The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-09-09
RESOLUTIONS
40 -p.~s by tn Cotton Gr"~ers co"wsn-
u.a Held ~ d Ats. ssoo. fsxss, August ..

1897.
Bg.cH HOTEL GALVESTON. Tex,
August 2, 1897
TO Hon. J. r. Walters. Chairman OF
the Cotton Growers Association:
We. Your committee on resolutions.
beg leave to make the following re- |
port:
We find, after careful examination |
Of all the facts before us, that option |
dealing in future cotton Is gambling OF
the most vicious nature: withdrawing |
at last 50 per bale from circulation
during the deal, which in nearly
every Gaze ends by forwarding the OPP
ton put UP by lie victim in the south
with q constant tendency 10 depress
our principal crop, by this means fore
ing sale at a price less than the cost
Of proouction; robbing our farmers of
their just earnings, preventing them
from paying for the supplies to pro
dnce crop at loss, bringing much
distress TO our merchants: forcing our
women and children to labor in the
fields; throwing labOriEg men out OF
employment and thereby causing them
to JOIN The army OF tramps; adding
| largely to our criminal classes; spread
ing by tendency TO gamble in "fu-
lures" cOntagiOn in the morals OF our
agricultural class, from which are
drawn a large ma jority Of men to Hi
every avocation Of life. We find there
can be no real prosperity unless the
agricultural classes are prosperous.
We find a condition surrounding the
cotton producer to day not one of pros
perity, but many OF them cramped
with debts, cove red with mortgages,
unable to enjoy the fruits Of their la
burs and educate their families, largely,
we think, from the dealing Of option
gamblers selling our products below
the cost Of production. For this rea-
son we ask your adoption of the fol-
lowing resolutions:
WHEREAS, The cotton industry Of
the South is a most important agrIcul-
tural product of the United States, and
in volume more than 65 per cent. OF
the worlds product Of cotton, and the
condition of this great industry, being
now depressed by spectators who con-
troll and reduce the price, in their own
interest, by the following methods,
among others: BY offering for sale tic
titious cotton called futures" at prices
uniformly less than the current spot
cotton market, which sales of fictitious
cotton or contracts to deliver cotton at
a future time at lower prices than the
actual spot cotton prices, and in which
specuIatOrs do not intend, and are not
compelled, to deliver actual cotton but
uniformly pay or receive the monetary
difference in the price of futures and
SPOT cotton at the expiration of the
contract of delivery. These contracts
being cheaper, induce mill men and
consumers Of the raw material, who
, heretofore competed in the spot cotton
, sales, to withdraw from the market,
thus fostering a condition which takes
: from the cotton market the actual
, purchaser, destroys legitimate market
demands and competition, and leaves
the cotton product at the mercy of die
tated prices. BY hoodidg the market
reports of actual sales of spot cotton
with five to ten times the volume of
fictitious sales at lower figures, thus
producing u constant decrease in the
price of real cotton. BY operating a
gambling enterprise known as the
New y Ork Futures Board" in which
, fictitious cotton is offered for sale in
the market at prices sufficiently re-
duced below spot cotton prices TO in
vite investment, and wherein the said
investments are virtually cOnfiscated
by arbitrary changes in said quota.
tiOns whereby the country is drained
of enormous sums of money and the
cotton market luctuated for gambling
: purposes TO the great detriment of le-
gitimate trade, thus producing the de-
cline i'm the price OF cotton as observed
in our markets since the organization
of the New York Cotton Exchange
and its Cultures boards; and
WHEREAS, The price of labor neces-
sary to raise and market given guam
. tity of cotton, in comparison with the
price of labor necessary to manufac
! ture and market the same quantity of
cotton, is of the ratio of two to three,
and under legitimate conditions OF
trade, and estimates most favorable to
manufactures, raw CT ttOn should sell
, for not less than so per cent. of the
manufactured article, yet the situation
is such that the price of cotton has
been so depressed by speculation and
market gambling until manufactured
, goods sell from 400 to 400 per cent
more than the material that cOmpOses
such goods, and a vast wealth that
should be distributed among its pro-
ducers is annually cOnfiscated by the
unbridled greed of spectators; and
II WHEREAS, The history of cotton pro-
=. |
, has increased at greater ratio than the
worlds supply, and as measured by the
surplus on baud at the end of each cot
, ton season, the surplus has grown less
for more than twenty years, proving
the falsity of the cry of over prOduc-
ton as proclaimed by spectators and
revealing facts that under proper con-
ditions would have made prices steady
! and improved during that time; and
WHEREAS, These other conditions
make it necessary that legislation be
cOntrived and enacted to relieve cotton
producers from these Oppressive, unit st
and ruinOus conditions; therefore be it
Resolred, That we urge the people OF
the On-grOwing States inviting the
CO. operation of the citizens of all Other
States in the u niOn, to insist upon and
secure legislation in every possible
form to prevent the existing injury to
our cotton trade produced by specula-
ton and gambling in Onr markets.
We commend as just and necessary
the suppression of cotton Futures
and to that END we ask the co-opesa-
ton of all people in securing State and
Federal egislatiOn as shall come within
the legitimate domain of Federal and
State legislation. We urge legislation
I to suppress the operation of any system
of dealing in what is correctly known
as futures; that it may be made uniaw-
full for any firm, corporation or the
agents of any such, to deal in the sale
or purchase of cotton futures"
IL should be made unlawful for any
bank or banking institution, telegraph
telephone, express or other corporation
or person, their officers or agents, to
1 take, receive or transmit any message
: money, bid or deposit for investment
e in cotton futures in our respective
Ststes, or to be transmitted by OF hers
from such States; that it be made un-
lawful for any person, firm or corpora
l ton to publish Or print or circulate by
any method the prices bid or any OF
the propositions of sale or purchase OF
futures in the States so legislating.
We urge that these and other neces.
: sary measures for the relief of the peO-
nIo ho tsk q m u nnliticO1