Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1922-11-09
SOUTHERN PLANTERs RoBBKD.
How Wall Street Gamblers Control
Price OF Cotton.

ration OF the cotton exchanges and
the inside machinery conducive to the
manipulation OF prices, says a writer
in the Dearborn Independent. To this
lack orknowledge may be partly att
tributed the deficient legislation that
mas from time to time been enacted
against the cotton exchanges.
Exchanges in general. and the New
York Stock and Cotton exchanges m
particular, are like giant spiders
spinning an interminable web over
the commercial economy OF the ma
tion, catching the unsuspectine add
Venturer in business. The spinning
has been carried on so long, and has
so many ramifications of political
! strength, that the threads of the web
have become &, like cables of steel,
which can be cut and destroyed only
! BY the steel saw OF public opinion
! sharpened to the actual truth OF the
case. ~
The mystery Of cotton exchanges
their history, function, use and abuse.
and how these giant gambling pala-
ces keep within the law and thrive,
" otShy GIL TSldtih6.
At the feast OF the New York Cot
ton exchange in 1920, in celebration
or the 5Oth anniversary of it's organi-
cation, pioneer member told how
cotton exchanges came into existence.
He said that back in the SOS and SOS
cotton merchants traded in more
primitive way, more from hand to
mouth, and had not developed the ,
great system OF buying and selling
for future delivery, or r~san.racting for
heavy deliveries far ahead, r,hich
system, as we know, gives tremers
dous expansion to business, and, fur
thermore, instills into it a high senses
OF honor and trust and develops bus
mess acumen. Their trading was OH
a narrow scale before they lacked
tho protective facilities for large
scale trading. such as highly organ
ICED insurance companies to assume
the risks OF their stocks.
AS the demands OF trade grew,
however, one New York merchant
took the initiative by offering to de-
liver cotton toaa foreign buyer, at a
fixed price on D future date several
months ahead. This transaction was
the forerunner Of the establishment
OF the New York Cotton exchange. A
few years later, in 1870, the exchange
was established. Thus the cotton
world was given liquid trading Gen.
ter for dealing in cotton for future
delivery. .-..,
There are four great cottoh-frtura
exchanges in the world, the two In
America, at New York and New Or
leans, one in Liverpool and one in
Alexandria, Egypt. A seat on the
New York or New Orleans Cotton ex.
change sells as high as $4,000. The
New Orleans Cotton exchange occu-
pies q magnificent new structure, a
show place of that city. Tie New
York Cotton exchange Is constructing
a, $2,00O,000 building for its future
home. s
There is distinction between
cotton-future exchange and a regular
cotton market where the world buys
supplies of cotton. Cotton markets
are located principally In the South
ern States, where 1t Is sold to street
buyers and merchants, or stored in
warehouses to be sold to factors and
mills. The life blood OF the cotton
growing world flows through the
big spot markets., where transactions
for actual cotton take place.
On the futures exchange, however,
cotton Is never seen. A visitor to one
of the exchanges at first has the i'm
preston that he IL entering bedlam,
or perhaps wild animal show. A
dense crowd Of so or so men is how
cred over q sunken pit, waving arms
and yelling in hoarse voices, loud
enough to awaken the Seven Sleepers.
The yelling Is wholly unintelligible
to the visitor. The uproar continues
from 10 a. m. to 3 p. m. They are all
brokers OF the exchange and are
trading in cotton on paper--that is to
say, are auctioning Off contracts,
which represent 100 bales Of cotton
each, Soc pounds to the bale. the cot
ton supposedly to be delivered ut
some future date. But owing to the
elasticity OF the contract, only 9 very
small portion Of 1t is ever delivered.
( When contract is sold over the
official trading pit, the price per
pound and month of delivery named
in the contract are Immediately
marked on the blackboard Of the <ex-
change, and this quotation is then
flashed by wire to all parts Of the
cotton world, as the latest onciai
price paid for cotton for future de-