The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1906-02-10
DEALING IN COTTON FUTURES.

The Boddie bill, recently before the
legislature, which sought to prohibit
the dealing in cotton futures, has pro-
voked much discussion of the question
Of future dealing, both as regards
business and its effects upon the in
tegrity of the morals Of the country.
We gladly give space to the following
article by Jay Enne, which handles
the subject in a way that can but ap-
peal to the business Judgment and
sound common sense Of the people.
Our correspondent is a man of the
highest integrity and must be given
credit for the utmost sincerity of his
position. We commend the article
to a careful perusual of the reading
public:
This question has been under dis
cussion by u legislature since its
opening. The Supreme Court of the
United States in the Chicago cases
has recently decided that it is turning
the wheels of progress backwards to
say that contracts dealt upon the reg
ular exchanges of the country, which
guarantee the delivery of any article
bought or said exchange, to be a
gambling contract. Everything in
life, to a certain extent, is more Or
less a game Of chance. The merchant
buys a stock OF goods with the idea Of
selling same; the farmer plants his
crop with the idea CT making some
money out Of it. The question then
arises what is the best method of
eliminating all the speculative fea-
lures from any character Of business.
If you deny the right Of the farmer to
sell his cotton for future delivery,
then you make him a gambler in the
widest sense. The future market
enables the planter whenever ne de-
sireS to sell his cotton for future de-
livery at a certain price, and without
this future market the cotton buyer
would be unable to operate.
/ am opposed to gambling in fu-
lures. / am still further bitterly OPP
posed to the bucket shop system. To
say that the legitimate future bust
ness, on which all purchases and sales
of cotton are based today, shall be
in the state OF Mississippi
will force the legitimate dealer out OF
our state, and turn said business over
to some other state. Alabama and
have made the business of
buying and selling future contracts on
the regular exchanges of the country
legitimate business.
The day has passed when the cot
ton buyer sells his cotton to the mill
and goes to the farmer and buys it, !
simply from the fact that at many
times the mills are not in the market.
md will not buy cotton. Then his
)nly recourse is to buy the farmers
and sell futures, either in Liy-.
,rpool, New York OF New Orleans,
said purchase.
Ii it were not for the future mar
,et, we would not have a regularmar-
for the farmers cotton at all
,imes. The argument made by some,
hat the future market depreSSeS the
,rice OF cotton, is the greatest fallacy
n the world. The future market
loes more to sustain the price than
Inything else, simply from the fact
hat 500, 900 bales of our cotton is
leld in LiverpJ ol, New York and
Jew Orleans as an investment to safe
,uard the future market, and, there
ore, this much cotton cannot be sold
O the mills.
1t is easily demonstrated that at
time since the Inauguration Of the
uture board has cotton been as cheap
s it was during the years Of 1843, J
ess carry with it the entire stock Of