The Elk Mountain pilot., 1918-12-05
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has been injured times unnumbered by the half
truth. Therefore, l rather welcomed the in
qury which Mr.. Baruch felt 1t necessary. In the
discharge Of his responsibility for the conserva-
tiOn of all material. to Institute. Develop
ments since then have confirmed my impression.
After the first flurry-due mostly to the persistent
suspicious or unwarrnnted apprehensiOns of n few
OverZealOus spOkesmen for the cotton producers
the situation became more stable more normal.
and meanwhile. the report OF the bureau OF crop
estimates exhibits slightly larger supply of cot
ton than was reckOned upon the condition of the
plant month earlier My information Is that the
commissions representing the allies, the legitimate
traders and the more thoughtful farmers recoa-
nize the wisdom Of the undertaking and have full
confidence that these instrurnentaties of gov.
ernment exercised under emergency will do
no injustice. The chief ob3ectors few short
sighted spinners who are unwilling to take any
chnnce upon reduction Of the handsome profits
they have heen making for three years and more.
'No doubt there has been recently. there has
been always, more or less sharp practice by II GER
tain class of cotton traders. I have never seen
the time when some men did not take advantage
of any situation to eNaggerate. to distOrt. and
even to falsfy facts for speculative advantage.
For instance, Secretary Houstop was represented
as saying that % cents pound was fair price
for cotton 1t utterly false. He had never
said anything of the sort. How the story orig
mated have not the slightest idea. 1t was II
piece of market gossip invented for purpose
like many another concOcted and circulated from
time immemOrial.
"As to market Influences. nothing has been NJ
hurtful of late MS the attitude of few men from
the South who insisted. in spite OF Chairman
Baruch's statements of purpose that the cOntem-
plauon of the war Industries board was to cause
II price to he fxed and who assumed that If
price fixed 1t would be lower than the mar
ket price. Market gossipers naturally have made
the most OF such state OF mind. Another hurt
full influence has been the effort in some quarters
to magnify the OF producing cotton. In
this connection. there are those who remember
thnt when the fixing Of wheat price was under
consideration some prOfessed spokesmen of the
producers sought to have the cotton price fixed
at 25 cents, though the market at that time
considerably below 25 cents These men have
created the impression that the South desired
price-fxng upward. but unwilling to have
the facts as to real value ascertained. AS has
often been the case. much harm has been done
by the Overzealous the suspicious and the selfish
All such factors must be discounted In truly APP
prnising the situation.
whether Intentionally not, Governor
COmers-nrticle in the New York Journal of Com
merce misrepresents the departments relation to
this whole problem The United States depart
ment OF agriculture enforces the provisions OF the
United States cotton futures act. except those
portions which relate to the collection of taxes
contracts, and these portions are enforced by
the treasury department. The department of ag-
ricuture however does not establish dferen-
tias' for grades Of cotton other than middling.
might infer from reading Governors Comers
article. The section contract, which Is the con-
tract used the two exchanges, is basis
middling' contract. Cotton of grades other than
middling may be delivered, and the differences
OF middling at which such grades are de-
nvered are determined by the difference prevail
ing in spot markets designated for that purpose
by the secretary Of agriculture under the terms
OF the act.
'Ths department has authority to say what
differences shall be quoted by the spot markets In
fact, the New York and New Orleans exchanges
get their quotations direct from the spot mar