New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-03-19
MAY MAKE REPORT TO-DAY
Other Failures POssible-SuspeHSiOB
Causes Panic.

change yesterday afternoon by the unexpected
announcement from Daniel j. Suny & Co.. whose
senior member has been the head and front Of
the great bull movement that they were un-
able meet their engagements. and would
therefore have to suspend The market had been.
weak and declining from the start. but the
news Of the Sully failure caused panic. The
May option. in which SuIly Is understood to be
most heavily interested broke on the bad news
from 14S2 cents to 12.SJ loss OF 141 points.
or 81 81 a bale; and the July fell from 1tS2 to
12.1J 201 points. equivalent to $40 81 loss bale.
At these low levels buying orders were put in.
the McFaddens of Philadelphia il is said. being
the heaviest buyers. and rally occurred. the
May closing At 1888 cents. and the July at
1855
Mr. suIy himself was inaccessible 70 in
quirers at his office. Soon after o'clock hs
went into conference with his attorneys. Messrs.
Byrne and Cutcheon. Of Hornblower. Byrne.
Miller & Potter. Edwin Hadley. jr.. OF Daniel
J. Suy & Co.. few minutes later sent out
message by his secretary. which read:
No statement Of any kind description. Mr..
Su]Iy directs me 10 say. will be given out from
this Office to-day. Possibly statement VIII be
ready early Saturday morning.
Mr.. HadIey was later quoted by a responsible
news agency In Wall Street as saying that the
firm would pay its debts IN fuL and that the
suspension was due 20 the impOssbiity Of real
izing on credits for large sums Of money due the
SuIIy firm from European sources. sums which
the quick slump I'm the market made payabls
too quickly for them to be able to meet. Mr..
sully left his office at { o'clock.
Conferences at the office OF HornbIower.
Byrne. Miller & Potter continued until Iats
hour. but neither there nor at the Office of
Daniel J. Sully & Co. could any estimate oe
the firms liabilities and assets be obtained. nor
could II be learned whether or not ar. assignee
was TO be named. The best unofficial estimates
that could be obtained placed the liabilities at
nearer S1OOOOOoO than S5OOOOOO
DISCUSSING THE CAUSES.
with the first shock of the SuIly suspension
over. cotton men and Stock Exchange men
alike began 20 discuss the cause Of the collapse
II has been matter or common notoriety
that Wall Street has all along inclined to the
short side on cotton. and has sustained heavy
losses during the last few months.
II was asserted by six or seven OF the best
known cotton operators OF the country that the
failure OF the SUIly firm was due to a deliberate
and we'll planned attack by the local bear partv-
perhaps in cooperation with some Of the bi-
spot dealers. The bears they said had figured
out the weakness OF Sully's position. due 70 i'm
mense holdings OF spot and contract cotton a,5
70 his operations on the Liverpool market
They planned attack which would carrv tb-,
market down just far enough TO make II f-,,,-
siole for Sully to meet HIS margin calls L,ro-fo.
tnat his failure would send prices So ,,,,.+
i'"er 'hat they could cover their short contracts
at "Sures which would enable them in large
measure to recover their earlier losses On. -
the large stock cotton and grain bC,,e.- -, -
street sent out in their cotton r,arLa+ 80,
l"'" yesterday morning the advice to their c,,,
''N7IS 10 sell cotton, asserting that S,,Tr- -
selIlhg about forty thousand bales
wore credence, however. was given 70 a rs--.
'nd, MY SuIy 3 troubles were largely the -ss,,,-
- ''e oyerauons Of his former allies the New
o''7a''S Ouil readers This story met denial fro-,
~ "e'i INFORMED local sources. There has been
IN the city, however. for the last three davs -
about the period during which the co+,o,, -.
ket has been sharply declining. a nro,,57a-.
member Of the New Orleans bull par+y- 7-,ov,
j. Majors When Mr.. Majors was 500, e.,
aiter the Sully suspension it was suggested .,
him that. in view OF the current rano-. -.
that Mr. Sully had made an agreement ,-,tt,
Ny Majors and his associates. Colonel BROW,
and Mr- Hayne. TO bull cotton and then had sofa
ou' and announced hts purpose to go to Florida.
on vacation, it might be that Mr.. Majors -
come North with retaliation IN his mind
Mr.. Majors replied: 1T Is tr,la that " -,,
came 70 Nev--Orreans some time ago and tall.a,S
over the situation with Ifessrs. Brown arT
Hayne and me. He said that he was very buu-
isn' and We said that we We're. No agreements
was entered tnto. but Mr.. suTy went hack 70
New-fork and cotton went up. Suddenly wa
got the news that he had sold out all his cot.o,
and was going away FOR two weeks II came a.
a great surprise to us"
Haven't YOU now done the same tbf-r T., hi.
Case?' was asked.
Mr.. Majors hesitated a moment read q te1s-
gram or two. and then. without a7zverfro +b,
question smiled
No definite estimate Of the suUy FIRMS corn
mitments in the cotton market co-rf5 ba COZ
from the other cotton houses. One estimate was
that # was long OF three hundred Thousand
bales Of May cotton alone. but a good autborifv
declared that he did not believe thar it W.
long" Of more than that In the whole r,arkat
and a conservative estimate made I'm another
quarter was four hundred thousand bales
The losses BY the failure IN case the firm
cannot settle. II was said yesterday VIII be d.
vided up among nearly all the brokers on the
Cotton Exchange One mar said that he did
not think that the firms obligations. after set
tlement under the rules Of the exchange. would
exceed 100000 What Mr.. SuIIy has personally
lost. or what his hackers have lost in market
operations IS not included in this figure
SETTLED ON AVERAGE PRICES TO-DAY.
It Is understood that as the SuIly suspension
was not announced until Just after O'Clock yes-