The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1912-02-23
AIKEN SCORES BEARS.
Some Interesting Facts About Cotton
Manipulation On the Exchanges.

Mr.. Hay. Nj. Chairman, / yield Is
minutes to the gentlam%n rom South
Carolina (Mr. Aiken).
MI. Aiken, of South Carolina Mr..
Chairman, some time ago | introduce
ed a bill III. f l240S> the purpose OF
which is 10 regulate transactions on
the produce exchanges Of this country.
This Dill, if enacted into law, will con-
fine transactions on the exchanges to
crop products actually in existence
and ready for delivery, fixing proper
penalties for violations Of its provls-
ions
At the same time l introduced this
bill July u, 1911-I knew in gen.
eral way the evils of exchange meth
ods. but their enormity was not known
to me fully until the closing months of
that year.
Only a few years ago a large per
cent of the lands and homes of South
ern farmers were under mortgage.
Reduced to poverty by the war, the
Southern soldier came home to enlist
in an industrial struggle full of de-
privation and little less terrible in its
effects than the scenes Of blood and
carnage through which he had passed.
Cotton, by reason of it's cllmatlc
adapta bility and ready market value,
is the natural Southern crop, and It's
cultivation offered the only hope 10
the Southern farmer after the War OF
Secession. In the history of its de-
cline in price to less than half the
cost of production could be written
history of deprivation, suffering, and
even want never before experienced
bv 2 people of like refinement and in
telligence. Northern cotton mills
were reaping harvest They extend
ed their investments to the South and'
North and South, mill interests -four
ished as never before in the history
of this country. Southern homes were
swept from their owners and convert
ed into mill profits, and these in turn
placed in new mills. HardasWasthe
placed in new mills. Hard as was the
struggle with the cotton farmer, 1t
was not without its beneficial results
in creating new demand for his cot
ton. Though many we're driven from
their farms to seek work In the mills
a better day began to dawn on those
who remained on the farms. lncreas-
cd manufacturing took cotton more
and more out of~the hands of the spe-
culator, and it began to command a
price that gave profit to the produc.
er. Mortgages, yellow with age, were
lifted from Southern homes, and peace
and contentment could be read even
in the lines of the furrowed brow.
These dark days in our history will
never be reenacted. Our people have
concluded that they are entitled to
part of the profit Of their crop. They
have built warehouses and have so
diversified their crops as to stand the
assault of the cotton gambler, and a
few of them, at least, will share the
profit with him and the mill man.
Determined, then, as a few of our
neOnle are, to have a, share in the
profit on their cotton, the indignation
they feel toward lot of cotton gamo-
lers whose market manipulations have
robbed them of millions Of dollars
nroft on this crop is not hard to un-
derstand. The poorer, the more help"
less, farmer has been squeezed out
and forced to part with his crop be-
low the cost of production. This has
already been fed to the greedy bear.
Two years ago, when Messrs. Brown
Hayre, Scales and others were charg-
ed with maintaining a pool to hold up
the price Of cotton, the attorney gen
eral of the United States had them in
dicted before a federal grand jury.
And for whose protection? 1t was
done at the instance OF lot of bear
thieves who had Systematically rob-
bed Southern planters for more than
80 years. The Indictment alleged that
mill men had to pay fictitious price
for their cotton and many of them
were forced to shut down. I know
something of the inside history OF
that so-called bull pool, and | state
as a fact that the idea originated with
nrociSont Nf a