The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-05-25
THE AMERICAN COTTON COM
PANY.

Moro Particulars About Its Objects and
Who Are Behind It.
The New York World has the follow.
ing about the cotton Trust octopus:
The natural evolution of trade"
which monopolists love to talk about
when they are testifying before legis
laUive investigating committees as to
the reason for such great trusts as the
American Sugar Refining Company,
the Standard Oil Company and kindred
organic atoms, now threatens to put
the gigantic busiI 10 of marketing the
cotton crop Of Ene United States into
the power Of a single company.
The concern is known as the Ameri.
a Cotton Company. It was incor-
porated under the favorable laws OF
New Jersey In March, 1896, and it has
apaid up capital OF So. coo, 600, of which
one half is preferred. Its shares are
not yet listed on any exchange, but
they will be some day, and will give
United States Senators and other in
siders as big a field for their specula-
tive tendencies as sugar trust stock has.
John E SeRrles, the Secretary and
Treasurer of the Sugar Trust, is the
President of the Company. Associated
with him are such acute fuanciers and
cotton experts az Stuyvesant Fish,
President of the Illinois Central Rail
road Former Secretary Of the Interior
r. D. FraEc;s, Jerome Hill, @. D. Ball,
Senator Jones, of Arkansas; B. P. Nc
Donald, a director of the Missouri,
Kansas 6 Texas Railroad, and Bart
Moore, Waco, Texas.
1t has secured the control Of the pat
ents covering a comparatively new
machine which packs cotton in what
is called cylindrical bales, a process
that makes such a great saving in the
cost of producing cotton and annually
delivering it to the spinner that it is
but a question of a few years when it
will be impossible to remain in the cot
ton producing business without using
the machinery. The machinery cannot
be bought. 1t must be leased from the
American Cotton Company, on terms
which it dictates.
Experts estimatN that if the new
method of baling cotton is universally
adopted there will be $50, OCO, 900 a year
saved in the actual cost of delivering
cotton to the spinner.
UTSAA4p~& &ES1 ~ar@IS-n~- Az T~-A.
ton owner has taken his crop, put it
through the gin and baled it in what
were approximately 500 pound pack
ages. He has then had to ship it to his
commission merchant, who has sent it
to his compressor, the commission
merchants owning all the compressors,
to have the bale reduced in size to a
convenient shipping form. Then the
bales were shipped to the spinner at the
mill. There have had to be added to
the actual cost Of producing cotton,
therefore, the freight from the planta-
ton to the compressor, insurance and
storage at the compressor. and com
missions to the commission men, on top
of which came the freight from the
commissions to the mill.
Under the new process the machin
cry is such that it will be placed on the
plantation with the gin and will turn
out the cotton in a great rolled bat that
is so tightly compressed that q 500
pound bale will only be one half as
large as the present bale of the same
weight. It will turn it out, too, in
such a condition that it a be shipped
directly to the spinner, and fed direct