The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1908-12-24

'A11S DA~<1VAOAN STS A>'
COTTON FUTURE PROBLEM.
gestion, Will Deliberate on the
Question.
Washington. Dec. 20.-Cotton fu-
ture dealing has already come in Tor
its annual round OF lambasting by
members of congress, the lambasting
being, however, only with their ton
CUES; there Is no indication now that
anything will be done about it any
more than the numerous other times
the matter has come up. The agri-
cultural committee of the house,
however, at the suggestion of Rep
resentative Lever, member of that
committee, will hold hearings" on
the subject as soon as the regular
agricultural appropriation bill is
made up. The date of these hear
ings has not been fixed, but will be
announced as soon as congress re-
convenes after the holidays.
There are number of bills bear
ing on the subject, as there generally
are, and these bills have been re-
ferred to the agricultural committee.
The committee appointed a sub
committee to take them up and re-
port on them, but in the last meet
ing of the committee before adjourn
ment for the holidays Mr.. Lever
called the attention of the chairman
to the fact that this subcommittee
had not made its report and suggest
ed that the whole committee have
hearings on the subject, which was
agreed on.
Southern members generally are in
favor of some legislation which
would prevent gambling in cotton
futures, although it Is more or less
notorious that number of these
same gentlemen engage in the traffic
themselves, just as many members
from all the States express them
selves as in favor of doing some
thing to stop gambling in stocks on
the stock exchanges, while they buy
and sell stocks themselves on mar
gin.
The other day in the house there
was a spirited debate on this sub
ject, led by Representative Camp
bell, of Kansas, who urged law to
prevent buying stocks on margin.
Herbert Parsons, of New York, SON.
in-law of Henry Clews, defended the
stock exchanges and operations on
margin. So did Fitzgerald, of New
York.
Suppose a man had piece of
land to sell and offered it to pur-
chaser who would agree to pay 10
per cent. down and give his land as
security for the balance, would you
not consider that legitimate trans
action?" was the question Mr.. Par
sons put to Mr.. Campbell. 1t SEEM
ed strong argument, for 1t Is con-
tended that the buying of stocks on
the market on margin" is merely
buying the stocks and making a
payment of, say, 10 per cent, or
whatever the margin is. This Is the
way real estate is sold all over this
country, argued Mr.. Parsons, and
there were not lacking those who
sided with him. They had Mr.. Camp
bell on the hip until John Sharp
Williams came to his rescue with a
Knockout blow for the whole case.
Suppose" he propounded to Mr.
Parsons, that a man should offer
for sale a piece of land on those
terms, when he didn't have any land
at all, would you call that legiti-
mate transaction" And nobody ever
got around that question, as they
rarely do get around John Sharp's in
terrogations.
1t is not the buying on margin,
after all, that is the evil, but 1t is
the buying, and more especially the
selling between two parties who have
not the goods which they buy and
sell, and have nothing whatever to
do with these goods.
On the stock exchange OF New
York, or somewhere thereabouts in
some warehouse which holds it for
the exchange, there are something
like 100 bales of old, unspinnable,
worthless cotton. Whenever, in some
unusual frame of mind, which hap
D6QS OuCS VI I"lCC, PSA Ae@pS' -
eral years, some fellow calls for the
actual delivery of the cotton which
he buys, instead of the difference in
the prices in money, he is pointed to
this old worthless cotton, which is
used for that purpose and that alone.
That 100 bales of cotton, or there
abouts, is the basis of the greater
portion of the transactions on the
cotton exchange. And so 1t is,
similarly with grain, with wool and
other commodities, while with the
stocks bought and sold there, large
percentage of them are made with
out any reference whatever to the
real things which the stocks repre-
sent, and most often without any at
all to the stock certificates
Any yet, while this sort OF thing
goes on every day, and has gone on
so long, it is an exceedingly difficult
thing to prevent, for the reason that
no man has yet been able to draw an
eoritable line between the legitimate