The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1914-04-30


specify the exact grade Of the cotton,
ana which leaves the panty tendelfns
the cotton additional time to desig-
nate the exact grades Of cotton TO be
actually delivered. The purchaser
puts up his money and must wait 70
find out what he is to receive. When
he finally receives a list Of the grades
he then must go through the process
/ have Just described OF obtaining IT,
1 and If he finds that he can not handle
the Cotton outside Of the New York
Cotton Exchange. on account OF It's pad
character and undertakes to resell 1t
through the exchange, although j.
has been examined and certified by
] the exchange to him, he must have Il
reelagsified and certified and pay for
this work. With all these hindfanees
thrown around him he naturally
throws up his hands and says, Keep
| your cotton and settle with me AZ you
please"
Arbitrary Difference.
Second. Arbitrary differences: The
mode Of delivery before described y
bad enough, but far worse is the sys-
TEN pursued by the New York Cotton
Exchange Of fixing an arbitrary dlifef-
ence Of value between the middling
cotton whieh the purchaser undertook
to buy and the 20 other grades, either
one on many Of which may be deliver
ed to the purchaser. BY this mean
that a purchaser may buy on the New
York Cotton Exchange middling cot
ton the seller can deliver to him any
one of the is grades less valuable
! than nliddling or any one Of grades
Of cotton more valuable than middling
| III one of these Is grades less valuable
| than middling, or II a mixed lot is ten
dered, the seller does not pay the pur-
chaser the actual difference in market
value Of the lower grades which he
tenders and niddiing cotton. He Is
required by the rules Of the New York
Exchange to simply tender an arbi-
trary difference which the exchange
itself has fixed and which it has been
in the habit Of fixing only once a year.
Buyer Loses IS a Bale.
/
Good, ordinary cotton is a grade
below middling. The difference in its
value and the value Of middllng cotton
varies every year, based on the char
acter OF the crop, the amount Of the
good ordinary produced, and the de-
mand for it. The market difference in
value might be So a bale. and yet II
the exchange fixed a difference at $S
a bale the purchaser OF middling cot
ton would be forced to- take good or
binary and receive only So a bale boz
| nus for taking a cotton worth SS a
bale less that the cotton which he
purchased. The purchaser would,
i therefore, be receiving in cotton and
money SIS less a bale than the mid
/ ding cotton which he bought was
worth It will be readily seen tlias
the inside sellers, realizing that they
could settle for middling cotton under
1 the system of the exchange 'at SIS q
bale less than its market price, could
bear on the market the sales Of mid
ding cotton down 1 cent pound
Warehouse Full Of HDoe-tal9'
Il will mention yet another element
that furnishes opportunity under the
New York Cotton Exchange system to
manipulate and bear the market by
freeing the seller from having to de-
liver genuine quality of cotton. All
middling cotton is not exactly the
same cotton. All the lower grades OF
cotton below middling are not Of ex-
actly the same value Cotton is grad
ed largely according to color and
! cleanliness. Under the system used
| in the New York Exchange a large lot
Of Gotten can be purchased, and then
| the best Of the various grades can be
picked cut and sold to the nlanufac-
turers, while the poorest are retained
and kept in Now York to be rendered
to purchasers. There is difference
in the length Of the staple Of cotton
Of the same grade, and there Is diff
ference in the character Of the cotton
ofs the same grade. a systematic ef-
fort to select cotton of short staple
and poor character, though falling
4 within the grades named, makes il
| possible for those dealing upon the
] New York Cotton exchange to retain
q lot of junk, commonly called dog
tail cotton, and, supplied with this in
ferior cotton of the grades to be ten
dered, furnish not only a low grade
with an arbitrary difference between
this and the grade sold, but also a
poor class of the lower grade far be-
low the average run Of the grade.
4 This means has also been resorted to
on the New York Cotton Exchange,
/ and low.character, low-grade cotton
| has accumulated from year to year to
be rendered to purchasers as an adj
ditional means of depreeiating the
character Of the tender made by the
seller when the purchaser calls for
his cotton and in this way force down
the price Of cotton sold by the farm
er.
Disreputabe Methods.
GAS low as has been the standard
of character of cotton used by the
New York Exchange. I see by the pa
pers last Saturday that big cotton
/ house, the biggest perhaps in the