The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1891-09-03

practically that elastic medium which
the Government cannot furnish, 1t
seems, without going into the broker
age business?
?. The trade in futures has been car
ried to a great excess and has often
! Injured business. So far as 1t ls used Tor
purely speculative purposes, itisa great
curse. But is the evil inherent IN the
system itself, OF is it but an incident?
What special harm is there in farm
er's making a contract with a buyer to
sell his crop to him in the fall at 1lxed
rate? Shall farmer be prevented from
securing advances in Charleston on the
promise of shipping so many bales at
such a price, and then, if he prefers, pay
ing the price instead of delivering the
cotton? Shall manufacturer not beper-
mitted to contract to deliver certain
number Of bales of cloth to China in
six monthso These are in principle pre-
cisely the same as the transactions on
Wall street.
There may be sharp set Of rascals
in Wall street, but may there not be an
equally sharp set of rascals, perhaps,
with antagonistic interests to watch
them? Each crowd has its correspond
ents through the land gathering crop
statistics. Between the two most accu-
rate reports are obtained. And the
Fairfield farmer can, if he inquiries,
learn as much about the crop as any
body else. The price, after all in the
long run is regulated by demand and
supply. Sometimes the yield battles all
calculation, as, for instance, this year;
but it can easily be seen how much
wider the speculation would have been
if there had not been this systematic
collection of statistics. Years ago there
was at least fifteen cents pound differ.
ence in the price of cotton at Winns-
boro and New York. What is the
difference to-day? When we choke off
the gamblers" We throw the burden Of
collecting facts on the Government, or
on the producers themselves, who have
other work to do. It costs money to
get crop reports and the people must
pay either directly by tax or subscrip-
ton, or Indirectly through prices. Fur
thernlore, in view of the present great
glut OF cotton, is it not probable that
the price is kept where it is only be-
cause lot of speculators have been
caught in future and are bulling the
market to save themselves from ruin?
Otherwise, there is no special reason
why cotton now on hand should be
sold atal. Here is proof again, it seems
that even an evil often has its compen-
sating good.
To prevent the sale of futures alto
gether would be to paralyze all credit
transactions, for unless the law be so
absolutely bombproof as to prevent all
future sales whatever, it will find some
loophole for escape. It is dangerous
stretch Of power in government to tell
man he shall not buy anything for
future delivery. Laws, too, may be
imperative, but unless upheld by pub
lie opinion, juries will not enforce them.
Would it not be better to endeavor
to regulate such sales than forbid
them?
8. The present Silver Act Of Congress
does these things: First, it keeps the
silver dollar on a par wita the gold
dollar, when the bullion in it is 25 cents
cheaper. Second, it adds about S70,-
100000 year to our currency. Third,
it uses all the silver that is mined in
this country. Fourth, it gives the Gov
ernment, that is the public at large, all
the profit arising from coming IS cents
worth of silver bullion into a dollar
coin. What is there in all this to
"condelnn%" Suppose the free coinage
of silver, which is demanded" would
take the profit of coinage from the pubic
and give it to the silver miners, and
allow Europe and Mexico to 'dump"
their surplus silver over here at big
profit and then run the risk of having
our gold leave the country, lot of sill
yer dollars remaining with US, which
the world refuses to consider as worth a
dollar when We go to pay for our i'm
ports, would this be much better law
than the one that has been ''con-
demned?" This is what very many of
the world, even of those who are not
"goldbugs," believe would be the effect
of free coinage of silver in the United
States.
I. Alien ownership of land is becom-
ing an evil, that is to say, ownership Of
large tracts of land. We may consider
whether it is better to rave 30 market
for land or to sell it 10 some foreigner.
For instance, is it better to leave the
Catawba water power undeveloped OF
sell it to an English syndicate? Had
We rather do without RAILROAD in
Fairfield than allow foreign capital to
build and own ito fan Englishman
comes along and offers you ten dollars
an acre for farm which you have been
unable to sell to a fellow-citizen for
fiye dollars would you think the law
forbidding alien ownership of land a
good or bad thing? After syndicate
had developed Catawba Falls would
you be willing to tax yourself to enable
the State to acquire it by sale from
alien owners? Do you desire to in-
crease your taxes to enable the General
Government to "take possession" OF
millions of acres of alien and railroad