New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1907-04-20
DIR. Shops
Headache
Tablets
G Al TuIpOnCsIlY p, IN
ANTi-OPTiON LEGISLATION.
los. N. THIBODEAUX & CO.

The final passage by the Taxas
Legislature of sweeping and far:
reaching measure prohibiting fu-
ture trading, the heding of spot
cotton by consumers, producers
and merchants, the operation of
bucket shops and the transmission
by telegraph and telephone lines
OF cotton exchange quotations into
or ont of the State stirred the tai
ent deeply and brought cotton men
throughout the South 70 fuller
appreciation Of the disastrous re-
suits to follow in the wake of such
misguided laws as the Mayfeld
bill in Texas, the Boykin law in
Georgia and the measures now on
the statute books of Alabama and
Arkansas. hamilton on the part of
the cotton trade generally had fos-
tered the spread of overradical
views among the interior constitu-
ents of the lawmakers in the sever
al States. The cotton exchanges
had not fought the fight against the
bucket shop evil in the strenuous
manner that would have inspired
confidence among the growers of
cotton. TThe effort to edueute the
farmer into the technical and prac-
tcial utility to all concerned of the
hedging facilities afforded by the
great cotton exchanges and the i'm
mense value of such facilities in
creating a steady and fairly we'll
distributed requirement for spot
cotton throughout the season, had
been too limited and too brief to
eliminate prejudice and ignorance.
The farmer bad something to
camplain Of, and, in the absence
Of conservative and well-informed
leaders at every turn has demand
ed and obtained drastic laws which
overreach the mark and destroy
the good as well as the evil.
The laws enacted by Texas and
some other cotton growing States
prohibiting hedging aud future
trading will in the end injure the
farmers prosperity more than
that Of the consuming world, be-
sause, as last resort, the consul
ner will find hedging facilities at
Liverpool, which mar ket will then
dominate the price of the raw ma
erial at the producers gate. just
70 long as well-balanced supply 8
md demand play the steller role !
hey have played the present sea- {
on the full force of the laws re-
emily enacted will not be felt by
he cotton-growing South, except =
n comparatively small way.
,ut once the supply is large and
be requirement small, as they are ?
ure to be when the turn of the
de in worlds prosperity comes,
aen the farmer with his own per-
onal resources--for he cannot =
orrow the value of unhedged cot =
IN from anybody-will find him. !"
liz in the unfortunate position Of =
aving to carry a load amounting :
, tens aud hundreds of millions of Z
ollars, or of selling out his pro. .
not at a figure way below its in =
ensic worth, in order to induce y
,meone else to shoulder the bur- u
n until supply aud requirement !
lations become balanced again. !"
The Texas law is drastic in the 3
IRENE a1d provides penalties for ..
sPunfs6ment of violations to an
tent which many men believe
II render it unconstitutional, but
rub comes in discovering some
ithod of testing ifs constitution.
" without subjecting the tester
a long term in the penitentiary.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court
the United States, in a recent
ision, has opened the way for
elimination Of the bucket shop
drought the direct effort OF
exchanges themselves without
,urse TO State laws at ALL
es- Democrat.
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