New-York tribune., 1918-08-14
Price Disparity Is
Due to a Ban on
Low-Grade Cotton
Experts Tell Government
Investigator Why Quo
tations Differ

partments of the war making bodies
OF the government on the higher
grades of cotton for all purposes was
severely criticised yesterday at an in
qury held at the New York Cotton
Exchange under the direction of the
Department Of Agriculture.
Practical cotton men who testified
before Charles j. Brand, chief of the
Bureau of Markets, who sought the
cause of the disparity which has ex-
listed for some time between prices of
spot cotton and of futures, declared.
without exception, that what the spin
ners believed to be the government
policy in regard to the grade of cotton
that had to be used in filling govern
ment orders was making the lower
grades of cotton a drug on the market
The use of midland white uplands
and Of other grades almost as perfect
IN manufacturing such things as horse
collars and canvas tents, it was al
legged, was needless]y destroying the
market for the lower grades, which, it
was said, could be used just as we'll in
such cases, and was largely respon-
slble for the disparity in spots and
futures, which caused the investiga-
tlon to be held.
Mr.. Brand agreed with the cotton
men that the lower grades of cotton
had their distinct uses in government
work, and that the government could
-
sarlly upsetting the cotton industry.
War Board Showed Sympathy
eve have recently taken up the mat
ter" Mr.. Brand said. with the War
Industries Board, and told it that if
the government agreed to specify the
character Of fabrics it desired, and
laid down the tests the product must
meet. and then would permit the
manufacturers to use any grade of
cotton they desire, it would get equally
good results. The War Industries
Board showed sympathy with this at
titude and agreed to make these pro-
posals to the purchasing departments
of the war making bodies.
Owe have also taken up the question
with the War Trade Board and have
asked it to make it feasible to use a
part of the low grades in exports in
stead of leaving preponderance here"
Mr.. Brand related also his unsuc-
cessful attempts to deal directly with
the purchasing bodies in respect to the
wider use of the low grades of cotton.
"When we tried last winter" he said,
ito get the purchasing department of
the army and the navy to see the ad-
visibility of using some of the lower
grades Of cotton for olive drab, we
were unable to proceed very far before
it got down to a question Of veracity.
Apparently some inexperienced men
were in charge and we were unable to
convince them"
Cotton experts explained that the
acceptable lower grades of cotton diff
fer from the so-called better grades
only in that they sometimes possess
foreign matter, such as twigs, because
they have been in the ground longer
discolored. In many instances, it was
alleged, the low grade makes a better
fabric
Views of Southern Shipper
Sidney Y. West, shipper of cotton
from Little Rock, Ark, was one of the
harshest critics of the governments s
cocton policy. "Before the war;" he
said, in analyzing the situation, "a
large part of the low grade cotton was
exported to England and the Cont
mental nations, but after 1914 they in
sisted on the better grade because
there is less waste in that and the
scarcity Of tonnage made it more eco
nomical to use the better grade. More
over, the scarcity of labor also deter
mined their unwillingncss to take the
poorer grades. Until the United States
entered the war, most Of the lower
grades were absorbed in this country
But after the government began to
dominate the market it's insistence on
the better grad has tended to destroy
the market in the lower grades, and is
at the bottom of much of the agitation
of the Southern interests
"If the poorer grade did not make
up into fabrics just as we'll as the bet
ter, we would not urge it on the gov
ernmcnt, which should give our SOL
diers the best. But in many cases
they are wasting money and needlessly
disturbing the cotton industry. 1t is
SAID that many of the government con-
tracts do not specify the grade of cot
ton which must be used, but the gov
ernmcnt inspectors insist on the best
white, and the result is the same"
Inasmuch as there is a great amount
of the lower grades of cotton on the
market, it has tended to make a dis
parity between the prices of spot cot
ton and futures. because only even run