The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1912-02-21
AIKEN SCORES
COTTON BEARS.
Asks for Drastic Regulation OF Cotton
Exchanges. Gives Some Interest
ing Figures on Cotton

Mr.. Aiken recently made speech
in Congress in reference to his bill to
prosecute the Cotton Bears which was
as follows:
Mr.. Hay. Mr.. Chairman, yield Il
This bill, if enacted into law, will con-
minutes to the gentleman from South
Carolina (Mr. Aiken.)
Mr.. Aiken of South Carolina. Mr..
Chairman, some time ago l introduced
a bill (H. R. 1240S) the purpose OF
which is to regulate transactions on
the produce exchanges OF this country.
fine transactions on the exchanges tc
crop products actually in existence
and ready for delivery, fixing proper
penalties for violations Of its proVls-
ions.
At the same time I introduced this
bill-July 12, 1911-I knew in gen.
eral way the evils of exchange meth
DDS, but their enormity was not known
to me fully until the closing months OF
that year.
Only a few years ago large per
cent of the lauds and homes or 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 ano
carnage through which he had passed.
Cotton, by reason OF its climatic
adaptability and ready market value
is the natural southern crop, and its
cultivation offered the only hope t.
the southern farmer after the War Oh
Secession. In the history OF its de-
cline in price to less than half the
cost of production could be written d
history Of deprivation, suffering, anL
even want never before experlenceL
by a people of like refinement and in
tlligence. Northern cotton mills were
reaping a harvest. They extended
their investments to the South and,
North and South, mill interests -four
ished as never before in the hlstor!
of this country. Southern homes were
swept from their owners and convert
ed into mill profits, and these in turn
placed in new mills. Hard as was the
struggle with the cotton farmer, i,
was not without it's beneficial results
in creating new demand for his cotton.
Though many were driven from theil
farms to seek work in the mills,
better day began to dawn on those
who remained on the farms. Increased
manufacturing took cotton more ano
more out of the hands of the specu-
lator, and it began to command
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
few of them, at least, will share the
profit with him and the mill man.
Determined, then, as few Of our
people axe, to have share in the
profit on their cotton, the indignation
they feel toward lot OF cotton gamb-
lers whose market manipulations have
robbed them of millions Of dollars
profit on this crop Is not hard to un-
derstand. The poorer, the more help
less, farmer had been squeezed ou'
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
Hayne, Scales and others were charg-
ed with maintaining a pool to hold III
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 Waf
done at the instance Of lot Of bea.
thieves who had Systematically roo
bed southern planters for more thai
80 years. The indictment alleged thai
mill men had to pay fictitious prict
for their cotton, and many OF then:
were forced to shut down. know
something Of the inside history o;
that so-called bull pool, and l state
as fact that the idea originated with
a southern mill president of La
Grange, Ga; that the details were
worked out at Greenville, in my own
State, and that so-caHed bull opera
tors were brought in to aid the cotton
manufacturers to uphold the price OF
raw material against the manipula-
ton of a constituencies band of rob-
bers.
AS evidence that the Attorney Cen
eral proceeded at the instance Of the
bear clique on the exchange, note the
character Of the witnesses called.
Without exception they were repre-
sentatives Of firms who had sold cot
ton heavily in excess of the supply.
And note the further fact that not a
single mill man appears in the list OF
witnesses. At the time the so-called
"bulI" pool came into existence the
future cotton market was a cent a
pound or more below the spot mark
ct, held down by the bear gambler.
The dry-goods merchant wanted to
base the price in buying on the future
and not on the spot-cotton market
and refused to buy except on that
basis. This produced stagnation in
the cloth market, and it was to elimi-
nate this feature that mill men origi-
mated the so-called pool to maintain a
parity between the spot and the fu-
ture market.
But suppose American cotton mills
were placed at a single disadvantage
by "bull" support Of the market. Can
the Attorney General be excused for
protecting even them at the cost OF
millions to American commerce:
When we consider that the United
States raises 69.9 per cent. of the
worlds supply of cotton and con-