The Penn's Grove record., 1905-07-14
THE COTTON REPORT LEAK
Millions Lost by Southern Planters
Because of Fake Estimates.
Result of the Operations Of n Crooked
Government Clerk in Collision
~, With Wall Street Brokers'

New York City.-"Millions of dollars
have been lost by men who can be re-
garded in no sense as spectators or
gamblers, through the mishandled,
doctored Government reports that were
framed up in Washington, D. c., by
one crooked clerk, in order to make
half a million dollars for an obscure
cotton operator in New York. and less
than a hundred thousand dollars for
himself"
This statement was made by a cotton
broker who has been hit badly at times
in the past, through the weird crop re-
ports that have been issued by the
United States Agricultural Depart
ment, and his declaration was corrob-
grated by several others.
These crop reports, especially those
dealing with cotton, have always been
used by growers and manufacturers,
as well as by spectators, as the basis
for their Transactions" he continued.
They have always been regarded by
the planters as above suspicion, and
each report has always established the
price of the white staple approximately
for the month following.
ut is now known that these prices
were as false as the reports themselves,
and the cotton growers of the South
have been made the victims of this
gang of sharpers for two years through
the inStrumentalfty of a department in
tended solely to advance the interests
of the planters.
Deaths and suicides, as we'll as the
loss of great fortunes, have followed
the operations of Edwin S. Holmes,
the Agricultural Department clerk, and
the coterie of gamblers of whom he
was the tool.
ut has been shown that he deliber-
ately changed the actual figures in the
Government reports and made the cot
ton market the plaything of these
gamblers, playing with loaded dice,
who not only. knew in advance what
the reports would say. but caused
Holmes to juggle the figures in the re-
ports so as to make them say what
they wanted said, and led to the down
fall of some of the strongest cotton
houses in the country"
The Government spends 5000, 900 a
year collecting the statistics. and the
declaration that hereafter they will be
~safeguarded in a name to make
leaks impossible is regarded in Wall
Street as a jest.
Strong commercial influences will be
brought to bear upon the President to
order the prosecution of Holmes. The
Southern Cotton Growers Association
is preparing a case for criminal action,
and will demand that it be submitted
to the Grand Jury.
1t is now known that the last cotton
report was the first that has been
given out in this city in two years that
was not anticipated here by some one
in collision with the authorities at
Washington.
1t is also known that these advance
advices regarding not only cotton re-
ports, but wheat, corn and other crop
reports, went to a number of operators
in New York.
There are at least six decoy "'inves-
tigating departments" in Wall Street
that never investigate, and which
have been established as blinds in Or
der to make it possible for the men in
touch with Holmes and clerks of his
ilk to give a semblance of respectable
ity to their operations.
Whenever they have hit the market
just right they announce that their
agents throughout the entire South
have sent them in reports which have
tailed with those of the Government,
even when, as nov known, the Govern
ment reports have been doctored to IA
yor a bear or a bull market.
IF ic known fhat fhic Ia OF paport woe
not tempered with, and it is certain
that no advance information regarding
its contents reached New York City
before noon
AS a result the cotton market jumped
100 points in five minutes.
Something of technical knowledge is
required to understand this phase of
dealing in the cotton market. Each
month the Agricultural Department
sends out its report showing the acre
age of the cotton crop and its condition.
This latter is based upon 100 as a full
crop. Acreage and crop condition taken
together fix the price of cotton in spec
u~latien, and any alteration in these
figures can be made of great value to a
crooked operator in the cotton market.
The June report was cooked" more
daringly than any report in years. The
actual crop condition was 20. 1t was
made to appear in the report 77.2.
The acreage was about 1919 below
the normal, and was made to appear
much less.
These statements in the Government
report would tend to show a greater
production of cotton than would be
shown by the correct tabulation of the
agents figures, and was intended to
make a bear market.
When the July report came out it
showed the correct acreage, and gave
he condition of the cotton crop as n.
This showed a smaller crop. than was
shown by the JUNE report, and was
something so utterly unexpected that a
panic followed in the Cotton Exchange
such as has not been seen in years.
Oyster Bay, l.. lit is regarded here
as not unlikely that criminal prosecu-
ton may result from the investigation
of the cotton report leak in the Depart
ment of Agriculture. The subject has
not yet been presented to the President
in a formal way, although he is famil-
lar with most of the details of the in
quiry.