The Washington herald., 1914-09-22
Definite COTTON
NEWSEXPECTED
Syndicate Plan and Promulga-
ton of Revised Rules of
Contract May Be Issued.
BIG GRAIN FLUCTUATIONS
Western Railroads Also Losing-Great
Britain After Germany's
Lost Trade.

Important DEVELOPMENTS OF interest TO
the cotton trade are expected this week.
One Of these probably will be the an
nouncement OF the syndicate plan TO re-
lieve the market OF distress long con-
tracts which now form q serious OBJ
stacle to reopening the exchange, and
otherwise expected in the form Of pro-
muleation Of the revised rules under
which United States Cotton Law con-
tracts will be substituted for the old
stylS Of contract
whIle no announcement was made last
week regarding the syndicate plan 1t is
understood that the promoters of the
project have succeeded in enIisting the
support of New York bankers in their
plan. That support Of course is q requi-
site Of its success. The banks have been
united in their opposition to resumption
OF trading in futures because of the
large number OF outstanding commit
ments which would be thrown upon the
market In case II should reopen These
include the $1,000 or so of open contracts
held by S. H. P. Pell & Co., which, un-
der the rules would have to be liquidated
Immediately upon resumption OF trading.
The banks have held that in times like
the present such a volume of liquidation
would be likely to create panicky con-
ditions which would affect the tight
money market and would probably lead
to the failure OF many cotton houses, al
ready strained to the limit to margin
down their own commitments to ESQ. the
price established for December contracts
under the Liverpool plan.
1t is this liquidation and that Of per
haps $4,000 additional long contracts now
outstanding that bankers have regarded
with apprehension. The syndicate plan
with their aid will take care Of these
contracts or as many Of them as are
weakly held, and that will remove the
sanger which bankers have feared.
Unquestionably one helpful factor in
The situation has been the 'buy-a-bale"
movement That has had the desired
effect Of stinening the attitude OF cotton
growers who are less anxious to sell their
cotton. The nominal price Of spots has
advanced in some instances one-half a
rent in the South and many farmers
have been hauling their cotton back to
The farms from the gins instead of
marketing it or any part of it Many
others are holding their cotton In the
seed The advance in spots has been re-
aected locally in better prices for De-
cember contracts on the New York
curb" Early last week these sold as
low as $40 cents and they have been
sold at Ls5, but toward the end of the
week sellers were less confident and last
Saturday the quotation ranged from $50
~ o.VO "AAAlu "AlAGh II Is
ward of 1000 bsles changed hands. Buyers
predicted that the price in this unofficial
market would advance to 8 cents during
the current week
Grains Big Fluctuations.
The present generation of grain traders
has not known such fluctuations as have
been registered in the sixty days ending
September Is. Forty-five cents up with
a reaction Of &c on wheat, 80 up and a
reaction Of &c on corn. Eighteen up and
Z TO lOc reaction on oats. The high of
early September was svailed OF by farm
ers anxious TO secure the ruling prices,
especially as our wheat crop was not
only recognized as q record one, but was
besides an early one The rapid pro-
nounced decline, due principally 70 enor-
nous movement from the interior, helped
by belief in an early end of the war,
was circulated by bearish interests and
tended to reduce for a time the export
demand, which, however, became more
urgent again at the low. and with re-
ported large buying by shorts and Wall
street interests resulted il 10c advance,
at which the market is now keeping
time. 1t is beyond question that Eu-
rope is profoundly agitated over the ques-
ton Of her food supply, more so as the
weeks pass by and the time Of seeding
for the continent approaches.
A copy of one of the white papers
issued by the British Board Of Trade to