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About The Butts County progress. (Jackson, Ga.) 18??-1915 | View Entire Issue (April 19, 1912)
Two Kinds of Candidates p^ £ g^j|| aJ> .c t®VS HE | Jj§| Z S 1/7 SP£AKlNg]__X -<S^^Q3 HE SPOKE FOR ANTI-OPTION BILL UNDERWOOD SUPPORTED MEAS URE ADVOCATED BY FARM ERS' UNION. Always Friendly to Agricultural Interests. Certain opponents of Hon. Oscar W. Ttoderwood for the presidency have sought, though unsuccessfully to I trump up some sentiment against him by alleging that he “appointed” Hon. [John Lamb as chairman of the agri cultural committee, over the protest of the Farmers’ Union. As Mr. Un derwood never appointed Mr. Lamb, the charge is false. Mr. Lamb was elected by the Democratic members of the house in caucus, the vote for him being unanimous. He became chairman by reason of the fact that !he was the ranking Democrat on the committee, on which he had served for 17 years. The objection to Mr. Lamb was based on the fact that he had not favored the Scott and anti option cotton bill. As to Mr. Under wood’s attitude toward this measure, no better evidence can be presented than the following splendid speech which he made in behalf of the bill: His Speech. “In my judgment the bill should be considered before congress adjourns. It is one of the most important bills to a large number of people of the United States that has come before this session of congress for consider ation. It is not only a measure that seeks to work out a reformation along economic lines, but there is involved in the consideration of the question a great moral issue. A number of years ago the Federal government prohibited the use of the mails for the transmission of lottery tickets, and the effect of that legisla tion was to destroy one of the great est gambling enterprises that the world has ever known, the Louisiana Lottery company. That legislation proved effective and met with the hearty approval of the moral senti- ment of the country. The bill brought up for considera tion by this resolution does not pro hibit the legitimate sale of cotton in the exchanges of the country where there is an actual purchase or an ac tual delivery of the cotton sold; it merely attempts to prohibit the spec ulation in 'cotton futures where no actual delivery is intended and where the result of the transaction is solely gambling in cotton futures. Cotton Crop. Prior to the year 1907 the New York Cotton exchange published sta tistics relating to the buying and sell ing of cotton futures on that ex change, and there was sold at that time on this exchange 100,000,000 bales of cotton a year. The greatest cotton crop that thiß country has ever made amounted to a little over 13,- 000,000 bales, and the average cotton crop in the country will not exceed 12,000,000 bales of cotton. The sta tistics show that for the year 1906-7 37 per cent of the cotton raised in this country was used In the home market and 63 per cent, was shipped abroad. In an average crop the-home consumption does not amount to more than 4,800,000 bales. It is therefore conclusively shown that on this one exchange twenty times as much cot ton was bought and sold as was used in this country. About Hedging. It is contended by those who favor the continuation of the sale of cotton futures on the cotton exchanges of the country that it is necessary for the mill owners to buy for future de livery in order to hedge against the uncertainties of the future market price in order that they can make their contracts, but it is seen it would not be necessary for them to hedge for more than the entire amount of the cotton consumed by the manufac turers of the country, which under no circumstances exceeds 5,000,000 bales; but the bill does not prohibit the pur chase of cotton for future delivery, so that if the mill owners desires to make his purchase of cotton on the exchanges before tire cotton crop is actually gathered, if it is a bona fide transaction for legitimate purposes, there is nothing in the bill that will prevent him from doing so. The statistics show that the amount of cotton received in New York City for the year 1902-3 amounted to 57,- 577 bales; for the year 1903-4 to 45,- 123 bales; for the year 1904-5 to 33, 798 bales; for the year 1905-6 to 6,- 575 bales; for the year 1906-7 to 23,- 118 bales.’ The average for these five BUTTS COUNTY PROGRESS. years amounts to about 34,000 bales that were handled in New York City, but the transactions on the New York Cotton Exchange amount to 100,000,- 000 bales. Gambling. It seems to me conclusively shown from these figures that the transac tions on the New York Cotton Ex change were practically all gambling transactions and not in the interest of legitimate business. There was a time after the New York Cotton Ex change was organized, in 1870, when there was a legitimate cotton market in New York, and the transactions on the New York Cotton Exchange were in the main actual sales of cot ton, but the through bill of lading de stroyed the New York cotton market. it costs $1.50 a bale to Btore cotton in New York City, and when the mill man in the East could buy his cot ton in the South and ship it directly to his mill on the through bill of lading he was unwilling to pay the cost of storage and additional hand ling charges that would be assessed against the cotton if he purchased it in New York City. The result was that the legitimate sale of cotton in New York has practicaly ceased, and the New York Cotton Exchange has been forced by these conditions to deal in future sales for gambling pur poses or go out of business. It often occurs that spot cotton in the South at the railroad station sells for us much as 1 cent a pound higher than the price of cotton on the exchange in New York, which is conclusive that the prices on the New York ex change are not governed by the law of supply and demand, but the illegit imate operations of the bulls and bears on the exchanges. King Cotton. The cotton crop is one of the great est agricultural products of our coun try. It brings more gold back into the country than any other commodity we export. The South is largely de pendent on It for its prosperity. To me it appears absolutely immoral and unjust to allow an organization to continue -the business of gambling in cotton futures and through their man ipulations to seriously affect the price of this great agricultural product by manipulations that are not dependent upon the law of supply and demand, but largely upon the amount of money that the bear aide of the market may control one day or the bull side con trol the next. There is no exchange for the sale yet every morning you can take up a daily paper and know what is the price of pig iron in the different mar kets of the United States. There is no exchange for the sale of wool in the country, and yet the daily papers give you the price of wool all over the world every morning. Cotton quotations could be obtained the same way were the exchanges entirely abol ished, but, as I said before, this bill does not seek to destroy the cotton exchange that is doing a legitimate business and where cotton is actually bought and sold, but