The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-08-19
THE AMERICAN COTTON TRUST COM
PANY.

The American Cotton Company has
not commenced operations in this State
and comparatively little is known of
their operations. 1t has effected a start
in the far South and there the people
are probing to the bottom to see if it is
not a gigantic trust. The fact that John
f.. Scarles. the head of the sugar trust,
is president of the company makes 1t
look like a trust. The people know him
well and his methods, and while having
all confidence in Senator Jones, one of
the owners, fear that he will not have a,
voice to control the company, and stoP
| the Searles interest from making thf
new invention an engine of OppTesslOg.
| The wise course for people in the cotten
business, whether as producers or m&n-
ufacturers. is to go slow. The invention
is one to be welcomed if its owners do
not initiate the owners of the BOn@ack
machine and build up a mighty trust to
depress the price of the crop TO: the
farmer and increase it to the maBu 'ac-
turer. The New Orleans Times pemO-
crat, an able and discreet paper, touch
ing the matter says:
"Mr. David c. Ball, manager!of the
American Cotton Company. orr Cotton
Trust. returned to st. Louis tie other
dav. after two months tour OF Texas,
Mississippi and other Southern States,
where he has been engaged i'm trying
to disprove the assertion that his com
many is a trust and intends to get the
absolute control of the cotton business
in it's hands and then put ithe screws
on the farmers.
"Of course, we are temporarily hAndi-
canned" he told a POSt+Dispatch re-
porter. "by the charge that we are en-
gagged in forming a trust His trip
South was to disabuse the farmer of
this idea, but we are scarcely surprised
| that he failed when we consider the A.
guments he advanced.
Mr.. Ball frankly acknowledged all
the charges made against his company,
but insisted that there would be no
! trust business in 1.-THE people can de-
pend upon the word Of the company to
| that effect (if they care to do SOL 1t
was true that John y. Searles, head of
the Sugar Trust, is president of the
Cotton Trust, and that he proposes 10
introduce the business methods of the
sugar trade into the cotton trade. Mr..
Searles was friendly to the South, and
only last week sent a printed circular
through the mails in which he an
nounced his desire to invest some (Su.
gar TRUST capital in the South, on the
condition that the Southern legislatures
make no effort at this juncture to ham
per capital and attempt, by legisla-
ton, to restrict its USE" and give guar
antees to investors" that is, wipe out
antitrust laws, and pledge themselves
to pass no acts unfriendly to monopoly.
"Mr. Ball was equally candid in con-
Tossing that the Cotton Trust would
play a lone hand; would rent, not sell
its machinerys and that it did so in or
der to control the cotton business. The
trust proposed to get rid of all middle
men: it would abolish the commission
merchant and the ordinary cotton press
es. THE necessary consequence of our
success" he continued, Gin causing the
adoption of the cylindrical bale, is to put
the planters in direct communication
with the spinner. The company must
stand between the spinner and the grow
err, to safeguard its own interests and
theirs simultaneously. / can see no
ground for criticizing a policy the effect
of which will be to hold the planters and
ginners t9 a strict accountability as to
the character of the cylindrical packages
and their contents"
at is not to be wondered at that this
explanation did not have much influence
in the South and that the trust finds
itself Handicapped by popular opposi-
ton. We have had great deal of eX-
Iperience With whole-souled trusts stand
ing between the producer and the con-
sumers, ITO safeguard its own interests
and theirs simultaneously" and we have
had Mr.. John r. Searles figuring in this
philanthrdpic position on several occa-
sions; bus the safeguarding has always
been Of Che same character. The pro-
ducers of? sugar in Louisiana and else
where, the importers of foreign sugar
have all found, without exception, that
the fact that Mr.. Searles and the Sugar
Trust stand between them and the con-
sumers has resulted in a marked depres-
sion in the price they received for their
sugar gshe trust has made it a point
to put Down the price of sugar the mo-
ment tho first Louisiana sugar house
went to work, and, as Mr.. Searles has an
nounced his intention of carrying on thu
Cotton Trust on the same business prin-
ciples as his Sugar Trust, the announce
ment of lhe arrival of the first bale will
be equivalent to an official notice Of a
drop in ghe price of the staple-that is,
as soon as all opposition, all compress
men, commission men, ETC., are crushed
out of existence, and the Cotton Trust
monopolikes the cotton business and acts
as the sole intermediary between the
farmer Ind the spinner, Safeguarding
it's owns interests and theirs simultane-
ously.
eff the Cotton Trust hal declared no
more than its intention to mOnopolize
the field, the ginning, baling, handling
and coEtrOllin0 Of cotton. that alone