The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-04-29

is like the new way of measuring the distance to the fixed stars-guess one. fourth of the distance and multiply ie by four This part of the present A@W will be very greatly relieved oy tne amendment from the very fact that the middling basis will be taken from the
 niddling of actual cotton, and it will pc one of the chief benefits of the law, and the difficulty of the Bureau of MarKets in validating the basis price by the pres ent law will be greatly relieved.
 The exchange propaganda charges that q this amendment will make the contract
 market a spinners market and can pc
 worked tc the hurt of the producer ana dealer The charge Is dogmatic, abso- lutely untrue and not a scintilla or experience or economic reason can be
 brought to sustain the charge-apsoiuteiy
 exchange propaganda, unbelievable Dy any disinterested man, and impossible or
 proof.
 The spinner wants market exactly
 Ike the market best suitable to the leg1tA-
 mate dealer, stabilized market one in
 which the contract price and the spot
 price will carry relative differences from
 month to month, according as the ex-
 pense of carriage and the faith in the
 natural and economic conditions sur
 rounding the crop. Stabilizing the market
 will benefit the spinner, because he can
 sell goods and buy or sell cotton, hedg-
 ing on the contract market with approx
 innate safety The legitimate dealer will do the same. These taken together
 will helep-is obliged to help-the farmer
 Any charge that 1t will hurt the farmer
 or the dealer is a camoufage of the
 junker class. a iunker that has preyed on cotton so long. The junker class, say, who wish to Germanize this great product and place tribute on 1t for ever.
 The exchanges are the reflex or the re- , cording index of cotton values. The ex- changes were never intended to be the
 masters of cotton values the makers
 of it, and the propaganda which they are getting out claiming the exchanges make or unmake the price of any grade of cotton is absolute nonsense, and they krow it. The only arguments they use or can use are dogrnatic-from the very na- ture of the case impossible. Any business proposition by which the seller can give the buyer unusable delivery at an unre- liable price is dishonest, and rendering the exchange back to an equitable trans action can not hurt any legitimate com mercial business.
 A large cotton firm writes me s'that man or a firm be sincere and be wrong, but he cannot see how house who does trading and takes no part Tn bear raids can be opposed to the Conner 1 amendment. for t would make bear raids
 history He further writes, With the good grades embodied in the delivery the contract would be 8 hedge which it is not now Water seeks it's level No matter how many grades are made tenderable, I contracts are entered into with the ex- | pectancy of delivering the lowest grade l of those tenderalble, the least usable to the majority of buyers
 | In all it's past history whenever the ex- l changes attempted to make the price of i,,fa ffay-o | incaluable losses. The exchanges are now using every possible agency in reflex tele- ! grams to representatives i'll Congress, all l leging that in the interest of the farmer those blessed farmers the representa- l tives must defeat the Conner amendment;
 that the amendment will help the spin ner; that it will make it spinner's con- tract, but that it will hurt the farmer | and outlaw low-grade cotton.
 l Now who ever heard of such inmacu-
 late nonsense as that? The exchange does not "inlaw'' or outlaw anything. If | it was in the outlaw business, has tsnot | got middling and above knocked higher
 than a kite right now? You never hear 1 Of those grades being tendered Have they hurt the price of it? It is the de- 1 mand that makes the price. It is the tusufruct from the mills that makes the demand, and the kind of cotton they can lbest use is what they buy. They are not | CuILln2 1 they want to depress the price of it. They
 are taking high-grade cotton because
 they can make more money with it. Of l course that is the reason. Any other reason would be nonsense.
 The greatest objection the exchanges ! have to the amendment Is that in a great treasure it takes the bear out of the l trsi saction. The exchanges want the 1 low grades kept in the tender, not for the purpose of helping the low grades, 1 not for the purpose of benefting legiti- 1 mate trading, but for the purpose of in- | creasing the opportunity to bear the ! market They know what is the req l son. They know it. This is all they have used the low grades for the past year land all the years back, and they know l it. and all this stuff about spnners contract as against the farmers and 1 Geasers contract Is simply intended to retain an advantage in which the game can be played with marked cards, and ! they know it.
 can mark the cards. It is worse than a negro crap game where loaded dice are 1 used.
 i Yesterdays cotton market. May con- I tracts in New Or,eans was 41.25; July ! contract, 3965; October contract, S6.35; December contract. S5.22t: March contract Is.sg If you had stabilized contract,
 one in which the spinnsr could have con- hdence, he would of course, buy March cotton and sell his goods against it. This would be legitimate hedge and one au- l thorized by every condition of trade. and the verty of it should be guaranteed by this law
 Senators when you cannot verify con tract, when you make a law which does Inot verify a contract then you vtiate the very principle for which that law Is made.
 | With Inc amendment requiring one-half of a contract middlng and above, the danger of bear raids will not be so Iapprehensible. The spot and futures mar lket will trot along side by side moro lSn1ith-Lever bill clearly designed should carry.
 Taking the lower grades out of the law ful tender, as was done by the Smith Lever bill last year, did not in the least affect the value of the cotton so outlowed, did not decrease in the least the buying and consumption of same, which alons makes the price.
 l It is the buying and consumption of 1t which makes the price. It is not the power of rendering it on the exchange. l It simply prevents the gambler on the exchange from assembling a lot of off, grade cotton, cotton not easily merchant able and rendering it on contracts not for the purpose of helping the low grades. not for the purpose of helping the con- tract market, but for the purpose of de- pressing it and making gamblers S gain. 7! That is so, and we all know it from his- ltcry all the way back. There is nothing e.se to it. Otherwise middlng and above, I which are tenderable on contract under the law, and which is never used. is ab- | <elx ad " the 11s of the ex-