davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
Cotton Reaches
New High Price
On Bad Crop News
Spectacular Rise Carries New
Contracts Above Level
of Last Nav

Restraining market factors were in
effective yesterday in the New York
Cotton Exchange and prices spurted up
20 new high records FOR the season. In
the brief session advances amounting
to more than l cent a pound were
made and October contracts sold HIGHER
than the maximum price reached in the
spectacular upward movement which
eliminated in April. The general rise
in active months reached 1O7 to 11S
points above Fridays closing figures,
and in the case of near months scared
10 cents pound higher than the low
level touched on the break of last Nav.
A further sharp scaling down of crop
estimates and the continuation of the
drouth in the Southwest were the most
important outside causes Of the upward
swing. Moreover, Liverpool buying,
probably to cover the short end Of
straddles, and the failure of hedge SELL
ing to develop allowed the prices to 20
up without challenge.
advance Of to 81 points. Scattered
Southern selling, as we'll as realizing,
was readily absorbed and the highest
prices of the day were attained in the
late trading. Although one Of the New
Orleans map readers predicted change
N Southwestern weather conditions
over Sunday, local forecasters found
little to sustain that opinion and the
official prediction was dry, clear
weather in Texas and partly cloudy
elsewhere west Of the river.
Crop complaints from Eastern belt
sections attracted much attention
around the ring, as The relatively ia
vorablc outlook east of the river has
recently encouraged some selling in
spite of deterioration in the West.
The local market for spot cotton was
steady and 1870 pointss higher, at 1870
for middling upland; sales nil.
The following prices were quoted on
the New York Cotton Exchanges:
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
Reliance Upon Loans
Easiest Procedure

The framing Of revenue system
which, giving tho proper weight to
thesc more or less conflicting consid-
crations, shall prove most effective in
utilizing the resources of the country
ior carrying on the war il the problem
Of financial statesmanship.
Reliance upon loans for meeting war
expenditures other than interest on tho
loans created seems the easiest pro-
cedurs, involving for tho moment tho
least burden, and In general this Is tho
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
Sugar Rates Might
Well Be Tripled

Under the tariff act of 1913 the base
rate on sugar was 95-1O0 cent on sugar
testing below IS degrees The rate
increased with the fneness Of the
sugar, the maximum being 1.9 cents on
rehned sugar. The act of 1918 reduced
the base rate to 71-l00 cent, increas-
ing to 1884 cents on sugar testing
between SO degrees and SO degrees and
1856 on sugar testing between 80 de-
grees and 100 degrees. In all cases
there is a deduction of 20 per cent on
sugars from Cuba, which supplies the
bulk OF our imports. The rate actually
collected on sugar of the grades i'm
ported into the United States is about
l cent per pound. These rates might
we'll be tripled. The rate actually COL
lected would then be about 3 cents per
pound, equivalent to a nominal rate
without allowance for the Cuban de-
duction) Of approximately cents per
pound. The English rate on sugar test
ing over SO degrees is cents per
pound, and it is proposed in the budget
for 1918-19 to increase it to 81 cents.
AS 1t would not be the intention to
make the additional duty protective,
an excise tax of approximately 2 cents
a pound kshould be imposed on sugar
producedyin the United States and i'm
ported from its colonial possessions
If, as is probable under existing con-
ditions, the increase of the tax did
not diminish the consumotion of supar
It would yield about S100,OOO 900 add;-
tional revenue.
Other entirely legitimate objects Of
consumption taxes, recognized as sucb
by practically all nations even in times
VI peace are tea, cocoa and coffee.
laxes OF l6 cents, s cents and cents
pound on these articles, respectively.
would apparently yield revenue Of
nearly $100,0oO,000. The CORRESPOND
ing English rates are "A cents, cents
and cents.
another product which suggests it.
self as possibly a legitimate object of
taxation is silk. It ia without question
largely luxury, is widely used. and
curtallmcnt of private consumption
during the war would be Desirable
Inc raw material is wholly imported.
The domestic manufactured product
constitutes probably over 80 per cent
OF the total consumed The small
quantity Of imported manufactured
products pays duties ranging from 45
to 90 per cent, but the excess of tn.
domestic over the foreign prices OF the
goods chiefly produced in this country
is considerably less. During the first
nine months Of the current year raw
silk (averagc value $523 per pound)
was imported at the rate Of 36, 900 .0Oo
pounds per annum. and silk waste (av-
erage value "a cents per pound) at the
rate Of 100000 pounds per annum
A duty Of 81 pound on raw
silk and 30 cents per pound on
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
BY Henry B. Gardner
Professor of Economics in Byo1v1,
University

