Perth Amboy evening news., 1910-04-21
Is
OPPOSED To
AN INJURY


New York, April 21.-The cotton sit.
untion has become SO acute owing to
dread OF the result Of the governments
investigation of the cotton pool that
more than one big Wall street house
dealing in cotton is in a bad way finan-
cially, and II they should be forced to
the wall no one can predict where the
decentralization OF the market will end.
/ The failure Of knight, Yancey & Co.,
one Of the largest spot cotton firms in
the south. with offices at Birmingham.
Ala; Decatur, Mobile and Memphis,
for $4,000.000 proved a disturbing rae.
ter. The failure was attributed By cot
ton men generally to the governments
Investigation Of the pool, said to be
engineered by William p. Brown,
Frank B. Hayne and others.
Patten Defends His Position.
James A, Patten, leader of the cot
( ton spectators. came to town to pro-
test against the governments attitude
toward speculation in cotton. The
Gates following, who are friendly to
Patten, declared the cotton bears were
In hopeless position, since they were
short many thousands Of bales of cot
ton, while Patten and his friends had
the contracts and were prepared to
back them up with cash.
Patten brought $10,0O0O00 to carry
on the fight. and he has the backing of
some of the most powerful Chicago
financial interests for practically I'M
limited amount. Patten declared he
was prepared to pay cash for all the
cotton for which he had contracted
Patten informed the shorts that he
had no desire to squeeze" them un-
mercifully, but was willing to let them
down on easy terms. These overtures
were rejected.
The short interest In cotton Is very
large Some brokers estimate 1t at
100000 bales but probably this is ex-
aggerated. Patten has 10000 bales,
and experts in the cotton trade declare
that he and his associates control not
less than $4,000 bales, which would be
near a corner at the present time.
Patten Here With $4,000, 900.
"If it is against the law to specu-
late" declared Patten, "I'li stop. But
SO far as / know there is no statute
that prevents my buying cotton or any
thing else and paying for it.
'"The story that aih financing the
operations of a SO called cotton pool is
not true. am member Of no pool.
have entered into contracts to buy
cotton to be delivered to me during
May want the cotton. am ready
to pay for 1t with my own money. /
wish to merchandise It. Any spinner
who wants any cam buy It from me at
a reasonable price am not trying to
corner cotton.
Spot cotton Is cheaper here than 1t
Is anywhere else in the world. The
New York cotton exchange is a specu-
iative market Every time try to sell
any cotton a certain clique jumps on it
and forces the price down. The price
then doesn't represent a real market
value. / intend to stand by my con
tracts and take delivery Of the cotton
and pay for it.
II gave my Liverpool brokers in
structions to sell my cotton to spinners
and not to spectators. This has been
my practice every since have ac-a
eepted delivery Of my cotton, which
was turned over TO me in January and
March
Il have no agreement with anybody
about buying cotton except with the
men who are to sell to me. I never
knew Mr. Hayne or Mr. Brown until
some time<after was long on cotton
Then it was only natural that we
should meet and discuss our common
interests"