The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-11-01
GENERAL UPWARD TREND IN COTTON Business Is Very Active for the
 Half Holiday COTTON BROKERS PUZZLED Many Bulls Are Afraid to Buy, While Bears Are Afraid to Sell-All
 Depends Upon the
 Farmer.
COTTON BROKERS PUZZLED

New York October 31.-The cotton mar lset opened steady at an advance of l to 2 points, near months being relatively firm on the cables while latter positions reflected good weather and local bearish
 condition report. They soon firmed up,
 however, and the general list ruled about 5 to points net higher during the middle of the morning. Business was very active
 for half holiday, the speculative feature
 being the purchase of 12,OOO bales of Jan
 uary against sale of 12,000 bales of
 March at an point difference. Private
 cables attributed the English advance to
 covering by local shorts against calling by spiners.
 Operators in cotton get deeper and l deeper into the fog, as the old year draws to It's close. There is contingent or bulls who are afraid to buy and there Is another contingent of bears who are
 afraid to sell In either case, the force of statistical facts is broken by larger
 considerations which, according to experl- ence are usually more important than
 mere dope"
 The timid bulls believe that the crop has been greatly overestimated and that, even if it came up to the biggest fore | casts, the reldllNely loW iCNoi OA PiA~S
 would give consumption so great stimu- lus as to make current quotations dirt cheap in the long run. But the tender
 foot bull also knows that several million ! bales more must be sold before the truth
 can be made clear and that, as the pubhc has been shut out, the spinner will get
 the temporary surplus on his own terms unless the farmer is strong and resoiute | enough to hold the fort till relief comes. ] | 4H Ax~a n boards from day to day, declares that 1he 1 stuff is on the bargain counter ana goes | about his business.
 The timid bear on the other hand, IS | persuaded that the crop Is bumper anu that its real size has been kept from view
 bv various causes-such as the mls- sjonarv work of agricultural associations, | the huge difference between the present
 value and the value in former years
 and the terrorism of which nlsnt rio
 ing is the outward sign. From this point l of view. it is but a question of months
 when cotton will collapse, as cofee mas l done despite the Brazilian government sl1pport and when the sudden pressure i will drive prices lower than they would 1 have gone, if left to themselves. opera | tors of this school think that mlddhhg
 will sink to 71a at the outports oefore
 spring fades into summer; but they also | reTeCC lldJ tiltJ nus. sSii
 l liveries at discount of nearly half a i cent from the actual stuff and that most l people who do this kind of thing ind 1 themselves making bricks without straw.
 And so the bear of this type looks at
 the boards. notes the stuff Is dear and l goes about his business.
 The cotton market closed steady, with
 prices net to points higher. Receipts
 at the ports today, S2,6S3, against 72,z49
 last week and 65 24q last year. For the
 week. 445,O0O bales, against 447,6S2 last
 week and 366777 last year Today's re-
 ceipts at New Orleans, 1S,962 bales, against
 7576 last year. and at Houston, 15,54S
 bales, against 1025O last year.