26 PACKING AND MARKETING OP COTTON. 



per acre to 225 pounds of lint cotton per acre. One frost might make this 

 difference from one year to another because of the extreme delicacy of the plant 

 and of extreme variations in climatic conditions. We furnish to the world one 

 year a crop which is overwhelmingly big, and the next year a crop which is 

 insufficient to supply the ordinary demands. This creates a condition in which 

 the speculator holds high carnival in dealing In cotton. The legitimate mer- 

 chant and the manufacturer are made to turn gambler whether they will or 

 not, and the ordinary course of trade is tremendously disturbed. The average 

 production for 10 years, if it could be maintained, would bring about an aver- 

 age price. Inasmuch as the climate forbids this from one year to another, 

 it is important that the production shall be, by some artificial means, brought 

 to more or less of an average, and thereby the price would be brought to an 

 approximate average. 



NEED OF A WAEBHOUSE SYSTEM. 



I believe this might best be done by the development of a system of ware- 

 houses which did far more than shelter and care for the cotton. Existing .ware- 

 houses simply issue a receipt for a bale of cotton. No effort is made to state 

 what kind of cottop the receipt stands for, nor does the warehouse company 

 assume any responsibility for the grade, weight, or anything else connected 

 with the cotton. Insurance is higher than it ought to be. I believe if a com- 

 prehensive warehouse company would engage the best graders to be had, and 

 would issue a certificate in which every factor relating to the bale of cotton 

 was accurately entered, and the warehouse company stand responsible for 

 the description of the cotton as given in the receipt, that such a receipt could 

 he traded in to better advantage than the bale of cotton itself. The purchaser 

 of the receipt in Carolina, in England, or in Germany would know more about 

 the particular bale of cotton in question from the receipt in hand than he would 

 know about it if he saw the bale of cotton. 



Cotton being one of the very best collaterals on the market, such receipts 

 standing for the cotton exactly, might be traded in in the financial institutions 

 of the whole world. Thus it would be feasible to bring cotton within the 

 reach of all the surplus nionay of the world, and when there was a large crop 

 the surplus would undoubtedly be carried over by financial institutions as 

 investments until a small crop should bring the price to an average. It would 

 save the forcing of the surplus onto the market, and by proper construction of 

 warehouses, proper protection against fire, and building in proper units, the 

 cost of carrying cotton could be very much reduced by reduction of insurance, 

 and by reduction of interest rate in consequence of the certificate being an 

 accurate representation of the cotton itself, and being as good for money in 

 I'rovidence or Liverpool as in the town in which the warehouse is located. 



VALUE OP AN AUTHOBITATIVE CBBTIFICATE. 



I exhibit a receipt which not only stands for a bale of cotton but gives the 

 general classification, the grade, the length of the staple, the degree of tinge, 

 the degree of softness, the degree of fineness, and all these points are given 

 in accordance with the Judgment and the skill of the best and most expert 

 graders obtainable. Therefore the record written by the expert would make 

 a certificate representing a bale of cotton stand for more to a purchaser than 

 If an average inexpert purchaser could see the bale of cotton himself. This cer- 

 tificate would stand for more to a banker in Liverpool or in Bremen than the 

 cotton would to the average man who was in the town where the cotton wiis 

 located and he could see the cotton. It|W0uld, in addition to having the record 

 of an expert's .1ndgm<'nt on every feature of the particular bale of the cotton, 

 also have the backing of a responsible company guaranteeing this record. Such 

 a system of warehouses, with such a receipt, would tremendously simplify the 

 purchase by a millraan of cotton in warehouse, no matter where located in the 

 cotton-growing district. The European spinner by the purchase of these cer- 

 tificates could become the owner of cotton in Memphis with absolute confidence 

 that, with a certificate in hand, he knew more about the cotton than if he 

 could see it in Memphis, and with the further absolute confidence that the 

 responsibility of the warehouse company insured his getting the cotton when- 

 ever he wanted it, and yet equally insured its safe-keeping for him as long as 



