The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1920-01-07
Mil Men Forming Mammoth
Corporation to Buy South
ern Warehouses
COMPETITION WITH
COTTON ASSOCIATION
Control of Warehouses and
Congresses Sought By the
Syndicate

JtIl.. AR dOSefuSliIS
are practically complete for the for
nation Of a., gigantic corporation to
combine, and sstandardize a large por-
ton OF the cotton COMPRISING and
warehonsing facilities OF the South
and establish new ones on an unlinait-
ed scale thfonghout the cotton belt,
eGecting Charleston, Columbia and
undertaking was made today by Ru-
3us r. Wilson. secretary OF the Ma
fiohal Association OF Cotton manufac-
turers. Mr.. Wilson is also president
of the World Cotton conference which
at Its recent meeting IN New Orleans,
Sdeclared adequate warehousing to be
paramount necessity" in handling
and distributing the American cotton
crop. Identified with the undertak-
ieg are many prominent Southern and
eastern cotton spinners, producers,
brokers and bankers. Arrangement
already has been made, declares Mr..
Wilson, for acquiring established prop
critics worth millions. including no
fewer than 65 compress plants.
The corporation in process Of for
nation will be known as the Union
Warehouse Compress. The organiza-
ton Is being perfected by the Union
Cotton Warehouse corporation which
has had experts survey the whole
feld Of warehousing and COMPRISING
OF cotton and work out plans Of de-
veIopment that have been approved
by. the hackers OF the enterprise. OPP
tions have been taken, on scores Of
compresses and warehouses as well as
sites for new ones in various local.
ties off the South where additional
facilities are needed.
,ssIt. has long been. well known in
the cotton industry says Mr.. Wilson
chat sufficient facilities already exist
TO house most OF the cotton offered
Sof sstnragn HorEe%es. the allocation
o{ the Harehnses is such that they do
not adequately serve the storage needs
OF the prodiicer, merchant and spin
aers They are not located with re-
spect to distribution so as to best
serve the needs Of the trade. For
this reason much cotton that ought
to. be stored is now kept in open lots,
streets and son plantations with the
result that each years crop suffers
from country damage, many Of the
existing warehouses are so poorly
constructed and carelessly operated
that insurance rates for cotton stor-
ed in them are abnorn1ally high and
receipts for stored stocks are in many
cases unsatisfactory collateral for
bank loans.
MANY Southern bankers declare
they would rather loan money On cot
ton than on real estate but the trouo-
le has been and still is with the char
acter of the warehouse receipts as
evidence Of the cotton's safety, own
erslaip, weight and delivery ability.
tsE,ully cor--ersant with these con
ditions and the need for improving
them both in the interest Of the
grower and spinner, a group Of men
concerned from various angles VIII
the cotton industry are organizing
corporation for the purpose OF stan
dardizing warehouses in both the
South and the North
In as nauci1 as cotton wareh ousine
and COMPRISING are allied opera
tons the Union Warehouse and Com
prcss companies will enter extensive
ly into the compression of cotton with
the view OF COMPRISING as many
bales as possible to an even density
High density presses will be installed
in those plants where such presses
are not used.
And the most of the warehouslna
facilities will be increased. The com
press plants to be taken over by the
new organization Mr.. Wilson an
nounced are those of the Atlantic
Compress company with II plants II
Florida, Georgia and Alabama, those
Of the Newburger Cotton company
with rs plants in Arkansas. Tennes'
see, Mississippi and Louisiana anc
those Of sc. Louis Compress company
controlled by the Lesser Goldman in
iterests chiefly in, Arkansas will be
taken over. Special attention will bs
paid by the company to the compress
es and storage facilities at big con
centration points like Norfolk, Char.
lesion. Savannah, Atlanta, Mobile
Houston, st. Louis, and Memphis anc
to supplying them WIFI liic'edSeo aii'
standardized service.
It is also planned to organize
subsidiary corporation whose busi'
ness will be to buy and sell cotton re.
ceipts and acceptance thus facilitat'
ing the financing Of cotton in storage
The movement is in line with recon
nendation made by representatives
OF al! cotton interests at the woric
conference held in New Orleans
They pledged their support to under
takings looking TO the developlner
OF a better warehousing system fo'
cotton An efficient and adequate
system of warehousing will be O
great advantage to both producer
and consumers and Wilson declares
it will prevent the losses now occur
ring because Of the hasty way eacf
>A<,.1 %fSY