The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-09-14
RESOLUTIONS
tion Held at Galveston, Texas, August
&C, 1897.
BEACH HOTEL. J
Tex. Aug. 3 1897 {

BEACH HOTEL
Galveston, Tex, Aug. 3, 1897. {
To Hon j. F. Walters, Chairman of
the Cotton GrOtUers' Association:
We, your committee on resolutions,
beg leave tomake the following report:
We find, after q careful examination
of all the facts before US, that option
dealing in future cotton is gambling of
the most vicious nature; Withdrawing
at least 50 per bale from circulation
during the deal, which in nearly every
case ends by forwarding the option put
up by the victim in the South with q
constant tendency to depress our prin,
cipal money crop, by this means forcing
a sale at price less than the cost Of
production; robbing our farmers of
their just earnings, preventing them
from paying for the supplies to produce
a crop at less; bringing much distress
to our merchants; forcing our women
and children to labor in the fields;
throwing laboring men out of employ
ment and thereby, causing them to join
the army of tramp; adding largely to
cur criminal classes; epreediUg by G.
tendency to gamble in futures" con
ERgion in the morals OF our agricultural
class, fEcm which are draw a large ma
j5rlty OF men to fill every 8v0cati0n in
life. We find there can be no real
prosperity unless the agricultural
classes are prosperous. We fad con
dition surrounding the cotton producer
to day not one OF prosperity, but many
Of them cramped with debts, covered
with mortgages, unable to erj1y the
fruits of their labor and educate their
families, largely, We think, from the
dealing Of option gamblers selling our
products below the cost of production.
For this reason we ask your adoption
of the following resolutions:
WHEREAS, The cotton industry of
the South is a most important agricul-
turel 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
| fictitious cotton called futures" at
prices uniformly less than the current
spot cotton market, which sales Of fic
titious cotton or contrecss to deliver
cotton at future time at lower prices
than the actual spot cotton prices, and
in which speculstors 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 exDira-
ton Of th9 contract of delivery. These
contracts baing cheaper, induce mill
men and consumers Of the rev mate
riel, who heretofore competed in the
spot cotton sales, to Withdraw from the
market, titus fostering O condition
| which takes from the Gotten market
the actual purchaser, destroys Iegiti,
mate market demands and competi.
ti0n, and leaves the cotton product at
the mercy of dictated prices. By fl )od
ing the market reports Of actual sales
Of spot cotton with five to ten times
the volume OF fictitious sales at lower
figures, thus producing a constant de-
crease in the price Of real cotton. By
operating gambling enterprise known
as the New York futures board" in
which fictitious cotton is offered for
sale in the market at prices sufficiently
reduced below spot cotton prices to in
vite investment, and wherein the said
investments are virtually confiscated
by arbitrary changes in said quotations
whereby the country is drained of en-
ormous sums of money and toe cotton
market fuctuated for gambling pur
poses to the great detriment of legiSi
mate trade, thus producing the decline
In the price of cotton as observed ir
our markets since the organization oi
the New York Gotten Exchange and itt
futures board" and,
WHEREAS, The price of labor neces
sary to raise and market a given quan
tisy Of cotton, in comparison with the
price OF labor necessary to manufac
ture and market the same quantity oi
cotton, is Of the ratio OF two to three
and under legitimate conditions o
trade, and estimates N 2et favorable tc
manufactures, raw cotton should sci
for not less than so per cent. of tht
manufactured article, yet the situation
is such the5 the price OF cotton hat
been SO depressed by speculation and
market gambling until manufactured