The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-25

tember. The weather has been warn and dry. Under the influence of thu hot sun. the cotton has burst open II every field around Montgomery. Th' farmers have been hard pressed to ge sun1cient cotton pickers in the fields. In the second place, the market price | of, cotton has been high. A great dea | of the cotton brought to Montgomer!
 has been turned loose as soon as f | reached the city.
 The cotton men. however, say tha | the heavy receipts are not responsible | for the congestion of the cotton trade. F. F. Johnstone Talks. When questioned yesterday as to the situation. F. F. Johnstone of the F. F Johnstone Cotton Company, discussed
 1t freely and frankly. They are not only shippers but they are warehouse
 men as well. The situation is affecting | both branches of their business.
 Beyond doubt the congested condi-
 tion of the cotton trade is hurting
 Montgomery seriously" said Mir. John stone, The situation is due to the In adeouacy and the inefficiency of the compress service. The Atlantic Com press Company has never had sufficient force to operate the only two presses of the city. The largest and best plant of the city, the press of the Alabama Compress and Cold Storage Company, was burned last spring. The company. controlling as 1t does, the other two presses of the city, has never thought 1t necessary to rebuild the plant Since then the city's shippers have had to fall back on two presses, the capacity being very limited for handling cotton. This alone Is not responsible for the congestion. At the beginning of the season a new set of officials were put in charge of the presses, and as a result. the presses became immediately blocked before 10000 bales had been through the presses. The condition was that the presses could not receive the cotton that was worked up at the warehouses. Cotton was forced to remain on the streets of Montgomery from one to two weeks, subjecting not only the cotton but surrounding property to destruction by fire
 We are suffering from this condition of affairs not only as shippers, but as warehousemen and other warehousemen are experiencing troubles. Nobody Is bringing cotton to Montgomery who can carry 1t elsewhere. It is being di- verted to Troy. Opelika, Eufaula. Union Springs and other places. Since the local congresses passed out of the hands of Montgomery owners they have been placed upon an economical basis which has hampered their efficiency. The way in which they are operated is decidedly not to the interest of the city The time was when the congresses were feeders for Montgomery. but that time Is not this season. Now. If the com presses were run at night, the situa- tion would be relieved. As 1t Is, buy CTS are being thrown out of the mar ket and trade Is being diverted to other cities. The situation. I fear, will have serious consequences"
 Vessels Have to Wait.
 It was pointed out that a great deal of cotton was sold in the early days of September for delivery at shipside In Savannah between September 26 and October i. The vessels to take this cotton, which has been contracted for. will be at Savannah at the appointed time and ready for sailing. Undoubt- edly much of the cotton will not be de- ivered in time for the sailing of the vessels. The European shippers have been notified of the situation.
 The situation Is similar in all parts of Alabama and Georgia, although 1t Is not as bad in the other cities IS 1t Is in Montgomery. It is charged that the Atlantic Compress Company has shut down one or two presses in
 
 where Independent presses have been operating. It Is charged further that the company has made 1t a general rule not to run It's presses at night. It Is said further that there are only two owns which ship cotton to Savannah In which independent presses are oper- ated.
 So serious has the situation become Tn Savannah that the Cotton Exchange of that city urged and insisted to the proper officials interested in the At work and send forward the cotton that was consigned to Savannah
 The action of the Savannah Cotton Exchange was drawn to the attention If President c. c. Hanson of the At antic Compress Company and he is- 'ued a statement denying some of the allegations made and explaining some If the difficulties with which the com oany labored.
 Mir. Hanson's Statement.
 In his statement published in the At anta papers. President Hanson said:
 All of the Atlantic Compress Com pany's presses are in operation and full time wherever the amount 'f business offering is sufficient md | abor and clerks can be had with which | 10 do so.
 None is closed. The congresses at | Macon and Columbus. Ga, have had up | o few days ago but little to do. The | congresses at Atlanta, Ga, and Ope- | tka. Birmingham and Decatur. Ala. nave not as yet had a full days run | his season.
 There has been a heavy movement, | lowever. through the congresses in | Georgia and Southeast Ala 'ama; cotton offering at these presses. | including Selma. Uniontown and De- nopolis, Ala, since September 1, az yregate about 200, 900 bales, as against | bout 100000 bales for the same period | asst season.
 "A large per centage of this cotton las to be reworked after it reaches the | empress. which constitutes several landlings by the congresses and She it being resampled. reclassed, emarked, reweighed. etc.
 Tt frequently happens that there is large quantity of cotton on hand at compress, but none of 1t ready for oppression. To illustrate: We shut own our Thomasville, Ga, press a few venings ago at 5 o'clock, having com 'ressed only about 500 bales-could asily have gotten out 300 to 100. At
 o'clock we had only 200 bales to start n the next morning. yet there were everal thousand bales on the compress platforms and over a hundred car loads the yard, but none of that on the empress platforms other than the 200 | 'ales mentioned was ready to be com ressed and loaded, and none of that in he cars could be un1Oaded alI tho