The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-06-24
MANNING, s. c., WEDNESDAY. JUNE "a, 1914

4, 1914
ltically worthless. In other words,
did not believe that the ordinar
methods of grading cotton were fai
and just. In 1912 I introduced al
amendment to the agricultural appro
puriation bill, carrying some $4,000
to test the tensile strength of tn,
yarns made from the different grades
In 1913 a manufacturer told me tina
the tensile strength OF the differen
grades was about equal, but that yol
could not bleach the lower grades a:
well as you could the higher. So il
1913 I secured IN appropriation suf
!fcient to enable the agricultural de
partment to spin certain number o.
, bales of each grade, in order to de-
termine the strength Of the yarn Of
; each grade, whether or not it could
tbe bleached, and what was the rela.
tive cost of bleaching each grade, and
1.-The amount of loss or waste in con-
lverting a bale of each grade. This
Itest was completed this year, and II
is a startling revelation. have sent
Ian illustration Of this work through
out the State, which proves that the
difference in prices between the va
lrious grades as heretofore fixed by
the trade is not only unwarranted
but unreal.
"After this work was completed, !
introduced an amendment to the
present agricultural appropriation
bill, carrying 100000 to put a set
Of the standard samples and sam
pie of yarns, bleached and unbleach-
ed made from each grade, on every
market in the South. This will en-
able the farmers not only to get a
square deal. from the exchanges, un-
Ger the law regulating the exchanges,
but will give them the true informa-
ltion as to the value Of each grade OF
cotton as that value is determined by
the department, and the samples be-
| ing upon the platform, he will not be
at the mercy Of the grader who buys
has cotton, but by comparing SAM
pie of his own cotton with the sam
pie standardized by the government,
he can corr ,ctly grade his own cot
ton.
Six Months on Notes.
Realizing that in the banking and
currency law the farmers had pract1-
cally no showing I introduced an
amendment to the new banking and
currency law giving the farmer six
months time on his notes, drafts and
bills. In other words. he has six
months paper upon which the federal
reserve bank is authorized to issue a
certain percentage Of the value OF
the paper in federal reserve notes.
| The ordinary 80 day commercial pa
per would do the farmer no good,
because it takes him six months from
the time his crop comes up until it is
time to gather it. Therefore, if he
incurs a debt or borrows money for
less length of time than it takes
him to produce a crop, he will have
nothing with which to meet that pa
per. I made this fight alone after
the House had failed to incorporate
it in the bill and secured its passage
| in the Senate, which was then rati-
fed by the House, and is now law.
The South Carolina delegation in
Congress made heroic fight in the
House to have this done, and when I
secured it in the Senate they stood
nobly by when it went back to the
House and contributed largely to its
becoming law.
"In 1910 when we made one OF the
smallest crops in the last ten or nj
teen years, certain spectators on the
market entered into an agreement
that they would buy what the bears
on New York were Offering for sale
and take up this cotton and sell 1t to
the mills of the country. These bears
were attempting in spite of the short
crop to depress the price of cotton.
In other words, they were attempting
to sell cotton on the New York ex-
change considerably cheaper than it
tcould be bought in the South and
very muuh cheaper than it was really
worth. These bulls, Messrs. Hayne,
Scales, Patton and others, believed
that if they bought this cotton and
the mills would agree to take 1t at
the price these bears were offering
| it, they could force the price much
higher. Now, it must be understood
that these bears did not own the
cotton, they were simply trying, oy
weight of money, and organization
and tissue paper contracts, to put the
price to where they wanted 1t. Ihe
bulls bought it and the mills agreed
to take it. When delivery day came
land the bulls demanded this cotton
and took it and sent it to the mills,
these bears instead Of standing by
their contracts, rushed into court and
Indicted these bulls for a conspiracy
in restraint of trade. Immediately
introduced resolution in the Senate,
calling upon the department OF JUS
ltice to Investigate and find out and
report to the Senate who sold this
cotton to these bulls; at what price
lit was sold, what was the price OF
spot cotton in the South on the same
date, and how many bales were &C
tually owned by tue bears when they
lsold these enormous contracts to
Messrs. Hayne, Scales, Patton, ct al.
It being Republican administration
and cotton being a Southern product,