The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-10-02
NO FIGURES ON LOSSES YET.
Cotton Brokers Awaiting News of
Their Contracts.


UnIl an explanation of the bogus Liver
pool cotton quotations is received. there
will probably be no further developments
of interest in the cotton market furry.
Locally. the situation wiz probably be I'M
changed until the attorneys, Charlton,
Mackall & Anderson 10 whom the matter
has teen referred by the directors of the
Cotton Exchange, give an opinion as TO the
responsibility for the losses and upon
whom the burden should lega ~ fan.
II is not known jus, what tae local losses
will foot up. This can not be told until the
brokers hear from the country merchants
ana Others 10 whom they wired to close
contracts. After the fake was discovered
the brokers' wired for the merchants to
annul the contracts. If possib e. and they
are now awaiting Information as to results.
More crafts may come n 10 day, and the
correspondence and eXplana ions for the
next month between brokers and custom
ers Is likely to be rather VOluminOus.
In its report of the fake quotations the
New York Sun Of Friday had the follow
ing to say
At the Commercial News Bureau Of the
Western Union Telegraph Company, which
circulates the foreign stock quotations in
this country, Ii was said that the COM
pany was conducting an investigation into
the origin Of the incorrect quotations in
New Orleans and elsewhere, and that
satisfactory explanation would be forth
coming within .forty-eight hours. The
notion of the cotton brokers that the wires
had been tapped and the real quotations
suppressed while the false ones were sent
out, was secuted. The man in charge of
the offfte at that time had not seen the
bulletin, which was sent out over the name
of Gardner Irving of the Commercial News
Bureau regarding The misunderstanding of
the movement"
When this was shown to the man In
charge of the bureau he said he did not
know what 1t meant. He was asked what
was the technical meaning of the word
movement" in the dispatch He said he
didn't know. He was asked whether the
Liverpool quotations came to New York
directly and were distributed here, and
again replied that he did not know
The cotton quotations furnished by the
Western Union Telegraph Company to the
various exchanges throughout the United
States are procured by the telegraph COM
pany from the Associated Press. To save
cable tolls the quotations are sent from
Liverpool in complicated cipher FORM
which necessitates much care in transla-
ton. The mere change of a letter in a
code word or a mistake in glancing at the
five figures each word represents, each fig
ulcS Representing Il QubtdtlOiGs Will
cause a very material change in the quo
tationS as coded in Liverpool.
The quotations come to New York and
are distributed over different wires to var
iOus parts of the United States. Boston
and Providence are in what is called the
Eastern division. New Orleans is in the
Southern division. The two divisions get
their quotations over entirely separate
wires If wire tapping was done, it must
have been done by two sets of men on
the two sets of wires simultaneously, an
almost incredibly difficult operation. A
man, tolerably familiar with the work of
The Commercial News Bureau thus ex-
planned Mr.. Irving's bulletin:
Il take il to mean" he said, that some
inexperienced man or men who did not I'M
derstand the code in which the cables were
received from Liverpool in this city, added
each varying quotation to the one preced-
ing 1t, instead of taking each one as a
separate and Independent quotation; in
other words that an inexperienced opera
tor entirely misunderstood the cable dis
patches and innocently sent out mislead-
ing reports. If l am right, however. in
thus explaining Mr.. ITving's explanation,
it is still impossible to understand how
the quotations were correctly distributed
in New York but were sent out over DIFF
ferent wires to New Orleans and Boston
with identcahy the same falsiications."
The New York Commercial, in COM
mcnting on. the fraud, says: THE New
York Cotton Exchange was closed. and
had no part in the excitement, but it is
certain its members will aid in Furnishing
the authors of the false quotations if that
can be done. While the bogus dispatches
were showing sensational leaps in price,
the Liverpool market was actually declin-
ing. 1t opened 1-64 Of penny lower, fell
AZ points more, and closed at net de-
cline of 2 points These quotations were
correctly received in New York and were
distributed here, although the market was
closed. The kilograms received at other
points exhibited an alleged total rise of
3S-64ths to 40-64ths OF a penny, or about
100 points in American money-that Is,
nearly III cents a pound, or &c. a bale.'