New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1919-02-19
forage Facilities Will
Build Up Big Spot Mar
ket for the Staple Here
Plant ON Staten Island
Will Increase Borrowing
Power and Give Impor-
lance as Export Centre

Plans for the erection Of a monster
cotton warehouse in the free lighterage
zone Of Staten Island, which would
tend to make the port of New York
leading spot cotton market, have been
completed, and construction is expect
ed to begin shortly. Although the prof.
ect will be carried out by private CAPT
tai made available by outsiders, it is
understood that the New York Cotton
Exchange has heartily Endorsed the
plan.
The new warehouse, which will be
the first in this city built exclusively
for the storage of the staple of the
South, will be fashioned after the lat
est New Orleans model, which is at
present the largest and most complete
ly equipped in this country. Promoters
Of the plan promise lower storage
rates. lower insurance rates on the
cotton stored, and much larger space
for storage.
Exchange Abandons Plan
Because Of the plan to build this
Staten Island warehouse, the Cotton
Exchange, it was learned yesterday, has
decided to drop its own intention Of
eventually putting up such a storage
place by means Of q corporation, the
stock of which its members would have
been invited to buy. A special commit
tee of the exchange had been studying
this question for several years, and de-
layed action during the war because
Of the restrictions on building and the
competition Of other needs for capital.
This committee has turned over part OF
the results of its survey to the hackers
of the Staten Island proposition, and
the Cotton Exchange will license the
new warehouse when it is built.
Levy Brothers, real estate men, Of
1879 Montague Street, Brooklyn, are act
ing in behalf Of the promoters of the
| warehouse project, and Ford, Bacon &
Davis, engineers, of lis Broadway
have been retained to supervise the
actual construction. The latter firm
leading cities of Europe, put up the
New Orleans warehouse Members OF
both these firms yesterday declined to
answer Inquiries about the project, and
expressed surprised that knowledge Of
the plan had been gained.
From the cotton market standpoint
the new warehouse, it Is said, will en-
courage the bringing of much larger
quantities than heretofore to New
York, and this condition should tend to
narrow the fluctuations in futures con-
tracts. Moreover, members of the eX-
change expressed the opinion that a
large cotton warehouse here would ire
mendously enhance the Importance OF
the city as q cotton export centre. At
present only about $4,000 bales of cot
ton are stored in the city, and they are
kept in miscellaneous warehouses
where the rates are considered high
and where the insurance rates arc ex-
ceedingly heavy. A new storage place,
constructed along the modern up-to-
date lines, especially designed for cot
ton, would bring on lower rates, it is
believed, and, moreover, would make
warehouse receipts far better collateral
with the bankers from whom cotton
merchants borrow money.
Now a Futures Market
At present New York is essentially a
futures market, dealing mainly in con
tracts. The new storage facilities, cot
ton men feel, would enable the city to
rise rapidly as spot market, and
would make it possible to ship cotton
TO the New England states and to other
nearby industrial places from New
York, instead of directly from the
South, where in most instances the
warehouses are considered inadequate
in equipment, and in some cases in
safety.
By the time the new warehouse here
is completed, cotton men feel that
shipping and railroad conditions will
be more normal and that it will be fea-
slble to ship to New York much of the
cotton that now is stored in the South