42 A STORY OF COTTON 



Properly constructed warehouses, operated by competent 

 men of UNQUESTIONABLE INTEGRITY, are ABSOLUTELY 

 ESSENTIAL for the conduct of the cotton trade of America, 

 as the negotiable warehouse receipts, issued by warehouse- 

 men, are the documents, by means of which the cotton crop is 

 financed bj' the producer, the merchant and the manufacturer. 



The "fountain source" of the hundreds of millions of dollars 

 required for the movement of the cotton emanates, primarily, 

 at the PRESENT time, from the United States Reserve Bank. 



The laws, regarding the issuance of a negotiable warehouse 

 leceipt, as they refer to public warehouses and public ware- 

 housemen, have been given MORE THAN ORDINARY AT- 

 TENTION, by the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 who have recently published an almost PERFECT method for 

 the handling of cotton in warehouses. 



They have educated, and are daily educating, professionals 

 in the grading and weighing of cotton, and are inviting all 

 cotton warehousemen to become BONDED COTTON WARE- 

 HOUSEMEN, so as to establish, beyond the shadow of a 

 doubt, the RESPONSIBILITY of any warehouseman that 

 makes application to and is accepted by the Department of 

 Agriculture. 



When the Department of Agriculture bonds a warehouse, 

 the United States stands as SPONSOR for the honesty of the 

 employees of a warehouse so bonded. 



Most of the bankers are, at present, inclining towards the 

 United States Bonded Warehouse Method of the issuance of 

 Negotiable Warehouse Receipts. 



In this, the bankers are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, as, at 

 present, the great majority of the negotiable warehouse re- 

 ceipts DO NOT SHOW any weight of the bale or bales, or 

 ANY GRADE of the cotton contained in these bales on the 

 face of the negotiable warehouse receipts that issue. 



The banks must rely ENTIRELY upon the integrity of the 

 cotton man who hypothecates the negotiable warehouse re- 

 ceipt as collateral for the loan desired. 



This naturally makes the negotiation of a loan on cotton 

 between the cotton men, the borrowers, and the bankers, a 

 matter of PERSONAL EQUATION. 



