The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1910-06-06
ASPECT OF COTTON INQUIRY.

Zach McGhee in Columbia State.)

the department of justice with the
cotton bears, who are trying to de-
press the price of cotton, does not
appear just yet but it is believed in
Washington that before very long
something will come to light which
will show that Mr.. Wickersham, the
attorney general has been acting
either consciously IT unconsciously
yet to be shown-as the direct
agent of those who wish to bring the
price Of cotton down. During the
past week the department of justice
has had secret agents in this State,
at Spartanburg, G~reenville, and
Greenwood to my certain knowledge
trying to find out what cotton mi
presidents have been buying cotton
on the New York cotton exchange.
Some of the cotton mill presidents
in these places have told the agents
of the department of justice frankly
that they have been buying cotton on
the New York cotton exchange and
have shown them that they have
bought cotton cheaper in New York
than they were able to buy it from
the farmers at home. One president
I know of told the attorney general
that he not only had recently bought
cotton on the New York cotton eX-
change for the first time, but that he
did it for the expires s purpose of try
ing to get the New York exchange to
revise it's rules and make some regu-
1atiolE which would eliminate the
bad results of speculation and so
bring about a more staple price for
cotton. Lewis W. Parker, who buys
for his various mills $4,000 bales of
cotton a year, stated to the senate
committee which is making a bluff at
investigating the high cost of living
that he bought 5000 bales, or con
tracts for that much, on the New
York exchange and that he did it with
the idea of fighting the methods of the
New York exchange. It is not unrea-
sonable to suppose that all of the va
rious mill presidents who have been
interviewed by these agents have
stated in substance what the ones I
have in mind have stated.
This whole cotton situation is now
one of the most interesting in the af-
fairs at Washington so far as the
South is concerned. Senator Smith
of South Carolina knows more about
cotton than any one else at Wash
ingtcn and he has been interesting
himself in various ways in the action
of the department of justice. He is
collecting volumes of data bearing
upon the situation, data not of cot
ton figures and that sort Of thing, but
of actual transactions on the cotton
exchange and within the next few
days he expects to make a speech in
the senate in which he will give out
some information which may startle
somebody. On his desk, when I left
Washington several days ago, he had
a stack Of letters, affdavits, memo
randa and other documents furnished
him by certain parties who have
been concerned in the recent trans
actions on the cotton exchange, and
this he is now working on with the
expectation of giving it out to the
country.
Bears Caught Short.
The whole matter about the cotton
situation briefly is just this: Several
cotton brokers, o spectators, what
ever you wish to call them, notably
Brown and Hayne, Crank Hayne,
formerly of this State, in particularly
have been buying large contracts for
future delivery Of cotton. They
bought several hundred thousand
bales of delivery in May. The usual
way of doing is for those who sell
THE contracts to settle on margin,
that is, pay the difference in price,
not delivering any cotton at all. Put
this year certain cotton mill men, led
by Lewis w. Parker, who is president
of the American Cotton Manufaclur-
ers' association and who is hence II
a position to make such an arrange
ment, got Hayne and perhaps some
others to demand the delivery of the
actual cotton. The men who SOLD
the contracts for future delivery, not
having the cotton and not being able
to get it except by paying a mAch
rnlgher price for it than their con
tracts called for, being thus caught
:; Short that is, they were IN a Dad