The Washington times., 1905-06-11
SUSPECTS OTHER
REPORTS ISSUED
Cheatham Also Thinks His
Case Made Out.
HE TALKS QUITE FREELY
Says lie Most Serious Part of Irregu-
larities Is the Alteration
Of Figures.
4E TALKS QUITE FREELY

Expressing absolute confidence that a
complete case had been made In sup
port of the charges of irreguia-ity In
handling the cotton statistics Of the De-
partment OF Agriculture. Richard
Cheathanl, secretary or the American
Cotton Association, last. evening opened
up the wider question OF the integrity Of
the other crop reports issued by the
Government
This matter has not been treated III
the published reports with the serious
ness 1t deserves, declared Mr.. Cheat
ham. warmly. Nobody would appre-
ciate from what has been said about
L how much it means to a great in
dl;st-y- On the honesty Of these sta
tst'cs depends, in a large way, the bus
irless of every man who raises cotton.
wfo manufactures II, who sells its
prooucts. or who wears It And yet the
story is calmly printed that the man
against whom these charges Of rnantpu-
ldting the reports have been made has
been suspended at his own request
pending Investigation
Concerns All Who Raise Crops.
This inquiry into the honesty of the
crop reports vitally concerns not only
the cotton raisers. but everybody else
engaged in raising crops of any kind
The gamblers Of Chicago and New
I ork have the same interest in ma
n1puIlffEg the markets in wheat and
corn and oats and hay that they have
IN cotton If they can reach the Gov
erhfnent reports on cotton, why not
the reports on these other crops? /
tel you 1t may turn. out that the cot
soE people only got to it ahead of the
Ctle..s."
-Sr Chsatham talked more freely
o. tils charges affecting the cotton re-
Forts than at any previous time since
ne has been in Washington. He had
heen IN conference with Secretary OF
-AIl ica.tore Wilson long time during
the CIV and was about to leave for
New York to spend Sunday and Mon
2s:. hut I'll be back here Tuesday"
be- declared. and I'll stay till this is
over. even if 1t takes a month"
Mr. Cheatham admitted that he had
no idea how long the investigation might
continue, and he would not say any
thing about the evidence before Secre-
tary Wilson. He was positive. however.
In declaring that 1t would convince the
Secretary that the charges were well
founded
>kR3SSAotSS W IASou > II Leatmeut,
And would like to be quoted as say
ing how much I appreciate the treat
ment Secretary Wilson has accorded
me, Mr. Cheatharn added. .I showed
my confidence in him by going straight
10 him with my charges and evidence
knew his predictions would be ir,
IavoI' OF the people In his department
but also knew that he would give us
fair deal. and that IL we made a case
we would get redress. And didn't
make any mistake
You know down in our country We.
recognize that Secretary Wilson has
oohe more FOR us than any other man.
or all the others together. g9ho have oc-
cupied the Secretaryship of Agriculture.
he mas made 1t great office, and he is
the first who has really done anything
1or Southern agriculture
The most serious part of these
Irregularities that we charge concerns
the changing OF the figures. You under
stand how serious that would be. to
have Government report, supposed to
be just as near absolute accuracy as
possible. manipulated by the changing
OF figures SO as to give an utterly false
view of the situation. a speculative in
terest, knowing the truth and then doc
toring the report which goes to the pub
lie in this way. would have an advan-
tage which cannot be overestimated in
manipulating the market