Professor of Economics in Byoav,a
University
TIME purpose Of war finance is to
place the control Of the re-
sources Of the nation in the
hands of the government. This is ac-
complished through loans and taxes,
which supply the government with pur-
chasing power and enable it to direct
the labor and capital Of the country
to the production Of the goods and
services which the government needs
for carrying on the war. The effective
ness of a given quantity of purchas-
ing, power, measured in terms of
money, depends, however, on the level
of wages and prices. If the purchas-
ing power acquired by the government
involves no, or little, curtailment of
the purchasing power in the hands of
it's citizens, the government and indi-
viduals will compete for the control
of the productive forces of the coun-
try, money wages and prices will rise,
and the power of the government to
command the resources which it needs
will be curtailed. If the financial sys-
tenn is to do its work effectively, it
must not only supply the government
with purchasing power. but must cur
tail the purchasing power left in the
hands of it's citizens.
The method adopted for supplying the
government with revenue, therefore,
becomes a matter of great importance.
Of two methods which yield equal
revenues, that is to be preferred which
involves the greater curtalment of
private expenditure for goods and ser
vices which are not essential to the
maintenance of the efficiency of the
working force of the country. Upon
this consideration rests the argument
in support of the proposition that
revenue should be raised by taxation
rather than by borrowing, since the
former involves a greater curtailment
OF private expenditure than does the
latter. On the other hand, the burden
of taxes weighs more heavily than
the burden of loans, and care must be
taken that this burden does not be-
come so great as to deaden the pro-
ductivc energy of the people. This
consideration involves a careful ex-
animation of the effect of different
forms of taxation, since taxes differ in
the extent of the deadening influence
which they exercise, and demands that
the burden be so distributed that no
important class of taxpayers shall feel
that they are being made to bear dis
tinctly more than their fair share
while other classes are allowed to
escape.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
Income Taxation
Yields Most Revenue

The attitude Of the taxpayers is an
important factor in determining the re-
pressive influence of the burden Of tax
alton. If the distribution is felt to be
equitable, far heavier burden can be
imposed without serious repressive ef-
fects thar if the distribution is felt to
be inequitable. The forms of taxes
best calculate d to yield large revenues
and at the same time exercise a re-
straining influence on private eXpen-
diture are direct taxes on income or
property and taxes on consumption. In
favor of direct taxes on income or capi-
tai it may be urged not only that they
can be made to yield far larger reve-
nue. than can consumption taxes, but
that they permit distribution Of the
burden in accordance with ability to
bear it, and afford a means of appro-
priating for war purposes income which
the war itself has created. On the
other hand, such taxes reach a very
small percentage Of the total popula-
tion. They touch only to q slight ex-
tent the great mass Of wage earncrs
and farmers whose earnings as a whole
constitute the largest share in the ma
tional income, and whose earning power
is frequently increased by war con-
ditions; pushed beyond certain point.
they are apt to weaken the energy Of
those upon whom we depend for the or
ganization and development Of our eco
nomic resources and to dry up the
sources of saving essential for the
maintenance and extension of capital
equipment. They exercise a restrain
ing influence on private expenditure.
but this influence is not necessarily
directed to the particular commodities
and services the consumption of which
1T is most desirable to discourage.
While it is difficult to appcrtion the
turden of consumption taxes in accord
ance with the principle Of ability. they
furnish the cheapest and most effective
means for reaching the great mass of
the population, as we'll as of discourag-
ing the consumption of particular COM
modities and services, and, e confine d
10 non-essentials, cannot be regarded,
even when rates are high, as imposing
an undue burden on the classes on
which they rest. They constitute, In
fact, an indispensable element in any
system OF taxation which seeks to util-
ize the resources Of the country to tho
full, and to create the feeling that the
burden Of taxation is equitably distrib-
utsd among all classes Of the popula>
ton, upon which the successful admin
istration Of any system imposing ex-
'remeiy heavy burdens must largely de-
pend.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
New Danish Typewriter

