The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1898-06-09
The IXIQU!IY o. Futures.
CONGRESSMAN STOKES SPEAKS
AGAINST cOTTONE EXCHANGES.
Crops Sold Before They are Planted
A Gigantic Gambling Scheme-sIi
to Crush Out the Evil.

Mr.. Stokes has introduced GA Bill
Relating to FutureContracts in Ag-
ricultural Products. This bill will
be made the basis of the fight. 1t
declares that "options" "and"futureS"
are distractions to and restraints
upon commerce, and are illegal and
void and that dealing in them shall
constitute misdemeanor punishable
by a fine eqoal to the amount of the
contract, if it is not less than a
thousand dollars, and by imprison-
ment from one to five years. 1t pro-
vides also that every distinct con-
tract shall constitute a separate Of
tense for both buyer and seller. 1t
provides for enjoinlng and properly
Furnishing merchants or exchange
boards of other associations that deal
in options and futures.
Mr. Stokes has received thousands
of petitions and letters from all over
the country endorsing his bill and
urging its passage. From his home
district, the seventh South Carolina,
he received 1901 petitions, contain
ing about 5000 signatures. He
launched his bill with an elaborate
speech in the course of which he
said:
"Mr. Chairman, the man who
should advisedly bargain away in
the beginning of the year, at clear
lv ssc srtained loss to himself, a
whole years product of toll and pri-
vation, would everywhere be adjudg-
ed fool in the assizeS of common
sense. Still, the man would simply
have done what he had 4 right to do
with his own. But when that man
presumes, unasked, to bargain away
the years product of another in
advance, even if at no cost to that
other, the natural and proper feeling
would be one Of resentment toward
him.
If it became clear that he bargain
ed the years product of another in
advance, bargained it and sold it
time and time again at an apprecla-
bic cost to the producer, | think it
quite likely that violent remedies
would be applied.
That is essentially the relation of
the "future" operator to the pro-
ducer of cotton and other agricul-
tursl staples.
Through all the six thousand
wears and more of the worlds his
tory down to 1872, the world had
gotten along without the services of
the option dealer. and had gotten
along fairly well. He owes his birth
to a decade of dabauch of public
conscience during and subsequent to
pellod of public War and con-
sequent public plunder. The con-
tinued toleratton of his snperfuous
and oficious presence is due to the
grip acquired upon the public
throat during the stupor incident to
that mammoth debauch.
'Hear what the Senate Comm ittee
presided over by that able jurist, the
late Senator George, of Mississippi
says:
"In the first place, letit be noted
that in and through and under the
regulations of the two cotton ex-
changes of New York and New Or
leans can this business be transacted.
The Cotton Exchange in New York
is corporation under the laws of
that State. II is composed of less
than 500 members and the number
cannot be increased beyond that. The
initiation feels $4,000, and the new
members are elected by the old.
No man can deal directly in futures
unless he is a member.
The corporation has absolute pow