The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1910-12-16

closer to US In our daily lives than we
sometimes realize. At the risk of be-
ing a trile tedious, for business is
o1t-times tedious, l am Loing to give
you a rev illustrations OF the uues-
tons which arise in Congress, from
which you can Judge of their practi-
cal nature.
CLEAR STATEMENT OF EVILS OF
GAMBLING IN COTTON
FUTURES
At the last session of Congress
there passed the House of R~epreseu-
tatives a bill prohibiting, under GER
tain conditions. gambling in cotton
futures. This measure, in all proba-
billty, will come up for action by the
Senate at the mex session.
During the years gone by, many
of you often fel. that a small cotton
crop had been sold at an unfairly
low price, owing to the manipulations
in the cotton exchanges OF the coun-
try. Whether you are directly inter-
ested in the raising of cotton or not,
every n in Mississippi is concerned
in the handling of this great crop,
and will explain to you how in the
pas he price Of cotton has frequent
~ be en- depressed bymanipulation and
how it was attempted to depress It
through manipulation this year.
In the fall or early winter, when
the spinners OF the East are begin
ming to buy cotton to supply their
needs, when they think the opportuni-
ty favorable and the price of cotton
high, and they have always consid-
cred it high when we thought it was
fair, they would go into the market
and throw on to it thousands and
hundreds Of thousands of bales Of
future cotton, cotton which they did
not own, phantom cotton which they
had contracted to deliver in the sum-
mer months following. The effect Of
this would frequently be to depress
the future market and carry with it
the price Of the spot commodity.
This cotton was usually bought by
the disorganized Southern public,
Sucker gamblers" seeking easy
money at another mans game, men
who did not expect to accept the
cotton which they had contracted for.
AS the time for delivery would ap-
preach, these men would endeavor
to get out Of their contracts. depress-
ing the market in SO doing, and those
who bought In good faith and we're
willing to accept the cotton bought
would be rendered unspinable cot
ton, dog tail" cotton. two or three
hundred thousand bales Of which
were usually Kept In New York for
this purpose, cotton which they could
not use. and which would be rendered
at an unfairly high price. For when
you go into the cotton market to buy
cotton. o don't buy middling cotton
or ordinary cotton, but simply cotton,
and the basis OF difference is fixed
by the rules OF the exchange. The
New York Exchange usually Axes an
unfair basis of difference. II mid
ding cotton, for illustration, was
worth ten cents. this u%nspinnable cot
ton should be worth about five cents.
1t would be valued at eight and a half
cents, and the purchaser would find
himself rendered cotton which he
could not use, at an unfairly high
price. He would get out of his con-
tract on the best terms possible. de-
pressing the market in so doing, and
the bear combine, closing out their
trades at n rro0t. would come South
and buy orr cotton at the lower nrice
brought about through their own
man'nulations of the marfet.
This year the same play was at
tempted. You will remember in
January. when cotton nearly reached
sixteen cents. the market broke from
twelve and a half to fifteen dollars .
bale. This was caused by hundreds
of thousands of bales of future cot
ton being thrown on the market by
the bear combine. But this cotton
instead of being bought by the dis
organized Southern public, was
bought up by a bull CLIQUE. consist
ing Of men who believed that. o M
sidering the size Of the crop and the
prosperity Of the country, cotton was
being sold for less than it's value.
In April, when the time for delivery
was approaching. the bears realized
that these men would demand the
delivery of the cotton which they had
bought, and that they had been
caught in their own trap. and would
have to go South and buy cotton st
a fair price in order to nll their con-
tracts,