A Danish corporation for the manu-
fGcture Of typewriters, recently organ
lied at Copenhagen, has produced its
first typewriters, and consular report
states that the machine is much
simpler in construction than those Of
American make. The factory's present
equipment will permit an output Of
from 100 to 150 typewriters a month.
No American typcwrtcrs are now
reaching Denmark.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18


increased materially owing to the de-
mand from home markets and the IN
creasing demand for cloths for war
purposes. Deliveries on old orders
continue active in home markets. Du'
there Is noticeable change IN tno
character Of the demand, buyers peins
disposed to purchase for actual fs
quirements and not in anticipation ..
further advances. Mills are unable
maintain capacity output, que !"
labor shortage. All dividend payme"''
indicate great past prosperity. ~.
Prices quoted are as follows: rI,s' .n
cloths, 28-inch. 64x64, 12Ac; o4Aou'
1lAc; 8815inch, 64x64. 1886; prov. prov"
sheetings, Southern standards ~ 81,
tickings. or, 42sc; denims, Ssus'
Southern indigo, s71sc; staple gins
hams. 2lc; prints. &c; dress S'''
hams, c2c and 24c.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
Adapted to Beet Growing

Austria is giving more ATTENTION "
the production OF beet sugar OWLS
to the world wide scarcity Of thas CO"
modify, and the recent success CT ~.
plant at Maffra, which is the only ON
in the country, may lead to the essssl esssl
lishment of another at Warrnafnavc;;
This place is in the western par. p,sn
Victoria, and said TO be in a ressa ressa
where the land is especially adsP'ss
to raising the sugar beet
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
Leading English Banks

Recent carnations, which have
received British Treasury approval.
have made the following institutions
the leading English banks: London
Joint City and Midland. with deposits
to $l,459,o50,o0O; Lloyd's.
Wlth W. $l'4ao, o,1bl'oo0; London County.
100000; Barclays, with 81, OBI .69S.00o.
and National Provincial and Union.
with $875,970,Q0o.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
Victory Bonds
Advanced to Par
To Check Demand
Strength of Canada's War
Loans Reflects Success of
Sterilization Plan
Special Correspondence. Of The Tribune)

(Spectdt CORES p011dence OF me 1T1OtHe)
TORONTO, Aug. 16-The selling
price of Canadian Victory bonds has
been advanced once more. The Victory
Loan Committee has fixed the price at
par This is an advance Of one-half
point. Not many months ago 9S1s
was tho price at which the bonds sold.
The demand since that time has con-
tinued so strong that the committee
deemed it advisable to increase the
rate. It was thought that the first in
crease would have the effect of check
ing demand for the issue, but, as in the
case of all rising markets, investors
appeared more eager for the bonds at
the higher price, with the result that
the committee decided to make the Sec
ond increase. This became effective on
August IL. This makes the Victory
Loan 1Ss points above the original
price for the bonds.
The Victory Loan Committee has also
announced that hereafter the commit
tee will pay SO and interest for all Of
ferings Of moderate size. This is all
advance of g on the former buying
price.
Bonds Not Listed
1t will be recalled that when the Vic
tory Loan was launched last fall the
Finance Minister decided not to list the
.o%N
changes. He feared that on account Of
the size of the f1otation heavy liquida-
tion would follow, which would de-
preciate the price. The Victory Loan
Committee was organized, with head
quarters in Toronto, through which all
purchases and sales were handled. The
bond houses and stock brokers cooper
ated with the committee by concentrate
ing their efforts to find new buyers for
the Victory bonds. Because Of the e1-
cellent security behind the bonds the
high yield, which ranges from 5.61 to
5.S6 per cent, according to maturity,
and the income tax exemption privilege,
buyers were readily found. The result
was that the influx Of buying orders
was in excess of offerings most Of the
time. The success of the Victory Loan
demonstrates the value of the stabiliza-
tion scheme.
The success attending the last Vic
tory Loan augurs we'll for the impend
ing war loan. The committee which
assisted the Finance Minister last fall
is at work again preparing details in
the way Of organization. The best
financial heads in the country are be-
ing called upon to give their time in
order to make the new fotation a sue
cess.
Want Leans Taxed
Some financial interests in Canada
have agitated to have the next Victory
Loan subject to the prevailing income
taxes. There is no doubt, however,
that this one, like former loans, will
carry the exemption privilege. A
member of the Victory Loan Commit
tee assured the writer that when the
next Victory Loan is floated it will not
be listed on the stock exchanges, but
will be under the control of the Victory
Loan Committee.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
Denmark Resorts to Peat

