The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-08

l eeord here why loW-Brade cotton IS
 so cheap right now. There is a big |; three times as high as 1t was. It costs i three times as much to build mill as ! 1t did. Labor is very much higher
 1 than il was You can mill high grade
 cotton much faster than you can low
 grade cotton; you do not have to stop
 snd clean it. Then. besides that, there
 is so much. more of it waste in low grade. cotton. Then, again, the price of goods made out of high-grade cot
 ] ton isN better than that made out Of
 low grade cotton, and that makes the | difference in the price. It is gov
 erned by the law of supply and de-
 mand. It is a question of what the
 mills can do with it. They nave charged that our mills, the Avondale
 MilIs, will be benefited by the amend ment.
 have a letter from my son, who says, Dad, your bill will hurt us, De-
 cause we can use any grade cotton we | can get" He is the manager of the i business. In our business we can use any grade, and he says, We use any : thing from waste up to strict good niddling. When a contEact is rem dered us, we have the ability to take It, l and thereby we do not lose any money
 on the business. You can easily undeT- stand that. When, say, July cotton
 was 6 cents cheaper than spot cotton, we bought July cotton. When May
 cotton was cents a pound cnesper than December cotton. we bought May l cotton and held it, and we did not care
 about it." But it is the man who can ! rot hold it; it is the small fellow, the 1 farmer. who is hurt in all these nefarl- ] GUS transactions, and 1t is wrong. lt | is wrong for any man to sit here ana allow himself to be befuddleo With rat 1 for one resent it. It is not rlghe- l This editorial continues: i 'srhe people of the south, unorganized | and financially depressed as they nave | been since the War Betweensthe states | have had their cotton taken away from | them by the most abominable cofnplna- tions and tactics of the spectators who could organize raid at any | time-''
 They could organize a raid at any
 and sell 10000. 900 bales of cotton against a crop of only 15,000.oO0 bales, 1 and when delivery time came at the end of any month they would tender the dog-taii and escape all consequence l Of overselling. A man could not take lit. He had to settle with their differ ances"
 This editorial continues;
 "rJnder this nefarious practice cotton ,oods cou1d be depressed at any time, and the cotton farmer was robbed or 1 his cotton as an annual festivlty "Gotton manufacturers have very It. tie interest in the particular price or cotten."
 heat the market, and why should we want to try and beat the marketE W want things on an even basis The manufacturer of cotton wants prices on an even basis the year around. It is not the price he pays for 1t; 1t IS regularity he wants.
 The editorial continues
 Cotton manufacturers have very iit- tie interest in the particular price or cotton. What they want most of all is a stabilized market. Manufacturers prefer to have a high market, all things being equal, rather than low one, because their percentage of profit ap- plies to the gross cost of the manu- factured article, and high cotton means
 more profits. The manufacturers want future delivery of cotton to protect
 their contracts for manuractureo goods.
 Now, I will say to the senator from North Dakota. suppose have sold 10 GOO bales of goods. and I have not
 the cotton, and want to go into the
 market-not the spot market. but in
 the future market-and get my con , tracts and hedge that But suppose on the contrary I have bought 10000 bales of cotton and have it in the warehouse, and I have not sold the goods, and I want to go in there and sell 10000 bales of cotton and hedge that and l want to do it in business way. I do not see how on earth anybody can object to it.
 This editorial proceeds:
 t.rx1t e. -+...1 fr r..1 delivery of cotton to protect their con tracts for manufactured goods. They sell bill of goods today, requiring l10 GOO bales of middling cotton. The manufacturer can not go into the mar ket and in one day get 10000 bales of mddling Ncotton. And the next day the price may have advanced to where he would not have any profit in his goods contract. So he must protect an immediate purchase of cotton futures contract at the price at which he agreed to deliver the goods. The manufacturer, as the exchange gam blers charge against MT. Conner, does want this law amended as proposed by Mir. Comer.
 They are always charging something; they are just like a man who is trying to get his hand in your pocket Let me read that again
 "The manufacturers. as the exchange gamblers charge against Mir. Conner, does want this law amended as pro , posed by MT. Conner. He wants this amendment because under it he would be able to make the exchange specu- lator or trader deliver to him the manufacturable cotton he will have to deliver in the goods he has sold. '. will furnish the manufacturer a mar
 ket wherein he can instantly buy the ten or twenty thousand bales of cotton required protecting himself against loss. and he can insist that he get the cotton required for his goods contract. Even now he must close out his fuN lures contract as he buys his cotton or let the speculator or exchange trader palm off on him the eleven grades provided for under the present law, loading him up with a lot of grades he has no use for
 I want to call the attention of the senator from North Dakota to this in particular.
 Tt is charged by the speculator. who farmers interests so much at heart, that with this amendment of Mir. Co., mer's a farmer with other grades of cotton than those specified in the fu- lures contract cannot sell his grades at ail
 That is what they claim. Which is all bosh.
 There is nothing in it whatever It is sold through the exchange. You have to get the market at exchange prices. It is exchange prices which we are insisting should be the com mercial prices or along in that neigh