Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1907-11-07
Deaf To The South.

H"''hS uCPooltco 'pSc c,OVN,ooO III
the bands of New York and indi-
Gated a willingness to deposit
more in. order to establish credit
in New York and prevent the sac
rifice of surities, certain represen-
tatives of Southern interests
have made application to t h e
Treasury Department for depos-
its to be placed in Southern
banks in order toprevent South
ern farmers and cotton dealers
from sacrificing their cotton at
depressed prices. Secretary Cor
telyou is still sitting on the lid
in New York, but the matter has
been put up to assistant Secreta-
ry Edwards. Acting Secretary. by
Representative Burleson, OF Tex
as, and Mr.. Edwards has refused
Mr.. Burleson asked the Secreta-
ry OF the Treasury to deposit
$40, 100000 in Southern banks
to be secured by warehouse re-
ceipts on cotton.
The idea is that bankers thro'-
out the South have served notice
upon owners of cotton in ware
houses that they can no longer
make advances on cotton to be
held in storage. The bankers give
as their reason the money strin-
gency, but it is understood that
this is modified by the desire to
force the sale of cotton in t h e
warehouses and thus bring q
food of foreign money on t h e
Southern market. Mr.. Burleson
takes the position that there is
as much reason to avoid sacri-
fees in the sales of cotton as there
is in sacrifices of stocks and
bonds. If the United States gov
ernment going to deposit mon
ey in Wall STREET to ease t h e
mouey stringency SO that bro
kers and other bonds in order to
realize needed cash, this same
principle should apply to the
holders of cotton. the PROPOSE
ton he made to the Treasury De-
partment was that Treasury de-
posits should be made upon the
security of warehouse receipts at
25 per cent. of she market value,
This would be perfectly safe, as
it would allow q margin of rs
per cent. for any possible depre.
ciation in the value of the cotton
These warehouse receipts held
by the banks repreented an actu-
al, not a speculative value, says
Mr.. Burleson. "If the cotton pro-
ducer Is forced to sell his cotton
becau use the banks will no longer
advance him the money. and for
the purpose OF brininging in ior-
eign money to this country for
the relief of the stock market. it
will mean that the crop will be
sold for about $160,000,000 be-
low what it should bring an d
that the advantage of this fore
ed sale will accrue to the foreign
purchaser, and that much mon
ey which should come to this
country going into the pockets
of our farmers, will be held a.
broad.
"A forced sale of the cotton
crop at whatever sacrifice oil
price would, OF course, bring q
large volume of money to this
country, but it is poor econom-
les to force the sale of O commod
ity of actual value by the produ-
Ger in order to inrease the vol
ume of money immediatel availa
ble to sustain the value ofstocks.
1t is not likely that Secretary
Cortelyou will grant the request
of Mr.. Burleson or any similar
request for aid coming from the
South. He does not understand
thattherc are really any "busi-
ness interests" except those CEN
tered on Wall Street. Ifthe banks
there need money, then the coun-
try is in a desperate fix, argue all
the financiers and their friends
in New York: and Mr.. Cortelyou
has li"sd so much III the atinos-