Denmark has been long dependent
upon importation of coal and oil for
fuel supply, but since the war has
resorsed to peat beds, it's only natural
supply. As peat has been found Of
value both for industrial use and
household heating. it's use MS fuel will
probably be continued after the war.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
waste might possibly be expected to
yield at least s5o,ooo,ooo. Such tax
would, of course, necessitate an in
crease of the compensating duties on
manufactured goods.
Tax on Casolene
Highly Desirable

Another important source of revenue,
including among those recommended
by the Treasury, is gasolene, particu-
larly gasolene used for pleasure cars.
A tax on gasolene used for this pur-
pose is highly desirable for its repres-
sive effect as we'll as for the revenue
possibly both effects, might be in
creased if the tax could be made pro-
gressive with the increase in the
amount used. Provided dealers are
licensed and consumers are required
to purchase on the card system it is
believed there would be no insur-
mountable administrative difficulty in
establishing such tax, at the same
time making proper allowances by way
of exemption for gasolenc used for com
mercial cars and cars used in connec-
tion with professional work.
While taxes on income, excess profits
and consumption taxes must furnish
the bulk Of the revenue, there are other
forms of taxes already in use, such as
documentary stamp duties and licenses
on n selected list Of occupations, from
which some revenue may be derived. For
some unexplained reason, the tax on
checks, used both in The Civil and the
Spanish wars, and regularly employed
in England in time Of peace, has not
been included in the documentary
stamp duties. 1t should certainly be
added in the new law, and might we'll
be graduated; say, cents on checks
under S25, s cents on checks from $25
to $10o, 15 cents OH checks from 500
to $1,000 and so cents on checks of
$1,000 or over.
1t would seem from what has been
said that, in addition to the taxes
which Congress is said to be consider
ing, there are available taxes which
would yield $4o0,c00,OO0 or more of ad-
ditional revenue, or would exercise g
repressive effect on forms Of consump-
ton which it is desirable to discour-
dSS, aIlu WOulU lIupOSC ITO uuUuc DuIucH
upon any class in the community, but
would rather contribute to a more
equitable distribution of the burden OF
taxation. The rates of consumption
taxes would still be we'll below what it
has been found practicable to impose in
England, which has been chosen as the
basis of comparison, Tor the reason
that it is the county which during the
four years Of war has been most sue,
cessful in making taxes contribute to
actual war expenditure.
There will remain in reserve the pos
sibility of a general tax on sales. There
are strong objections in principle to
such tax, but there is no doubt that
it would yield very large revenue. A
tax, in general about per cent on
manufacturers sales, was the most
productive of the internal revenue
taxes during the Civil War, yielding
$12S,500 900 out of total of $311, ,0O0,-
600 in 1866. A tax Of even 1 per cent
on all sales to-day might we'll run into
the billions.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18

