Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-07-21
COTTON CAMBL
A Lesson Pointed by The
Bud Pool Investigation.
Continuous, Revolving FrauIdI''
That Must Come 10 an End.
Present Form Of Speculation and
Trading a Burden 10 Commerce.

New York. July Coin spite of tine
TACT that the" pending Federal indict-
ments are not taken very seriously
either by James A. Patten and his CO.
defendants, Of by the cotton market in
general, the impression is growing that
IN the next few years, thanks to this
and ether activities of the Government.
cotton SPECULATION will undergo a very
substantial change as to method. even
if it is not entirely removed from its
present basis. The bull pool indict
ments like those against the partici-
pants in the cotton leak scandal of
several years ago. have served to call
attention to the enormous amount of
legalized gambling going on under
guise OF cotton operations. and to move
the more far-seeing men-even those
in the thick of the speculation itself
to ask if it would not be far better for
the trade to rid the cotton market of
some considerable part of the recur-
rent speculation in futures.
Just now we read that special trains
are being chartered in the South to
rash cotton by a circuitous route and
at tremendous expense into New York.
where the bears may cover their con-
tracts before the squeeze becames too
severe for them to stand. Or it is that
cotton is coming back from Liverpool
as fast as speeding liners can bring it,
also the relief of the stricken bears. 1t
might he thought that the timely ar
rival of this succor would enable the
bears to make their deliveries and
thus take them out of their trouble
but no, there are but 10000 or $4,000
bales due here from the South on the
special trains, whereas the short con-
tracts amount to many hundred thou
sand bales The contrast serves to il
lustrate the extent to which the specu-
lation. or gambling, whichever it may
be called. has outrun natural condi-
tions or the natural possibility of any
given moment.
Sets Men to Thinking.
Such performances set men thinking
even in Wall street. and it was a man
of national prominence in the cotton
market, one whose name has been a
talisman in many important move
nients. who said to the writer today:
Il question whether the day is not
coming when dealings in cotton futures
viii be greatly modified or else ahol-
isned altogether under the present sys-
tenn. 1t doesn't make any difference
whether the Government succeeds or
net in its present effort to convict the
bull POOL of violating the Sherman act.
Such prosecutions wake up the country
to the extent to which the logitina te
operations of trade are interfered with
by those which have no basis what
over but speculation. I have been in
the game myself and 7 don't speak as
moralst- But the times are ripe for a
change and in such matters. as in
the stock market there is nothing
more disastrous than over-staying the
situation
Irhe operator proceeded to point fur
Their. that the time-honored argument
that speculation is necessary in order
to have the cotton crop "underwrit-
ten and to create stable market in
which to buy at any time of the year,
no longer holds with it's old force.
That. indeed. is about the only argu-
men. that the Spectator in any COM
modify has to offer by way of connect
ing his own dealings with those of the
legitimate factors in his particular
field. The same proposition is offered
with respect to speculation in stocks.
the claim being that if it were not for
the steady volume of speculation al
ways going on. persons who wanted to
buy for investment or to sell from long
holdings would be subject to violent
price fluctuations or find their market
gone altogether at the very time when
they most needed to realize. .,,-.,
Two Important Facts.
But in the case of the cotton market.
this point las been urged as incapable