The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-11-03
How Mir. ousrey> Violates the Law

no" MT. OuSfeyS Violates the Law
 me aooVe section (we refer particular " to the underscored Iines) gives your department the charge of the making of correct value differentials by taking the selling value from actual spot sales from i've or more spot markets Instead of this you took quotations from 10 spot markets and from these fictitious quo- tationst not from sales, made your diff ferentials Since last April we have in- sisted with you that these quotations were nominal. were fictitious, had no Integrity, and that with them you were constructing differentials as false as could be. and which were being used by gamblers on the cotton exchange as load ed dice with which to play the game. We did finally get you to start an in vestigation.
 What is the Trouble.
 If you can't enforce the Smith-Lever bill, and above you say you are not en- forcing it. that the market under your administration of it is wild what is the trouble? Did you find nothing? Have you come to no conclusion? Was the in- vestigation a failure? Are you going to quit? Can't you take the Smith-Lever Dill and give an honest cotton exchange New York and New Orleans where contract with perfect guarantee of the federal government that he will have an honest deal. exactly like it is in the meat and grain exchanges, or is it going to be as in the past, where, whether you in tended or not, we have had transactions exactly like the raincoat scandals, and that. too, under the government espon- age?
 Assurances Due the Cotton Trade
 The cotton trade is entitled to some assurance from the department of agri- culture that 1t will put the Smith-Lever bill into immediate operation-and then, if the bill proves not entirely satisfac- tory, it can be amended.
 We quote from your article: This average spot quotation and the future quotations of New York during the past spring and summer were not as wide apart as Sc per pound except for one or two days
 Facts That Speak the Truth If you don't know. you ought to have known the following facts:
 On April 4. May contracts on the New York Cotton exchange sold for S4.5oc On May 4, May contract sold sold for 33.2sc On May A. it sold for 24s3c. on May 23 it sold for 2305c: on Juno 1t sold for 24.23c, and on July 25 for 24.45c. Excepting the April prices. during all this time spot mid- ding cotton was selling from 5c to10c pound above the future quotations for basis middline
 On July 19. July, New York, sold for 29.25c and on the 25th at 24.45c this was the date the last of the lambs and goats were sheared
 Your Duty, MT. Ousley For three months not two or three days, as you say, May, June. July, the exchange markets bore no relation whatever to the spot market. and your 1o, apfr1, ,o... IL.
 tinued protest. did nothing but investi- gate. and your statement of a diff ference of DC a pound between the ex- change and the actual prices for two or three days, shows ignorance and malpractice in the use which you made of the Smith Lever bill. a bill given you to prevent these very things.
 MT Ousley. it is your duty to the cotton interest. the greatest agricul- tural commodity in the world, to pub licly advise that the agricultural de- partment is going to introduce meth ods under which these swindling con- ditions will be impossible, and the quicker the better.
 am TO years old and out of poii- ties, 50 years cotton planter, 20 years a cotton manufacturer. and would suggest that the next time you tall, cotton facts, you select some neophyte who knows less than you do if pos sible to find such a one
 Is OusIey for Gamblers, or Farmerse We again state, cotton is sectional the world fights the price of it, and the cotton interest has every right to expect sympathy and defense from the national agricultural department, and serve notice on you. that notwith- standing your sheer at my cotton farm CT friendship. that we are in this fight until your department gives us a bet ter rendition of the intent of the law. or acknowledges that the law Is a failure and cant be used to secure honest. fair conditions on the cotton exchanges Yours truly
 .ANONDAIE MILLS
 tSigned) B. B CONFER
 President and Treasurer
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