The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1907-02-22
WILMINGTON, n. G.
FRIDAY $50. FEBRUARY 22, 1907
NEW YORK COTTON EXCHANGE

For the benefit of our readers who
are interested in the tlgrI against the
New York cotton exchange which is
being made by Congressman Living
ston We give below some facts and Jig
ures. These will give some idea as to
how the "futures'' business of that
gambling institution is conducted. The
business of the exchange as originally
established and intended to be conduct
ed, was perfectly legitimate-thr sale
and purchase Of cotton for future de
livery; but now it has developed into
a gambling game in which the OUT
slider plays with the man who mani
pulates the machine.
There is still legitimate business
done in cotton futures-where mill men
buy for future delivery, and men can
trade in it just as honestly as they take
or sell options on land or any other
marketable article. It is not against
this cass of cotton trading that Mr..
Livingston has made his fight, but
against the methods Of the New York
exchange by which it's members can
control the price of cotton and which
puts the outsiders who deal with them
completely at their mercy.
A1nOxa1;-~ - ~ II
change the seller has the option whetn-
Ell Ca not to deliver The cotton. If he
chooses to deliver, the buyer must take
IA cotton or sell his contract to a
third person. When these Eien hold 4
large lot Of contracts of sale all they
have to do to bear the market is to
food it with notices that they will de-
liver the cotton. The men who have
bought do not want the class of cotton
that would be delivered under the con-
tracts and they are forced to rush on
the market with their contracts for
purchase.
We say the men who buy future con-
tracts ON the New York exchange do
not want the cotton that would be ten
dered- This is because that cotton is
of very inferior quality. Though the
contract is for cotton of middling grade
the contract specifies that the seller
may deliver cotton of any grade down
to low middling stained, at the estab-
Usher scale of prices on midding as a
basis. This scale runs all the way
from two cents above middling quota
tions for fair to two cents below for
middling stained, and the tender is
of the low grades, for there Is
little or none of the middiing grade in
stock. In the licensed warehouses OF
New York there is cotton-the refuse
of many previous crOps-of the lowest
grades which is held for tender on
these contracts. some of it said to have
been held in stock for fifteen years.
There is little of the present. crop of
my grade on hand, New Yorks re-
for this entire cotton year-sincei
September l, 1906, up to February 18th
to only 1850 bales, While 6
hat day there were in her licensed
warehouses 1920 Q bales including .
L22,559 certified bales, that is, those
which had passed inspection Oy the
exchange officials and been declared to- L
'ome within the rules of the exchange a
S of contract quality. '
When a man makes a contract 10 Z
NY a lot of middling cotton for de- {
in a certain month In the fU-
ure at such a price, the seller has the
light under the contract TO tender him q
he specified number of bales Of any I
lie of the folIDwing grades at the scale y
# prices specified, they being the h
trades and rates on and OF middling 5
rices established by the exchange: p
On. I
trict middIing fair :. :. ~1.75cIes
- -. I-oVAt ~