COTTON 247! 



both unreasonable and illegal, and merits the same 

 penalty that the usurer gets or deserves. 



Marginal Amounts: Trading in cotton futures 

 is stimulated and abetted because of the small 

 margin required to enter the ring. Of course, this 

 admits an army of ignorant, unthinking people. 

 It is a game of chance with them a gambling 

 game, no higher in ethics than shooting craps or 

 playing poker, and the chances many times more 

 against their ever coming out unburned. What 

 chance is there for mere strength and awkward- 

 ness in such an arena with mighty, well-trained 

 gladiators (scientifically trained, if you please) to 

 meet and combat ? Of course, this struggle is 

 short; and the pity is in the home where the sav- 

 ings of these weaker contestants are needed. 



Increase the margin make it more difficult to 

 enter and to follow and the evil will be clipped 

 at the wings less able then to do harm here ; less 

 able to cause these violent fluctuations that have 

 adversely affected both the cotton farmer offering 

 his holdings and the cotton spinner seeking his 

 takings. 



Grading: Another evil is in the fact that in the 

 Exchange sale any sort of cotton may be delivered. 

 Suppose the farmer buys cattle and when the seller 

 delivers them, they may be any sort or all sorts 

 suckling calves, weaned calves, scrubs, finished 

 beeves, etc. It is with just such a policy that cotton 

 contracts are traded in, since the deliverable cotton 

 may be all the way from fair to good ordinary. 

 Right here is where (leaving the morals of the 

 question out of consideration), the greatest griev- 

 ance lies, and where it affects the pocket-book of 

 both producer and consumer. And then these 

 know that neither one nor the other is responsible, 



