The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-10-26
Congressman BuIIesOn Seeks Money From Treasury
 But Is Tuned Dawn
COTTON CERTIFICATES
 OFFERED AS SECURITY
MT. Burleson's Proposition Is Rejected On the Ground That the Treasury
 Funds Have Been Reduced
 To Mere Working Basis.

Washington. October 25.-(special.)-- , Representative A. s. Burleson of Texas today called on Acting Secretary of the ,, Treasury Edwards and asked that de- , posts to the amount of $l0,OOO GOO. one third of the amount deposited in New York to check the Wall street panic be distributed | among the southern banks in order to prevent sacrifice sales of cotton. He was told that however much the department
 might be disposed to do this 1t would not now be possible, the deposits already left
 the treasury with barely a working cash
 balance.
 | MT. BlHeson was led to make this ap- I plicaton at the department by the state ment made in press dispatches from Houston. Tex, that bankers have served
 notice on owners of cotton in warehouses that they will no longer make advances on cotton to be held in storage. The ex- planation of this Is that the bankers feel that they, forcing the sale of cotton in
 storage, will bring millions of much | needed money to this country. Good Reasoning.
 MT. Burleson takes the position that | there is as much reason to avoid sacrifice
 sales of cotton as there is to avoid sac
 rifce sales of stocks He sees in the withdrawal of bank accommodations to warehouse cotton a proposition to sacrifice l the farmer the producer of cotton being made to sell under price in order to assist l the holders of stocks in Wall street to
 protect themselves against the necessity | of throwing their stocks on the xnarker at sacrifice. Ile called the atte,tion | Of Secretary Edwaf1s to the provision or i the recent law that lhe Secretary of the
 Treasury shall: Distribute the deposits | herein provided for as far as practicable. I equitably among the different states and | cities,n and also to the policy of the | treasury to interpret the provision for se- | curlty, "by United States bonds or other | wise9 so as to permit the acceptance | of other than United States bonds as se- curty for deposits
 Cotton as Security. Mr. Bnrleson's proposition was that the treasury should distribute $l00oo.0oo of | deposits among the southern banks, ac-
 ceptIng from the banks as security ware l house receipts for cotton at 9 per cent
 of the market value. He represented 10 i the secretary that these warehouse eer- I tificates would be much better security | than any municipal bonds now accepted | to secure deposits in that they repre- l sented ac actual value four times greater 1 than the amount secured, and that they,
 having the deposit of sl0,0oO0O0 In southern l banks at this time, the cotton growers 1 might be saved from making a sacrifice | to foreign purchasers ot in the nelghbor- | hood Of sl6O,00O0o0.
 | Proposition Rejected. Secretary Edwards replied that in the
 matter of accepting from the banks ware house credits for cotton as security there
 was involved a question of policy which | he could not pass upon, and which would | have to be referred to Secretary Cortel- l you but independent of that the de- | p6sits could not be made at this tune | because the department was reduced tu an actual working caSn Daidhee p9 "o- | posits already made.
 l Shedding of his interview with MT. Ed | wards. MT Burleson said: "It has been l the policy of the treasury department 10 | so interpret the phrase of the law or Ohl- | ted States bonds or otherwise as 10 sd- ! init of security other than United States l | tells me that thus far this has been ex- | tended only to acceptable municipal bonds hut if this interpretation Of the law is l nerrnissible there can be no valid reason l for refusing to accept from the banks | warehouse receipts for cotton, and there | is surely as good reason to protect the 1 nrodueers from being forced to sacrifice l their cotton because of tightness or 1 roonev in the bank as there Is to come | to the relief of the stock gamblers In Wall street to save them from the necessity or I selling their stocks at a sacrifice because l of tight money market.
 | Actual Value.
 syrbese warehouse certificates held by ! the banks represent an actual. not h | speculative value. If the cotton producer 1 is forced to sell his cotton because the 1 banks will no longer advance him money | and for the purpose of bringing foreign money into this country for the relief or | inc stock market it will mean that the | crop will be sold for about sl60,00oo0 be- | low what 1t should bring and that the ad- | vantage of this forced sale will accrue to the foreign purchaser and that much 1 money which should come to this country. l going Into the pockets or our farmers,
 {, will be held abroad.
 | .'E.conomically the entire country will l suffer much more from the sale of the years crop of cotton. tobacco. wheat and 1 corn in the foreign market at price far | below it's value the country being de- | nrived of the wealth represented by the | difference between the selling price or | these products and their actual value than | if could in any possibility by the trans | fer of securities from the hands or one | set of stock gamblers to those of another