Year: 1872

posed upon everyone, none Is mOIe
pernicious In fits effects than that
which has obtained as general prac-
tice in most OF the large cities, and is
known as 1selling to deliver" or SELL
ing "short," /" or ''lOng." In its results
1t is more deleterious than that other
species OF gambling for the preven-
ton of which we have very wise po-


lice regulations and city ordinances.
Under the name OF merchant or bro
ker, those possessed Of the gambling
spirit can avail themselves Of this sys-
tenn, and, upon the plea that they are
buying or selling corn, GOTTEN or
whatever else, may crafty them
selves to their hearts content. With
out the trouble or the drudgery Of the
counting-room, they can engage in a
business that represents millions in
the course of q year, and upon a CAPT
tai only ope.tsnth Of the sum at any
one time seemingly employed. Thus
3 man with ten thousand dollars
70 his credit can trade as high
as one hundred thousand dOllsrs-he
former sum being his margin and the
latter his limit. II he makes, well; il
he loses, the banker reimburses him


self from the margin. Thus, this mar
gin represents sum ten times greater;
and through this fictitious capital Is
accomplished those immense trsnsac-
tions, the magnitude of which are the
wonder and amaEement of the un-
initiated. 1t was by this system Of
margins that Fisk, Gould, Wander
bilt and others were able to accom-
plish the devilment of the accursed
Black Friday, when many widows
and orphans were robbed, plundered
and beggared; and it Is by this system
that the price Of cotton Is steadily kept
down below the limit where just OBJ
servance Of the law Of supply and
demand would place it. It Is by this
system, which time and again has
ended in wholesale ruin and wide
spread calamity, that grain operators
on the exchanges Of Chicago, Mil
waukee, st. Louis, Buffalo and New
York, have been able to repeat the
U1little game" which insures them the
mastery over the agriculturists Of
the Northwest ;and il is by this rule, re-
Gently introduced In the Cotton Ex-
change OF New Orleans, that the gam
bling spirit is to be turned loose upon
the South, and at their very door-sills
Ghe planters are to confront the money
power in the hands Of the speculator,
q more powerful compress than the
new invention of our friend REM
bert, q compress that will squeeze cot
ton down to a price far below its real
value and afford the speculstor an op-
portunity Of pOcketing much Of what
should be his profits. It Is owing
to this system, nefarious and in
famous, that we have messages tele


grsphed to US every day, from which
we learn that the actual number OF
cotton bales sold as compared with


the fictitious called "iutures," are on
an average as one to FIVE. Thus, dur


ing the first fourteen days Of last


month we find the sales Of ''spot"


cotton in New York were in the
neighborhood Of forty. eight thousand
bales, whereas the sales Of "futures"
were nearly two hundred and twenty
thousand bales, a difference 50 wide as
to be utterly irreconcillable by any
known legitimate rules Of commerce
or trade. These figures, 50 startling
Iy indicative Of the disastrous effects
Rpon the cotton trade, when
multiplied by months make an
aggregate that Is almost beyond
belief. Taking the two hundred and
nineteen thousand four hundred and
fifty bales Of futures thus reported as
sold in New York during the first
fourteen days Of February as a fair
average, and multiplying them by
only two hundred and fifty working
days in thecottOE year, we have total
largely exceeding the whole cotton
crop Of this year; whereas the total
of cotton to be handled by New York
will not exceed six hundred thousand
bales. And this Is Is a great result
indeed the chief result-of the cotton
exchange, q system which, II adopted
at all cotton points, will beget a
return to the old habit Of roadside
barter, when the planter viii sell as
he needs, and only for cash, always
securing, through the mediumship OF
the telegraph and the press, the full
value Of his cotton. From this system
of futures we pray TO be delivered.
Bad enough that It exists where we
cannot prevent it, but how much
worse should it, under any specious
Blea, obtain here, where the cotton
planters can reasonably bosst they
meet a sympsthiziDg community
a people whose interests are iden-
tIcaI with their own, whose whole
trade and commerce depends upon
tbem-upon their friendship and good
vill. both which can only be main
taIned by the most open, candid and
fair dealing, such, as we are proud TO
boast. has always hitherto character
axed Memphis. In this city more
planters are to be met with In day
than In New Orleans, Savannah,
charleston or Mobile In a week.
Mem2his being directly the result Of
the planters labor, must, In order to
remain 90. siSer clear Of all entanglinB
alliances, She must be open and
abovebosrd In her dealings, and turn
the cold shoulder to everything and
anything that looks like speculation,
70 everything that is likely to
Infringe upon the planter. We
want that class to feel that
here they can hnd fair field;
here they can get the best price for
their cotton; that here they can al
WAYS find honest dealers, who scorn
advantage and labor honestly under a
banner with the broad Device " live
and let Hve.D We want the planters
70 know that we are not cormOrants;
ve do not want all they make, and
in that respect we are superior to all
.otharx of the communities that rest
their hopes on cottoni that we neither
buy nor sell futures, nor give Sldi
eountenanee or help to those who do.