The Pickens sentinel. (Pickens, S.C.) 1911-2016, 1911-11-23

are willing to let 1t 90, ana
thereby impose upon the manu-
|facturer, who must use the
product, the burden of an arti
fetal price.
It is not so clear by what pro-
cess a bear pool" is organized
or conducted, and I have no
evidence in this department Of a
tangible character which ena-
bles me to form the opinion that
amy designated individuals have
leombined to depress the price Of
| cotton below it's normal figures.
Moreover, it is not quite clear
lib my mind how such a bear
| pool' can operate to restrain in
tsrstate commerce. ] suppose
Fthe method by which such a
| combination would operate,
would be to throw upon the
market at a given time a guam
tity of a commodity in excess of
| the demand which would result
in its being taken only at prices
which the purchasers thought
would enable them to retail at a
profit.
I don't at ali know what the
practice is among the cotton
growers in your state, for in
stance, respecting the sale of
their product. When { last had
occasion to examine the Ques-
ton, which was a few years
ago, the crop was pretty gener-
ally sold to the cotton factors
before it was picked, the price
being based upon the price Of
the previous year, and increased
or decreased according to the ra-
ito between the crop produced
| in the country the preceding
year, and the estimated crop Of
the current year.
Generally speaking, I take it
that She bulls and bears" are
the brokers who, on the cotton
exchange, at a given time, are
seeking to inrease and depress
prices respectively. The bears"
are trying to beat down the
prices in order to buy at a lower
figure. and the bulls are try
ing to run prices up in order to
sell at a higher figure.
The interests of the spinners
would be. generally, with the
bears, y and the interests of
the factors, or cotton dealers,
would be with the bulls. A
''bear" movement would be ini-
tiated' if, for example, concerns
dealing in cotton had borrowed
very largely ,on-a close margin,
and, for some reason or other,
were compelled to sell for the
purpose of meeting other loans,
and a movement, once begun,
toward the lowering of prices,
would be apt to gain headway
because other people, having cot
ton on margin, ,gwould be fearful
lof greater loss if they waited
until the price went lower, and
so would rush into the market
determined to get rid of their
product at a given time.
How a 'bear pool" would
|operate, I do not quite under
stand, nor do I know of the ex-
istance of any such pool. By
Epool I mean a group Of men
who, for the purpose of control
ing the price of aeommedity, in
their own interest, buy a suff-
ciently large amount of the
Iproperty to enable themzto con-
Itrol the price in the market.
I write, giving you just my inn
Ipressions of ,thesubject, because
Eyou may have fuller knowledge
than land I Isheuld be:gery glad
to have you give me any detail
ed information availablesto you
going to show the existence and
operation 5of any combination
formed for the purpose of de-
pressing the price of cotton.
In the proceeding against
those engaged in the so-called
bull cotton pool" which the
government brougbt4a year or
so ago, the United States circuit
court in New York held that
corners" were illegal and i'm
moral, but that a combination
formed to corner and enhance
the price of cotton did not oper-
ate in restraiust Of interstate
commerce event though, as1was
II