The sun., 1908-08-21
BULL COTTON POOL COLLAPSE
LIVERMORE HIT HARD, BUT
FRIENDS SAY HE HEDG ED.

Up In q Bear Raid which Sends the
Price Down About On. 30 Baie-'fsu
Can't Corner Cotton" Say the insiders.
The bull pool In cotton. which has been
tottering for the last ten days but still
has been strong enough to hold the October
option well above cents. collapsed
utterly yesterday. when cotton declined
about Sal a bale on the average as result
Of bear raid which made necessary sale
Of large part Of the pool holdings. The
break In the market was the most violent
since the downward movement began and
was the occasion Of another of those ex-
citing scenes which come at the climax
Of every big cotton movement.
j. G. Livermors. who has been known as
the head of the pool. was accredited with
the heaviest sacrifice Of long cotton while
Theodore Il. Price. who was long OF the
market In the earlier stages Of the POOLS
activities, had shfted his position and was
prominent as q member Of the bear party
yesterday. Mr.. Livermore's holdings at
one time were estimated at the very large
total Of 500. 600 bales. His losses and those
Of his associates combined were estimated
by the opposing faction at close to 5000 600.
On the other hand. Nh. Hyermore's
friends asserted that he had saved himself
from heavy loss by hedging. He had kept
his long line intact, they said. and had let
It be known that 1t was intact In order to
dlsarm suspicion while he was quietly
selling in New Orleans and Liverpool %
well as in this market. They admitted
that the bull campaign had failed. but in
sisted that tho estimates Of losses made by
his opponents were greatly exaggerated,
Mr.. Livermore, who has O private office
in q New street brokerage house, was
very busy man long after the market closed.
He was quoted as saying that the break
in the market made little difference to him,
but otherwise refused to discuss his posi-
tion. There was no suspicion OF any In
ability on his part to keep up his contracts.
The Liverpool market broke sharply
before the opening here. The principal
cause Of the decline there was the slack
demand from English spinners. Acute
emphasis was laid on this condition by the
news Of conference Of Lancashire spin
ners at which It was decided by vote OF
to to close up the mills there unless the
employees accepted q cut In wages.
The local market opened weak In sym
pathy with Liverpool. and the powerful
and well organized bear party, consisting
of tho majority OF the most important
cotton houses assisted by some strong
Wall Street houses followed up the ad-
vantage by very heavy selling.
In this raid on prices they were assisted
bisyS SSssfh4k -bsdsfs from liverpool and by
DhAkyy sales OF spot cotton at distinct con-
toessions, from the prices prevailing on
previous days. The combined strength
was altogether too great for the bull forces,
who had been weakened by persistent
demands for original margins for several
days. They were able to offer but slight
resistance to the selling movement and
soon were driven to close out their long
contracts.
The various options opened from three
to six points of and quickly declined on
enormous selling. Stop loss orders were
caught Mt every fve point decline and
there wac O frantic rush to unload. Prices
broke sharply between sales, and as the
throwing over OF long accounts increased
the market became badly demoralized.
with but little buying power except that
offered by bears covering short contracts
and taking profits. At the low point OF
the day the October option, In which
speculation has been keeueet. was down
sixty points, or s3 a bale from Wednesdays
close. The break In August cotton was
even greater and the other options were but
few points higher.
All the days news favored bearish
operations There were reports OF timely
rains In the Atlantic States, Arkansas.
Texas and Alabama. dissipating fears that
had been entertained OF damage to the crop
from high temperature and drought New
England spinners we're again reported
reluctant to buy at existing prices and re-
ceipts OF spot cotton were again very large
q The days receipts at all the ports were
500 bales. as compared with 3,is5 bales
on the previous day and but l.7o5 on the
corresponding day Of Inst year. Very
evidently the new crop was moving to
market with great rapidity and heavy
sales OF spot cotton indicated again that
Southern planters were not organized to
hold up prices In as strong a union as has
been the case in previous years This
rapid movement and early sale Of the crop
had a particularly bearish influence on the
early options.
The aggregate Of transaction was esti-
mated at 1000 bales. Transactions orig
mating here were much greater. however.
for many Of the pool holdings were unloaded
In New Orleans and Liverpool.
One Of the explanations Of the weakness
| OF the pool was that well known Chicago
operator who Is often very active In the
wheat market and was working along with
the Lvermore contingent In the early days
Of the attempted corner had quietly un-
loaded on his associates. This explanation
was made by q member Of the Livermore
party. The only trouble with the move
ment, IL was added. was that Livermore
held on longer than did the others.
The inside contingent on the Cotton
Exchange was jubilsnt at the outcome OF
the days business.
Cotton never has been successfully
cornered yet," said one Of them, and 1t
never will be. Sully has tried Il and failed
and when Price tried II he failed. The
attempted corner Of 1908 has gone the way
| OF the Others
HORSES FOR SWEDEN,S KING.