only seeks to prevent the gambling in future cotton. The price of any commodity should be fixed by the buyer and seller. It is not fair to have It fixed by men on an exchange that are not interest ed in the product itself in any way. I therefore believe that it is entire ly proper for the government of the United States to prohibit the inter state use of the mail, telegraph '.vires and the telephone wires to persons gambling in this great agricultural product to the material detriment of the people who produce and the peo ple who use it. I am therefore earn estly in favor of the passage of the bill. UNDERWOOD 111 GOOD HOADS WANTS CONGRESS TO IMPROVE HIGHWAYS. Every one who is in favor of im proving the roads in the country has a good friend in Hon. Oscar W. Un derwood. He believes in making Un cle Sam improve the roadß of the country. On March 5, last, he intro duced a bill in congress, looking to this end, the text of the bill being as follows: ‘‘Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress as sembled, That a joint committee of both houses of congress is hereby created, to be composed of three mem bers of the senate, to be appointed by the president thereof, and three mem bers of the house of representatives, to be appointed by the speaker there of. t Any vacancy occurring on the committee shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment. The said committee is hereby em powered and directed to collect in formation and to make a thorough and complete investigation of the con dition of the public highways in the several states of the Union, including the cost of transportation thereon ; the improvement .construction and maintenance of such public highways and the cost thereof; the cost of car rying the mail over /such highways and the improvement of the mail ser vice that may be obtained by the im provement of the poßt roads in the United States. The committee is here- by authorized and directed to report to the congress all Information ob tained from such investigation, to gether with recommendations as to the advisability of the congress grant ing national aid to the maintenance and building of post roads and na tional highways in the United States and to make recommendations as to the proper legislation to be enacted by the congress. “The said joint committee shall conclude its investigations and report to this congress all the evidence tak en and their findings and conclusions thereon. The sum of twenty-five thou sand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby appropri ated, out of any money in the treas ury not otherwise appropriated, to pay the necessary expenses of said Joint committee, the sum to be disbursed by the clerk of the house upon vouch ers to be approved by the chairman of the committee.” IKEiCLESH BUILDJE HOADS Good Country Roads Far More Im portant Now Than Railroads, Thinks Leader 06car Unoerwood. That Hon. Oscar W. Underwood Is an ardent advocate of good roads, appears from the following extracts from a speech reprinted from the Com gressional Record, the extracts being but a small portion of the speech: “For many years I have been In fa vor of the government of the United States either establishing post roads or lending Its aid to the building of post roads throughout the country. It Is the only way you can build them. “It is far more Important to the great majority of the people of the United States to have a road that car- tics tneir produce from the farm door to the railroad station and from the store in the town back to the farm door than it is to further de velop a great railroad that will carry them to New York or San Francisco. "We can begin by giving national aid to assist the states, or we can commence by building several great national highways, like the Cumber land pike, that was completed a cen tury ago, and yet remains as a monu ment to the wisdom of our fathers. ‘‘l have just this one suggestion to make to you, and it is not my own thought, that* instead of advocating one system today by this association and another system tomorrow by an other association, go to the congress of the United States and say to them: ‘‘Appoint a joint committee to con sider the building of post roads in. the United States; give them author ity to hear everybody that wants to come before the committee; give them, authority to find a verdict as to which is the best way to start this great national movement by proper legisla tion, and then you have concentrated, the power in the hands of the men who in the end must exercise it.” DIO NOT APPOINT CONGRESSMAN JOHN LAMB Mr. Underwood Supported Scott Anti- Gambling Bill. An effort has been made to cast a Bnear on Mr. Underwood’s record by charging that he appointed Congress man Lamb as chairman of the agri cultural committee of congress. Every well-informed man knows that Mr. Lamb was not appointed by Mr. Un derwood, but was chosen by the Dem ocrats of congress in caucus, because he was the ranking Democrat, he hav ing served seventeen years as a mem ber of that committee. Mr. Lamb it was who got the great agricultural appropriation measure acted on fa vorably in the house. Even if Mr. Lamb did not favor the Scott anti gambling bill, Mr. Underwood did. Moreover, he succeeded in getting the house to consider it and made a splendid speech in favor of it. In fact, Mr. Underwood has never done or said anything during his whole ca reer in congress that was against the wishes of the great agricultural class. On the other hand, he has been their ablest champion. There is not anoth er man in the United States in pub lic life today who has done more. For weeks the opposition has had a corps of experts engaged in Wash ington searching the records of con gress in the hope of finding some ac tion or utterance of Mr. Underwood’s that might injure his candidacy. They have searched back for seventeen years. They have burned the woods and sifted the ashes, but they have found nothing against him. UNDERWOOD WILL GET JEW YORK Neither Party Has Ever Won Without Its Vote. Neither party has ever elected a president without the electoral vote of the state of New York. While New York will have an uninstructed dele gation, the New York state commit tee has endorsed the record of Leader Underwood in the house, which indi cates very strongly that they favor his nomination and election. With four Democratic candidates in the field, no one of them will go into the national convention with anything like a majority of the vote. Under the Democratic rule it takes two thirds to nominate. It will be seen, therefore, that the nomination will be secured in#the convention and any candidate has an oportunity of getting the nomination. This is the first time in fifty years a Southern Democrat has had such a bright chance of getting the nomina tion. Georgia should, therefore, in sist upon her preference and do all in her power to give the nomination to the son of her daughter state, Ala bama. TRADE MORAL—The quality o! wnat you nave to sell is .mown to some people all ot the time and all of the people some of the time, hut advertise regu larly with us and you’ll reach au ot the people all of the time.
