Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1919-01-28
Th. Raid Of the Gamblers.

If there was tlllie WITCH 'iS Wv
ton exchanges needed the attention OF
our southern congressman at WASH
ington it is now, as witness the cola
blooded prices manipulation operations
that have been going on during the
mast few weeks. regardless of right,
iustice or the value of the property
that is being outrageously attacked.
The farmers of the south, knowing
that the highest price yet offered Tor
their cotton was lower than the cost
of production plus a very modest mar
gin of profit, and knowing also that
under the law of supply and demand
there never has been a time in the his
tory of the staple when there was more
warrant for fair prices, prices at least
commensurate with everything the
farmer has had to buy, have been re-
fusing to sell until they could realize
something like actual values.
The cotton exchanges, gambling IN
money, in terms of cotton, with SUI
ficient quantity of low grade, unspin-
nable cotton as basis. are kicking
this low grade stuff up and down like
football, and making 1t to a large
extent the measure of the value Of the
real cotton in the hands of the farmer,
which cotton represents labor. sweat
money and anxiety, along with reall-
zation in a fair measure the legitimate
fruits of duty properly and honestly
performed.
On the wheat exchanges before the
price fixing, wheat futures were sold
on grade, and whatever a man bought
that was what he got, and had to take.
He could and did gamble a plenty, but
it was strictly on a basis of what the
actual wheat would bring. The New
York cotton exchange. at which the
price of cotton is fixed, deals entirely
in a low grade stuff that is fit for
nothing in the world except to serve
as poker chips, and no matter what
legitimate spinner might buy, he has
got to take either this stuff which Is
no use to him, or an arbitrarily fixed
difference in cash, which difference
would not procure the kind OF cotton
for which he is supposed to be trading
But nevertheless the exchange price
is the only general guide to CONNER
cial values, and while the farmer who
holds his cotton free from encum-
brance, does not have to sell on any
such basis, the situation of the man
who has borrowed money from the
banks is different. Bank loans on cot
ton, are almost invariably margined
upon New York exchange quotations,
and a drop in the quotations OF these
margins, and generally that call means
tect the cooton farmers of the south
that unless the collateral Is forth
coming, the cotton must be sold.
Senator Smith. Of South Carolina, Is
trying to get through bill that will
compel the exchanges to deal in spe-
cific grades Of cotton and compel the
receipt and delivery of the specific
grades Of cotton bought and sold. with
the idea of cicumventing the arrange
ment under which the price OF the en-
tire cotton crop Of the south, good bad
and indifferent. is fixed on a basis of
the manipulation Of lot Of trash and
refuse.
What Senator Smith has In mind is
undoubtedly in the interest of the cot
ton producers Of the south, and the
senator should have the cooperation
of all southern congressman in putting
through this bill; but there Is need for
more than that just now. The south
is now being assailcd by different pre-
datory interests that have no more re-
gard for right and justice than had
the Germans in France and Belgium.
The present crop Of cotton Is and ought
to be worth not less than 35 cents a
pound and after it passes into the hands
of the spinners 1t will be sold to the
consumers not only Of America, but
of the world, on a basis not less than
35 cents a pound to the producer. If
the producer does not get that pro-
duction price somebody else will, and
if our representatives in congress have
not the influence or the ability to pro-
tect the cotton farmers Of the south
at this time, II Is difficult to see what
use the cotton farmers Of the south
have for representatives in congress
anyway.