The Sentinel=record., 1911-09-19
COTTON MEN
 IN REV0LT
NEW ORLEANS COTTON MEN RE FUSE TO HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH VALIDATING PLAN
Condemn Liverpool and Central Se- curing Plans As a Reflection Upon Honesty of Amer
 jean Cotton Men.

New Orleans, September 18-De. nounclag the Liverpool cotton bills of lading validation and central se- curing plan as an extraordinary and unique insurance against the results of the negligence of the European cotton buyers in dealing with ire sponsjble firms and declaring it a reflection upon the honosy ard in- tegrity of the southern cotton eX- poners, the conference O. southern bankers, exporters ani cotton men held at the Cotton Excba1ge today adoi led resolutions rac ns them salves on record as being uaalterably opposed to the scheme and refusing absolutely to have anything to do with it.
 The plan was branded as being repugnant to sound business princi- ples and offensive to reputable and honorable business men, in that it as- sumes that al cotton shippers are dishonest until the New York vali- dating bureau has pronounced them otherwise.
 A militant resistance through thorough organization of interests was suggested to fight the Liverpool scheme.
 The conference was called to order by President W. B Thompson, short ly before noon, who welcomed me delegates from dozen or more southern cities interested in the ex- port of cotton. Charles $. Haight. of New York, representing the for egn interests. went into exhaustive detail in explaining the workings Of the proposed central c'earng house.
 Following a preamble which de- cared that the foreign buyers in con- bnation with certain New York bank ing interests had undertaken to die tate to the southern cotton shippers and bankers over She earnest protest of the latter, the method of billing export cotton" and branding it plan of unique insurance the reso- lutons as adopted were:
 Resolved, That although the mern- bers of this conference deplore uhe losses entailed by the fraudulent practices of two certain cotton firms in the recent past and a although they declare in favor of and will render active support to any and all req eonable. just and legitimate reforms in the methods of billing and for warding cotton, still the central bu- rcau d an in question, both in its original and amended forms, is here by condemned as being repugnant to sound business principles in that it proposes to invest bills of lading with a status entirely independent of considerations of the character and solvency of the shipper, discrimina- tory in that it imposes burdens aud
  and possible costs upon the cotton producer from all of which the ship per and producer of every other commodity is free; offensive to reput- able and honorable business men h ttlat f. assumes that a cotton ship pers are dishonest until the New York validating bureau has pronouns ed them otherwise; unjust in that it proposes to place self respecting ano individually responsible merchants under the same obnoxious suweh- lance that it bestows on questionable parties; and finally, futile, in that the fiat of the central bureau certi- lying 10 the one virtue Of genuine ness of signatures would place IT. responsible and dishonest shippers in position of vantage from which they could practice a multitude oi collateral irregularities pregnant with greater injury to the coton trade than the isolated danger of forgery.
 That the remedy for the conditions complained of lies in enforcing the practice of more careful and dsorin mating business methods on the part of both the carriers and buyers or cotton. and not in attempting to de- wise schemes whereby the former may continue to escape liability for the injurious and Fraudulent acts or their agents and employees and the latter may he protected in paeif ih- discriminate and carefree traffic with