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

| 1t is difficult to understand how, he could represent the gambling devices
 of the cotton exchanges and the farmer
 at the same time"
 ! l have here telegram from Mir l.. B. Jackson, the director of the Georgia state bureau of markets: l Telegram:
 a Atlanta, Ga. April ?, 1920, ] Hon. B. B. Conner: Your telegram re- ceived. The cotton states official mar keting board, composed of commissions CTS of agriculture and other agricul- tural officials of the cotton belt. have 1 not met and considered the Conner amendment and only knew from meager ] newspapers reports what it contains-' | You know, Calvin said that he be- 1 lieved his attitude would be the atti- l tude of the overwhelming majority of ] the cotton growers. This man, the sec retary, says they only know from mea- l ger newspaper reports what it con- l tains-
 l therefore no one has any authority to 1 commit the board. I am secretary of | the board and know whereof I speak. I Personally, l have always urged an
 amendment that would compel deliv- cries to average middling.7 l Now that is just what the tendency of this contest means-to compel a de- i livery that will average middling. This particular bill does not go as far as it ought to. It simply demands that half
 of a contract shall be middling or above, and half, at the sellers option, ] down.
 As read the news items that is what your amendment does. l want to know exactly what your amendment provides
 That is from L. B. Jackson, director of the Georgia state bureau of smar.
 kets.
 Here is letter which I have written to a cotton firm at Greenville, S. C.. T am having sent you copy of the Congressional Record of April 1 and the two days before that, all relating to my amendment to the cotton futures act
 This has created some stir among the exchanges, they claiming that it will hurt the producer and the dealer.'
 They always claim that. Give me a man who is reaping an unholy gain, and he will always say that to take that away will hurt somebody other than himself. They always say it.
 As you know, l am both producer dealer, and manufacturer, and what we are trying to do is to escape the de- fleets of last years amended act re- stricting the delivery to 10 grades" We say you should make the two markets alike, the exchange and the commercial, but we nave seen this year where the variation has been as much as from to cents, and right now July cotton and May cotton are below April cotton. It has always been below spot cotton Now, senators, we expect that the exchange price will be lower
 because the very minute you get it higher the exchange becomes the mar ket of delivery, and it is never intended ohe the market of delivery. They do not intend cotton to go through the ex- change. It does not go through the exchange. The exchange hedges the sale or herges the buy, and you go into the market and buy it where you find the cotton.
 What we are trying to do is to es- cape the defects of last years amended act restricting the delivery to 10 grades and fix it.so, in measure Git is not complete meaSure), that the gambling seller will be afraid to sell the mark ct to pieces that anybody, both seller and buyer, can make a hedge that will be much less dangerous than at present.
 At this time, as you know, New York fluctuates constantly fromf to cents per pound, and the distant months are always behind the present months. This is, as you know, wrong. We ought to get back as near as we can to where you could sell or buy cotton basis middling any of the months ahead with fair confidence that you would have the approximate price of the com mercial market and not be jingled around in the laps of. or in the sweet generosity of, the exchanges"
 Now, that is just awhat they are claiming. They are claiming that they are generous. They are saying that it is jingled around in their laps, and safe to all, and the best interests of all The producer and dealer have got to have a defense in the markets, and the buyers and sellers in the markets have got to have an arrangement safe to both and all protected in the law.
 Tt is 8 mistaken ldea that the pro ducer's, the dealers, and the manufac-
 It is not true.
 Their interests are the same, and all of these are against any advan- tages in the law which the gambling speculator may have at the present time.'
 That is just what it all means,
 l have here an editorial from the Ma con Telegraph. I should be glad if all Of you would listen to it. particularly the southern members. This is from the Ma con Telegraph. That is right in the heart of the cotton country:
 Opinion is divided as to what is for the best interests of what is fair in regulating the cotton exchanges. E. E. Conner for mer governor of Alabama and now United States senator, attched an amendment to the agricultural bill on ifs way through the Senate providing that buyer of fu- ture contracts may require delivery or one-half in middling to middling fair and the other half from any standard grade cotton. There was time when future contracts on the New York exchange could be filled in any or all of the twenty eight grades on a middlng basis"
 He meant twenty-one grades.
 The gamblers with their exchange rules, kept about 100000 bales of dog-tail and unspinnable cotton in New York warehouses. and when they were called by any holder of future contract, they dragged out this old stuff which they kept on cold forage from one season to of the market"
 do that one time. will they not do it again? If they practice it when they have the whole thing, will they not practice 1t when they have part of the thing? It is the farmer, the producer. the dealer, the manufacturer that you must protect. He could not spin 1t or sell it.'' l introduced evidence the other day showing where we took cotton that we kept in New York three months, trying to sell it, and we could not get single bid, and we had to put that same cotton back and deliver it on the exchange. We could not deliver it anywhere else. Such thing as that is monstrous.
 "As consequence of these practices,