to have borrowed through bonds
marketed by bank infations, had
this been possible in Russia, would
have somewhat extended her period
of endurance. But the limits are
none the less inexorable. No tinan-
cial policy can meet the endurance
test that commits the blunder of
piling up Indebtedness or the blum
der of pyramiding prices, or COM
mits both blunders at once in the
guise of bonds hoated through bank
inflations.
Nor, in fact, is there any borrow
ing method that promises the ut,
most possible civil contribution to
the burdens of wax. Patriotic lend
ing or low-interest lending or any
lending at a rate of interest, no
matter how high, that still leaves
the option not to lend must fall
short of transferring to the govern
ment all that the citizen can get
along without.
l. The sole merit Of imitation bor-
rowing, whether through banks or
by paper money, is that no one in
particular that can refuse is dis
posed to refuse. In this aspect
borrowing works like taxes. But in
evitably-if it gets the supplies-it
carries the same volume of burden
with it, and it piles up the bonds,
and it initiates the prices-to the
extent that the banks come in, and
so make it possible to float the
bonds, and it distributes the bur-
dens unfairly both between men of
! the existing generation and between
, men of coming generations, and if
it is persisted in it makes collapse
inevitable at some more or less re-
mote limit Of credit possibility.
More than this-and perhaps
worse-it obscures the inexorable
limits that are set to the total of
burden that may be carried. There
is, to be sure, no end to the num-
Der of dollars that it may be pos
siblc to borrow by initiation methods,
excepting the possible point at
which no one will consent to accept
them. But there is always limit
to the labor and the supplies that
can be diverted to war purposes.
Initiation borrowing has the vice
of seeming to remove this limit-to
invite the assumption Of impossible
burdens-ten million soldiers, for
example--and thus contains the
menace of economic disaster.
Somewhere Is a
Breaking Point
But, even SO, it portends not the
exhaustion of the resources of the
society in point of wealth, but only
the exhaustion Of credit or the in
adequacy Of the current income to
the undertakings assumed. It is in
this aspect that the issues of war
endurance rest with wise and provi-
dent war finance. Bonds marketed
through methods Of price imitation
pile up with enormous rapidity, and
must somewhere reach their limit
in the breaking down of the cur
rency system that they have abused.
That there is no immediate men
ace of this leaves it still true that,
in a war where endurance may de-
eide the victory and in which Amer
ica must furnish the endurance,
our present ways of war finance are
ways of plain improvidence. It is
for us-as it was for Russia-to
rely on production and self denial,
ard not on credit jugglery to sup
port the war. Our sole danger is
one of financial laundering; for
such is the nature of our national
endurance that it has no limits but
those Of folly.
New-York tribune., 1918-08-18
the effect that the cotton specuia.e.,
were keeping prices too high.
What Cotton Growers
Wish to Know

Wish to Know
Specifically, the cotton growers wan.
cd to know why there was dispar;+,
between the cotton prices determines
in the Southern spot markets and N,
price for contracts determined in Oh.
future exchanges. They wanted N
know why futures were selling NOR.
than cent? pound cheaper than spot
cotton. and they wanted to know
mighty badly.
Besides endeavoEng to show the part
they played in the general economic
system, the members of the local ex.
change tried to give specific diaroo.
sis of the cause of the disparity. Thc;,
explanation was:
(1) In spot cotton only even running
n,iddling can be delivered unless other
wise specified (even running middlinr
is good white cotton). But that in sat.
isfaction Of future contracts twenty
one grades of cotton, come better ana
some worse than even running mid.
ding, are deliverable And that the
government, which now dominates the
cotton market, discouraged, if it did
not actually forbid, the use of the rela-
lively low grade cotton, for which the
normal export demand has been killed
as a result of the war, in the execution
of its orders. AS result, it was said
low grade cotton sold at discount as
compared with the better grade. AID.
since the lower grades were deliverable
in future contracts, but not in spots,
future contracts sold at lower price.
CD Liverpool interests had been
heavy purchasers of spot cotton end
heavy sellers of futures, thus appre-
ciating the market value of spots and
depressing that of futures. They did
this, it was said, to hedge against the
possibility Of being unable to have the
cotton which they bought at spot
shipped to them because of the lack Of
tonnage.
Though these two were said to be the
main causes Of the disparity, many
other factors we're enumerated, but
they are highly technical and arc Of
lesser importance.