The Savannah morning news., 1904-09-04
COTTON MEN
REPLY To WILSON
REGARDING COTTON REPORT
LETTER SENT IN REPLY TO WIRE
OF PREVIOUS DAY.

Committee States That 1t Realized
There Was No Direct Evidence of
Any IrreguIarity, But That the
coincidence of Figures" Seemed
Matter Sufficiently Grave to
Warrant Calling the Attention of
the Department to It-Authorized
Statement Issued at Washington.
But, Fails to Explain.
The committee on information and
statistics of the Cotton Exchange
replied by letter yesterday to the
telegram received the day before from
Secretary James Wilson, of the De-
partment of Agriculture, relative to
the complaint of the committee that
information relative to the departments
figures on the cotton crop had been
known in Savannah half an hour be-
fore the report was supposed to be
made public.
AS was stated in yesterdays Morn
ing News, Secretary Wilson denied that
a leak had been possible. His telegram,
in full, was as follows:
THE claim of any persons having
been in possession of the governments
cotton figures before 1:15 to-day, the
time of the official PRONUNCIATION, is
absolutely false and without founda-
ton. Spurious claims are frequently
made. but usually they are falsified by
the official figures themselves and
speedily forgotten.
Surely it is not reasonable to as
sumo their occasional agreement is
proof of leak. The Secretary of Ag-
riculture is always ready to investigate
any charge of this kind if it is ac-
companied by substantial evidence or
testimony, but the means adopted to
safeguard the figures during the short
time that elapses between being ar
rived at and their PRONUNCIATION rend-
ers leak impossible, and a mere CO.
incidence Of figures. as in this case,
amounts to nothing in itself"
The letter of the committee in reply
to this communication follows:
What Committee Says.
Hon. James Wilson, secretary De-
partment of Agriculture.-Dear Sir:
We duly received your telegram of the
End inst, which has been carefully
noted. A prominent wire house here
received a telegram from New York
yesterday at 12:45 p. m, reading Gov
eminent looks like SAL and this tele-
gram was posted as public informal
ton.
I'VE wired you on the subject real
iZing that there was no direct evidence
of any irregularity but the coincidence
of figures seemed to US a matter suf-
ficiently grave to warrant calling it to
your attention for such action as you
might see fit to take. Thanking you
for your prompt reply we are, dear sir,
very respectfully, w. Hunter, chair
man. Committee on Information and
Statistics"
How News Was Flashed.
In what is reported to be an author
lied statement made by the depart
ment and published yesterday, it is
said that Savannah is not one of the
exchanges that have arranged to re-
ceive the official government figures
by direct flash, but receives the fig
ures by way of New York or New
Orleans"
The further statement is made that
the Savannah dispatch in to-day's pa
pers states that Savannah received the
official figures about 1870 o'clock. 1t
was, therefore, open to any one after
the figures 'DSCdIl6 puDIlC property at
lis, to telegraph or long distance tele-
phone some person in Savannah, who
would thus receive the figure fifteen
or twenty minutes ahead of their being
received through the usual channels,
but not ahead of their official promul
CATION
Not Founded On Facts.
This theory would be all right If it
were based on facts, is the opinion of
the members of the Cotton Exchange,
but as a matter of fact it is not. The
flash giving the official figures was re-
ceived in Savannah in less than thirty
seconds after the official time of pro-
mitigation. and was received at prac-
tically the same time by both the tele-
graph companies.
What we should like to know" said
Capt. Wright Hunter, in discussing the
matter, lis how was such information
available around New York half an
hour before the report was made pub
lie that could enable a wire house to
say Government looks like SAL. "