Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1908-01-09

latOrS are largely Ill the south. aS the South naturally wants higher prices for cotton and they are Ill closer touch with the crop condi- tions n naturally makes them bulls on cotton. Ii is q well known fact that yer! few of the small speCu- lators ever sell any commodity short but are nearly always found on the buying side. Suppose that our cX- changes were closed, what would be the result? All the smaller specu
 lators scattered throughout the South would quit speculating, as it is rather hard fol them to deal i'll Liverpool. Besides the expense Is so great they could not afford it. It costs at the present price of cot ton $350 to hedge 1000 bales of cotton compared to $15O in this country. The result would be about as follows: Cotton would start iI September at about its value from a supply and demand standpoint and as tho farmers increased their sales to meet their obligations the sales of hedges would be so great in Liverpool with hardly ony one supporting the market that the price would at once go very low and would stay there until the bulk of the crop had been picked and mar ketel when it would gradually go back probably to near it's real value but too late to do the Southern pro- ducers any good. If the producers would only sell what the spinners would take each day this would not happen but that would be impossi- ble under the present conditions with the merchants wanting their money for supplies furnished months before they would be forced to sell. What we really need is more speculation especially here in the South as it would be nearly all on the buying side and help carry the load of cotton until the spinners need it. I think the exchanges should be so regulated that it would
 be impossible to depress the price
 by tendering q lot of low grade cot ton on contracts as is done under
 the systen. as in vogue for the past few years. Why cant the exchanges base their contracts on middling cotton? All grain future contracts are based on No. wheat which is to the different grades of wheat about what middling is to the grades of cotton or even better. This would enable the spinner to buy contracts and receive the actual cotton knowing he would get at least spinnable cotton. Under the present system there is no other commodity handled on such small AAAS@' eoAiA ao eoStoA. IL PloSCStCo from weather influence there is no waste and with the future markets Or with limited capital but good credit can handle very large amount of cotton during a season, so that a very small profit on each bale makes him nice income for the years business. With our fu turc. markets closed it would be impossible for him to get accommo- dations from the bands to handle as much business, so he would have to reduce his business and make larger profit per bale. This would all come out of the price paid the producer. This would also reduce competition among the buyers. Without our exchange we would have nothing to govern the prices except Liverpool, and as it is always to. their interest to buy cotton cheap we would be at their mercy. If all our surplus sales had to be hedged each day in Liverpool that market would go down so fast that it would almost create a panic. Ev- cry one In the South is interested in the producers getting good prices for their crops, so why not let all that want to carry the burden of the heavy offerings during the fall months. If there are faults in the present method of conducting the exchanges, regulate them by law if necessary. If we have a piece of machinery that don't work exactly right. we do not destroy it, but we overhaul it and oil t up well and 1t usually runs much better. I think a good deal of this agitation against trading in futures is caused by the irresponsible bucket shops that have been opened up all over