The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-08-07
WORLDS COTTON
Is In new YORK
RUSHING BALES TO EUROPE
More Than 100000 Bales Are Piled
Upon Piers and In warehouses.
Brokers Become Shipping Clerks
in Order to Move the Supply
More Quickly.

greatest cotton port in the world. There
were 2l5.2OS bales in warehouses and on
piers here this week. all under contracts
the terms Of which require that the
cotton be moved with the greatest pos
sible expedition. II may not lie held
here. It has been sold to consumers all
over the world, and they want It.
This cotton is not being sold on spec
ulltion. so brokers say.
Brokers these days are occupied not
in stock accounts, but In signing bills of
lading. Cotton men say that such a sit
uation has never existed here before and
that no port in the world ever had so
much cotton ION the move"
Moving Toward Europe.
When the steamship Friedrich Wilhelm
left last Thursday she had PIP bales
in her hold. The steamship Caroline.
with ssh bales. sailed to-day. other
steamships have been booked for cargo
space by cotton men throughout this
month. On the other side. those oper-
ators who are short on the market are
engaging freight for 10000 bales. and
this means that the fight between those
who now hold the cotton and those who
have 70 deliver IL is not ended.
In me meantime the bull1heads OF sec
tons of South Brooklyn and Staten Is
land are piled and damned with bales.
Harbor voyagers on the ferries gain even
from casual observation the Impression
OF an unusual situation. which figures Of
the amount OF cotton now In this port
bear out. In the last week or so the
bulk OF cotton 20 be moved by lighters
TO various railroads and steamships has
seriously affected the general freight
movement
New Work for Brokers.
The creaking Of tackle ceased abruptly
In front Of a big warehouse in the Bush
stores in South Brooklyn. the drowsy
singsong OF sweating half-clad rousta-
bouts died away They thrust their
hooks in their belts and stood for a
moment watching a young cotton broker
from a luxurious Manhattan Office. who
turned for a moment 10 speak 20 a big
stevedore at his elbow. and then waved
his tally sheet al the engineer OF a
freight train into the cars OF which sew
eral hundred bales OF cotton had been
slowed
Slowly the train wound its way among
warehouses and piers until finally II roll
ed out to a bulkhead. where eight or ten
lighters lay. A small army OF men rush
ed aboard the cars. lay hooks 20 the
bales. and the broker forgot all about the
hot August sun and the humid atmos-
phere. When he had come to South
Brooklyn IN the morning he might have
been characterized as dapper. Now he
was a sartorial wreck
He was but one OF a humble. OF brokers
whose acquaintance with cotton until the
last few weeks had consisted OF printed
facts and figures. Their experience to-
day is complete. They have the feel. so
to speak, OF the staple.
A bale OF cotton means something more
20 them than he blackboard quotations
II is a physical fact. hulking some six
feet by three. In the Office ii is an easy
matter TO arrange for the sale OF tens Of
thousands OF bales. the merchandise to
be shipped from some Southern port TO
Europe or elsewhere. It is a different
proposition when brokers become mer-
chants and have TO attend to the moving
Of these tens Of thousands OF bales
themselves
Where Docks Look White.
At the Bush stores there were 10000
bales. The Clinton stores. not far away.
and the American docks. over on the
Staten Island side Of the bay. held
about as many more Such piles OF the
STABLE afford an impressive object-lesson
as to just what cotton crop means in
terms Of bulk.
A cotton man whose operations in past
years have been far from small admitted
this at the Bush stores as he stood be-
meath mountain of the dark-brown
bales. from the ends Of which the white
cotton protruded.
This mountain, by the way. consisted Of
only few hundred bales. one found
growing within him new respect for
the figures he had obtained as TO the
visible supply of cotton in the world,
1.754936 bales.
Men at these piers and warehouses have
been wording night and day for the last
seventy days. and the end is not yet in
sight The men who have sold the cotton
have had to stand and deliver. and the
purchasers, instead OF selling back to
them.-have sold to the consumers Of the
world
Give us what we have bought" has
been the cry. and the holds of Southern
steamships have strained to meet this
demand The famous bull pool appears
to have been transformed into a mer-
camille machine in its tendencies. 1t was
said that James A. Patten, the Chicago
operator. would not have single bale
in his possession within the next fifteen
days. II is this attitude on the part of
Patten and others who bought cotton
and are selling it for acfsal consumption
which has resulted IN the present sit
uetiOn.
July and August cotton figures largely
in the supply now on hand in this port,
although there IS some Of the May
staple. And most OF It Is going straight
10 consumers. This fact reduces the
speculative aspect
I'm fact" said a prominent cotton OPP
orator New York at present is the
biggest legitimate cotton market in the
world and it can be kept so indefinitely
II men will stop specializing and treat
the staple as merchandise. The situation
as it exists now has been brought about
by men who stopped specializing, at
least temporarily. and engaged in a solid
mercantile business
LOAN SOCIETIES.