Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1913-08-07
Frank B. Hayne Gives Interview
On Probable Effect Cotton Tax.

Snartanburg, Aug. Frank B.
Hayne, of New Orleans, the noted cot
TON speculator, was in Spartanburg
last night, stopping over on his way to
his summer home at Flat Rock, N. G.
He declared in an interview that if
the amendment of Senator Clark, of
Arkansas, to the tariff bill, placing a
tax of one-tenth of cent a bale on
cotton futures should be enacted into
law it would mean a loss of millions
IT dollars to the farmers of the South.
If would absolutely destroy the ex-
changes dealing in cotton futures, he
asserted.
The farmers would have to deal
with the mills direct or through their
icbbers," said Mr.. Hayne. ''They
would have to hold their cotton until
the mills desired it for consumption.
Al it is nov they can sell it immedi-
ately at a profit"
Mr.. Hayne said it was surprising to
Kim that cotton should have been Sc
lccted as the one commodity in which
SPECULATION should be forbidden.
IF Senator Clark wishes to put it
On the high moral plane that pecula-
ton is gambling said Mr.. Hayne,
and should be suppressed, why not
suppress speculation in corn, wheat,
eats and the other staple crops? If
if is for the benefit Of the planter or
buyer and will help them, do you not
think that federal aid should be ex-
tended to the producers and consum-
ers of other commodities? 1t looks
hat way to me-"
Mr.. Hayne said that he was a mem
Der of both the New York and New
Orleans cotton exchanges and he
thought they should be placed under
federal regulation, but he did not think
the head should be cut from the body
because of a segregated ~cancerous
sore. That there r speculative evils
10 be remedied in the exchanges he
admitted, but he said the evils should
be corrected by a federal commission.
Speaking of the announcement of
Secretary William G. McAdoo, of the
Treasury Department, that he will
place between $25, 100000 and $50,000,-
600 of government funds in the nation
al banks of the South and West to help
move the crops. Mr.. Hayne said:
4 consider that the action of Mr..
McAdoo came at a most momentous
Ulll0 anu Will w 11uSh W 1C11CNC IN
money stringency in the South. Too
long has the South been ground down
under the irksome yoke of the Wall
street banker and l think the acton
of the secretary of the treasury will
restore confidence and enables the
Southern banker to break away from
the thralldom under which he has so
long been held.
POSSIBLY Mr.. McAdoo has gone too
far in recognizing prime commercial
paper, but that will, of course, have to
be passed upon by the local clearing
house associations and then finally by
the treasury department, and the gov
eminent stands in no danger of loss"
Mr.. Hayne attributes the increasing
acreage of cotton in the Piedmont to
the discovery of phosphate rock and
the manufacture of fertilizing mate
rial He said he could remember the
time when it was thought absurd to
plant cotton in the Piedmont; that the
plan was no indigenous to clay soil.
But, he said, the Introduction Of ferti-
lizer has changed this, and the Pied
mont is now one of the premier cotton
growing sections Of the South.
Mr.. Hayne has had a meteoric ca
reer. He was born in Georgetown, 5.
c., shortly before the a He left
this State in 1886 and soon afterward
became identified with the cotton bus
mess, in which he has risen to the
highest pinnacle. He is under indict-
ment at the prest 1T time for corner
ing the cotton Market.