had he made
the appointment, the cotton when weighed by
him would have been distributed among the
e..
and there would have been nine checks upoh
the correctness ofhis action In eve:y instance,
by simply reweighing on the pant of Ware
housenen The Governor however, positive
ly refused to appoint one, because as he sta
ted, protests had been sent from this place
against such action by him.
Every town OF any commercial importance
In the state has such an officer, even those of
one-fourth the importance of Brennan. And
although these irregularities in weight were
presented to the Executive of the State in such
shape, viz; Bills for actual loss, that he
could not question the loss which some cotton
buyers of BRENNAN were suffering by reason
of the short weights, he utterly refused to give
them the protection which under a law of the
State he could have given, and Will h it was
his duty plainly to have acted or
When this appeal To the Chief Executive of
hcer ofthe state Jailed we resurtetlt to Cap.J NJ
Wlll1anlf strong lever of co-opera.ion,,
and demanded in a body of the warehouse
men WHO weigh the cotton and certify to the
weight over their own Signatures that they
would guarantee the weight so reccipted for
against all loss over three pounds upon re-
weight within ten days.
One half of the warehousemen have given
us this guarantee and we buy cotton from
them as usual. The other half have refused
to guarantee except on reweight by them
selves, and ON their own scales, and we do
not buy their cotton except rcweighed and
delivered. Is there anything unreasonable in
this demand of the buyer of cotton, that the
article purchased shall be weighed and leliv-
cred, where there is no responsibility any
where 10 him if these is loss Cotton is re-
weighed 10 the purchaser everywhere the
world over. If Capt. Williams bought coffee
or sugar or bacon from his grocer, he would
cxpeit him to guarantee the weight given
oi Il uarantee based upon reweight by the
same grocer and upon his scale, but upon re-
weight by any honest man on an honest scale
Not being able TO secure q public weigher in
order 10 have our cotton reweighed before
shipment, we selected II. COnley- to act as re-
weisher. Tois gentleman has DAD the expe-
rience OF years in this business in BRENNAN,
and he was selected on account of his capaci- |
~ based upon actual experience 4 gentle |
man of unquestioned integrity and whose |
past record is suflicisnt guarantee that he |
will to the best of his Judgment deal fairly |
with the producer and buyes.
Capt. Williams says the movement looks |
like as if the buyers demanded of the weigh |
ers that they deffaud the owner of the cotton |
by not giving him the full weight of the cot |
ton cannot believe that he intended to |
charge the c.tton buyers With enteavoring TO |
defraud the farmer ont of one ounce of his |
cotton. Such an imputation would have been |
unworthy of gentleman of his position and |
intelligence, and yet it is the legitimate de- |
ductiOn from the language Ased I shall not /
Capt. Williams, il is fortunate that he has |
leisure TO indulge his talent in newspaper COR
re>pOndence, otherwise his brilliant efusion /
would have been lost to cur literature
We only ask that the weight of cotton as
certified 10 by the warehousemen (and for this
service he is paid shall be guaranteed against |
any loss over three pounds within ten days |
when reweighed by another equally honest |
man, and upon an equally honest scale There
must be some responsibility to the buyer, as
to the weight of an article which he has not |
seen weighed, and for which he pays upon
the certificate of weights issued by the party |
who weighs it for the remuneration which the /
weighing, storing and shipping business
gives him. A COTTON RIVER